WaterCooling Popularity: Up or Down Poll

[Demon_of_The_Fall]

It's up, because more and more people are modding their PCs. But it's pointless, because you really don't need the minimal temp advantage that it provides.

 

[arnemetis]

I said partly up. I think 2 years ago, it was really starting to pick up, but its become saturated now, with so many manufacturers (and many offering crap). I got into it when swiftech offered up their apex kit, with the radbox and storm, finally a quality, complete kit. It's true that now cpu's are starting to put out less energy than the last generation, but keep adding cores, temps will go way up again. I saw a 20c decrease in load on my gfx card, and I had a custom leadtek all copper cooler on there that did a bang up job compared to reference anyway. Water also benefits in the summer time, when these people claiming real low temps on their heatsinks no longer have their case next to a window, the summer air keeps the ambient too hot and it can't cool as effectively. Also, with further developments in non-conductive fluids, the risk is reduced considerably. I've had my fan break on my xp-90 while I wasnt home and my pc nearly fry cuz I was running f@h, I've had my barbs leak months after installing it and doing days of leak testing up front. Thanks to the non-conductive fluid, no disaster struck; however my 3200+ winchester at that time died a slow death following that fan incident. Another thought is that I think around this time water cooling development has reached its apex, just as heatpipe tech has matured for heatsinks. It's been a while since I've seen new designs that weren't just tweaks of existing ones in both arenas. The best water cooling now will keep your temps a few degrees above ambient, it's impossible to go beyond that without making the next step (tec, phase, etc). Once heatsinks reach this point at heavily overclocked heat output levels, I expect water cooling to drop off somewhat drastically. I may be wrong, but I don't think we are there quite yet.
P.S. I would like to apologize for the lack of structure in this post. Haven't slept for several days, I just blurted it out as it came to my mind.

 

[BaronBamboo]

See water cooling was great before, but now with all these nice heatsinks, IMO, I think it is going down. I see all these threads where people make a mistake with their setup, or make a mistake in installing their rad, pump doesn't work, and plus it is just to expensive. Also you need a large case to fit your water cooling gear. Get a case with great airflow, get a nice large HS, and call it a day.

Stil lwater cooling cools the best and looks awesome with some UV coolant .

Has anyone tested the quad-rads yet?

 

[Blue3ffect]

But it's pointless, because you really don't need the minimal temp advantage that it provides.

I disagree with statements like this but it all depends on what you are going for really, as Ive said a couple of times. Some people want to drain every last drop out of their systems. For some people this can come in the form of air, but for others this isnt an efficient option. Living in Arizona I am limited in cooling performance with the sheer temperatures of ambient air available. Blowing a whole bunch of hot air into the system just doesnt seem to do the greatest job in the world at keeping the components cool. Thus, systems that run particularly hot are switched to water and significant temp drops are yielded. On the other hand, I have a friend who has moved to cooler climates over in Europe and air does the trick for him better than it ever could for me, and even better than a water + air combo setup that many of my boxes run. It all depends upon your circumstances really. For some water is a technology that doesnt have any greater returns than leaving a stock cooler on, but for others they will see 25% drops in temps on load and that is just something that you cant pass up (( at least I cant, haha )).

For people that get great temps on air, I would just stick to air if you have no noise issues and are satisfied with it. For those worried about noise, I would switch coolers or cooling methods to suit your needs. For those in really hot climates, I seldom see a system that has no room for improvement with a properly constructed and implemented water and air combination. If you live in hot locations like myself, I guess there is also the option of spending $1500 a month and running your air conditioner to keep your house at 60* year round Myself, however, Ill just get off the air train for systems that run very hot and take a jump in the pool (( yeah... that was pretty lame... whatever ))

Im not saying that water is the best solution for everyone, but it serves its purpose for a good number of users.

To all of the comments about TECs, they are awesome but I have seen just as many people kill systems with them as I have with water cooling because of moisture problems. Though, I still love them and actually have one sitting on my desk attached to nothing but a switch to turn it off and on because they are so damn cool. To Brav with the "/nerd" comment, Im with you buddy, lol.

