Water cooling vs air cooling

[Vanaraud]

I have I5 3570K running on my MSI z77- gd65 mobo with Arctic Freezer 7 at moment.

The fan doesn´t hit 2000 rpm and temps don´t go over 60C on everyday loads(ET\games).

So I was digging around for a bit for closed loop liquid cooling like H100\H80 and Enermax LightTech 120x. To me it seems at fan speeds comparable to mine- 1600rpm usual- they seem not to do a great job. And when they do water cooling systems seem a bit too noisy 41db or more vs AF 13 or EVO 212 36 dB.

So I was wondering if it really is wise to waste 3x money on equipmeant which doesn´t do any more better than random 30€ heatsink with silent fan. The thing is, all charts I´ve found mention only high end CPUs and heatsinks\liquid coolers and are not really comparable. Neither I´ve found anyone mentioning the effect going from air cooled to liquid cooled system. Only found that with noisy liquid cooling i5 920 runs at 60-70C OC, which I achive even with my AF 7:O

I´m sure I´m missing something here but let´s say i would like to run my CPU at 4.2-4.3Ghz daily on not so noisy conditions (< 35dB) in Corsair r500. What temps would I expect let´s say with H100 or Enermax 120x(which by a review seemed very silent and sturdy product).

[Jacker]

well, you can put it however you want - when comparing 1600rpm to 1600rpm you will not find big differences

 

every LC system is as loud as the fan you apply to it.

every AC system is as loud as the fan you apply to it.

 

almost every AC system will keep your CPU at nice temps.

almost every LC system will do as well...

 

but imagine the following scenario:

 

you decide to OC the CPU, maybe around + 400 MHz each core - that will give you a massive boost on temperature.

maybe your fan on AC will go up to 2k rpm?

 

usually (i use a H110 with 2 140mm fans on a 140x280mm radiator) i dont hear sh*t from it - but when i decide to power up the CPU to around 8x4.5 GHz instead of "normal" 4x3.8 + 4x4.2, i am able to hear it.

and in that case i am sure your AC will burn in hell

 

 

however: get the cooling system that fits your style the most... if you dont OC, your AC will do it's job! and you are right - it can be way cheaper !

[TulsaGeoff]

Each CPU has its sweet spot on OC potential. As Jacker said it may get you +400mhz from your currenlt setup. That is going to have a very minimal effect on your gaming on your elite setup. I have a custom water cooling loop on my second generation 920 D0 processor. The loop would cost $300-400 to replicate. Honestly my next build, there is a good chance I'm selling off my old water cooling equipment. I've seen water dripping onto a $300 GPU and spraying into a PC a couple times. I'm thinking its not worth it. As far as the closed loop systems go, whatever. Stick with what you got as long as you are happy with its performance.

 

I don't know what heatsink you are running but with air sinks its all about fan speed and surface area. This $35 coolermaster that I used for my friends build is rock solid at 4.4. Check out the Sith Lord build on our showcase area.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

[Jacker]

I don't know what heatsink you are running but with air sinks its all about fan speed and surface area.

 

well... ummm..... maybe ur right... maybe thats only half the topic!

 

it is NOT only about fanspeed + surface area!

 

take some simple points and combine them in different ways:

 

1. fan speed

2. surface

3. material

4. surrounding system

 

let's start with no.4: no matter what kind of case it is, go for some good airstream thru it! nothing is going to work very good when its inside a closed room! often a 120-140mm fan in front and back will do a good job!

 

if you want no. 1 to be as small as possible, add a huge 2.

if you don't want a huge no.2, try some other material, copper should do a great job in transporting heat - but is more expensive!

if you don't have the space to get a large 2, try making no.1 a little bigger - therby you can save space!

 

you may combine all 4 of these together - and i'm sure you will find a good working cooler!

 

but whatever you buy, watch for the TDP of your CPU, get some good (wtf is it called in english, that stuff you put between cooler and cpu?^^). now that you know your TDP, add at least 10% to it and go get the right cooler.

and please don't do the same thing i did - buy the cooler sozed for the AVERAGE TDP of my fx8150... pain in the a.......

[Vanaraud]

Had a good deal on H110 on second hand, but brand new packaging. Bought it just for kicks of it.

