Do watercooled PCs need exhaust fans?

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Visitor
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Do watercooled PCs need exhaust fans?

Post by Visitor » Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:56 pm

If you watercool the CPU, GPU and fanless power supply - leaving only the Northbridge and HD to give off heat to the air - can you do without intake/exhaust fans?

Does the case matter? I'd imagine the P180 would do better than most because it doesn't have the PSU blocking the top rear natural convection exit vent... But then again mobo/HD heat is only 30W. Waste of money?

tehfire
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Post by tehfire » Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:18 pm

Even though the major heat-producing products are taken care of, there is plenty of stuff in a computer (RAM, Chipset, Hard drives, etc) that can still cook your PC. They don't put out nearly as much heat as a CPU though, so a very slow fan will do. Low-noise fans run below most ambient noise levels, so if noise is your concern, I wouldn't worry too much.

Visitor
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Post by Visitor » Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:28 pm

I was hoping that convection would be enough. Especially if I leave the PSU slot free (as in the P180) or bore a hole in the rear top cover of the case.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:05 pm

Convection probably be enough w/ only 1 HDD and a cool NB (ie not SLI or nForce4). considering you can get a good 120mm fan for $3 (Yate Loon) I can think of worse ways to waste money.

efcoins2
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Post by efcoins2 » Tue May 01, 2007 1:52 am

Old, but take a look at these temperature photos
The photos are for an air-cooled system, water cooling will make the problems worse

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bubo/Backs ... kside.html

mouseman1463
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Post by mouseman1463 » Fri May 11, 2007 9:20 am

Dude - I have a watercooled PC (internal H2O) with a fanless PSU. I have 1 120mm Yate Loon on a fan controller turned WAAAAY down on the radiator.
The hard disk sits just under 50*C. There is a HUGE difference in temps of both hard disk and PSU when I add in another fan between the two. My intention is to just stick in an 80mm Nexus on the controller as slow as possible; little airflow is better than zero airflow.
If you want your components to have a sensible lifetime, you'll need a little air running through there methinks :wink:

jaldridge6
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Post by jaldridge6 » Sun May 13, 2007 2:23 am

simple answer... 800rpm 120mm scythe fan. can't hear it.. hurts nothing...

Slaugh
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Post by Slaugh » Tue May 15, 2007 10:25 pm

Keep in mind that the most sensitive component of your computer is the hard disk. One of my friends had a Western Digital that was operating at 55°C+ and it crashed after only one year of use. I like to keep my hard disk as cool as possible, and even if my GPU and CPU are watercooled, I'm using a case fan (an undevolted Nexus 120mm). My HDD rarely reaches 40°C on load and the fan is inaudible.

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