I have noticed not a lot of people around here watercool their CPUs. My friend bought the corsair Hydro H50 and was bragging about how great it is- and Quiet (which is a joke, because he runs 2 ATI 5870s).
Well this performance chart tells me:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1025/6/
It's pretty much not any more effective than a really good air to air cooler, and costs a lot more. They gave it a "value award" which is Ironic because at $80 it's more than double the price of a couple Xigmatec heatsinks that would give it a run for it's money. And it's similar in price to the Noctua that beat it.
In addition, the pump is fairly loud, and there is more that can go wrong with a water system.
I may be missing something, but it does seem like it's not worth the time.
ETA: I guess the difference is a small self-contained unit isn't going to be that great, but a serious dedicated watercooling setup could be worth it in some circumstances.
self-contained watercooling vs. good air coolers
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self-contained watercooling vs. good air coolers
Last edited by djkest on Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:31 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: watercooling vs. good air coolers
fake water cooling things like that are gimmicky. they really only make sense if youre running a hot overclock in something like a sg-05/6
performance wise, they do get handled by top end air coolers that are in their price range. even slightly less expensive, and much more less expensive coolers like the megahalems or the mugen have been shown to beat the h50.
"real" water cooling is a fair bit more expensive, but that cost comes with a lot of benefits. it can handle huge heat loads, maintains better temperatures when overclocked, and is known to extend your epeen by at least a metre.
so is it worth it?
fake water cooling? nope. unless you have some specific situation youre gonna be better of with air.
real water cooling? if you have to ask, then its probably not for you..
performance wise, they do get handled by top end air coolers that are in their price range. even slightly less expensive, and much more less expensive coolers like the megahalems or the mugen have been shown to beat the h50.
"real" water cooling is a fair bit more expensive, but that cost comes with a lot of benefits. it can handle huge heat loads, maintains better temperatures when overclocked, and is known to extend your epeen by at least a metre.
so is it worth it?
fake water cooling? nope. unless you have some specific situation youre gonna be better of with air.
real water cooling? if you have to ask, then its probably not for you..
Re: self-contained watercooling vs. good air coolers
Good point. I edited my title to be more accurate. Not trying to say "watercooling sux, lol" more like "watercooling isn't automatically better" and there is a distinct difference between "real watercooling" and "watercooling lite"
Re: self-contained watercooling vs. good air coolers
Whatever heat is generated needs to be shifted to moving air. So in both instances you have fins with fans on them... then fans moving pair through the finds to pickup the heat and move it away. If is the same amount of heat, same amount of air moving... and all things equal the same amount of fan noise.
In addition, the water cooling system has the noise of the water pump. With equal levels of engineering how can the water cooling system not be louder?
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Seems that water cooling systems make sense when you have to remove such great amounts of heat that the traditional heat tubes aren't up to the task of delivering the heat to the fins... or there is so much heat to be removed... that you just can't move enough air through the case to remove it.
I think as a practical matter water cooling makes sense only if you have 1000 watt PSU driving two or more heavy weight video cards. There you have a lot of heat to remove... and probably can't move enough air within the case to remove the heat.
So you water cool the cards and the CPU running the heat out to one big radiator with at least three fans on it.
In addition, the water cooling system has the noise of the water pump. With equal levels of engineering how can the water cooling system not be louder?
===========
Seems that water cooling systems make sense when you have to remove such great amounts of heat that the traditional heat tubes aren't up to the task of delivering the heat to the fins... or there is so much heat to be removed... that you just can't move enough air through the case to remove it.
I think as a practical matter water cooling makes sense only if you have 1000 watt PSU driving two or more heavy weight video cards. There you have a lot of heat to remove... and probably can't move enough air within the case to remove the heat.
So you water cool the cards and the CPU running the heat out to one big radiator with at least three fans on it.