Question about watercooling

The alternative to direct air cooling

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memory_leak
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Question about watercooling

Post by memory_leak » Sat Aug 08, 2015 9:56 pm

Hi guys,

I am about to build new system once new skylake cpus and mobos are out, and I am thinking about watercooling. I want high prestanda gaming rigg but as silent as its possible to get such machine silent. I have build many quiet systems before, but I never used watercooling. I wonder if it is more silent than air cooling? As I understand I still need fans for radiators, so I wonder how do they compare to standard low rpm fans? Does watercooling gives only more overclocking margin, or is there even win on noise front?

Also what is best choice for a watercooled case? I am quite fond of p180 cases, but as said, I never build a watercooled system.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Aug 09, 2015 12:52 am

memory_leak wrote:I wonder if it is more silent than air cooling?

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Quiet_Liq ... uild_Guide

memory_leak wrote:I am quite fond of p180 cases

P180 and derivatives are no longer sold by quite a while: broadly speaking a roomy enclosure with sufficient intakes for the necessary radiators (2 x 240mm is the recommended minimum) is preferable.

memory_leak
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by memory_leak » Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:26 am

Thx for the link. I just looked through article, and I wonder about this one:

"Our limited experience with water cooling told us the pump would be a huge challenge to silence."

Is this general rule? What is your experience?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:47 am

memory_leak wrote:Is this general rule?

If you already didn't that, I'd advice to carefully read the relevant discussion.

xan_user
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by xan_user » Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:32 pm

what are your primary reasons driving you towards watercooled?

boost
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by boost » Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:22 am

I guess it's because Skylake runs really hot when you overclock and increase the voltage to 1.4V or so.
I plan to buy a delidded CPU and have Intel's sub-par TIM replaced with liquid metal. This should decrease temps by 15-20 degrees.

suchageek
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by suchageek » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:49 pm

You need fans that have enough pressure to push, pull or push/pull to get through the radiator. I have 4X4 Noctua NF-P14s 140mm Redux 1500 PWM Push/Pull.
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=prod ... =86&lng=en

I have an NZXT Kraken X61 280mm on an overclocked Haswell-E, i7-5820K. If you are going for a CLC (closed loop cooler) or AIO (all in one cooler) watch lots of videos and read the review of it here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/NZXT_Kraken_X61 It's the only variable pump in a CLC. I have mine mounted in the bottom front of a Fractal R5. In silent mode, the fan spins at 600-660 RPM. The Pump speed is 2160-2400. There are 3 modes including manual. With the P180 (mine is in the closet) you may need longer rubber tubing. This easily reached my CPU with room to spare. Mine runs dead quiet. In a Tweak Town review, it was 5 decibels higher than a Notua DH-N15- air cooler at 7.5 volts. I didn't want to top mount it and then open the top vents up. Also being in the bottom front helps quiet it. You may or may not like the fans it ships with. They weren't bad, but I didn't care for the tone. But try the stock fans first as they may work out for you.

Finally, I really like the CAM software which continues to be quickly developed. In fact, there was a new version yesterday. It's up to version 2.1.5. In this video it was still at 2.0. But it should give you a general idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqvCxoi7Wbc It has since knocked down the RAM usage and it can also be run in mini-cam now. The load fluctuates between 1 & 2%. Quite an improvement over the 2.0 version.

Ran fine on Windows 7 Pro x64 and now Windows 10 Pro x64.

IMO, and only in my opinion I am not a fan of the Corsair coolers. Loud & buggy software. Also, the difference in how the copper block is shaped flat versus the better contact of the "slightly convex" X61 is pretty clear in SPCR's review on page 2.

I did lots and lots of reading. Since you are in Sweden you may want to research the Fractal Kelvin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqvCxoi7Wbc Also expandable and has a fill port. Unable to purchase in the U.S. due to patent issues. You could probably get a Kelven 360mm in your P180. There is also Swiftech. http://www.swiftech.com/H240-X.aspx But AFAIK, it tops out at 240mm. I really wanted a Kelvin and there are merits with the Swiftech. I whittled it down to those 3 and was heartbroken when I learned the Kelvin is not available here. So those 3 should give you a place to start.

With a CLC, don't expect miracles. The small size of the pump and IMO overall clean look was a big consideration. I can easily get to everything.

Hope this helps.

