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Why watercool

Why do you watercool?

  • Because I'm looking for the best cooling I can get.

    Votes: 35 55.6%

  • Because I'm looking for silence.

    Votes: 29 46.0%

  • Because I'm a geek.

    Votes: 23 36.5%

  • I like the look I get when I tell people I cool my computer with water.

    Votes: 21 33.3%

  • I want to feel superior to other geeks.

    Votes: 9 14.3%

  • I want to see how high I can get my overclock before I toast the CPU.

    Votes: 17 27.0%

  • It's a nice conversation piece with the opposite sex.

    Votes: 3 4.8%

  • I like to screw around with computers and this isn't as boring as the rest of the stuff.

    Votes: 34 54.0%

  • It's a good thing to argue about in the forums.

    Votes: 4 6.3%

  • I got the money and why not?

    Votes: 11 17.5%
  • Total voters
    63
T

Top Nurse

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 4, 2003
Messages
7,346
So why do you like to watercool? This is a public poll and is multiple choice.
 
Several of the above, but I just like messing around with computers. Pushing limits is all fun until somebody gets hurt ( most of the time the computer) .
 
Computer was too loud for the performance I got. With the fans on my rad at 5V, now I'm getting 3.75GHz on stock voltage, and I reckon I can go higher if I crank the voltage. Computer still too loud for my liking, but I'm getting there...

Oh yeah, and much funner to set up a watercooling loop than to just install a heatsink.
 
As I voted in my poll I wc because it's fun and adds to the complexity of my computer. Liking complexity must be an industrial hazard. ;)
 
Without the cooling needs of modern hardware, computer builds would be relatively boring. Because we need higher/stronger levels of cooling, it has given rise to a plethera of attractive hardware options including but not limited to watercooling.

It adds to the creativity and the uniqueness of a build (except when everyone buys the exact same stuff because of 'advice' given). Not only does it offer great potential cooling performance, but actually gives something to look at for those with a window - which is important to some people.

Without the rise of greater cooling solutions and the resulting technology born from it, we might as well go back to beige boxes under out desks.

I like watercooling mainly for silence and moderate stable overclocks. Plus its a heck of alot more attractive :D .
 
I watercool mainly because Im the kind of person who likes to push things to the limit and I really like the "coolness factor". I could care less about the sound it makes b/c my speakers override that.
 
WipeoutFTW said:
I watercool mainly because Im the kind of person who likes to push things to the limit and I really like the "coolness factor". I could care less about the sound it makes b/c my speakers override that.
Click to expand...

Same.

Watercooling is meant for 24/7 sustainable overclocks without having to pay through the nose for a Vapochill/phase setup that requires a high energy bill, additional complications in insulating the motherboard along with the fears of condensation shorting the board.

Even then, what little noise a high performance water cooling setup makes is much less than any stock or high performing air setup. If you want to kill noise, sound dampening material should be used. Hell, it used to be implemented in high performance air setups before WC'ing came about and did its job back then too. This was back in the days when us overclockers lost our hearing due to the use of Delta fans.
 
I mostly did it because it offered better temperatures than my old TT SI97 with a 92mm Tornado on my old XP2400+ barton back in the day, but with a fraction of the noise. I stayed with it because the price/performance ratio of buying a new waterblock (MCW6002 -> Apogee) allowed me something that I could use for a few years to come, for less than the price of the top air coolers.

Now I mostly just do it for the challange and its uniqueness of it all. While there are alot of people with the same components as me, everyones setup looks unique to them. Im also into the difficulty of it. Finding the perfect mix between cable neatness, as well as positioning of things to make it fit in the case. (120.3 in a Centurain 5! ha!)

Overclocking is something that Im going to do no matter what, wether Im air. water or phase changed. For me water is the perfect middle ground for now :)

Hey ranker going thru withdrawls from XS being down today?
 
I approached W/C for silence. I guess everything else is nice, the coolness factor, the community, modding capabilities etc but my priority is still aimed at getting great desktop performance silently. So far it has turned out as a good challenge, with still much to be done. :)
 
I like arguing with Top Nurse at the XS forums?

The Koolance vs HW Labs threads are funny?
 
#1: Silence
#2: I'm a Geek (closet variety!):p
#3: I like to screw around with computers

#1 is #1. It was the main reason I started looking into WC'ing. #2 & 3 could be switched.

Any OC advantage I get is a plus, but not the main objective. Also, I got paid for most of my WC'd mods!:D
 
You know, after rereading the options, I have to admit I would vote for all the choices, except one:

"It's a nice conversation piece with the opposite sex." My wife is not impressed with my WC'ing, as she not into computers at all. And I doubt that she would appreciate me trying to make it "nice conversation piece with any others of the opposite sex".:D
 
I water-cool because it allows me the highest overclocks in relative quiet without needing to resorting to the more extreme cooling solutions, all of which are either impractical, expensive to run, noisy, or have a high maintenance overhead.

It's not most bang for the buck. That would be just using a decent air-cooling tower-sink with a quiet fan. It's about getting more bang than air, while minimising noise, and ongoing grief and costs.

I also do it for efficiency reasons. A well setup high-end water-cooling system won't draw more than 20W of power. A very good well setup water-cooling system can still beat air-cooling for temps, noise, and overclock, and only draw 5W of power. To me, it's the most environmentally friendly way to indulge the desire for more system speed.

i.e. Rather than bang-for-buck, it offers the best bang-for-watt.
 
Silence and just plain fun to try new things out. Overclocking is a bonus but is more due to my components than the watercooling.
 
I like to screw around with computers and this isn't as boring as the rest of the stuff.

Most of the others apply too.
 
People do not buy what they need, they buy what they want. Which is why there are Ferraris and Astons.
 
It's the best cooling I can get with the amount of silence I require and it's not as boring as slapping a bunch of heatsinks on various parts.

That's about it.
 
i have never done water cooling... got 2 kits really cheap.. im seeing from some reading that thermaltake water cooling is not popular.. but hell for $40 a full kit.. cant beat it... can modify from there.. :D
 
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