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."

Comments

Go to the junkyard instead

[corebreech]

Watercools his system using a radiator from a '55 Lincoln. You gotta love it.

Not a bad looking box, either (though I usually end up looking at my monitor more than I do my computer case.)

It seems to me that with all the concern over cyber-pollution these days (discarded monitors and other computer components) maybe it's time to take a greener approach and harvest whatever relics we can from the last great love affair with speed and power: the automobile.

The trend is towards customized boxes we build ourselves anyways, right? So go to the local junkyard and shop American for a change.

Re:Go to the junkyard instead

[sharkey]

My pappy said, "Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop moddin' that Hot-Rod Lincoln!"

Nope, just doesn't have the same ring to it.

This can be a good thing, if...

[Falconpro10k]

this could be great if people knew how to service them properly, in my own mind, watercooling is more effective than aircooling in many applications (cars, computers etc) but CARE must be exercised. What was once a hardware hacker's toy is now becoming mainstream, this is a VERY good thing.. .

Watercoolers

[daeley]

I think watercooler computers are a bad idea. I have enough trouble getting interrupted in my cubicle without a crowd of people wanting to stand around my computer talking about yesterday's episode of "American Idol 4: The Revenge."

Comparison?

[insecuritiez]

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!

Re:Comparison?

[Skater]

But...so what? I mean, at some point, it doesn't matter how cool it is; the only thing to worry about is that it doesn't overheat. At some point it becomes bragging rights rather than actually useful.

My processor runs at 35c pretty much constantly no matter what load I put on it. Room variations sometimes make that tick slightly upward. Removing the case cover the other day dropped it 2c.

I guess if you're going to overclock it, then you'd want it cooler. But if not, then all you really need to accomplish is keeping it below "lockup/meltdown" level.

--RJ

Re:Comparison?

[MBCook]

Lots of sites do many MANY reviews. Overclockers.com, Hardocp.com, and even THG have done stories on watercooling. I've been following the "scene" for quite a while now, as the noise from my PCs drives me nots. There are a few thing I can comment on:

• Watercooling is MUCH more efficent than the average stock heatsink. You can beat a cheap watercooling system with a REALLY GOOD heatsink, but...
• Watercooling is much QUIETER. In a normal heatsink, you are cooling a small area with a small fan (on the order of 60x60mm for a good heatsink/fan, but you can use an 80x80mm fan). But with the radiator that cools in a (standard) watercooling setup, you can fit at least one 80mm fan, or even 2. And since the air is designed to pass through it and over it (instead of onto it and off the sides) it's quieter. You can either run your system cold at a decent noise level, or go near silent and get fine temperatures.
• You can cool the water many ways. While most of the time you run it though a radiator, I have seem setups on the 'net that use a bong (Water is sprayed in a tube of air as a mist, it loses it's heat as it falls through the air), groud cooling (one guy buried a welding tank DEEP in his yard. He pumps water in and out, and the earth cools it for him), watercooling (you could make a little heat exchanger that runs cold water from your water pipes next to the water from your PC to cool it down), etc. You have OPTIONS.
• The biggest problem I've seen is usually the cost. This is mostly due to the fact that a LARGE number of watercoolers are overclockers, and they are willing to PAY big cash for a great waterblock and such. So the majority of waterblocks you find cost $50 or more. So if you cool your CPU, Graphics card, and chipser, you could easily spend $150 on the blocks alone if you wanted to. Most watercooling kits (that cool the CPU and graphic card) seem to be around $300. This is due both to the aformentioned situation, and low volume of sales (relative to other options, like a new heatsink).
• Customisation! You think putting a cold cathode in your PC is cool? How 'bout putting an adative in your watercooling water that under blacklights or ultraviolet lights glows a bright color. It looks REALLY cool. Check the forums mentioned below to find some pics of this.

Learn more, it is facinating. Look around the old articles on HardOCP and Overclockers.com and you can find out a ton. Just search google! Also, if you look at like the HardOCP forums under cooling, you can find tons of pics of people's Watercooled PCs.

Prescott will actually dissipate around 130W

[Alereon]

The 103W figure for the Prescott 3.6Ghz is actually the Thermal Design Power. This is the amount of power the processor is expected to use during "normal" operation. A P4-C 3.0Ghz with HyperThreading has a TDP of about 80W, with an actual maximum power usage of 104W. Assuming a similar scale, a Prescott 3.6Ghz can be expected to dissipate around 130W. It's this maximum figure that really matters, since I don't think most people want their processor to throttle during gaming or whenever they are driving their CPU hard.

Am I the only one...

[achurch]

who thinks it would be more sensible to find ways of reducing power dissipation rather than (or even alongside) better methods of cooling?

(Yes, I know the answer is that nobody actually needs these new CPUs, but you know Microsoft and Intel won't stand for that...)

Solve colling with a new case Mod.

[jellomizer]

Get a portable Freezer or refrigerator put the computer parts in it. Find a way to keep the humidity out. Put a couple of ports for for USB and monitor and your all set.
I feel that heat is becoming a major problem with making faster processors. You guys in college should quit your Computer Science and Engineering and go into thermal physics. That is where the future is in.

Tips to remember for water cooling

[thriemus]

3 Tips for successful water cooling...

1: Never fill the water cooling system reservoir with boiling water from the kettle.

2: Coffee... as much as we all like it coffee _does not_ serve as an efficient coolant. (Tastes great though)

3: Dont run your water pump when there is no water passing through it. (that one is actually a serious one...)

Please, please...

[rmdyer]

Manufacturers, please, please, start putting the processors on the back-sides of the motherboards!

The back side can be one huge heat sink, with large cooling fins, just like nice audio amp gear. If need be, the entire backplane can be one extruded piece of alloy. You can even include water cooling "safely" as no piping needs to enter the case at all. The back-side is the outside of the case!

What is so hard about this idea?

+2

Navy cooling method

[EricTheMad]

Personally, I like the Navy's method of liquid cooling. The circuit boards are coated with a thin layer of rubber. They're then plugged into their sockets that are located inside of a water filled trough. Not the most elegant of solutions, but it works.

Zalman invents fanless computer (TNN 500A)

[SlashCrunchPop]

Zalman TNN 500A fanless computer

Now, is this something most people would need or use? In terms of noise most definitely.