# What is everyone's opinion on liquid cooling?



## Authur (Dec 3, 2012)

A friend of mine on Skype is a freelance IT, and apparently, he thinks this stuff is really awesome.  I've seen a few pictures of it in action, and it does look pretty cool.  However, I've been working with good fans and heat sinks my whole life, and haven't once had any machine I used overheat on me.  Though just in case, I have a fresh tube of Arctic Silver 5 from when I built my first computer, which I use to this day.

But back to the point.  What do you guys think about liquid cooling, how it works, and how much it costs?  I want to become an IT and am well on my way to getting my A+ and Network+, just so everybody knows, and I do have intentions to eventually experiment with this type of cooling once I get enough money to build another computer and play with the parts a bit to see what they can do.


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## Kalmor (Dec 3, 2012)

People normally use liquid cooling if they have extremely overclocked parts that generate alot of heat (more than what traditional heatsink + fans can cope with), there are many more reasons why someone might have it, but that's the only one I can think of right now (since I don't have liquid cooling). Hopefully someone else here has more experience with them can help you out.


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## Runefox (Dec 4, 2012)

Liquid cooling is also useful for quiet PC's, since the reservoir can either be cooled by a heat sink alone or a larger, quieter fan. You can get self-contained units like the Corsair H-series that can be used for CPU cooling specifically, and you can get larger external units that typically come with water blocks to clamp to CPU's, chipsets, and (multiple) GPU's. Theoretically, you could attach an external water cooling system to anything as long as you had a proper block, which is a big plus. The drawback of an external radiator is having to run the hoses (and the leak possibility that comes with doing so yourself), having to have a case that supports the hoses, and having to turn the system on and off manually. Another drawback is maintenance - It's important to clean it every once in a while to keep the tubes from gumming up over time. Really, that's not too big a deal, considering fans require (sometimes extensive) cleaning, as well. Self-contained kits arguably may also require cleaning, but I'm not aware of any easy way to do so.


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## Ames (Dec 6, 2012)

It's just not necessary unless you're working with severe space constraints, pushing your components way harder than you should be, or just enjoy the novelty of it.

Really, if you wanted to go all-out, you could do a DIY full oil-submersion system that will perform better for less money than a full watercooling system.


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## Lobar (Dec 6, 2012)

Very little practical value over air cooling for what you pay for.  Unless you're building an enthusiast machine purely for the sake of seeking extreme benchmarks, you don't need liquid cooling.  For everyone else, a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ or EVO is generally the best pick in heat sinks.


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## Authur (Dec 6, 2012)

o_o; ...okay, oil submersion, I have NEVER heard of.  Also, the water cooling thing is purely for, y'know, experimentation and possibly even the pushing components harder thing.

...no, seriously, this oil submersion DIY thing you brought up sounds fucking crazy. ._.  What kind of oil?


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## AshleyAshes (Dec 6, 2012)

Authur said:


> o_o; ...okay, oil submersion, I have NEVER heard of.  Also, the water cooling thing is purely for, y'know, experimentation and possibly even the pushing components harder thing.
> 
> ...no, seriously, this oil submersion DIY thing you brought up sounds fucking crazy. ._.  What kind of oil?



Mineral oil is common.  But even cooking oil will do it.  They're all electrically non-conductive.


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## Namba (Dec 6, 2012)

Only get mineral oil if you're going to make your tower transparent and have lights and shit all over your hardware, because that just looks fucking cool. Like, _really_ cool


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## Validuz (Dec 6, 2012)

I wouldn't personally buy a liquidcooled computer. Seems like quite the hassle over fans. But! I'm getting really pissed off at my 9fans buzzing about like a fighterjet. Would be nice to try a liquid cooled to see the diffrence.

A few years ago when i was working security at Dreamhack they had a liquid hydrogen cooled pc in NVIDIA's booth. For those.. Extreme people xD


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## Authur (Dec 6, 2012)

Eyal Flurry said:


> Only get mineral oil if you're going to make your tower transparent and have lights and shit all over your hardware, because that just looks fucking cool. Like, _really_ cool



...that IS really cool.  How'd they case it up like that?  Also, I actually do have a transparent case, it was originally for a setup like that, but I decided at the last minute to have a fan instead of try to handle something that was obviously out of my level of computer knowledge.

By the way, the lights for the power and reset buttons are brighter than the Light of fucking God. X_X  I had to aim it away from me for that reason when I put it up on the desk beside my monitor.


