what people do wrong with watercooling

[HowKnows]

Lately i got more and more intressted into watercooling

But then i realized that all big youtubers like Linus himself and JayzTwoCents with SkungWorks do watercooling wrong

 

They use radiators, massive ones and still can't keep the temps below 50'C. Why do they use massive radiators anyway, they simply use aircooling on the radiators with water transporting the heat. And as you can see, it is very expensive and you still don;t get below 40'C.

Originally watercooling was done with 5 or 10 or sometimes even 50 litre resavoirs. And having so much water will cool any pc and the water won;t even heat up a lot.

Also resavoirs are so expensive as well, they cost like 20 to 50$ for 500ml, and it is still plastic, i could take a small water bootle for 1$ and have the same amount of volume.

A 10 litre one would be a huge cooking pod, costs like 15$.

 

Since water cooled pc's are mostly not supposed to move anyway, a 10 litre resavoir would not be much trouble. And for aesthetics painting that thing is stil possible.

 

 

[Tedster]

Let's go with the example of Skunkworks.

Jay is using tons of massive radiators because he has 3 250w graphics cards and an overclocked extreme edition CPU.

We can assume that these at peak (overclocked and all) can be producing up to 1 thousand watts of heat. Compare that to a normal CPU cooler, the Hyper 212 Evo. This is only rated for up to 180w TDPs, meaning that it's not suitable for more than that. Water cooling makes it much easier to get the heat to a bigger surface area which will be more effective at dispersing it.

[EMENCII]

@HowKnows

You know what, seen this and seen that I'm building my pc anyway for myself, i guess I'll use a bigger res...

[JebKerman]

I'm sure if they ran at stock speeds they'd barely get above room temperature. the goal of water-cooling (other than looking epic) is to allow for you to run everything faster, and therefore hotter, that's why they still get the same temps as Air cooled systems, they just run faster.

 

A bigger res (like 10L as you suggested) requires a substantial container, a frankly unnecessary inconvenience, where would you put it?

[GlassBomb]

The reason why they are using large radiators is so that they can use fans at a low RPM. Which give you lower acoustic levels.

 

Yes, they can ramp up the speeds to have lower temps, but you will have a louder system then.

 

Edit: And a larger reservoir only prolongs the time it takes for the coolant to reach an equilibrium. It doesn't aid in reducing temperatures in any other way.

[salecar3]

both of u have a point but all the heat of 3 titans is just huge

[Mao_Zedong]

@HowKnows

You know what, seen this and seen that I'm building my pc anyway for myself, i guess I'll use a bigger res...

A larger res doesn't really matter. It will make the PC heat up slightly more slowly, but the difference after a few minutes will be practically zero. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

 

@OP I hope you realize that a 50 liter res is EXTREMELLY large. The entire fractal design r5 is just 30 liters. You also mock how they use aircooling on the radiators, but you need to get it out somehow, it won't go away if you don't do something, and using fans and air is the only practical way of doing this. From this post I can tell you really have no idea how watercooling really works.

[rmac52]

The size of the res is irrelevant. The system will eventually reach an equilibrium temperature. And it will be the same temp +/- a few degrees for a t line res and a 5 gallon bucket.

[GlassBomb]

A larger res doesn't really matter. It will make the PC heat up slightly more slowly, but the difference after a few minutes will be practically zero. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

 

@OP I hope you realize that a 50 liter res is EXTREMELLY large. The entire fractal design r5 is just 30 liters. You also mock how they use aircooling on the radiators, but you need to get it out somehow, it won't go away if you don't do something, and using fans and air is the only practical way of doing this. From this post I can tell you really have no idea how watercooling really works.

 

As a size example. Here is a common emergency gas tank. That's 20 liters.

 

[NightMiu]

As a size example. Here is a common emergency gas tank. That's 20 liters.

 

it would be realy cool to make a res out of that jerry can :lol:

[linuxfan66]

while i agree that is gigantic and impractical.

