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Self-Contained PC Liquid Coolers Explored

Posted by timothy on from the very-small-submarines dept.

MojoKid writes "Over the last few years an increasing number of liquid coolers have been positioned as high-end alternatives to traditional heatsink and fan combinations. This has been particularly true in the boutique and high-end PC market, where a number of manufacturers now offer liquid coolers in one form or another. These kits are a far cry from the water coolers enthusiasts have been building for years. DIY water coolers typically involve separate reservoirs and external pumps. The systems tested here, including Intel's OEM cooler that was released with their Sandy Bridge-E CPU, contain significantly less fluid and use small pumps directly integrated into the cooling block as a self-contained solution. Integrated all-in-one kits may not offer the theoretical performance of a high-end home-built system, but they're vastly easier to install and require virtually no maintenance. The tradeoffs are more than fair, provided that the coolers perform as advertised."

20 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Combination by Framboise · · Score: 3, Funny

    When will we see the office PC combined with the coffee machine?

    1. Re:Combination by Garybaldy · · Score: 2

      What this. http://boingboing.net/2002/12/08/coffeemaking-pc-case.html boingboing

    2. Re:Combination by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      I had a P4 that made an excellent coffee warmer, does that count?

      Seriously if you need a good cooler that isn't gonna break the bank I can't recommend more highly the one i just got, the Coolermaster Hyper N520. the thing was only $35, easy to install, works on pretty much ANY Intel or AMD CPU, and right now I have a modest OC on my AMD 6 core, bumping it up to 2.8GHz with a turbo of 3.3GHz, and with all 6 cores slamming doing a video transcode and without the arctic silver settled yet (don't use anything else, nothing beats the silver IMHO) the machine is barely hitting 86 degrees F without even having an exhaust fan. The combination of a pusher AND a puller fan (comes standard) along with the copper heatpipes really sucks the heat away from the CPU and surprisingly even though the fans are 3 pin this thing is quiet as a churchmouse.

      So while I may be trying to get more aggressive on my OC after the silly season thanks to how chilly the coolermaster keeps the CPU (and the fact the new Asrock has an excellent OC utility built in) frankly I couldn't be happier, hell it even managed to fit nicely in a mid tower without needing to break out a dremel tool. Frankly for $35 USD I don't see how you could ask for more in a CPU cooler.

      Slightly OT but not really since we ARE talking about CPUs and some of my fellow /.ers may not have heard, but on Dec 5th AMD announced due to the fact that they were getting more orders for the Bobcat and Bulldozer APUs than they can fill (from what i heard the Bobcat really threw them, the OEMs went nuts for that chip and threw it in everything from netbooks to all in ones to HTPCs and blew through their stock, although HP and Gateway is also cranking laptops with the A-series quad like it's going out of style) they have halted production of ALL AM3 chips to give the capacity to Bobcat and Bulldozer. so all you guys that have been eyeing some AMD chip? BUY NOW. I had to go to three different eTailers before i could find a 95w Thuban, the 6 cores and the BE are going quickly and when the stock on hand is gone that's it friends.

      I figure with this coolermaster and easily OCed Thuban loaded into an Asrock with 8gb of RAM and 3Tb of HDD space i'm set for the next 5 years, maybe longer barring some new killer app that actually needs more than 6 cores. So with that let me leave you with my new happy song! We Wish You A Merry Thuban, We Wish You A Merry Thuban, We Wish You A Merry Thuban, And A Happy Six Cooooorrrres! Yee haw!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    3. Re:Combination by nabsltd · · Score: 2

      I have a (Hyper 212 Plus) which is very similar to the N520, it's the size of the radiators used by these liquid coolers and it has amazing cooling ability.

      The N520 performs quite a bit worse than the Hyper 212 Plus. It was a step backward for Cooler Master. For the numbers of damn near every heatsink, see FrostyTech. They never drop heatsinks off their comparison, so the latest review always gives the full picture.

