Jump to content

DOWNLOAD MODS

Are you looking for something shiny for your load order? We have many exclusive mods and resources you won't find anywhere else. Start your search now...

LEARN MODDING

Ready to try your hand at making your own mod creations? Visit the Enclave, the original ES/FO modding school, and learn the tricks of the trade from veteran modders...

JOIN THE ALLIANCE

Membership is free and registering unlocks image galleries, project hosting, live chat, unlimited downloads, & more...

Air or water cooled?


Lanceor
 Share

Recommended Posts

It's October, the month before Skyrim's release, which mean's it's time for me to get my new rig! :jellytime:

Specs will be something like the September Performance PC in Tom's Hardware System Builder Marathon - hopefully overkill for Skyrim and any games that will be released in the next couple of years.

Living in the tropics, in a concrete jungle a short distance from one of China's manufacturing hubs, the air here is hot, humid and very dusty. The heat and dust is so bad that every 2 months or so, my current PC starts blue-screening due to thermal overload. The graphics card fares slightly better (maybe because I haven't overclocked it) but because of its closed construction, it is extremely difficult to clean.

So to address this, the options for the next PC are...

Water cooling - A fully sealed system that no dust can get into.

This looked ideal, seemingly requiring low maintenance while providing better cooling than an air cooled system. However, I've read that they need as much or more maintenance as air cooled systems. The benchmark tests seem to indicate that water cooling performs no better than the very best air coolers which I found rather odd. Has anyone had first hand experience with water cooling?

Air Cooling - A very high quality case with big ventilation fan that ensures only filtered air gets into the computer.

For a very high quality case and air filter, how effective is it at ensuring enough air reaches the heat sinks while keeping dust out? Provided I clean the filter as needed, can I hope to run it for many years without having to clean the insides?

I'd love to hear experiences from those who've had to deal with dirty environments. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool parts does not translate directly to performance. Its when the parts are too cold or too hot that its an issue.

The biggest bonus to water cooling is your system will be super quiet. And even in hot weather, you don't have to worry about heat, and as you said, dust problems are minimal. And depending on what you want, you may need to buy new water cooling heat sinks for your graphics card and any other additions you want water cooled.

Bonus to air cooling is its super easy to install, no chance of mess, and way cheaper then water. Expecting to run your system for years without cleaning is a silly thought. There will always be dust. You can mitigate this with paying out the nose for a high end case, or make your own filters using cheap foam pads in front of intakes. Any modern case provides enough airflow for almost any system. Exception being is if you are doing overclocking or have bleeding edge tech throughout the whole system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will probably be taking the plunge into water cooling soon too. I have two cats which are the worst shedders of any cats I've ever owned and we live in a big city - so dust is a major problem. The problem with filters on the case is they get clogged really quickly in such an environment, and I really don't feel like dismantling my case every few weeks. Yes, every few days. I'm not kidding. But if you don't have cats, then your can probably get away with having to clean the filters every few months. The manufacturer will recommend you do it monthly. :lol:

If you are going for the newest components, you might find that they are really for water cooling already. I've seen video cards that have H2O versions. And my motherboard is actually rigged for WC even though it's a few years old. There are also some sealed systems available now. I haven't looked into them personally, but there are small liquid cooled CPU coolers now that are completely self contained. They aren't water cooled - they use something else. Mind you, that's only the CPU, but that might provide another alternative.

As it turns out, I opted for nice looks and convenience over superior air cooling. As echo says, there are cases that provide excellent air cooling and that is definitely an option. If you go with Lian Li, they have filters on all the openings. And Lian Li are the best cases out there, imo. But you still have to crack open the case to clean it out.

Unfortunately I haven't used WC personally, so I can't give concrete advice there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be buying the Corsair H100 for my new Skyrim rig. If you research it, people have been able to overclock their 2500k/2600k easily to 4.5ghz while maintaining reasonable temperatures. Without overclock, temps are at ~28oC idle and ~40oC under load, thats pretty great. Can be even better it you use the push-pull method, thats fans on both sides of the radiator.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless you are seriously over-clocking your system, water cooling is just an added expense, that you don't need. For even moderate over-clocking, aftermarket heatsinks/fans are more than adequate to the task. I have always had an allergy to liquid cooling delicate electronic components.... sure, the coolant is supposedly non-conductive.... but, I don't always trust that, nor do I trust plumbing to have no leaks.

