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Watercooling Drifting Mainstream
pacc writes "With Prescott said to dissipate 103 W and the dual Apple G5 playing in the same league, air cooling seems less than sensible.
Nikkei Electronics has an article about watercoolers getting standardized by Hitachi. A technology pioneered by a NEC desktop last May."
Has there ever been a head to head with air-cooling vs water-cooling?
Water better be damn good to risk my system to the exposure of fluids.
Davak
Seems like forever ago when I first saw a water cooled system. But I never thought I would see the day it went mainstream.
OTOH, the media gave it a push lately, so what you are witnessing is probably a shortlived fad. Not that it isn't cool. (No pun intended.)
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I overclock. I run a decent cooling fan. I have never seen solid comparison results between water cooling and just high-performance fans. If I (and the public) were to see dramatic improvements published in say THG or some other more mainstream publications perhaps water-cooling will gain even more ground. But as it is I have never really seen anything that has jumped out at me and said "go water". If it is so good and is gaining more ground then why haven't I seen more about it? Slashdot educate me!
To have mass public acceptance, it has to be pretty cheap to buy. And by being cheap to buy, it may also be cheap material, or sub-par, so it may have more chances to leak. I've been burned (more exactly my CPU) twice by a cheap CPU fan and an AMD CPU fan. The last thing I need now if being "flooded" by a cheap watercooler. Especially since a burned CPU breaks the CPU and the motherboard most of the time, but water spilled on a running motherboard, that's gonna do a LOT of damage.
(Yes, I know the answer is that nobody actually needs these new CPUs, but you know Microsoft and Intel won't stand for that...)
Wont work, here is why:
The freezer you are speaking of is a heat pump. It moves heat from the air inside it to the coolant which then dissipates heat via coils on the back. What advantage do the coils have on the back that the blades on a heat sink don't have? Surface area? Maybe, but that could be changed with better heat sink designs. Besides, the heat sink has a fan to move the air, the freezer doesn't have air moving across those coils. The freezer may sound like a good idea but when you get down to the thermodynamics of the beast it too is using air dissipate heat.
Less then sensible? Maybe you just need a better air cooling design. Since the G5 was brought up in the post, it seems reasonable to mention that Apple is really pushing the idea that the G5's are quiet*:
http://www.apple.com/powermac/design.htmlIf a system is having trouble dissipating that kind of heat with air flow alone (or sounding like a jet engine), then you just have a poorly designed system. And maybe it's just me, but I have some qualms about putting water in a poorly designed system.
* of course, we haven't had independent reviews yet, so...
Having installed a car radiator on the computer, perhaps the heat could also be used for lunch - although right now I'd be happy with a heater, or an evaporative cooler in summer.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
People who aren't hardcore about there overclock are starting to get annoyed by all that racket. I know a friend of mine who upgraded his CPU just to get a quieter fan with the upgrade.
Creative Labs is also keen on marketing 'whisper quiet' cases so people can actually hear those ridiculous SNR values they claim.
Every friend of mine who has entered into the water cooling realm has burned out at least one CPU before getting the system stable enough to work properly. Have fun, but be safe :)
The more you know, the less you understand.
all you hear about is 3 gigahertz this or 3 gigahertz that. what about the long pipeline that Pentiums have in the first place?
H z_ Myth.html
load up on the RAM and get that fast HD, but you never ever hear anyone complain about the inefficiency of Intels chip design.
but NO! that cant be.
http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/index.cfm?load=M
As much as we all like have our big huge CPUs and VPUs I think perhaps it's time to rethink the "speed at all costs" mentality of processor design. A lot of companies don't even try to optimize code anymore using the argument that processors are fast enough to handle it. Then processor companies use the fact that fast processors are needed to run this clunky software (I know this is simplistic and there is also a big numbers war between processor and video card companies). I think instead of basicly brute forcing more cooling we need to design components that are more efficient (produce less heat) and design computers that can dissipate heat well (kudos to apple for thermal zones, 9 low speed and quiet fans that are controlled by a thermometer). Also, more efficient code all around is a good thing for everyone.
Help I'm a rock.
What sort of coolant? Do you mean automotive coolant?
In comparison to water, auto coolant has:
* Lower thermal capacity
* Higher electrical conductivity
That basically makes it worse performaing, at higher risk. The only benefit is corrosion inhibitors, which are only good if you are using an aluminum block/radiator.
Water is perfectly fine for PC's - especially in an all copper system.
OK, it has a big specific heat capacity, but given that you can just increase the pump speed to compensate, why not use something non-conductive like paraffin? This wouldn't wreck your mobo when a joint popped.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Combine the glucose engine posted last week and you could get both power AND cooling from blood. The body is a great radiator.
Hmm. Maybe a little messy to setup, but you can't get much more portable than that!