Water cooling

[Toro]

ok so... this is a pretty basic question, but having had nowt to do with watercooling, other than oooo'ing and ahhh'ing at its greatness... i dont know much about applying it. Can u use it with any board/processor? or do you need specific boards/processor's?

[danrok]

Some waterblocks require that you have mounting holes in the mobo around the CPU, others don't. So similar situation to air coolers.

In general it is possible to cool any CPU on almost any mobo. Some blocks and kits come with mounting brackets for every type of Intel and AMD CPU, with others different brackets can be bought separately.

There's two types of water cooling. The most common and cheapest type is a simple rad and fan set-up, the other type uses some form of refrigeration to give much lower temps.

[dod]

Pretty much any system you care to mention. The principles behind it are the same regardless of the type of system.

All you need to make sure is you you have the correct type of waterblock for the type of cpu you have. Even thats more to do with the method of securing the waterblock to the motherboard. Most manufacturers cater for all the AMD and Pentium options

So, you thinking of getting your feet wet?

[Toro]

I am considering it. how does the noise compare with that of fans? cos noise of fans does annoy me!

[danrok]

Fans or at least one fan is needed. But if you w/c all your components you can ditch all those case fans.

[Toro]

which components would i need to WC tog et rid of fans? CPU, GFX...?

[Razorfish]

Well depends on what your doing, personally ive kept all my case fans due to the fact my new card aint got the waterblock on, but ive seen people with just two 120mm fans which if you get quality ones that spin slow are fairly quite, with a decent setup youll find your PSU is probably the loudest thing.

Edit: oh and if you do go watercooling, its worth getting a quality one, not the likes of a globelwin thingy!

[Toro]

just now on my main rig i think i got 4 fans. PSU, CPU, GFX and 1 case fan, makes hellaracket

edit in response to razorfish's edit: quality all the time matey (not always higher prices though )

[danrok]

Certainly the CPU and GFX would need to be w/c. It would be a good idea to w/c the NB as well.

You can still achieve air flow through the case with w/c by positioning an internal rad on the case fan holes. The rads fan will draw air into the case. Also, the PSU fan will blow air out.

I use an external w/c unit which is normally very quiet even though it has 3 fans on the rad. 99% of the time they spin slowy with a low noise level.

What do you want the most? Low noise or low temps for overclocking?

[Toro]

What be the NB? (have pondered this for a while, all i can think of is mother board, with a typo)

for just now i think would like to achieve low noise levels, potentially going towards OC'ing

[danrok]

NB is the NorthBridge chip, i.e. nForce2, etc. on the mobo near the CPU.

[danrok]

Originally Posted by Toro

for just now i think would like to achieve low noise levels, potentially going towards OC'ing

It is possible to buy a totally noiseless w/c unit such as the Zalman Reserator. It has no fans. It may not be so good for o/cing.

[Toro]

ah right so. i know the chip you mean. usually has a fairly sizable heak sink innit?

as for overclocking... never done it before... so want to be sure i think i know what im doing with it first

[Razorfish]

Danroks system is a shining example of a properly thought out watercooling system, but i feel it my duty as a Asetek fan and customer to introduce you to the Asetek Waterchill systems, they have great write ups and an amazing after sales team to sort out problem should they arise,they are so easy to set up with push fittings, great beginners kit! cost is an issue but quality assured!

Check out www.asetek.com and browse the forum, i think youll be impressed,

but each to their own, i totally admit that there are some amazing systems out there but do your research!