 

[Brav]

I see all these threads where people make a mistake with their setup, or make a mistake in installing their rad, pump doesn't work, and plus it is just to expensive. .

Has anyone tested the quad-rads yet?

Same as anything else.. people are quick to post when something sucks/breaks/etc, but far fewer people post to say "everythign is still working great". You see this a lot on car forums. 1% of the people complain, and it seems like a lot #s wise.

The benefits to me are:
-Lower temps under LOAD (delta)
-Fun to build/design
-as close to silet as possible
-esthetics/appearance
-better than spending on crack/one armed hookers

 

[Blue3ffect]

Same as anything else.. people are quick to post when something sucks/breaks/etc, but far fewer people post to say "everythign is still working great". You see this a lot on car forums. 1% of the people complain, and it seems like a lot #s wise.

The benefits to me are:
-Lower temps under LOAD (delta)
-Fun to build/design
-as close to silet as possible
-esthetics/appearance
-better than spending on crack/one armed hookers

A fellow nerd and a fellow car guy all in one... weird, lol. I do have one question for you though, what do you have against one armed hookers? Jerk.

But yeah, I agree with you on the benefits there and what you said about the complaints. You rarely see any posts about how well things work, you just see them about how wrong things go sometimes. Usually, on top of that, its complaints from people who really didnt know what they were doing and this was their first time with crappy parts that were put together in a hurry, something is just bound to go wrong. Most people that I talk to about water cooling tell me about how great it is and about the lower temps and higher overclocks that their water loop(s) enabled them to achieve. I rarely talk to a serious techie about water cooling and hear complaints about how air was better or even as good or about how dangerous it is because they fried their system. If you take the time and do it right, the chances of anything happening are so low. Run some leak tests, make sure that all of your parts are properly sealed, make sure that your lines are securely fastened and that everything is okay before you start putting it around anything electrical. On top of that, if you invested so much money into water cooling parts and so much money into great hardware components, spend a few bucks on some non-conductive fluids and you probably wont have any problems even in the event of a leak. System maintanence is a wonderful thing -- check up on your system regularly and you probably wont have any issues at all with it.

Now, Im gonna go smoke some crack...

 

[Brav]

A fellow nerd and a fellow car guy all in one... weird, lol. I do have one question for you though, what do you have against one armed hookers? Jerk.

But yeah, I agree with you on the benefits there and what you said about the complaints. You rarely see any posts about how well things work, you just see them about how wrong things go sometimes. Usually, on top of that, its complaints from people who really didnt know what they were doing and this was their first time with crappy parts that were put together in a hurry, something is just bound to go wrong. Most people that I talk to about water cooling tell me about how great it is and about the lower temps and higher overclocks that their water loop(s) enabled them to achieve. I rarely talk to a serious techie about water cooling and hear complaints about how air was better or even as good or about how dangerous it is because they fried their system. If you take the time and do it right, the chances of anything happening are so low. Run some leak tests, make sure that all of your parts are properly sealed, make sure that your lines are securely fastened and that everything is okay before you start putting it around anything electrical. On top of that, if you invested so much money into water cooling parts and so much money into great hardware components, spend a few bucks on some non-conductive fluids and you probably wont have any problems even in the event of a leak. System maintanence is a wonderful thing -- check up on your system regularly and you probably wont have any issues at all with it.

Now, Im gonna go smoke some crack...

I even watercool my 2 turbo cars! I'M A BELEIVER!!! jk. kinda.

Switched(ing) both from air/air intercoolers to air/water, because they are more efficient for rear engine cars with limited airflow, and have a much higher capacity to remove heat before they get heatsoaked. Same maccaroni. Its more of a PITA, and requires full custom install, but in the end its worth it (to those that value performance/reliability)

and FWIW, watercooling for intake temps is growing for cars as well (forced induction)

 

[game14]

After a little thinking I guess this whole discusion about watercooling better then aircooling or not doesnt make any sense at all .
Because in the end all those watercooling systems are cooling the water with AIR .
So if u get good temp or not only depends on where u place the radiator and on the roomtemp .
Like I said before i guess most people only do it because it looks nice to see some green or whatever color liquid running to their tubes and second because its cool to show up with a watercooled rig .
The watercooling parts that are on the market now are way overpriced .
Once this "fashion watercooling" is over it will be where it was before .