      Although it's a little pricier now than when I bought, the Zaward Vapor 120 is the best under $50 heatsink by far, but the 212 Plus at $26 is definitely worth it, and makes me wonder why the $34 at best N520 even exists.

    4. Re:Combination by nabsltd · · Score: 2

      damned if it hasn't dropped to 84F while still cranking out transcodes!

      You must not be using all the cores, as the N520 can only keep a full 125W load at about 20 degrees Celsius over ambient, and I highly doubt that you have your computer in a 50 degree Fahrenheit room.

      Run something like Prime 95 with 6 threads and see how it heats up.

    5. Re:Combination by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      Don't forget to take into account the thermal resistance between the CPU die and the coffee. the 70/100/105 degree limit is for the die temperature

  2. Print link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Print link

  3. The money quote by SpzToid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "In every cooler we tested, the pump noise was actually louder than the fans when the CPU was idling."

    --
    You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
    1. Re:The money quote by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Some labs have experimented with solid state pumps using a conductive coolant propelled using an electromagnetic system. Quiet as can be, but the expensive coolant (gallium alloy) renders them cost-prohibative.

    2. Re:The money quote by Yaotzin · · Score: 4, Informative

      The HDD is sometimes louder than the fans when the CPU is idling, it's not a big deal. What's attractive for me is that they offer roughly the same performance as more expensive non-H2O coolers and weigh half as much. I have used Corsair's H50 and Antec's Kühler H20 620, which are made by the same company apparently, because they look exactly the same. Slightly annoying installation, but I am satisfied otherwise. Leaves a lot of space in my case, which is appreciated.

      --
      Error: No error occurred
    3. Re:The money quote by Rockoon · · Score: 2

      What I dont understand with water cooling system is whats wrong with simply taking advantage of convection, rather than having pumps.

      Is there something about water viscosity being too hard to overcome or something?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    4. Re:The money quote by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Virtually all cooking oil is far more corrosive than you would want to use with your PC. Mineral oil is probably the best cheap option. In a metal box with a metal lid and no airflow there should be virtually zero fire hazard, but I wouldn't take my word for it. The material of the case is less important than the color; a thin coat of flat black is what's wanted here. You may, however, want to keep a fan and heat sink on some of the components, because you can't count on convection circulating the liquid quickly enough to prevent localized heating. You could, however, undervolt a fan to keep it from trying to murder itself.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. A good idea moving forward by RanceJustice · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've always appreciated Corsair's products; in an industry where the typical MO is to push out the newest widget, sell before everyone forgets about it or gets upstaged, and never look back, they are one of the few companies that seem to understand that you're making an investment with their hardware. For instance, I wrote them a thank-you email after discovering that they offered two Upgrade Kits for their flagship 800D chassis. When the 800D first launched, SATA6 and USB3.0 weren't included. Had this been LianLi or Silverstone they would have released the "801D" and tell you to upgrade by buying a new $200+ chassis. Corsair on the other hand, offered a couple of $10 kits; one a new backplane for the hotswap SATA board, SATA 6.0 compatible and a new front port assembly with USB3.0 support. I have no second thoughts supporting them.

    For years those of us trying to make significant overclocks on our PCs, but not wanting to commit to an additional $500 or so in homebuilt liquid cooling, were left to HUGE air coolers that required $80-120 investment, plus fans and cooling paste. These were huge monoliths that were heavy and difficult to install. The advent of the Corsair self-contained coolers is the first "ready for prime-time" solution that fixes this issue. You are given equal or better cooling than high end air at an equal or better price, with a much easier install process. With Sandy Bridge-E and AMD FX, we're just dipping a toe back into the days when serious cooling is necessary to attain a high overclock, so its great that this hardware is maturing now.

    For anyone with a high-end air cooler or looking to build a new system and overclock it, these are probably the best off-the-shelf solutions you're going to find these days that don't have the learning curve of building and maintaining a custom-liquid setup and for most people who aren't trying to break records, they'll give you a ton of extra performance through the overclock.

