how does liquid cooling work?

[hoofhearted4]

so im really trying to decide between a Corsair H60 and a CM Hyper 212+. ive read a lot of reviews and ppl seem to take the H60 over the air cooler. ive seen many many different temps though. ive seen the H60 being lower then the hyper and ive seen it on par with the hyper. ive seen some really good numbers on tests and some high numbers on the same tests which are usually unexplained (as in the poster is asking why his temps are so high)

 

im also not sure on an HAF 932 case on how to set up the rad. Corsair suggests intake for the H60, but if i put it on intake im pushing warm air into the case. ive heard simply exhaust doesnt always cool it enough. if i wanna do a push/pull config id have to buy a second fan, so if i do that can anyone recommend me a good 120mm fan?

 

on that note, getting a second fan for a good push/pull config would prolly bring it up another $20, meaning the H60 would cost me $80 as opposed to the 212+ being $28. with a 50 dollar difference, do you guys this its really worth it?

 

although im not 100% sure on what CPU i wanna get, still debating between an i5-2500k, AMD 1100T or the Bulldozer when it comes out, id prolly overclocked them to 4.0, so no "extreme" over clocking, but i still think its a good amount but i know both the H60 and 212+ could handle it.

 

anyways happy to hear opinions and experience with these items guys! thanks again! :)

[arcane20]

I'll give you the quick run down of liquid cooling

Pro's

• It's cheaper to run as it uses less power
  
• It's very quiet
  
• It does a much better job at cooling than air
  
• The chance of the water spilling is incredibly small
  

Con's

• They're generally harder to install
  
• They're usually more expensive to buy
  
• There's an incredibly small chance of the water spilling
  

[Draakon]

Mineral oil cooling. Works like wonders.

[LHammonds]

When I researched and custom-built my PC back in 2009, I purchased the Corsair H50. I am still running the same PC and I haven't had any problems with the water cooler...and there is zero maintenance required. Installation was quite easy since I picked a good case. It actually requires LESS room than an air-cooled solution. Why did I get the H50? Simple. I wanted a less-noisy system and this system was very attractive with the zero maintenance operation.

 

The last PC I had used a very LARGE air-cooled fan and it sounded like a jet plane taking off. Whenever playing games, it really revved up. It was very distracting. Now, my central air-conditioning for the house is louder than my PC!

 

I've read all sorts of articles and reviews on water systems and I never got a warm fuzzy feeling with any of them that required maintenance. Sure, you could use the kind of water that won't cause electrical shorts if pored onto a circuit-board...but over time, that water changes and can eventually conduct electricity...thus removing your level of comfort for using such water with a system that might spring a leak.

 

Based on the reviews I read at the time and my personal experience with the H50, I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a high-performance PC without the high-pitch of fans. :thumbsup:

 

I've seen the Aquariam PC (mineral oil-submerged), however, that just seems too gimmicky. Messing with components, upgrades and whatnot would be....well....messy. The nice thing with mineral oil is that it takes a LONG time for it to build up heat and it keeps hotspots from forming. However, without an effective cooling option, you would have to turn the computer off for a while. The advantage turns into disadvantage because it also takes a LONG time for the heat to dissipate. That is why radiators are necessary to keep the running. Take a look at the radiator / fan system on the Aquarium V3. Yikes! Back to a bunch of fans. But if they use large diameter fans, they don't have to spin as fast and thus are not as loud as the smaller fans.

 

Wow, getting side-tracked. /end

 

LHammonds

[hoofhearted4]

yea im really debating between the H60 and the 212+ (have a thread on it actually lol)

 

the H60 is more then twice as much as the 212+ and im just not sure the money is worth the few degrees ill be saving.

 

but who knows. i cant build my PC for a while, so when the time comes prices may be different and i may just go for the H60 just because.

[Draakon]

I've seen the Aquariam PC (mineral oil-submerged), however, that just seems too gimmicky. Messing with components, upgrades and whatnot would be....well....messy. The nice thing with mineral oil is that it takes a LONG time for it to build up heat and it keeps hotspots from forming. However, without an effective cooling option, you would have to turn the computer off for a while. The advantage turns into disadvantage because it also takes a LONG time for the heat to dissipate. That is why radiators are necessary to keep the running. Take a look at the radiator / fan system on the Aquarium V3. Yikes! Back to a bunch of fans. But if they use large diameter fans, they don't have to spin as fast and thus are not as loud as the smaller fans.

 

Sorry, what? Did you even look at the site? They clearly told over there that V1 was running 24/7 for 1 year straight. They even ran the system under stress for 2 to 1 week at least. And that was without fans. And the fans they did use at later stages are quiet, since I am using them myself as well. I don't know why the went with that amount of fans, but a proper mineral cooling system only needs very few of those for outside cooling for the oil itself.

[hoofhearted4]

lol i almost want to buy that DIY kit and build that! lol cept it would cost me like an extra $550 on top of my parts (it was $700 for the v3 DIY kit, but my case is $150, so taking out the case to put in their kit still ads on the $550) and i just dont have that kind of money, as cool as it is, im set with my normal PC i plan on building lol.

 

still really cool. they have been using this in small server rooms, submerging the computers in a synthetic oil substance to cool them off. someone did a report on it in a college class i had (he did liquid cooling in general, butt his was one of his points)

[LHammonds]

Sorry, what? Did you even look at the site? They clearly told over there that V1 was running 24/7 for 1 year straight. They even ran the system under stress for 2 to 1 week at least.

I've read quite a bit about the subject and yes, I followed that project even when there wasn't a version 2 or 3.

 

What you failed to realize is that their version 1 was not a hot-rod gaming system. It was the cheapest parts they could buy which certainly was not the average gaming rig. When turned on and doing "nothing" it could maintain a fairly comfortable temp...however, under stress it got quite hot without a radiator and they recommended not letting it get that hot. Their "several week" test was WITH a radiator. So it doesn't take much reading between the lines to know a gaming PC which will be much hotter and will certainly demand a cooling system.

 

It completely depends on what CPU(s) and GPU(s) you put in there vs oil volume vs cooling system. I guarantee you that if you put a couple of ATI Radeon 6990 cards in there, they will heat up that oil MUCH faster than their initial test and it will maintain a much higher running temp which will require better oil cooling. If you have a compact system with very little oil, it will be harder to cool. The more oil volume added, the longer it takes to heat up and easier it is to keep cooled.

 

LHammonds