And for all those who says its easy to set up watercooling ...ok ..but its still way easier just to clip a heatsink on and plug the fan in . U dont even have to leaktest it !!!

 

[Brav]

After a little thinking I guess this whole discusion about watercooling better then aircooling or not doesnt make any sense at all .
Because in the end all those watercooling systems are cooling the water with AIR .
So if u get good temp or not only depends on where u place the radiator and on the roomtemp .
Like I said before i guess most people only do it because it looks nice to see some green or whatever color liquid running to their tubes and second because its cool to show up with a watercooled rig .
The watercooling parts that are on the market now are way overpriced .
Once this "fashion watercooling" is over it will be where it was before .

And for all those who says its easy to set up watercooling ...ok ..but its still way easier just to clip a heatsink on and plug the fan in . U dont even have to leaktest it !!!

WARNING: watercooling is not for the faint of heart!!!!11

 

[R1ckCa1n]

I would say it is on a decline as there are no new products to make people want them.

 

[malicious]

I would say it is on a decline as there are no new products to make people want them.

This assumes that the number of buyers in the market is constant. No new entrants.

 

[BaronBamboo]

Same as anything else.. people are quick to post when something sucks/breaks/etc, but far fewer people post to say "everythign is still working great". You see this a lot on car forums. 1% of the people complain, and it seems like a lot #s wise.

The benefits to me are:
-Lower temps under LOAD (delta)
-Fun to build/design
-as close to silet as possible
-esthetics/appearance
-better than spending on crack/one armed hookers

One thing I forget,it depends on what you're cooling. Just one CPU, or a CPU and dual GPUs; it all matters. Water cooling is for those who are willing to go the extra mile. Most likely I will go water in the future, but I'm enjoing a simple air set-up right now.

 

[Rabid Badger]

I think there was a big spike during the Athlon XP/Pentium 4 days due to a convergence of hot chips and rather primitive air coolers.

However, now that we have the Scythe Infinity/Ninja, Big Typhoon, Zalman 9500, etc. and processor manufacturers are beginning to focus more on performance per watt, water cooling is hitting a slump. The cost/benefit advangate just isn't as great as it once was.

We do have water cooling to thank in large part for our ultra-effective air coolers, though. What are heatpipes if not an attempt to bring some of water cooling's performance to self-contained, easy to install air coolers?

Honestly, what are the current generation of monster coolers if not 120mm radiators fed by an array of liquid filled heatpipes? All that is missing is the pump.

I guess if you look at it that way water cooling is more popular than ever.

 

[malicious]

I wonder how many of you that post regarding the benefits or particularly the negatives of watercooling have ever owned a water loop.

 

[Unoid]

I voted neither up or down.

Air cooling has advanced to be close to as good as water.

Most people don't throw heinous voltages at their CPU/GPU to require teh ability to take away all that heat.

Most ppl are content with 3.4ghz over clock compared to 3.7ghz when you have to purchase 150-200$ of equipment and regular maintenance.

 

[Axdrenalin]

I think that generally W/Cing setups are more accessable to everyone now. Back in the day there was a lot of uncertainty with the parts to use and water leakage and such. It's pretty much a no brainer anymore.

 

[w1retap]

I think water cooling has went up in popularity a bit. I just built my first water cooled system when the AM2's came out and I'm loving it. It was easy to do, looks incredible, and was fun to build.

The reason I believe water cooling is on the rise is because of all the popularity in the gaming market. Its all over the internet, offered by some pre-built system manufacturers, featured in gaming/pc magazines, pre-water cooled cases are being offered, water cooling is fricking available for xbox 360 in a kit, and I've even seen journalists do articles on it in my local newspaper.

