Watercooled PSU...worth it?

W

WillowHawk

Gawd
Joined
Jul 7, 2004
Messages
590
I just discovered the existence of water cooled powersupplies. it was pretty much a very big surprise, as i figured nobody would even play around with that stuff...water and electricity dont really mix that well...

anyway, do you guys think that the drop in temperature may be worth all the extra work in making ur own/buying a core for the PSU and putting it in?...i mean, PSU's make alot of heat under load, but is it enough to deserver WC?


http://www.zfz.com/projects.asp?request=liquidenermax550w

http://www.aqua-computer.de/e_content/e_netzteile.htm


this is what i'm talking about
 
consider the following

such supplies are geared toward the silent computing crowd
when sold as an end product they arent generally attributed
the end make you linked has 17A on the +12V rail
Ive yet to see one that Id totally trust

and, that doing it yourself is definately a highly advanced electronic project
as a mod its been done several times over the years,
the heat transfer can adequately be done (even silently) with air,
the models that end up being adopted to do the mod on are generally because of their component placement over the quality of power IMO
or at least that is certainly a consideration, and in a "stock" model, likely a big one, that doesnt bode well

If FSP, Enermax, ect made one, then Id be alot more enthusiastic
it would have been designed from the ground up that way, not retro fitted
 
i guess such a project is only for those who have ABSOLUTLY nothing else to do. or maybe they are just hardcore watercooling freaks.

but you have a point. if they can make a good psu even without using fans, theres just no point in WC it
 
well I wouldnt go quite that far
but water cooling integrated into the design as the cooling mechanism from the ground up
Id trust more

that aqua computer supply might actually be like that, its been developed with Engelking not modded after the fact, but its also not really up to the typical gaming rigs we see in here either, regardless of its method of cooling ;)
 
From someone who designs power supplies as part of their day job... I'd steer clear.

for the most part, it looks like almost every vendor of watercooled supplies I've seen has taken an off-the-shelf fancooled power supply design, replaced the heatsinks for the input transistors and output rectifiers with waterblocks, added the plumbing to the outside of the case, and left everything else alone. And chances are they've even kept the almost-completely-sealed gray box the power supply originally came in, which is fine when you have airflow but completely useless for any kind of ventilation when the fan dies or is removed by someone unfamiliar with thermal design who is eager to market a new product...

Problem is, it's not just the power semiconductors in power supplies that get hot... in the most recent power supply that I designed, the output inductor (that donut looking thing in a computer power supply, but an ETD core in ours) was the hottest component! Inductors and transformers get hot, input/output capacitors get warm, bleeder resistors/gate drive resistors get hot, snubber resistors get hot... In a forced air supply this isn't a problem, but in fanless/open frame power supplies all these components have to be made larger or have to be paralleled up. Otherwise they'll heat up, your MTBF will get exponentially smaller, and switching power supplies don't often F in a good way.

If you look at the fanless Antec supply, you'll notice that the case is completely perforated to let air drift through, and everything possible is bolted to the heatsinks on the case. A lot of the parts inside the supply are made larger so that they produce less heat or radiate better, and finally they've greatly improved the efficiency of the supply to keep heat production down. When you build anything electronic without a fan, these considerations have to be made and things almost always have to be designed from the ground up.

And again, it doesn't look like most of these companies have taken the effort to make these changes. Until I see the insides of one or some sort of description of how they've actually managed to watercool the supply, I can't recommend one.

I've heard watercooled computers, and I prefer the whisper of an Enermax fan to the buzz of an Eheim. And suffice to say, I'd trust the Enermax far more not to fuck up and blow my stuff up...
 
I wouldn't do a liquid cooled power supply unless I could afford to do it with Fluorinert(tm) but that's just me.

One word....BZZZT.
(wait...is "BZZZT" a word?)
 
LoneWolf said:
I wouldn't do a liquid cooled power supply unless I could afford to do it with Fluorinert(tm) but that's just me.

One word....BZZZT.
(wait...is "BZZZT" a word?)
Click to expand...
ZAP! works just as well, and that's a dictionary word ;)
 
or !POP! :p

we could have a Batmanesqe competition to describe it
from personal experience blowing out a 220 floor socket by dropping a key in it sounds like
ZzWopKrak

(the krak was the sound of my head hitting the floor) :p
 
Ice Czar said:
or !POP! :p

we could have a Batmanesqe competition to describe it
from personal experience blowing out a 220 floor socket by dropping a key in it sounds like
ZzWopKrak

(the krak was the sound of my head hitting the floor) :p
Click to expand...
I once dropped a screwdriver into a 380V/200A, 3-phase breaker panel... a conduit hole on top of it was punched out, and I laid a screwdriver on top of it and it fell through the hole. What followed was a sound that was something like...

clickafuckclickaohfuckclickaBLAAAM!!!!BUZZZUZUZZZCLACKeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

First there was the click of the screwdriver bouncing around inside the box, accompanied by my saying "fuckfuckfuck" because I knew something bad was gonna happen, but I couldn't do anything about it because grabbing the screwdriver and touching something live would probably be ten times worse than the wrath of my boss...

Finally the screwdriver shorted something and BLAM!, it vaporized, throwing bits of metal everywhere inside the box and striking an arc, which lasted for a brief second with a loud arcing noise until the upstream breaker tripped off with a loud CLACK, leaving my ears with a non-stop "eeeeeeeeeeee" ringing which lasted until the next day.

Lesson learned, put your tools back in the toolbox :D
 
whOP..........thunk, crash

my ex boss getting his sorry ass blown across the room and into a wall by an old big neon transformer (the little prick survived) :p
 
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