Should I watercool both my CPU and video card?

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:56 pm

Currently I'm running a water cooling setup that's cooling both my CPU and video card. It does get generally hot if the side panel is closed and ususally the PSU fan speeds up. So I'm wondering if I should cool my Radeon 9600XT with the Zalman ZM80D-HP cooler or if I would be better off just having it water cooled?

TheDarkHacker · Post by **TheDarkHacker** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:34 pm

well if you passivly cool the the video card it will most likely make the case temps go up even more. so i would recommend to just keep it water cooled and maybe just add a 120mm blow hole t the top of your case. i have heard people who get a 5c temp drop after adding a 120 mm blow hole. what kind f water cooling system do you have and what kind of fans do you have.

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:48 pm

TheDarkHacker wrote:well if you passivly cool the the video card it will most likely make the case temps go up even more. so i would recommend to just keep it water cooled and maybe just add a 120mm blow hole t the top of your case. i have heard people who get a 5c temp drop after adding a 120 mm blow hole. what kind f water cooling system do you have and what kind of fans do you have.

Well right now I have an Antec 3700AMB case which I plan on changing to the Lian Li PC-V2000 once I find a decent price for one. Anyways my water cooling setup: Swiftech MCP600, Polarflo SF Universal Water Block, Polarflo VGA waterblock, Black Ice Xtreme 120mm, and a Typhoon Quad Reservoir. The radiator is located at the back of the case with a Papst 120mm 4412/2GL sucking out the hot air. The fan is on a Zalman Fan Mate and it's turned to full blast (12v) just because the weather here is pretty hot and my system heats up really quickly if the fan is turned too low as I do play games. I also have an 120mm Panaflo FBK-12G12LH (the fan with the "weird" blades") intake fan at 7v.

Hmm any other ways other than a blow hole? I wouldn't mind adding a blow hole to a cheap case but I plan on getting a Lian Li PC-V2000 and I don't really think I would want to mod it.

TheDarkHacker · Post by **TheDarkHacker** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:06 pm

exactly how hot is the case getting. what are you cpu idle load temps. just curious

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 10:54 pm

TheDarkHacker wrote:exactly how hot is the case getting. what are you cpu idle load temps. just curious

If I were to put my hand on top of my case it is warm enough that my PSU fan (Enermax EG465P-VE) spins up full speed. From MBM it's saying 39C. But those readings can be completely off as all the readings on my comp is wrong. I mean right now the reading off MBM at "current" is -20C! If you want I can even take a screen shot of it if you want

If I were to passively cool my video card I would think that since everything would be mounted upside down in the PC-V2000 the 120mm exhaust fan should help suck out the heat. But I'm just a noob to all of this so I'm not really sure how to set this up.

TheDarkHacker · Post by **TheDarkHacker** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:03 pm

i would say dont passively cool the gpu the affect that watercooling it will have on the loop is minimal. do you have enough components in yur system so that the power supply is under high load and that is causing it to overheat from the load and from case heat. with the new case you will most likyl see much better temps and since the power supply will be mounted at the bottom it will not b pulling in the hot air at the top of the case. so get your case and then the power supply fans SHOULD quiet down a bit.

toiletduckuk · Post by **toiletduckuk** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 6:15 am

I dont have any grounding in positive\negative case pressure, so hopefully someone will correct this - but I think that having a 7v intake and 12v output causes a pressurisation in the case, which makes dodgy things happen (there's some technical info for you!

)

Also having the rad at the back of your hot case doesn't sound so efficient?

Just some thoughts!

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:03 pm

TheDarkHacker wrote:i would say dont passively cool the gpu the affect that watercooling it will have on the loop is minimal. do you have enough components in yur system so that the power supply is under high load and that is causing it to overheat from the load and from case heat. with the new case you will most likyl see much better temps and since the power supply will be mounted at the bottom it will not b pulling in the hot air at the top of the case. so get your case and then the power supply fans SHOULD quiet down a bit.

No I don't have many components in my system. Other than what I've listed I have a P4 2.4C oc'ed to 3GHz and a Soundblaster Audigy ZS. The rest of the peripherals don't generate much heat (DVD-Rom, CD Writer).

Yeah I think I might go to ntcw.com to get my case. But it's so damn expensive!

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:07 pm

toiletduckuk wrote:I dont have any grounding in positive\negative case pressure, so hopefully someone will correct this - but I think that having a 7v intake and 12v output causes a pressurisation in the case, which makes dodgy things happen (there's some technical info for you! )

Also having the rad at the back of your hot case doesn't sound so efficient?

Just some thoughts!

Okay I might increase the fan back to 12V but the noise level will really jump up!

So I should put the rad in the front of my case? To me I would think it's a bad idea. The intake fan would be basically blowing cold air (from outside) through the rad which will turn to warm air going into my case..?

toiletduckuk · Post by **toiletduckuk** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:13 pm

better than warm air though your rad!

Gooserider · Post by **Gooserider** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:23 pm

Air blowing through a rad will only be increased in temp by 1-2*C at most. A rad is going to do the best cooling job when it has the lowest possible temp air going through it, which is normally room ambient, ideally from near the floor. So long as you can get unobstructed airflow through it, you are FAR better off having the rad on the intake side of the case than you are with it on the outside.

A fan will also move more air when it is 'sucking' air through a rad than it will when it is blowing air at it. Having the rad on the intake, with the fan sucking through it, also puts the fan further inside the case, which will help with noise to some degree.

Lastly, do some searching for the many discussions of the virtues of PSU ducting where one feeds the PSU with externally sourced ambient air. This helps keep the PSU cooler so that it's fan is less likely to ramp up.

Bottom line what I would reccomend:
1. Keep the WC on both the PSU and GPU.
2. Move the rad to the case intake, with a DUCTED fan pulling air into the case through the rad. (The duct should get the intake side of the fan at least 1-1.5" away from the rad surface) The fan should be a thick fan with a high static pressure rating, and will probably need the least amount of undervolting. If the rad has a big enough surface to permit, it is even better to have a couple of fans in parrallel, with part of the rad surface ducted to each fan. (partition the duct so that each fan pulls from 1/2 the surface, and can't pull from it's neighbor's 1/2.)
3. Duct the PSU to pull ambient air in from the outside, then exhaust it out of the case.
4. IF needed (likely it won't be) have a slower fan on the exhaust.

Gooserider

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:08 am

not to mention, even if going through the rad raised intake temps by, say, even 10 degrees, who cares? the reason it's higher is because it's cooling off the rad which is keeping the cpu/gpu cool, so it's not like feeding a HSF air that's already at 30 degrees.

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 5:05 am

Having your radiator on the intake can't be any worse than having a standard heatsink and fan on your CPU and GPU - the same amount of heat goes through your exhaust fan & PSU, it's merely added earlier in the air's path through the case, and more evenly distributed.