While air cooling is pretty darn good now, it just doesn't offer all the same things as water cooling. With water you still get lower temps for the most part, you get the coolness factor, and you fall into a more 'elitist' or 'nerdy' category of computer users. It looks awesome at LAN parties and usually draws a small crowd of people commenting on it, and you can OC higher than air. If you use the right components, its quieter than air cooling overall. I love my system now because its near silent.

 

[BrainEater]

I voted slightly up , based on the increasing ease of running one , and the low noise.

I personally don't watercool any of my current rigs .....I like aircooling best at this point , and I can tell you that to match a baseline watercooling setup for noise qualities , you can easily pay far more for aircooling.And the HTPC craze is exploding ; people want no noise in the theatre.

 

[dnottis]

Definitely up with the possibilities of the overclocks on the conroes. What sux lately are the video cards - used to buy a maze 4 and it was compatible with everything - now these cards (7950GX2, 8800s) need custom blocks that are $150+ and only work with those cards. I've stopped water cooling my GPU but still water cool my CPU for great clocks!

 

[dekard]

i think up... around atlanta lots of places are selling the kits and the tech community is growing overall so this should be growing with it. Check the wiki in my sig for an introduction to it, if needed.

 

[aiya]

i said going up slightly

i was one of those guys that said 'eh' to watercooling and that i would never go into it/get one. but, here i sit with a watercooled rig in my sig, lol . i see a lot of newbie watercooling threads so its safe to say that people are still interested and the community for it is growing.

 

[Sovereign]

I won't vote, but I will say this: I don't watercool because I move my rig (from college to home and across the street, and room-to-room in my house for LANs that I host) around ALOT. Therefore, the risk to me is just too great. If my rig stayed in one spot, I'd think about it.

 

[madmat]

I won't vote, but I will say this: I don't watercool because I move my rig (from college to home and across the street, and room-to-room in my house for LANs that I host) around ALOT. Therefore, the risk to me is just too great. If my rig stayed in one spot, I'd think about it.

I've been watercooling for three years going on four now and I have the fullest confidence that my WC gear isn't going anywhere. I've built a system for a guy out of Miami and put a loop in it. Shipped it 1400 miles via FedEX when it was built, it made it with no trauma and he's since shipped it back for a different mobo and that trip was 1400 miles round trip. Again, zero issues. You just have to attach everything like you intend it to be moved, slung around and otherwise left to the devices of uncaring postal workers or parcel freight-dock workers (and I've seen a lot of abused shipping containers in my time) and it will survive beautifully. Of course if you've just got parts wedged in place by foam or pieces of innertube, yeah, it's not going to last if jostled.

Bear in mind, these huge monster aircoolers on the market pushing 900+ grams are more likely to kill your mobo if the PC is dropped with the slightest thud than a 300gr waterblock will. Even GPU only blocks are down in weight to the point that they weigh no more or less than the aircooling they're replacing on the card. The heaviest thing is the rad and if it's being held securely to the case with at least four screws (2 top, 2 bottom) the rad ain't going anywhere unless you drop the case hard enough to destroy the PC.

 

[game14]

I've been watercooling for three years going on four now and I have the fullest confidence that my WC gear isn't going anywhere. I've built a system for a guy out of Miami and put a loop in it. Shipped it 1400 miles via FedEX when it was built, it made it with no trauma and he's since shipped it back for a different mobo and that trip was 1400 miles round trip. Again, zero issues. You just have to attach everything like you intend it to be moved, slung around and otherwise left to the devices of uncaring postal workers or parcel freight-dock workers (and I've seen a lot of abused shipping containers in my time) and it will survive beautifully. Of course if you've just got parts wedged in place by foam or pieces of innertube, yeah, it's not going to last if jostled.

