Not fan of water cooling

[CreepyCrumb]

I'm new to water cooling PC's.  However, I'll have to say that, I think, I'm not a fan of inserting water or any other type of substance into an electronic component.  From experience, repairing electronic components, water damage is the worst.  I wonder if, anyone has had spilled liquids in their cases?

[GenericFanboy]

10 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

I'm new to water cooling PC's.  However, I'll have to say that, I think, I'm not a fan of inserting water or any other type of substance into an electronic component.  From experience, repairing electronic components, water damage is the worst.  I wonder if, anyone has had spilled liquids in their cases?

I've had plenty of spills on laptops, from work and from myself. Thing is. Watercooling loops; you make them yourself most of the times. If it fails.. kinda your own fault. Secure your fittings. But dont overtighten them. 

[Dougarooo]

As also not a big fan of water cooling I can say of course I have spilled liquids in several computer cases.

 

I mean hell, even Linus has done that on so many videos that he's uploaded to the internet so we can see his mistakes.

 

Honestly I try to stick to AIO water coolers for just the CPU. I'm not crazy about temps or too concerned about the GPU as I get ones that have substantial cooling fans. When I do end up building computers with water cooling I try to be very careful and have paper towels, well, everywhere.

[Eigenvektor]

Ever wonder what happens when you pour water on a running GPU?

[CreepyCrumb]

Just now, GenericFanboy said:

I've had plenty of spills on laptops, from work and from myself. Thing is. Watercooling loops; you make them yourself most of the times. If it fails.. kinda your own fault. Secure your fittings. But dont overtighten them. 

Been there done that, spilling beer and soda on my laptop and keyboards.  I feel afraid to use water cooling in a PC case.  I prefer air cooling.

[CreepyCrumb]

1 minute ago, Dougarooo said:

As also not a big fan of water cooling I can say of course I have spilled liquids in several computer cases.

 

I mean hell, even Linus has done that on so many videos that he's uploaded to the internet so we can see his mistakes.

 

Honestly I try to stick to AIO water coolers for just the CPU. I'm not crazy about temps or too concerned about the GPU as I get ones that have substantial cooling fans. When I do end up building computers with water cooling I try to be very careful and have paper towels, well, everywhere.

Yes, I've seen some of his spills too. I have 5 fans on my old renewed desktop.  I'm hesitating to purchase new pc with water cooling.

[Tristerin]

I love water cooling - these issues come from what is known in my industry as an "OE" - Operator Error - unless you have a truly failed component but then again, if you followed step by step setup guides this would cause you to run the loop without any power to your components in the event you have a faulty piece of hardware that leaks nothing would be broken.

 

If you are worried about it, then don't do it.  Sounds like you are talking about buying a pre-built with an AIO in it?

4 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

I'm hesitating to purchase new pc with water cooling.

 

[Velcade]

Liquid cooling is nothing to fear.  If you're buying a new computer with liquid cooled components those components are tested and have a warranty.  It's a 'safe' way to go and if they fail you can RMA the PC/components. 

 

Edit: read his name wrong...   Stance of liquid cooling remains the same.

[CreepyCrumb]

15 minutes ago, Velcade said:

Creepycum is a terrible user name.  However liquid cooling is nothing to fear.  If you're buying a new computer with liquid cooled components those components are tested and have a warranty.  It's a 'safe' way to go and if they fail you can RMA the PC/components. 

LoL... Yes, Creepycrum is just the day of defeat gaming name ... I have to research water cooling some more before I make a final buying decision on a pre-build pc. 

 

[CreepyCrumb]

7 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Look man being honest, I knew nothing about water-cooling yet I've managed to tear apart and rebuild two coolers, unclog the pumps, deep cleaning, replacing tubes, getting my hands on a bucket of pink coolant... all good, 0 leaks on my first try.

 

You can do it.

ahh! Question for  you.  Clogging!  Wow!  What type of substance these water coolers use?  Car coolant?  Because water does not seem like a good cooling agent.  I'm going to take another look at the Linus Alienware Area-51., can't recall if that system was water cooled.

[Hugh54321]

My mac book air took two coffees and a beer before she died. Did you know that pure water is not conductive. Its not the water you need to worry about. Worry about impurities, corrosion, bacteria. Ive never done water cooling coz I dont want to do the maintennce. A good case & air cooler beats water cooling. 

[ddennis002]

43 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

I'm new to water cooling PC's.  However, I'll have to say that, I think, I'm not a fan of inserting water or any other type of substance into an electronic component.  From experience, repairing electronic components, water damage is the worst.  I wonder if, anyone has had spilled liquids in their cases?

BRACE YOURSELF HORROR STORY.

 

I have suffered from a major leak in the past on my 4770k system, custom loop i had a brand new Bitspower 45 degree fitting come apart on the CPU block a few weeks after the build was complete. The system drained out that fitting until the pump was dry. Right on to a AMD 7970 GPU which had a backplate on it and EK block, and spilled off that into a 1000w Kingwin PSU with fan up.

Im not sure how long it had been but I could the PC shut down and saw water around the case on the desk, my heart sank. I dismantled and dried everything fixed the loop and hoped for the best.

Surprising the only bad part was the fitting and everything else booted and worked fine. I was running distilled water but even slowly over time can become conductive.

[CreepyCrumb]

8 minutes ago, Hugh54321 said:

My mac book air took two coffees and a beer before she died. Did you know that pure water is not conductive. Its not the water you need to worry about. Worry about impurities, corrosion, bacteria. Ive never done water cooling coz I dont want to do the maintennce. A good case & air cooler beats water cooling. 

