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Thread: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

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    Senior Member Andaho's Avatar
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    What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    I don't overclock, but I do like having a silent PC, so I'm considering watercooling.

    How much would it cost for a water cooling kit to do the whole system?

    How hard is it to change graphics card stock fan heatsinks to the watercooled heatsink?

    Do you get watercooled PSUs?

    How would temps be in a system with NO fans at all, so no air circulation?

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Watercooling is often noisier than not having water cooling. The problem is that there is a pump to pump the liquid around the tubes, and that pump can make a noise. And then there is a radiator sytem to cool the liquid, and this radiator usually has fans which can make a noise too.

    There are quite water cooling kits, but its just not a sure thing that any watercooling = silence.

    Its also usually quite expensive, and also not an easy thing to fit. (For a CPU it didn't seem bad, but my friend's water cooled PC looked like a nightmare when he was doing the graphics card) So if I was you, I would just get quiet fans. My PC is very quiet, and theres no water cooling. Its not 100&#37; silent, but its very close... If you want to do that, get a silent PSU (like a Corsair HX etc), and then get some sharkoon 1000's as case fans. The sharkoon fans are about a fiver each.

    If you have any temperature problems though, this might not be possible.
    Last edited by acrobat; 12-08-2007 at 12:39 PM.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    You still need some air circulation, even if its just a slight breeze.

    You need to tell us if you will be overclocking, and also tell us all the bits that you want to cool.

    You can have a pretty silent setup, but itll cost you a bit more.
    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzen View Post
    stupid betond belief.
    You owe it to yourself to click here really.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    The stuff in my sig is as good as silent, (i can sleep with my head about 6 inches away from it and im a very light sleeper). Cost about 300 quid. The hardest thing about the install is cutting the holes/deciding where to route the pipes, but its by no means difficult, just time consuming and a little fiddly.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Some cases have the holes already there too. The thing I thought that was difficult though, was removing the heatsink and fan from the graphics card, so you can fit the watercooled one on. It might be different with different graphics cards, but for my mate's 8800GTX, it was a nightmare. The job on the whole though was really fiddly and took over a day due to the occasional hickup here and there.. and it cost hundreds of quids.

    So, its not something I would consider doing, just because I wanted a quiet PC. I would only do it if I had super high end gear that I wanted to overclock and still keep very cool. Otherwise, I would just stick with good fan cooling.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Yep, invest in some High quality quiet fans is a good idea

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Ok, thanks for the quick info, that was much quicker than surfing around reading reviews about watercooling

    I'll just buy "silent" fans any recommendations on them?

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Sharkoon 1000 "Golf Ball" fans. They sell them at scan.co.uk

    I think they are as quiet as it gets.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Basically its not worth cooling anything more than the CPU imo, becomes too much on one loop, and more hassle.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Quote Originally Posted by acrobat View Post
    Sharkoon 1000 "Golf Ball" fans. They sell them at scan.co.uk

    I think they are as quiet as it gets.
    hehe, yeah I did notice you talking about them earlier, just never heard of them before so was looking for more suggestions But they do seem cool, looks like I'll go with them!

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    I got 3x Sharkoon 120mm 2000 'silent eagle' golfball fans the other day to replace standard fans.....definitely not silent!

    Great airflow, but the pc is a lot louder than before

    My old fans were running at 1200-1300 so i might try reducing the RPM on the golfballs and seeing if that helps.

    I hear (ironic!) that the 1000's are a lot quieter, but don't have anywhere near the airflow...something on hexus described them as less than a babies breath at one point! (which pointed me at the 2000's)

    In retrospect, I would think maybe a 2000 for the CPU and two 1000's for case fan movement.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    I have a Golfball 1000 as my "exhaust" fan and it moves the air fine; no increase in temps from the previously fitted Antec LED fan, which ran at 2000 rpm, even though there is clearly less air movement. IMO 1000-1200 RPM 120mm fans are fine for anything except (aircooled) OC'd CPUs.

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Any fan you get for watercooling must be able to overcome the resistance of the radiator. Remember, you are asking it to blow air through a relatively solid object. Quieter fans tend to shift less air, and therefore don't work as well when coupled with a watercooled rig.

    I am using 120mm Nexus fans on radiator and am tempted to swap them for Yate Loons (a little more powerful, made by the same people).

    Cheers,
    Stephen

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    Re: What do I need to know if I'm considering Water Cooling? (newbie questions)

    Even fans that claim to be silent make noise - it's a fact of life. However, if your components are not that high spec (i.e. don't need aggressive cooling), try using a fan controller to under-volt them. I found that this is the best way to get quiet fans. As far as quiet fans go, Akasa ambers have a very good rep. Also, if you can, replace any small fans with larger ones, so try not to have anything smaller than 120mm in the case as they are much louder. Northbridge fans are a source of high pitched whining worse than toddlers in toys'r'us, so if you got one, swap it out for a passive solution

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