    1. Re:A good idea moving forward by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Even if you're not overclocking, water cooling is good, especially for GPU heavy machines. There are companies which will assemble a water cooled 3 GPU setup. It looks inside like the kind of system which would be a hassle to do, but paying for it makes it hassle free. They generally have the gamer look which is kind of funny at work, but they work well. They are also very quiet considering the gigantic heat output.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re:A good idea moving forward by petermgreen · · Score: 3, Informative

      Even if you're not overclocking, water cooling is good

      The mid to high end cooling market gave up on conventional heatsinks ages ago. Nowadays they use either heatpipes or watercooling (the so-called "high end air coolers" are heatpipe based). Conventional heatsinks aren't very good at getting lots of heat out of small spaces.

      Both methods can take heat quietly from from a small and/or difficult to cool space (PC expansion cards suck from an air cooling perspective because they the motherboard and the connector plate on adjacent sides) and take it to a large radiator that can be more easilly cooled.

      The advantage of heatpipes is you don't need a pump.

      The advantage of watercooling is flexibility. Heatpipes tend to be (I don't know if they technically have to be) sealed copper pipes, slight bending is possible but there is little flexibility in the system and so the radiator has to be attatched to the pickup. This isn't a problem for a laptop where custom mounts can be designed in but in a conventional desktop it means you end up with the whole cooling assembly bolted to the heatsink mounts on the motherboard. This is bad for robustness and means you can't easilly route the heated air directly out of the case.

      Sealed unit watercoolers give a bit more flexibility, enough to bolt the radiator to the outside of the case (which is obviously superior to just having it sit above the motherboard.

      Full custom water loops are even more flexible but are more expensive and more hassle.

      especially for GPU heavy machines.

      Agreed, PC expansion slots were simply never designed for good cooling (if they were they would have the backplane opposite the connector plate rather than adjacent to it). So the only way GPU vendors can make a workable integrated cooling system for high power cards is to use a leafblower like setup.

      Unfortunately they don't make third party cooling easy either, pretty much every GPU model and sometimes even different cards with the same GPU needs a different waterblock so you are unlikely to see sealed unit watercooling for GPUs.

      They are also very quiet considering the gigantic heat output.

      Probablly about a kilowatt or so at most. That is like a fan heater on it's low setting, it's not that gigantic really.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  5. All these fancy coolers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And you still use your computer to read Slashdot all day.

  6. Why IBM returns to water cooling for mainframes by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even IBM is returning to water cooling for their mainframes: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9183068/Water_cooling_returns_to_IBM_mainframe

    The reasons:

    . . . IBM saw fit to offer water cooling to help reduce overall data center cooling needs . . . the optional water cooling system can improve overall environmental needs by about 12%, which may help some IT managers "squeeze the last piece of floor space in before they go buy a new data center . . . Water is more efficient than air in removing heat . . .

    Need a reason to justify the higher cost of your PC? Hey, it's "green" . . . !

    . . . and my data center is getting full . . . I constantly trip over USB cables when I get up off the sofa . . .

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  7. All in one by Garybaldy · · Score: 2

    liquid coolers are not attempting to compete with the liquid coolers we have known of for years. They are competing with high end air coolers. As someone who was looking in to some of the all in ones. I ended up with one of the high end air coolers. Granted my case had the room for one of the dual 120mm fans with the corresponding heat sink. Price, Noise and cooling capability for all in ones equal the larger traditional cooling methods. The other thing they are good for is getting people into water cooling with little risk. Less i not forget the "cool' factor of a water cooled rig.

    1. Re:All in one by petermgreen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I see a few advantages of sealed unit watercoolers compared to their heatpipe based competition

      1:they tend to be smaller and lighter
      2: there is some flexibility in radiator placement (good for those building small form factor systems)
      3: they exhaust the CPU heat straight out of the case from the rad rather than relying on general case airflow to take it out
      4: a large portion of their weight is mounted on the case rather than the motherboard. That means less risk of damage when moving the machine.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  8. They did? by arisvega · · Score: 3, Funny

    I read, "Self-Contained PC Liquid Coolers Exploded"

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