Is water cooling a meme? >talking to someone about it >oh

Anything past passive cooling is a meme. If you need fans in your rig, then you're doing it wrong

It is useless for 95% of the users, but about 15% use it.

>>56942725
>Anything I can't afford is a meme

Have fun with ur shitty air cooled house fire of a PC, you cuck

>>56942753
autism: the mindset

I suppose it makes sense for SLI or something.

>>56942725
>lot quieter & more efficient
generally speaking, this is the case VS standard air cooling, but very few users actually need the additional clock speeds inadvertently provided by greater thermal dissipation. stock speeds are generally fine for most users

>literally looks awful
entirely subjective.
i happen to dislike colored fluid running through tubing, but many people are enamored by it.
personally, i prefer black tubing and dark fittings with no LEDs. simple, elegant, accomplishes the goal of cooling the hardware

it's a more expensive way to accomplish the same goal with better results
if you're not into it, that's cool OP
no reason to take time out of your day to bash other peoples' hobbies

Im honestly considering just using clcs for my next build.

Watercooling is scurry and clc warranties cover that...

Wateecooling is expensive and can be worth it kind of. It allows for hardware to be pushed further and I guess with enough rad space you could make it way quieter if you find a way to deal with pump noise. Not worth it generally unless you have top of the line shit imo.

>>56942725

I thinks its more of a hobby thing. Some people enjoy building computers and it just adds an another dimension to it.

>>56942725
Depends. I don't consider builds with flexible hosing, modular components etc. to be memes.

When I see hard pipes, dyes, and windowed cases, I instinctively cringe.

>>56942725

>It literally looks awful

It's not about looks princess.

>>56943376
this.

you build a custom open-loop watercooling system because you enjoy designing and assembling it, not because of the return-on-investment you get from greater overclocking headroom.

>>56943559
Is this even thr case anymore? Latest gpus dont seem to benefit all that much. For most the cost of a loop could be used on better hardware right?

>>56943779
Right, the watercooling system costs more than you get back out of it in overclockability. Hence why it's a hobby project.

There once was a time when you could kinda-sorta justify it on cost-benefit grounds, but those days are long gone.

>>56943938
I put together a full 2nd-hand loop for £200. Each time I change a socket or GPU, I'll probably spend an extra £40 for new blocks.

Considering I can run both the GPU and CPU at max under synthetic loads, and have them be barely audible, in an ITX case with no sound deadening, I'd call that value for money.

Hard to maintenance. You need to use demineralized water to prevent corrosion, then do maintenance every once a month to check leakage and corrosion, and also refilling your cooling fluid.

>>56944493
>once a month
tighten your hose clamps nigger

if you use distilled water with no additives other than a biocide, and don't mix metals, you only have to flush and refill once every six months to a year

>>56944493
>once a month
>leakage
>corrosion
I flush the distilled water in my loop once a year, it's never discoloured.

My loop has never leaked, and it's had the same clear hoses for 4 years.

>>56942725
listen if you can blow like $1000 on water cooling components, you should just instead get a phase change computer case to do some real overclocking.

When I built my new house, I installed heat pipes directly from my office to an AC unit in the basement. I then plumbed all of the lines from my case to the wall port.

>>56942725
Maybe if you got an all in one it would look decent to you. Goes without saying but you're a retard

Always figured it was more of a hobby thing, although you can run quieter if you have huge rads with a bunch of fans.

I'd rather spend the $$$ on better components personally and just put them in a windowless case with sound insulation padding.

>>56945573

Linus, pls.

>>56942725
What's the quietest way to run a pc, lets say you torrent at night and the noise annoys you, but it also has to be able to run games and shit

File: hxp-193_p1-700x700.jpg (48KB, 700x700px) Image search: [Google]

48KB, 700x700px

>>56945573
I hope you used a liquid to liquid heat exchanger instead of allowing both systems to use the same fluid.

File: potemkin_02.jpg (52KB, 720x358px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 720x358px

>>56943397
It kindof is.

>>56946982
Water cooling is less noisy than air cooling and can provide good cooling even if ran on silent mode, air doesnt cool for shit in that case. However, the least noisy air coolers arent really that much louder than the least noisy water cooling loops. So you dont really get that much from using AiOs or custom loops, its just a nice bonus. Its basically slightly better performance and slightly less noise for way more money.

>>56947174
K, thanks. I would have thought the pumps would be louder than a fan, but that just shows what i know

>>56942725
>It literally looks awful
awful in what way? aesthetically? no fucking way.
seems like it's a pain for maintenance? yeah it is. it's a lot like learning how to build a computer, there's a lot of specific things you need to know and a lot of things need to be taken into account, like measurements, sizes etc.
is it worth it? some will argue yes, some will say no but honestly the most annoying thing is watching poorfags dismiss it simply because they'll never be able to afford it.

you also get much better temps with custom loops over CLCs.

>>56947198
Depends on the pump. D5 is god-tier. DDC is smaller and fits in places that the D5 can't, but does have a bit of noise to it. All other pumps are poorfag tier.

>>56947198
Can be the case but completely depends on the pump. The Corsair AiOs have retarded pumps for example. They are noisy as hell. EKWB on the other hand uses pumps that are rather quiet. Really depends on the amount of money youre willing to spend (as usual).

