Below I make a lot of simplifications, the real physics is much more complicated and I'm not going to put that much effort in right now. Nevertheless this approximation should be fairly accurate.
Here's the equation for specific heat.
ΔQ = mcΔT
Where ΔQ is the amount of heat energy, m is the mass, c is the specific heat of the material (water in this case so 4.186 j/g/C or 4186 j/L/K), and ΔT is the temperature difference.
A typical high-end CPU outputs about 100W (or 100 j/s) of heat. To keep the CPU temp stable the water must remove the same 100W of heat. Putting this all together, below is a plot showing the temperature increase assuming a highly efficient water block.
It takes less than 0.1 L/sec to keep the water temperature from increasing more than 1 degree. This isn't that much. Only 6L per minute, about the flow rate of a kitchen sink. Far less than a fire hose (500+ L/min).
However the flow rate at the water block really doesn't matter. All it's doing to moving heat out of the computer; that heat still has to go somewhere. Typically this is where radiators come in, but what about a single large tank instead? Here I'll use Newton's Law of Cooling to approximate the heat dissipation by a large steel tank.
Q/t = hAΔT
Where Q/t is the rate of heat dissipation, h is the heat transfer coefficient, A is the surface area, and ΔT is the temperature difference. For a steel tank surrounded by air, h is about 10 W/m2/C. ΔT will be 1 degree since this is how much the CPU is heating the water from above. Same as above, to keep the water from heating up over time, the tank must dissipate the same amount of heat that the CPU output's, 100W.
Solving for A, the surface area of the tank must be at least 10 m2. Assuming a square cubic tank, each side will be about 1.3m and when full hold a total of 2200L of water, about the same as a small hot tub. Using the flow rate of 0.1 L/s from before it will take a little over 6 hours to run through the full volume of this tank.
tldr; it doesn't take much water to cool the CPU but without radiators it does take a sizable volume of stagnant water to dissipate the heat
Please don't call police, but I had to murder someone for this. Just kidding.
No the store I ordered one from, called me that they had gotten a few extra cpu home and asked if I whas still interested in one. Never had I dropped what I had in my hands this fast before and run out to my car and drive to the store.
And that is how I ended up with a Ryzen 9 3950X before Christmas. Still can't believe my luck on this. Also got a new nvme SSD to go with it.
ACV reacted to harryk in Incredibly massive water cooler
ACV got a reaction from DildorTheDecent in 3950x 25th November 2019
ACV got a reaction from Keiran1983 in 3950x 25th November 2019
ACV got a reaction from mcbaes72 in 3950x 25th November 2019
ACV got a reaction from PraisetheSun! in IP Security Camera System
