![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Water temperature matter?
- Thread starter AP2
- Start date
Anything up to 65C will be fine. Note the pump is rated to a certain water temperature, exceed that and your seals may not work right. Often tubing is also rated to a certain temperature, if you exceed this you could end up with plastic coming off tubes and blocks.
Araxie
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2013
- Messages
- 6,463
temperature does matter and it is the more important factor in any kind of water cooling… don't base temps on a "safe water temp" condition but in a delta over ambient condition.. being short if you are cooling only CPU you Will want your liquid temp to stay at less than 10C degrees over ambient, 5C being the ideal for me.. in a combined CPU+GPU if the GPU it's a +250W watts you Will want the liquid to stay at less than 15C degrees over ambient up to 20C after that point it's where you are loosing a lot of cooling efficiency and you start to speed up the fans or invest on more radiator surface as temps won't be on the optimal side of things. so, if you are at 20C ambient temp you won't want the liquid temp to go up to 40C to keep things nice.. for all the machines I like to keep the water with a max of 15C over ambient under heavy stress on both CPU + GPU situations.. typically in a 18C room temp I never seen liquid going over 30C
Nenu
[H]ardened
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2007
- Messages
- 20,315
The difference between water temp and and the die defines how much heat can transfer.
For the cooler to be anywhere near effective you arent going to be pushing really high water temps.
ie you will know the cooler is crap long before you cause damage with water that is too hot.
Water temp is much closer to air temp than the die temp in an effective setup. At least that has been my experience.
I concur with Araxie above.
Its worth noting I havent experienced ambient much above 35C indoors, 99% of the time it is under 30C indoors where I live.
I'm not sure if my simple diagnosis applies with ambient of 40C+.
For the cooler to be anywhere near effective you arent going to be pushing really high water temps.
ie you will know the cooler is crap long before you cause damage with water that is too hot.
Water temp is much closer to air temp than the die temp in an effective setup. At least that has been my experience.
I concur with Araxie above.
Its worth noting I havent experienced ambient much above 35C indoors, 99% of the time it is under 30C indoors where I live.
I'm not sure if my simple diagnosis applies with ambient of 40C+.
Last edited:
w1retap
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2006
- Messages
- 13,709
Unless the radiator/computer is outdoors, outside air temperature doesn't matter. It is indoor air temperature that matters. If you're in a house that's 40C, that's a problem where you can get heat exhaustion or heat stroke easily depending on your health. I keep my house at 72F year around, or 22C.
There are a few problems with the logic.
Ambient temperature and case temperature are often different (by at least +5 degrees in your case)
Temperature in a pc room when you’re working it hard will increase, as the heat has to go somewhere. Minimum wattages for overclocked PCs when working hard will be in the 500w range, which is a fair amount of heat.
So if your temperature is about 30C ambient in the same room, your pc temp will be about 35-37C and your room temperature will slowly creep up (if you’re running something over an extended period of time), aircon not withstanding.
At 35C with a delta of 20C you’re running 55C which is close to the 60C limit.
I guess what I am getting at is that ideally you want a delta of no more than about 5-10C
Ambient temperature and case temperature are often different (by at least +5 degrees in your case)
Temperature in a pc room when you’re working it hard will increase, as the heat has to go somewhere. Minimum wattages for overclocked PCs when working hard will be in the 500w range, which is a fair amount of heat.
So if your temperature is about 30C ambient in the same room, your pc temp will be about 35-37C and your room temperature will slowly creep up (if you’re running something over an extended period of time), aircon not withstanding.
At 35C with a delta of 20C you’re running 55C which is close to the 60C limit.
I guess what I am getting at is that ideally you want a delta of no more than about 5-10C
w1retap
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2006
- Messages
- 13,709
I was assuming air conditioning. Anything above 25C indoors, I start sweating lol. The air is just too stagnant. I guess to keep a room cooler without air conditioning, you could put a box fan in an open window to exchange the air. But then of course you get more noise.
Ok thanks for the great info. Looks like I may need to re-evaluate my setup for my small form factor setup.
Cooling an 8700k (stock) and 1080ti mini and my water temp can get up to 53 under load.
Cpu temp hits a max temp of 61 and gpu around 48.
