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Help me understand if WC would benefit me

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:03 am
by gcwebbyuk
I currently have the air setup in my signature.

I am considering dabbling with watercooling to try and reduce the noise in my case from the CPU cooler.

I have the Zalman controlled by SmartFan so that at idle or basic office / surfing it is running at 40% (950rpm), once the temp goes over 45c, the rpm increases up to 70% (1600rpm), if the temp goes over 60c the rpm increases to 100% (1990rpm). This works well and keeps the CPU within the safe temps.

However it means that when doing normal work its quiet (almost silent - the hard drives are noisier than all the fans in the case), but load it up a little and it gets noisy.

Am I right in thinking a watercooled setup would keep the CPU cool without having to increase fan speeds? Or is it a similar setup to air?

I have considered the Corsair H50 as it looks dead simple to fit, and I have spare 120mm fans to setup in a push/pull configuration. Or alternatively go for a proper WC setup, if I could buy a kit for less than £100 that would cool my CPU and GPU, but am guessing this is asking a lot.

So would WC benefit me - or is my air setup of similar efficiency considering I am aiming for silence rather than overclocking potential.

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:48 am
by Asulc
There's nothing in your signature bro

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:53 am
by gcwebbyuk
Good spot - my signature was too long so it didnt save :oops:

PROCESSOR - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
MOTHERBOARD - Gigabyte 790XTA-UD4 F2
RAM - 8GB Corsair XMS3 Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 (CMD4GX3M2B1600C8) - (4x2GB)
GRAPHICS - Gigabyte HD4870 1GB - replaced cooler with Zalman Z-Machine GV1000
AUDIO - Asus Xonar DX
HARD DRIVES - Seagate 7200.12 500GB & WD Scorpio Blue 320GB (2.5")
CPU COOLING - Zalman CNPS9900NT with Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
CASE COOLING - 4 x 120mm fans, 2 x 140mm fans
FAN CONTROLLER - Scythe Kaze Server
CASE - Coolermaster 690-II Advanced with Corsair HX620 620w Modular PSU
CONTROLS - Logitech Wave Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Set - Antec Veris Multimedia Station
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:28 pm
by JamieG
There are better air coolers that should be able to keep your CPU cool while being quieter. That Zalman CPU cooler is pretty terrible.

Try one of the following: Noctua DH-14, Noctua NH-U12P, Prolimatech Megahalems + AMD mounting kit, Thermalright Venomous X or TRUE - both with an AMD mounting kit, or a Scythe Mugen 2. (Most of these have been reviewed by SPCR, so check the main site for reviews).

Use two quiet fans in push/pull and you should be able to keep your temps under control.

Also, what speeds are you running that Zalman GPU cooler? I bought one for my 8800GTX after giving up on my quest to find a Thermalright HR-03 in Australia and I find that I have to run it at really low speeds (5V) to be bearable. That might also be causing some noise in your system.

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:32 pm
by gcwebbyuk
Thanks for the info.

Re the GPU cooler, I run mine at pretty much the lowest rpm I can, fanmate turned right down, and using a 2nd fan controller in-line.

It is quieter than the CNPS990.

With those other coolers, can you still use all four RAM modules? I had a CNPS10x Quiet previously, but it covered two of the RAM modules :(

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:52 pm
by ces

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:46 pm
by glenster
The fans on a water cooling setup could be made quieter with lower voltage and different fans, but the pump on a water cooling setup is over 30db, which bothers me since I want my setup to be quiet and cool. Are there methods anyone recommends to muffle the sound of the pump--throwing an old winter coat around it or such?

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:42 pm
by glenster

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:38 am
by 1398342003
glenster wrote:The fans on a water cooling setup could be made quieter with lower voltage and different fans, but the pump on a water cooling setup is over 30db, which bothers me since I want my setup to be quiet and cool. Are there methods anyone recommends to muffle the sound of the pump--throwing an old winter coat around it or such?
One solution is to get a liang DDC or Swiftech MCP350 (not DDC+ or MCP355, they are loud) these are rated at 20dBa to 24dBa, and have good pressure.

EDIT: That is at 12v, they can be run at 8v and started at 9v

One other solution is to get a submersable pump and put it in a large reservoir. That will muffle most of it's sound.

I am planning to mount mine with foam and zipties for decoupling, and tie blocks of foam around it for muffling.