Watercooling Theory...

[lejasonator]

Would it be possible for me to setup the following...

Resovior --> Pump --> CPU Block --> HDD Block --> Ram Cooler --> Radiator --> Resovior

It all looked so easy but then i thought what if the heat from the CPU & HDD Block transfers over to the Ram Cooler and buggers my ram right up. Am i right?[/list]

[Aaron]

It would be possible. I wouldnt worry too much about the order that you put them in, as long as the radiator you use is capable of removing more heat than all three blocks combined.

But if I were you, I would ditch the idea of water cooling the HDD and ram. Get some 'silent' fans to blow over the HDs, and get some decent heatsinks for the ram, maybe with a quiet fan blowing across them too. RAM/HD water cooling is still comparable to straight air cooling, imo, so why go to the extra cost/hassle? You also have to consider if the extra restrictions placed in the loop by the ram/hd coolers are worth the flow performance loss they will cause, which will decrease the overall effectiveness of the system.

[lejasonator]

thanks, i think i'll just do as you say. and water cool my cpu. does it really make much difference, water cooling? would there be a noticable temperature drop?

[Aaron]

The funny thing about watercooling is that it is effectively air cooling. The actual thermal transfer from the system to somewhere else is done by a fan blowing across a radiator.

A couple of reasons water cooling is better are:
1) Heat capacity is the amount of heat required to raise a system by 1 degree C in temperature. Water has a heat capacity about 4 times that of air. This means that a given amount of water needs about 4 times as much heat to raise its temperature as that needed to raise the temperature of an equivalent amount of air. Basically, water can remove more heat.

2) The heat transfer from the cooling loop can be done outside of the case. Normally, when using a heatsink/fan setup, the warm air coming off the cpu is dumped back into the case. When using water, you can effectively choose where this transfer happens. If you place the rad outside the case, the heat will be transferred into the air in the room, rather than back into the case, keeping the overall internal temp lower as well.

Hope that makes sense? I'm not sure I explained it so well!

[Truzo666]

Hey
i have a Gigabyte 3D Galaxy water cool kit in my setup, i have a amd athlon 3700+ (939 looking to upgrade to am2) its a 2.2Ghz and ive overclocked it to 2.76Ghz and with the liquid cool kit its about the same temp as it was before the overclock with the stock heatsink and fan
so im pretty pleased with it, even with the fan turned down low-ish it is more than a stable temp, but im shure there are standard heaskins that will do the job just as well with a lower price