I like the end result on Corsairs r500. Radiator fits just over MSI Z77-gd65 heatsink, then theres case metal and in the compartmeant sit 2x14cm fans and the metal grid closes nicely with oneclick solution. Have to hand it to Corsair. BUT after I blindly tried about 20-30 to fit the preinstalled screws through fans to the radiator and hit it finally, I discovered tihtening 2 screws in diagonal position that they don´t go in holes. Well I thought it has to do something mobo distracting me. Easy 5 min intallation they say? After scratching the case empty of mobo etc it was easier to hit the screws blindly with "only" 2-3 tries and after I had tightened all 7 screws of 8 the 1 from past diagonal position still didn´t fit. Well long story short the screw hole is misplaced\off about 0.5-1mm and I tried bending the case\rad, still the same. Oh well the 7 other dwarves have to do the job, didnt want to fiddle with it anymore as the screw holes get ruined in the end. So with trying to fit the shim between case and fans, which seems pointless waste of 45min now, it took more 5min and 8h:P So don´t take it as easy job and clean the case, especially if you put fans above and then try to attach rad below.

But its funny how two parts from the same manufacturer can be off.

 

To the results:

With AF 7 the fan houled a bit louder and in ET OC-d to 4.2Ghz the CPU temp hit 60C

With liquid cooled AIO h110 its about 10C cooler. Under full load with Prime95 CPU hits 55-60C(max occasionally).

The CPU temp with H110 on idle and OC at 4.2Ghz is maybe 2-3 C cooler with original thermal paste patch. I wonder if mx4 would do a better job?

Can´t tell yet if other extra system vents are causing more noise or H110 14cm fans at 50% speed at 900rpm are the culprits. Though I let fans to run at half the speed because they make audible noise at 1200rpm but don´t keep CPU any more cooler. I must add that rear fan and side 20cm fan are blowing fresh air in. The pump is running at 1500rpm and don´t hear it.

Will see how it performs with planned CF and on higher clocks and will leave it to 4.2Ghz on default as on noise theres no difference from stock clocks. AF7 made a tad more noise when all the time on 4.2Ghz. So its improvemeant from stock\low end air cooler but I´m sure EVO would have performed well too.

[Double Aids]

Thought this might be about VW's. I was wrong.

[NoGooD]

Just a heads up Van. Aside from some of the problems you can find from a WC system that Tulsa pointed out.  If you are running any type of water cooled system, make sure you've set nominal thermal limits (the limit in which the computer shuts down to protect itself from getting too hot) in the BIOS and w/e monitoring software you use.

 

One of the drawbacks that most people don't think about when using water cooling is that if the pump dies, so does your cooling. If a fan dies on an air cooling system you do have some cooling ability just from the fins since they are in direct contact and you have air being pushed through your system by other fans. In a WC system, without the pump to take the warm water through the fins, you have nearly zero cooling going on.

 

That said I've been running a H-100 for few years on a 3930K i7 and have been pretty impressed, especially during the summer months in California where it can get brutally hot. Then again I have a 212+ on a Q9770 Core2Quad that runs another comp in the house and it holds the temps down as well.

[Achiyan]

my water cooler idles higher but keeps the max temps way cooler than my HSF did. but i think i dont have the heatsink set right. never re-set it tho cus i dont feel like taking everything apart lol

[Vanaraud]

Thanks for the info Nogood, have heard it somewhere already but also forgot, have to check the RPM of a pump once in a while then.

I´ve got the same impression Achiyan, idel temps are about the same but on load max temps are abotu 10C lower.

But I´m not one of the lucky guys with excellent i5, reached 4,5Ghz at 1,36V in BIOS and showing 1,32V on HWmonitor with temps reaching 87C on Prime95. Its nice and quite to run fans @ 800-900rpm (50%) and OC to 4.2Ghz for daily use but other than that only plus is 2x 14cm fans on top of my case pulling air out. I´m not going to try to reseat it because I´ve half of tube mx4 left over and I think H110 came with better thermal paste, also other systems with same voltage and H100 run at about same temps. But oh well at least got a good deal on H110.

[parrot]

I run a i5-2500K at 4.4 with temps around 60-62 under prime95. Normal use, they are around 35. I use a H100 water cooler.

 

I've had it faster, but 1.1Ghz overclock is enough for me

 

The noise is acceptable, it blends into the background eventually.