Water or Air?

[LeXon]

Hi all,

Just a few questions about cooling equipment. I've heard that water cooling is better than fan cooling.

HOW MUCH more efficient is it than fan cooling??

Also, what is the chance of it leaking?? I'm thinking of getting water cooling if it's way better than fan cooling.

Any suggestions??

 

[phosho510]

i prefer air... you can get a good heatsink and fan for around 70 and will still have the same temp, around 30-40. while water cooling is at least 200. i dont think its that neccessary to spend that much money on cooling because u will get the almost the same results as air cooling but for cheaper

 

[WARLORD88]

I prefer air also because its cheaps and works great, unless your leaving your comp on 24/7 then i prefer water hehe.

 

[Trotter]

So long as it's quiet, it doesn't matter to me.

 

[Nubius]

Chances of leaks depends on how well you set it up and take precautions against it such as leak testing.

When it comes to cooling the chipset and GPU, fans cannot even come close to comparing. As far as CPU's go, then yeah a really top knotch heatsink and something like the tornado would perform comparable to water cooling at the cost of being insanely loud.

You could build your own kit at www.dangerden.com, real good parts there, for around $200 and you should get lower temps than the best air solution out there.

They do have whats called dielectric fluid meaning it wont conduct electricity therefore lowering the chances of shorting something out.

 

[Codeine]

Lexon Air Cooling is extremely good. But liquid can take you to the next level of cooling. When i say Liquid Cooling, i mean in general. Most of the low-end/simple Liquid Cooling kits, will give you the temps of a good Air Cooling system. But you have to fully understand both, in order to get the most of it.

Surprising, Air Cooling can be a little confusing. Theirs alot more to it then just adding fans. Their are 2 general requirements to a successful Air Cooling system.
First is the Fans, the Fans CFM and size are very important.
Second is the positioning of these fans and arrangement.

So for a ideal cooling system, you should have 120mm fans, with around 100-CFM+. The more CFM the better, thats how much air is blown. If you have 80mm fans, then 50-CFM is just fine, over all thats moderate. Remember you have Intake and Exhaust. Its always better to have slightly more exhaust, or an even amount. But how do you determine that??? Well by the size of your fans, the speed at witch your fans are working at (RPM/CFM), and the share number of these fans. So now you have figured out what fans your going to get, and the amount of them that will be used for Intake/Exhaust.
But why is exhaust so important? Exhaust gets all the warm air from your case out, that was blown in from your Intake. If your Exhaust is working slower then your Intake then you have a problem. When the air gets blown in from your Intake, its cool. Because its moving fast. Then it hits your hardware, becoming warm. Once this temperature exchange takes place, that means your cool air, now turns warm. So if your Exhaust is working at a slower rate then your Intake. All that air that came in from your Intake, witch turns warm, is just sitting in the case. The longer that warm air sitts around, the more that air conducts its heat back into your system. Witch results in a negitive effect.

But now we have to talk about the positioning of your fans, cooling system setup. Basicly where you put these fans. You just cant put a fan in, and think just because you got a fan its doing something. For example, most cases come with a fan in the front bottom of the case. Witch is always hidden behind the HDD containers. This means that cool air has to travel threw your HDD containers, then finally encounter your mobo. Thats basicly a very bad place to have a Intake fan. By the time that air gets to your mobo, its velocity has dropet ALOT. So the air is no longer cool. Just a very small breeze doing nothing.

So you have to arrange your fans in all the best ways. The best position for your Intake, is rite on your removable side panel. That means its blowning air striaght on your mobo/cpu. So put as many as possible there. Exhaust, that would be good for the back of your case, or rite on top of your case.

I hope this gave you a better idea about air cooling.

 

[wongb18c]

Exhaust should be on top while intakes should be on the sides... air currents shouldn't conflict with each other... but rather flow in one smooth direction on the top of the case.

 

[waynejkruse10]

Id go with a good quality air system. 2 Intake Fans, 2 Output Fans, Dual Fan PSU, Large Copper Heasink with 120mm fan. Water cooling is to expensive and can be tricky to set up. Also, wongb18c, i think your sig is way to large, the mods will get angry atb you if they find out about your masive sig.

 

[Codeine]

Yeah that sig is damn massive, good thing im on cable. All the 56k and the really unfortunate inept on 28k would have some problems.

Yeah water cooling is a totaly different concept. Im going to end up getting a liquid cooling system during summer or soon after. I'll end up using as many rads as possible, with the fastest pump i can afford. I wont be removing my air system either.

 

[LeXon]

Thnx all all that info really helped me... now i'm considering upgrading my fans instead...