Edit: If you are going for a full blown custom water cooler, then good luck but this may help someone else. I considered it for exactly one minute. It's expensive, requires maintenance and bleeding, etc. It wasn't the cost so much, I just don't have the time to dedicate to it. So I felt that a CLC was a compromise and a chance to dip my toe in the water so to speak. ;)

Tweak Town link: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6803/n ... ndex8.html

suchageek
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by suchageek » Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:55 pm

I felt this needed a separate post about the EK. http://www.techpowerup.com/215197/ek-wa ... ooler.html

Two quick discussion links: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2442903 http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2442890

It will be interesting to read the reviews. I like the way it looks.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Aug 14, 2015 12:35 am

suchageek wrote:There is also Swiftech. http://www.swiftech.com/H240-X.aspx But AFAIK, it tops out at 240mm.
It's a 280mm: the 240mm version is the 220-X (and I think there should be also a 140-X pump/radiator combo which can be inserted in series in the loop, if needed).

memory_leak
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by memory_leak » Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:58 pm

Thanks for all the usefull input and links. It is quite a lot of reading to be done. I forgott to say that I am a linux person, so things should rather work well with lmsensors and conky :-). Ok, I do run windows occasionally, mostly for games.

To answer the question, why I want water cooling. Well, I want very silent system. My previous air-cooled build with q9550 and p180, was indeed almost dead silent. It was difficult to hear something. But there was very little room for overclocking. A friend of mine is insisting that water cooling is 100% silent and leaves a lot of space for overclocking too. I am a bit skeptic about the silence part, and am doing research before I get into the store and collect parts :). I will be putting new computer once new cpus and mobos are out for purchase, so I am now trying to make my mind if I am going with another standard air cooled build or I will give a try to wc. I am going to go for a quad i7. something in class of single gtx980 or equvivalent at the moment, and probably 16 gig of ddr4. However I am willing to sacrifice overclocking for the silence, whatever cooling solution I opt for. I can't stand noise of fans, it is totally killing joy of a fast computer for my part.

suchageek
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by suchageek » Sat Aug 22, 2015 5:14 am

A 980 will not be silent.

You have even more reading if you get a GTX 980. They are pretty loud. I don't really game on this PC so I went with a GTX 960, 4GB. I read lots and lots of reviews on the 970 and 960. I ended up with an MSI with twin frozr. On light loads the fans do not spin up. 0 RPM. Marketing blurb on twin froxr: https://gaming.msi.com/products/graphic ... r-v-series

So custom wc or CLC?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Aug 23, 2015 2:09 am

suchageek wrote:A 980 will not be silent

...but with a custom loop: if I'd ever go water, that's what I'll likely try out.

flight1902
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by flight1902 » Wed Oct 25, 2017 8:02 pm

I got question as well. Watercooling system? I believed this is dangerous, what if there's leek inside? is it advisable to use your computer for too long? will there be any leakage if your gonna use this watercooling stystem since some CPU produce too much heat. and lastly is it only for display, can you use this as for high def games? Sorry for my ignorance

Olle P
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by Olle P » Mon Oct 30, 2017 2:54 am

flight1902 wrote:I got question as well. Watercooling system? I believed this is dangerous, what if there's leek inside? is it advisable to use your computer for too long? will there be any leakage if your gonna use this watercooling stystem since some CPU produce too much heat. and lastly is it only for display, can you use this as for high def games? Sorry for my ignorance
Many questions, and the answers typically boils down to: Relative to what?

* Leakage. Can happen, but not much of a problem.
- Either you have it from start and should detect it while searcing for leaks as part of the installation procedure, before starting the computer. Not a problem.
- Or you get it over time caused by vibrations/bumps and not having attached the tubes properly. Usually not a problem, since the water shouldn't be conductive.
- Leakage due to heat is not a problem. That requires so much heat that you have some other serious problems occuring first.

* Use the computer for too long?
"Too long" is by definition bad, no matter if you have water cooling or not! The question is how many years of non-stop use "too long" means...
If you get algae or galvanic corrosion in your cooling system it's bad, so advice is to flush the system and replace the coolant once in a while (yearly or so). The computer can't be running during this maintenance.

* "This" water cooling system?
You have to define what "this" system is. If you use water cooling you choose parts so that it can handle all heat generated by the parts you want to cool. It should pass a torture test (CPU and GPU running at 100% load for a longer time) with flying colours!

SpecPioneer2015
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Re: Question about watercooling

Post by SpecPioneer2015 » Thu Nov 09, 2017 6:50 am

flight1902 wrote:I got question as well. Watercooling system? I believed this is dangerous, what if there's leek inside? is it advisable to use your computer for too long? will there be any leakage if your gonna use this watercooling stystem since some CPU produce too much heat. and lastly is it only for display, can you use this as for high def games? Sorry for my ignorance
Exactly I have the same question. I know it might be a dumb question since it's already in the market. but you know it's important to be assured of something that your gonna buy.

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