I'm very aware of that., having fixed and discarded lots of electronics damaged by sea-water and other corrosive substance.  However, any liquid you insert into electronics is a receipt for disaster.  That's my point of view .. those nice high-gaming computers look nice with all the tubing in it, but its hard to spend hard earned cash on something that may burst some time in a near future.  That's why I keep using old discarded PC's going back to pre-histotic cpu's.  Look I'm still living with an AMD II x255.  Cooling just air flow.

[ddennis002]

16 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

Because water does not seem like a good cooling agent.

Distilled water is the best coolant you can run in a loop also with the least amount of problems and maintenance.

It is also has highest thermal conductivity vs aftermarket coolants and such.

[Eigenvektor]

14 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

ahh! Question for  you.  Clogging!  Wow!  What type of substance these water coolers use?  Car coolant?  Because water does not seem like a good cooling agent.  I'm going to take another look at the Linus Alienware Area-51., can't recall if that system was water cooled.

Water is actually a very good cooling agent. Cars usually use water, with some anti-freeze agent in it (because, you know, winter is coming).

 

You just want to put some stuff in it to avoid build-up of algae and corrosion (which means avoiding different metals, too). Clogging usually happens when you put extra stuff in there, like dies to make it look better.

[CreepyCrumb]

Just now, Eigenvektor said:

Water is actually a very good cooling agent. Cars usually use water, with some anti-freeze agent in it (because, you know, winter is coming).

 

You just want to put some stuff in it to avoid build-up of algae and corrosion (which means avoiding different metals, too). Clogging usually happens when you put extra stuff in there, like dies to make it look better.

LoL... I live in cold weather land.  I disagree about water, water is not a good coolant. From wikipedia - A coolant is a substance, typically liquid or gas, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corrosion of the cooling system.  However, I'm decided, going with fans rather than using water cooling.  Beside I don't do heavy duty gaming.  I'm still living with Donkey Kong, Pac-man, and day of defeat... LoL.. Call me ancient.

[Eigenvektor]

4 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

I'm very aware of that., having fixed and discarded lots of electronics damaged by sea-water and other corrosive substance.

Sea-water is certainly on a whole other level from distilled water, which is what you should be putting in a loop. The big killer here would be the salt that's in the water, not the water itself.

 

Other than that, you can certainly still use air cooling with a modern gaming PC. Unless you're going for overclocking you don't need it.

 

1 minute ago, Creepycrum said:

An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corrosion of the cooling system.

Distilled water actually checks most of those boxes. It has high thermal capacity, low viscosity and is definitely low cost. It's also non-toxic and chemically inert. It can introduce corrosion over time, because it can pick up metals, so like I said you shouldn't be mixing those. That's why people put anti-corrosive agents in there.

 

And of course biocide to prevent algae growth (because heat + water = life), but I suppose that somewhat negates the non-toxic part

[Mick Naughty]

Doesn’t see why it matters. Water is always in there. 

Havent lost a single component from being covered by a liquid. 

 

Not a of high temps and loud fans. 

[Midnitewolf]

While leaks can be an issue, I think probably less than 1% of the closed loop system actually leak, at least until some end user disassembles them to clean them or something.  My reason for not being a fan of water cooling has more to do with the durability side of things.   You constantly hear about pumps failing and corrosion issues.  Air coolers by comparison seem to rarely have a fan fail and even if you do, you can generally just take a quick ride down to your local Best Buy and pick up a new fan if you need to.  Also while it seems you can clean up a AIO by disassembling part of them and such, I would think that user disassembly just opens up the door to the possibility of suffering an actual catastrophic leak scenario due to user error and such.  Also disassembling an AIO is much more of a pain than blowing some compressed air or replacing a fan on a Air cooler. 

[CreepyCrumb]

3 hours ago, Midnitewolf said:

While leaks can be an issue, I think probably less than 1% of the closed loop system actually leak, at least until some end user disassembles them to clean them or something.  My reason for not being a fan of water cooling has more to do with the durability side of things.   You constantly hear about pumps failing and corrosion issues.  Air coolers by comparison seem to rarely have a fan fail and even if you do, you can generally just take a quick ride down to your local Best Buy and pick up a new fan if you need to.  Also while it seems you can clean up a AIO by disassembling part of them and such, I would think that user disassembly just opens up the door to the possibility of suffering an actual catastrophic leak scenario due to user error and such.  Also disassembling an AIO is much more of a pain than blowing some compressed air or replacing a fan on a Air cooler. 

I agree with you about the durability point.  That's a really a good point.

[CreepyCrumb]

4 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

Doesn’t see why it matters. Water is always in there. 

Havent lost a single component from being covered by a liquid. 

 

Not a of high temps and loud fans. 

I have five air fans on my system but it's quiet.  I think its the type of blade that are in use.  However, my system and the type of CPU that I have does not generate enough heat to have five fans .... LoL... Now I wonder, I'm probably exaggerating this build with so many fans.

[Mick Naughty]

11 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

I have five air fans on my system but it's quiet.  I think its the type of blade that are in use.  However, my system and the type of CPU that I have does not generate enough heat to have five fans .... LoL... Now I wonder, I'm probably exaggerating this build with so many fans.

Then why would water cooling ever be needed for it? Doesn’t make any sense. A high end rig isn’t depicted by its need of fans. 

[CreepyCrumb]

I' m thinking of purchasing my first ever, high-end pre-build pc.  I just hesitating due to the water cooling.

[ddennis002]

6 minutes ago, Creepycrum said:

I' m thinking of purchasing my first ever, high-end pre-build pc.  I just hesitating due to the water cooling.

Why not build yourself?

[CreepyCrumb]

3 minutes ago, ddennis002 said:

Why not build yourself?

I've done a lot of that, just want to have a name brand just for show off