Water cooling plans
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 6:58 am
First up, thanks for a great site/forum. I've been visiting this place for a little over half a year now, and have been tempted to upgrade to SPCR-grade gear for a long time now.
I am currently running a fairly low-noise setup, (papst fans, seasonic psu, seagate HD, passive Zalman GPU-cooler, mostly thanks to you fine people ), but I want silence!
I want to not hear my PC @ about 3 metres distance, where my bed is located. I have VERY little ambient noise in my bedroom, and very sensitive hearing, especially at night, so It'll need to be next to inaudible. It performs 24/7 server duties. (not folding as of yet , so it's allmost always idle)
I will NOT be overclocking (undervolting more likely), but I am contemplating a CPU upgrade (will try to avoid hot P4's, but performance IS a high priority.) I'll keep my 9700Pro.
I don't mind heavy modding (though bluefronts Cookie-Jar-Cooling is probably too ambitious for my ability/time.)
So.
I'm contemplating a few different ideas, one of witch is to water cool the CPU & GPU, and mount the radiator, probably ducted, under the PSU fan (120 mm naturally), so that it draws air up through it, thus avoiding a case/radiator-fan, while avoiding an inefficient passive radiator setup. The rest of the case (don't know which yet, will probably go for aesthetics), would be air-sealed, except for a filtered (fanless) intake at the front, cooling the HD(s). Sound deadening material and HD cradling will be done if necessary (probably will be ).
I have a few questions though: Do pumps generate too much noise for my sensitive ears? and if not, which should I choose? What about a submerged pump, sound-wise? Will the heat from the radiator heat the PSU too much? (I've seen setups where all air exits through the PSU, so it shouldn't be a problem should it?)
Most importantly: Is there a more silent way to spend my hard-earned? Should I forget water cooling and go modded air?
thanks guys
I am currently running a fairly low-noise setup, (papst fans, seasonic psu, seagate HD, passive Zalman GPU-cooler, mostly thanks to you fine people ), but I want silence!
I want to not hear my PC @ about 3 metres distance, where my bed is located. I have VERY little ambient noise in my bedroom, and very sensitive hearing, especially at night, so It'll need to be next to inaudible. It performs 24/7 server duties. (not folding as of yet , so it's allmost always idle)
I will NOT be overclocking (undervolting more likely), but I am contemplating a CPU upgrade (will try to avoid hot P4's, but performance IS a high priority.) I'll keep my 9700Pro.
I don't mind heavy modding (though bluefronts Cookie-Jar-Cooling is probably too ambitious for my ability/time.)
So.
I'm contemplating a few different ideas, one of witch is to water cool the CPU & GPU, and mount the radiator, probably ducted, under the PSU fan (120 mm naturally), so that it draws air up through it, thus avoiding a case/radiator-fan, while avoiding an inefficient passive radiator setup. The rest of the case (don't know which yet, will probably go for aesthetics), would be air-sealed, except for a filtered (fanless) intake at the front, cooling the HD(s). Sound deadening material and HD cradling will be done if necessary (probably will be ).
I have a few questions though: Do pumps generate too much noise for my sensitive ears? and if not, which should I choose? What about a submerged pump, sound-wise? Will the heat from the radiator heat the PSU too much? (I've seen setups where all air exits through the PSU, so it shouldn't be a problem should it?)
Most importantly: Is there a more silent way to spend my hard-earned? Should I forget water cooling and go modded air?
thanks guys