Cooling an 8700k (stock) and 1080ti mini and my water temp can get up to 53 under load.
Cpu temp hits a max temp of 61 and gpu around 48.
Last edited:
i would say forget about the water temperature. the thing that matters is keeping your CPU and maybe GPU cool under full load depending on your setup. if you're getting the water hot enough to damage the pump, you've probably long since fried what you're cooling. honestly, just put your hand on the tube that is the outlet from your block(s). should feel fairly cool. compare with rad outlet tube. should give you a good idea of what is going on.
the water temperature depends on many factors. larger rad means lower temp coming out. pump flow rate has a huge effect too. with thermodynamics, the larger the delta between the water temp and cpu is going to more readily transfer heat. kinda like a cup of hot coffee in a cold room. the coffee will cool off from its initial temperature fairly quickly, but as the delta narrows between coffee and room temp the rate of heat transfer will slow down. so the coffee stays warm for much longer than it did hot. increasing flow rate will increase cooling capacity, but its diminishing returns at some point. the water spends less time exposed to the cpu as its moving faster, but has a higher delta for that reason.
i like my custom systems, so i tend to stick with the old rule of thumb: one 120mm rad per component. i initially built my system for my old opteron 165 and two nvidia 7900 GTOs in SLI. cooled it all in series through a 3x 120mm rad. i have since long ago abandoned SLI, but i still use the same equipment to this day. little modification for mounting and it handles my i5 skylake and GTX970 with ease. honestly, it's overkill.
the water temperature depends on many factors. larger rad means lower temp coming out. pump flow rate has a huge effect too. with thermodynamics, the larger the delta between the water temp and cpu is going to more readily transfer heat. kinda like a cup of hot coffee in a cold room. the coffee will cool off from its initial temperature fairly quickly, but as the delta narrows between coffee and room temp the rate of heat transfer will slow down. so the coffee stays warm for much longer than it did hot. increasing flow rate will increase cooling capacity, but its diminishing returns at some point. the water spends less time exposed to the cpu as its moving faster, but has a higher delta for that reason.
i like my custom systems, so i tend to stick with the old rule of thumb: one 120mm rad per component. i initially built my system for my old opteron 165 and two nvidia 7900 GTOs in SLI. cooled it all in series through a 3x 120mm rad. i have since long ago abandoned SLI, but i still use the same equipment to this day. little modification for mounting and it handles my i5 skylake and GTX970 with ease. honestly, it's overkill.
High water temp means something is going on with the radiator - not enough radiator area for the application, not enough air flow across the fins, dirty fins, too high ambient air temp to pull the heat out, internal corrosion, etc.
Your water will get warm, but it shouldn't get too warm, or your blocks won't work as well. Tubing also starts to get soft and will kink easier.
Your water will get warm, but it shouldn't get too warm, or your blocks won't work as well. Tubing also starts to get soft and will kink easier.
well thought i'd dig this back up since, i have changed my setup since posting. my new setup is dual 2080ti and 8700k - all 3 components are stock clocked and being cooled by 2 240mm rads. here are the numbers ...
Ambient temp - 21
Water temp - 28
CPU - 32
GPU 1/2 - 31
under load playing COD i get the following
Ambient temp - 21
Water temp - 39 -43
CPU - 61
GPU - 49 and 50
think i should add another rad? it would have to be external as the cerberus case its already packed full.
Ambient temp - 21
Water temp - 28
CPU - 32
GPU 1/2 - 31
under load playing COD i get the following
Ambient temp - 21
Water temp - 39 -43
CPU - 61
GPU - 49 and 50
think i should add another rad? it would have to be external as the cerberus case its already packed full.
VanGoghComplex
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2016
- Messages
- 2,286
The temps are on the high side but they are safe. For reference, I've got a 420 and 480mm rad, and my temps under load are:
Ambient: 20
Water: 30
1080ti: 30-35
3900x: 60
Tsumi
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2010
- Messages
- 13,750
The CPU and GPUs are good up to 100 C. It would be good to get additional cooling if you plan on overclocking significantly, but not necessary if you stay at stock. Keep in mind that games generally don't load all systems components to 100%, so if your system was fully loaded your temps would likely be about 5-10 degrees higher.