 

A larger res doesn't really matter. It will make the PC heat up slightly more slowly, but the difference after a few minutes will be practically zero. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

 

@OP I hope you realize that a 50 liter res is EXTREMELLY large. The entire fractal design r5 is just 30 liters. You also mock how they use aircooling on the radiators, but you need to get it out somehow, it won't go away if you don't do something, and using fans and air is the only practical way of doing this. From this post I can tell you really have no idea how watercooling really works.

a bigger surface would allow more heat to passively pull away without the fan. therefore allowing for a slower fan in theory. However as i said earlier horribly impractical. also cars mostly radiate when still form passive heat transfer so....

you could mod small bear fridge into being a non fan based water cooling resourvoir...

[Mao_Zedong]

while i agree that is gigantic and impractical.

 

a bigger surface would allow more heat to passively pull away without the fan. therefore allowing for a slower fan in theory. However as i said earlier horribly impractical. also cars mostly radiate when still form passive heat transfer so....

you could mod small bear fridge into being a non fan based water cooling resourvoir...

Well actually because of the fins, that entire res will have extremely low surface area compared to any size radiator.

[matjojo]

i guess, that with more liquid you could also have more rads and fans, and that will cool better, but that would make for a giant pc-case

[Stefan1024]

FakeGamerGuy is makeing a build like this, look here:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/385094-passively-cooled-fish-tank-computer/

 

It is a very interesting concept, but only works up to 500 watts I guess. For a 4 way Titan X config, your tank must be so huge it doesn't make sense anymore. Also the cooldown time will exceed 24 hours.

 

Using radiators are fine for most systems.

[Chiobe]

You ether got pure performance and low temperatures or silent and mid-to-high temperatures.

Thats how all cooling works, unless you go the overkill route.

[n0mahd]

You ether got pure performance and low temperatures or silent and mid-to-high temperatures.

Thats how all cooling works, unless you go the overkill route.

Hit the nail on the head. My air conditioner is the loudest thing ever so I'm just like screw it. Turn the fans higher.

[HowKnows]

The reason why they are using large radiators is so that they can use fans at a low RPM. Which give you lower acoustic levels.

 

Yes, they can ramp up the speeds to have lower temps, but you will have a louder system then.

 

Edit: And a larger reservoir only prolongs the time it takes for the coolant to reach an equilibrium. It doesn't aid in reducing temperatures in any other way.

You should have realized that with more water the equilibrium is much lower, for 10 litre of water it would be not much more than the room temprature. And heating 10 litre of water up anyway takes ages, even if you have a gas burner with serveral thousands watts, it takes 20 min. And no computer that a person can buy has a heat output of 1500'C. So there you can see that no computer in this world could heat up 10 litre water.

 

And with 10 litres you don't need any radiators or fans. so it will only be the pump which makes noise

[HowKnows]

Hit the nail on the head. My air conditioner is the loudest thing ever so I'm just like screw it. Turn the fans higher.

You are right, but 10 litres of water, requires no fans, no radiators, and temps that are around your room temprature. So it's not gonna get any colder unless you use phase cooling or liquid nitrogen, or other cooling liquids that are meant to be a gas at rtp.

[Stefan1024]

You should have realized that with more water the equilibrium is much lower, for 10 litre of water it would be not much more than the room temprature. And heating 10 litre of water up anyway takes ages, even if you have a gas burner with serveral thousands watts, it takes 20 min. And no computer that a person can buy has a heat output of 1500'C. So there you can see that no computer in this world could heat up 10 litre water.

 

And with 10 litres you don't need any radiators or fans. so it will only be the pump which makes noise

Let's calculate it:

- heat capacity water: 4187 J/kg

- 10 kg water

- 50°C water temp. change (is absolute max, most people will prefere less)

- PC with TDP of 750 watts

 

energy needed for temp. change of 1°C: 41 870 J

energy needed for temp. change of 50°C: 2 093 500 J = 2 093 500 Ws

-> 2791 seconds = 46.5 minutes

 

Personally I'd like to run the PC for more than 45 minutes. 10 liters is way to less for a high end system.