Yes, dusty conditions ARE a consideration... I have two cats, and a dog, all of which shed..... I just take my tower out to the garage every now and then, and blow out the dust. I can buy a lotta cans of air, or, run my compressor, and still be way under the cost of water cooling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have water cooling on my original PC, and (sadly) air cooling on others since. I greatly prefer water cooling, mostly because of how quiet it is. Fan noise is really distracting when trying to play/watch movies without headphones. Others have laid out the other points, so I'm not going to repeat them.

However, I've read that they need as much or more maintenance as air cooled systems.

Other than adding additional water in there a couple times, we never had to do any sort of maintenance. On the other hand, I clean my insides from dust fairly often, and have to pick loose wires out of the fan once in a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing to keep in mind when deciding on water cooling is that some part manufacturers will not honor the warranty on things if you have to dismantle the factory cooling system to attach a water block.

That aside, I'm with HeyYou on this. I don't have any trust in liquid systems coursing through my expensive hardware. A bit of dust needing to be cleaned out every few weeks is far less of a hassle to me than dealing with the fallout from some kind of major leak should it happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While it does seem nonsensical to mix water and electronics, don't forget that mainframes have been using water cooling since the 1960's. Some of them still do. Those principles are what led to water cooling for PC's in the first place.

However those systems are built for water cooling whereas with your PC, you are doing it yourself. That's why I recommend that if you are exploring this option, price it out with components that are specifically made for WC. I seem to recall that you could buy video cards outfitted for water cooling already - you just had to hook up the hoses. As I said, my ASUS motherboard has the nipples installed already and is ready to go. You will probably have to pay more for these kinds of components, but it would make implementing a WC system much easier.

And another option which I believe I mentioned already was to go with Liquid Cooled components. These are sealed systems. You can get CPU coolers, as Meo mentions above and I've seen video cards like that too. You'd still need fans to cool the memory and bridges on your motherboard though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Settled, liquid helium it is then. XD

On a more serious note, the simplicity and "tried-and-testedness" of an air cooled rig is in the lead - hopefully a high quality positive pressure case and filters (Lian Li does look good) will keep cleaning to a minimum.

Overclocking? It's a bit like increasing a car's horsepower - no amount of horsepower is ever enough. Therefore I'm not going to even try for maximum overclockability since I know that whatever overclock I get, I'll wish I had more. :whistle: As for quietness, it's probably not a concern given the 24/7 traffic and air conditioning noise here.

I have one question that would pretty much rule out water cooling:

Is practical or even possible to have a water cooled computer that requires no airflow? I know I can water cool the CPU, GPU's and voltage regulator (and Northbridge?), but will the heat generated by the hard drives, RAM and other components become problematic in a sealed system? (I'm assuming that I can mount the power supply unit outside the case.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You want some air flow in the case, even if it is just by convection. (the act of heating the air, causes it to start moving.)

Even a positive pressure case is going to collect dust, it has to get the air from somewhere.....

You can have a liquid cooling system that in and of itself doesn't require any fans, but, the radiators can be rather large, and if space is at a premium by your computer.... A radiator with a single fan is fairly quiet, and rather effective. I haven't really looked for a purely water cooled powersupply, no idea if they are out there, but, if they are, you can bet they ain't gonna be cheap......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Liquid cooled, not water cooled, is the way to go. Most common water cooling setups can take other chemicals provided that you go with black tubing to prevent light from getting in. The absolute best liquid cooled setup that you can get without doing something insane is to build something called a thermoelectric assisted liquid cooled system with a good refrigerant, the only thing about them is you have to put a good resister on the power line going to your peltier unit, or your system is going to get too cold. It's basically a standard liquid cooled setup with a Peltier unit sitting between the processor and the water block. It's best to get a 80 watt peltier, and then use a resister to tone it down to 20 watts so you don't have to insulate your socket and motherboard. This means that your 95 watt processor is going to act thermally like a 75 watt processor (in theory). 80 watt peltiers, completely unthrottled, are great for large GPUs that run insanely hot.

Of course, you should always have a fan on your radiator, or else your cooling setup has no way of getting rid of excess heat.

Edited by DarkWarrior
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...