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## Kahoku (Dec 8, 2012)

My computer is liquid cooled and runs great. Processor is anyway, the main body is all air movement still.


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## Ranguvar (Dec 9, 2012)

If you want e-peen, you need to get liquid cooling; the more ridiculously expensive and grandiose the setup, the bigger your e-peen gets. Also donâ€™t forgot to add as many led lights as possible. Red lighting makes the cpu faster, green for the gpu.


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## Ames (Dec 9, 2012)

AshleyAshes said:


> Mineral oil is common.  But even cooking oil will do it.  They're all electrically non-conductive.



Don't use cooking oil, dude.  Shit degrades fast, especially under warmer conditions.   There's nothing wrong with spending a few bucks more for mineral oil that will last forever if kept clean.


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## AshleyAshes (Dec 9, 2012)

JamesB said:


> Don't use cooking oil, dude.  Shit degrades fast, especially under warmer conditions.   There's nothing wrong with spending a few bucks more for mineral oil that will last forever if kept clean.



BUT I ALSO WANT TO MAKE FRIES WITH MY COMPUTER! D:


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## Ames (Dec 10, 2012)

AshleyAshes said:


> BUT I ALSO WANT TO MAKE FRIES WITH MY COMPUTER! D:



oh god oil submerged pc deep fryer

best idea ever


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## Lisforlove (Dec 15, 2012)

I find that a large fan taped onto the side of my tower, works just fine.

One could even say, its fantastic.


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## Ruastin (Dec 15, 2012)

I use a small fan on the front of my tower to move the hot air out through the top, works fine for me. The thing with liquid is there is always a threat of a leak and when that happens... well it doesn't end well that or your basement floods and it hits your computer.....


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## Arshes Nei (Dec 15, 2012)

People's obsession with quiet PCs gets kinda disturbing. I get that you don't want a lawnmower in your room, but it's not like your room is the fucking library. A little noise from your PC is ok. Other than geek factor or maybe fun appearance thing, don't really care about liquid cooling for anything practical.


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## AshleyAshes (Dec 15, 2012)

Ruastin said:


> I use a small fan on the front of my tower to move the hot air out through the top, works fine for me. The thing with liquid is there is always a threat of a leak and when that happens... well it doesn't end well that or your basement floods and it hits your computer.....



Actually the water inside your liquid cooler won't cause any damage.  Water does NOT cause electrical shorts.  It's mineral content with positively or negatively charged ions in DRINKING WATER that can conduct electricity.  Liquid coolers contain labratory grade distilled water, it's incapable of conducting electricity.  You can dunk your cellphone into a bucket of labratory distilled water and nothing will happen to it.  If the liquid cooler in your desktop pops, nothing should short out and you just have a mess to worry about water damage to your flooring.  ...And hopefully your CPU correctly forcefully shutdown when it overheated due to the cooler failure...


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## Heliophobic (Dec 15, 2012)

Eh, it's pretty cool I guess.


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## kayfox (Dec 16, 2012)

AshleyAshes said:


> Actually the water inside your liquid cooler won't cause any damage.  Water does NOT cause electrical shorts.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water

Its not recommended to operate a electronic PCB in water under current, electrolysis is one issue, another issue is most common PCB materials like FR-4 will absorb some water, this on its own, and combined with heat will cause the PCB material to decay and delaminate.  Theres also an issue that some components (for example: electrolytic capacitors) are not designed to be immersed for long periods of time, or at all.  These components may degrade or leech chemicals after being immersed for some time.  Some other components, like speakers, use paper in their construction and will be quickly damaged by immersion in water.  So dunking your cell phone is right out.

Another thing that is not mentioned often is that it may be distilled water when you put it in, but it does not stay clean that long.  Through erosion water in water cooling systems picks up metal and sometimes plastic impurities.  This is why the Cray supercomputers, while using something even less a solvent than water (Fluorinert, which is the stuff they dunked that rat in in the movie Abyss), used large coolant filtration systems to remove impurities from the coolant. 

~ That fennec who's probably one of the few in here who has manufactured his own PCBs.


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## WolfsFang (Dec 17, 2012)

I like to liquid cooling , cpu and my 680 are under water. I have my 2600k oc to 4.8 and my 680 at 1200 core. The 680 never goes above 40c in BF3 64 player map, ultra settings.


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