The heat transfer of the gas burner is vary bad and most energy goes into the surrounding. That's why it takes so long.

[HowKnows]

FakeGamerGuy is makeing a build like this, look here:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/385094-passively-cooled-fish-tank-computer/

 

It is a very interesting concept, but only works up to 500 watts I guess. For a 4 way Titan X config, your tank must be so huge it doesn't make sense anymore. Also the cooldown time will exceed 24 hours.

 

Using radiators are fine for most systems.

Yes, but casual systems are boring . A 10 litre tank would not heat up much anyway, so to return to room temp it might need a few hours but when the temp is only 3'C higher than your room temp, you don;t need to let it cool down anyway.

 

also radiators are crazy expensive, i mean a 10 litre water tank costs only a fraction of a 480 radiator, and you would need multiple of them to cool an extreme setup

[Stefan1024]

Yes, but casual systems are boring . A 10 litre tank would not heat up much anyway, so to return to room temp it might need a few hours but when the temp is only 3'C higher than your room temp, you don;t need to let it cool down anyway.

 

also radiators are crazy expensive, i mean a 10 litre water tank costs only a fraction of a 480 radiator, and you would need multiple of them to cool an extreme setup

10 liter is not enough. Look at my previous post. You can't trick physik.

[HowKnows]

Let's calculate it:

- heat capacity water: 4187 J/kg

- 10 kg water

- 50°C water temp. change (is absolute max, most people will prefere less)

- PC with TDP of 750 watts

 

energy needed for temp. change of 1°C: 41 870 J

energy needed for temp. change of 50°C: 2 093 500 J = 2 093 500 Ws

-> 2791 seconds = 46.5 minutes

 

Personally I'd like to run the PC for more than 45 minutes. 10 liters is way to less for a high end system.

The heat transfer of the gas burner is vary bad and most energy goes into the surrounding. That's why it takes so long.

If you have taken physics you know that the hotter a body gets, the more heat it looses over time. And if no heat would be dissaperiang out of a loop, then yes it would take only 45 minutes. But really at 49'C which is a 24'C diffrence to the room temp, there is lots of lots of heat loss. So sorry but the water will not heat up much.

 

To prove this, air can only take up 1 KJ, per 1'C. So if you think that through you will notice that your system should be burning after only minutes. But because heat spreads out, and that water and air diffuse the heat, 10 litre of water will never reach temps above 50'C

 

To further prove this, get 10 litre of water, put them on a gas cooker, which has several thousands of watts, and wait until they reach 50'C. I am sure it will take at least 15 minutes. And a system of normal proportions doesn't output thousands of watts. Also then measure how long it takes to cool down, you will realize that water at 50'C give away it's heat very very fast.

A gas burner looses a lot of energy to the air ,but it has sooooo much power, that it even after the loss, it will still transfer a lot of energy, more than any computer a person can own to the water

[Bsmith]

Yes, but casual systems are boring . A 10 litre tank would not heat up much anyway, so to return to room temp it might need a few hours but when the temp is only 3'C higher than your room temp, you don;t need to let it cool down anyway.

 

also radiators are crazy expensive, i mean a 10 litre water tank costs only a fraction of a 480 radiator, and you would need multiple of them to cool an extreme setup

 

how the hell do you even want to fit a 10L res in our next to your pc without it being an annoyance for you to use?

[HowKnows]

10 liter is not enough. Look at my previous post. You can't trick physik.

ok fine, if you really think that 10 litre is not enough, we can expand it to even 50 litre.

And then you really CAN NOT, say that it will heat, because your equation lacks the transfer of heat that occurs when water gets hot.

[HowKnows]

how the hell do you even want to fit a 10L res in our next to your pc without it being an annoyance for you to use?

You can use longer tubes, and put it somewhere else, like in a corner of your room

And for the looks you can paint the res in the colors of your PC