Alternatives?

[Malogato]

Currently, I know of 3 cooling methods for a computer system.


Heatsink/Fan : "Air" cooling.

Water cooling

Peltier.

Each solution has it's pro's and con's.. Air cooling requires (usually) big noisy fans.

Water cooling has the ever present risk of leaks, and the requirement for extra power to run the pump, whilst not being as cheap as air cooling, either.


Peltier : - You have to compensate for condensation .. and the hit to your wallet as well.



Are there OTHER options for cooling that people are using, that I'm not aware of?
I really do not like the concept of pumping water into my computer case, guess I'm afraid of a leak and "goodbye everything"

 

[Russ]

That's why you use clamps and a 24 hr leak test. There really isn't much chance of a leak after that.

Peltier is basically a watercooling setup with a TEC in the middle of your water block.

Other cooling options are basically more dangerous. It gets more expensive and (i guess, never done it) more dangerous as you cool more and more.

Check out the "extreme cooling" forum for other options. There's phase change, vapochill, and Liquid Nitrogen.

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If you want to do better than stock w/o water cooling, then just buy a good heatsink and fan. Try the XP-90.

 

[HOCP4ME]

Let's see, there's air, water, peltier, chilled water, phase change, cascade, dry ice, and liquid nitrogen in order of warmest to coldest. Air is cheap, and is all you need with the Venice core to get a good OC, but there's the noisy fan. Water is quieter and is a better choice for overclocking Intel, since those CPUs run very hot, but water can be expensive and there's the noise of the pump and the rad fans. Peltier is a good choice, it's your cheapest choice for sub-ambient temps and it's not that much more expensive than good watercooling, but peltier can be dangerous if you don't insulate properly, or make sure your PC will turn back on after a power outage. Peltiers are also power-hungry, they may raise your electric bill a bit. Chilled water uses either a peltier or a phase change system to cool water below ambient, usually below freezing. You put an antifreeze agent into the water to prevent freezing. This can be very expensive, unless you can get the phase change system from an old fridge or something. The advantages are that you can get your GPU and CPU cooled below ambient with no fans at all, just a compressor and a pump. However, you have to insulate the water tubes as well as the waterblocks. Phase change is a good choice if you have the money, they can cost almost $1000. The disadvantages are that the compressor uses alot of electricity, this only cools the CPU, and condensation is a big issue if you don't seal the evaporator properly. Dry ice and liquid nitrogen are only for attempting to set a benchmark record, they evaporate too fast to be used to run a PC for more than a few hours.

Sorry that's a little hard to read, I forgot to put spaces between the lines.

Oh, and about the leak thing. If you're worried about leaks, use a nonconductive fluid in place of the water. If it spills, it won't short out the computer, but it can still do some damage if it leaks on the hard drive or optical drives.

Just get a good heatsink. Sorry if I confused you, I explained all of the cooling options, but you can forget about al of them except for air and water. I'd recommend air, it'll do fine.

 

[John Gault]

I agree with the above. I have done water, peltier, vapochill and prome and am now back to air. Water looks cool so if you into that go for it the chance of leaks is small. Just cause you cool your cpu to -20 does not mean that your going to get an insane overclock, its still hit and miss.

 

[HOCP4ME]

Yeah, with the Venice core you'll maybe get an extra 200-300Mhz overclock if you use peltier. Even on air cooling, it's usually something other than temps that hold back your overclock. You'll probably hit the memorys limit, the motherboards limit, or the CPU's limit before you hit the temp limit.