>>56943282
>i prefer black tubing and dark fittings
So much this.
I used to have ultraviolet active liquid in transparent tubing, colorful fittings, the whole deal. Switched to clear water, and black tubing, looks soo much better

>>56942725
>looks awful
>he fell for the windowed case meme

>>56942826
>It is useless for 95% of the users, but about 15% use it.
Kek, I like your math.

>>56947725
He was implying that it is useless for at least 10% of people who do it

>>56942725
I've done it for quiet some time and can give you the rundown.
Firstly don't bother unless you care about looks, hardcore overclocking, or both.
You can make it look beautiful if you have an artistic eye and you are interested in it from that perspective, this is obvious.
Overclocking is hit and miss. Don't bother unless you are comfortable with really over volting your CPU, and then flashing custom bios on your GPU and modding msi afterburner. Even then it's varried results.
Ofc the nice thing is you can keep everything other than your Gpu waterblock for a long time, so it's a decent value there, once you have it you have it. Maintenance can be a bitch if shit starts leaking or something.

>>56942826
>reading comprehension

>>56942725
muh 50MHz higher overclock

>>56947753
>10%

You mean two thirds.

>>56947977
Yes
Shit i am retarded.

File: 1452705807730.png (67KB, 414x248px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 414x248px

>>56942725
>Is water cooling a meme?

Outside of supercomputer clusters? Yes.
The extreme cost difference for minimal performance gain over a good air cooling setup. More prone to failure as well.

It depends on the application.

An AIO CPU cooler with a 120mm rad really has no benefit over a good air cooler, and in fact is often noisier than an aircooler. But a custom loop running into a 480mm rad really is going to help with both noise and cooling. A system like that will move a massive amount of heat, and because the rad is so massive the fans will barely have to work to dissipate that heat.

But really the benefit of watercooling is in GPUs. You can get a good aftermarket air cooler for a CPU and never worry about it but that isn't the case with the GPU. GPUs run very hot and under load they can get very loud. Yet there are few easy aftermarket options for cooling them. The best move really is watercooling, the card will run way cooler and quieter.

>It literally looks awful

This too depends on the application. At the minimum, using an AIO cooler will mean you don't have to have some monstrous heatsink and fan thing sticking off your motherboard.

As far as custom loops go, aesthetics are what you make it. Since the loop is designed by the user there's no excuse not to like it and there are options for every aesthetic sense. You can go gaudy with bright colors and fancy parts, you can go practical with A-to-B hosing with clear coolant, you can go stealth and hide as much of it as you want. And if you just want the practical aspects you can just get a side panel without a window.

>>56948686
I don't like watercooling GPUs because, unlike good air coolers with fans that turn off at idle, they are not silent at idle. I don't like noise when I'm working.

My ideal solution would be some kind of water-block which also has heatpipes to a big heatsink such that passive cooling is possible at idle and the pump kicks in at load. But I don't think such a thing exists and I don't have the time to build it.

>>56948933

I know very little about thermodynamics, but doesn't the water itself act as a heatsink?

If you have a dedicated GPU loop and your GPU is idling and you turn the pump off won't the water wick a manageable amount of heat away, similar to how some air cooled GPUs turn the fans off below a certain temp?

air > AIO

custom loop is too expensive

>>56942725
AIO is shit, custom loops like EK kits are great but extremely expensive.

>>56948969
Yes water does, but not as good if its just sitting there.

>>56942725
no

It's a meme for being quiet. If you want quiet get a fractal r5 windowless and call it a day.

>>56949413
Do you know how much of a difference the fractal with and without window makes? The windowed os cheaper on sale.

>>56948969
Water could be used as heatsink. Powerplant use water as their working fluid and cooling fluid (condenser).

>>56942725

are cards like, with the built in cooling, good?

>>56942725
> its a lot quieter
It's only quieter when you can ghetto-rig it to a car radiator. If that's the case - yes, you can do watercooling even without fans.

I've been water cooling for many years now. I don't think water cooling makes much sense anymore unless you simply enjoy doing projects like this. It's relatively expensive, time consuming and doesn't help much (sometimes not at all) with overclocking.

It can make a high performance, overclocked system virtually silent even under full load, though. That's not something you can do with air cooling, but it's only useful for enthusiasts. The vast majority of people will get everything they want from a well designed air cooling system, and it will be a lot less hassle and cost.

>>56949655
that's not true. with water cooling you can run multiple inaudible fans. that's kinda the point, you transport the heat to a radiator which allows you to dissipate the heat over a much larger surface area. the result is that you need very little airflow, which means no noise.

It's ridiculously expensive, changing components becomes a 2 hour job minimum and it's not maintenance free.

It his however the only way of keeping a 200W+ GPU quiet. Anyone saying their 200W+ GPU is quiet on air is lying.

>>56942725
cooling is a meme. watercooling is simply retarded
go fanless

>>56949791
>Anyone saying their 200W+ GPU is quiet on air is lying.

My 350W R9 Fury on a Sapphire Tri-X cooler is pretty quiet, and even quieter if undervolted.

It's got one of those coolers that goes past the end of the PCB and blows air right through the heatsink unopposed- which seems quite effective. This heat sink extension alone is probably of a similar size and weight to a Noctua U12S.

The cost of this is the card is big and heavy.