Looking for Watercooling Articles

Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
edited October 2003 in Hardware
If you have any good guides on watercooling i would truly appreciate it.

What i'm looking for
1- Beginners guide explained how watercooling theoretically works, what is needed for watercooling, etc.
2-Consumer guides, comparisons, reviews on several watercooling parts, kit, etc.
3-Your personal opinion, tips, whatever.

Also if you can recommend any cases i should buy that provide sufficient space and airflow. I seem to have my eyes set on a lian li pc71. I looked at the coolermaster cases but I did not find any full size towers at newegg. I'm pretty satisfied with my pc61 and i like the design of the pc71.

Also if anyone can recommend a good kvm switch that'd be nice.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Well, my personal opinion through MANY hours of research is as follows:

    Tygon makes the best tubing, clearflex is second best and cheaper.

    Swiftech makes the BEST waterblocks around! They support 1/2" OD barbs for good flow as well. You'll have to buy them separately, but they're cheaper than buying kit. The MCW-5002 (CPU block), MCW-50 (GPU Block), and MCW-20 (Northbridge block) are absolutely excellent.

    As for radiators, do NOT skimp on radiators. Get the absolute biggest your case can take, and your wallet can afford. Get as much airflow as you can stand going through that rad. The BlackIce X2 rad has support for 4 x 120mm fans. Two blowing through, and two blowing away from the rad. Extreme airflow, and that's good.

    For pumps, the VIA Aqua 1400 with 1/2" OD barbs is a priceless pump. High-flow and inexpensive.

    In regards to the reservoir, you can make one, or buy one. Most of the time they don't make much of a difference.

    That's about it. Watercooling kits are GIMPY. No watercooling kit today performs as well as a self-assembled system. Waterchill, EXOS, Swiftech 22601, they all produce temperatures almost identical to good air cooling. It's a waste of time, and they're EXPENSIVE.


    As for watercooling's theory, that's pretty easy:

    Water has significantly higher thermal dissipation properties than air. Per cubic unit of matter, water can carry more heat than air can. The basic premise behind watercooling is water is jetted into a waterblock, good waterblocks are designed with extremely turbulent interiors. The heat inducted into the bottom of the waterblock is radiated into the pins that comprise the interior. The turbulent interior pushes water to all extremities and provides a large amount of surface area for the water to carry heat away. The block and then pushes back to the outtake. With a LARGE amount of heat it (Water) travels to the radiator. The radiator has an extremely large amount of endlessly curving tubes inside thin metal fins. The heat of the water in the tubing is transferred to the metal fins whereupon air blows across the fins to dissipate heat. The water then exits the radiator as cool water to be cycled back through the system.

    Basics of watercooling:
    CPU Block
    Reservoir
    Radiator
    Pump
    Tubing

    Extras:
    GPU Block
    Chipset Block
    Harddrive coolers

    //EDIT: Does Mackanz, Lord of H20 have anything to add?
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I've got a swiftech kit, and I went that way because it was my first. For my next rig, I will definately go with seperate parts.
    My kit came with all the needed parts, cpu and gpu block, tubing, rad, pump and the swiftech fill and bleed assembly, and with the fill and bleed assembly, it enables you to run a completly closed system, so no need for a resevoir, but if you want to run one, then it's a personal preference thing. For filling and bleeding a closed system, I found a pretty cool article last night about just adding a simple T connector inline and having a short piece of tubing and a valve on the end to allow you to bleed the system free of bubbles that can disrupt the water flow and decrease the overall thermal efficiency of the system.

    Like thrax said, it is cheaper to go and piece together a system, than it is to buy a kit. I wouldn't have changed what I did for my first one, because I needed the experience, but now I would definately piece together. Starting with a rad that will take at least 1 120mm fan, preferably 2.
    I also have the same case you're looking at, the PC71. It is absolutely massive inside and wouldn't be hard to mod to take a 120mm fan or 2 in the front for a bigger rad. As is, I have my rad(the smaller swiftech 80mm) set up in the rack that the external 3.5" drives would be in.
    If you figure out what you're looking at and want some measurements from the PC71, let me know and I can get them for you.

    With the way I'm running right now, gpu and cpu blocks have been lapped with 2000 grit wet sandpaper, and have artic ceramique on them, and my cpu is running between 32 and 36°celsius under full load from folding @ home.
  • DanGDanG I AM CANADIAN Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    The first pic is the rad in the 3.5" bays, and it's the best pic I can get right now without the flash drowning out the lights.
  • seversphereseversphere
    edited October 2003
    I see the 5002-A suffers the same minor flaw as the 5000. It doesn't rest on two of the pads on the chip. The beveled corners just touch them but when you set the heatsink on the chip it's really resting on two pads and the core. All you have to do is move those two a little closer in and it's okay. They should have offset the mating surface to match where the pads and core actually are.

    Two chipped cores before I realized this with my friends setup (I didn't do the install of course :D). Just be careful and it should work well.
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