Bear in mind, these huge monster aircoolers on the market pushing 900+ grams are more likely to kill your mobo if the PC is dropped with the slightest thud than a 300gr waterblock will. Even GPU only blocks are down in weight to the point that they weigh no more or less than the aircooling they're replacing on the card. The heaviest thing is the rad and if it's being held securely to the case with at least four screws (2 top, 2 bottom) the rad ain't going anywhere unless you drop the case hard enough to destroy the PC.

thats true , those heatsinks are getting way to heavy , not to mention their dimension .

 

[Blue3ffect]

thats true , those heatsinks are getting way to heavy , not to mention their dimension .

The dimensions of your top of the line heatsinks are perfect to tear a system apart in transit. Attaching something that heavy and that big to your lovely hardware and then tossing it around is terrible.

Like MadMat said, if you build a quality system, you shouldn't have to worry about that. I dont mean this as an insult because its not directed at you or anyone in particular, but as I mentioned before, one of the things I see way too commonly on forums are systems with ridiculous setups. Huge wads of cables hanging down randomly, clumped up around important components like ram, dangling around by fans without a grille or a large one that the connectors can fit through into the fan, poor planning, etc. Good, quality setups that were well thought out. Maybe Im just overly anal about things like this because I do it for a living, but I sometimes wonder what was going through peoples minds when they did things like this...

Maybe they learned how to put a computer together by reverse engineering a Dell system?

 

[game14]

The dimensions of your top of the line heatsinks are perfect to tear a system apart in transit. Attaching something that heavy and that big to your lovely hardware and then tossing it around is terrible.

Like MadMat said, if you build a quality system, you shouldn't have to worry about that. I dont mean this as an insult because its not directed at you or anyone in particular, but as I mentioned before, one of the things I see way too commonly on forums are systems with ridiculous setups. Huge wads of cables hanging down randomly, clumped up around important components like ram, dangling around by fans without a grille or a large one that the connectors can fit through into the fan, poor planning, etc. Good, quality setups that were well thought out. Maybe Im just overly anal about things like this because I do it for a living, but I sometimes wonder what was going through peoples minds when they did things like this...

Maybe they learned how to put a computer together by reverse engineering a Dell system?

What has the quality of a system to do with the weight of a heatsink ??? Even if u got the highest quality setup u can imagine i wouldnt clip a 2 pound heatsink on it , not even thinking about transporting it . And if u have to remove the heatsink every time u want to move ur rig to another place thats a real pain in the ass .

 

[Desdichado]

Up. Its been getting much easier to add water cooling in recent years, because the number of folks making water cooling setups has gone up. It used to be that, if you wanted it, it was going to be a custom-built setup. Now it is a solution being offered by oem vendors.

 

[NordicRX8]

Up. Its been getting much easier to add water cooling in recent years, because the number of folks making water cooling setups has gone up. It used to be that, if you wanted it, it was going to be a custom-built setup. Now it is a solution being offered by oem vendors.

I voted for slightly up too. I've worked on several systems that were watercooled. These are from people I would have never suspected of even having any modifications done to their systems let alone a WC setup. With the increase of pre-assembled, pre-packaged WC kits, it's been getting easier for the average shmoe to install a WC setup to get that bigger e-penis. Of course those same shmoes don't realize that a WC setup needs regular maintenance just like any other type of cooling system.

 

[malicious]

i think if you do it right then it only needs to be maintained (drained & filled) about every 6-10 months

 

[Blue3ffect]

I try to drain, clean, and refill mine once every 6 months on average. Sometimes it runs into like 8-9, but I try to get it done every 6 like I said. With the new coolants being so gentle on all sorts of materials and some even containing lubricants for pump life, I dont see why you would have to put too much into maintaining it a year. Its not like you have to drain it and refill it every 30 days or anything.

 

[dekard]

I voted for slightly up too. I've worked on several systems that were watercooled. These are from people I would have never suspected of even having any modifications done to their systems let alone a WC setup. With the increase of pre-assembled, pre-packaged WC kits, it's been getting easier for the average shmoe to install a WC setup to get that bigger e-penis. Of course those same shmoes don't realize that a WC setup needs regular maintenance just like any other type of cooling system.

Several of the kits out now have a 1 - 2 year lifespan on the coolant...