Your cooling setup and why did you choose/go that route?

[dgianstefani]

Custom Water.

It's a massive pain in the ass at times, building and six month clean outs.
But, and with experience, it's the best current method of running at high performance levels, for long periods at the lowest volume output, and that's it really.

U can forget about the 6 month clean outs with a coolant upgrade.

I mean, I'll vacuum out and use high pressure air jets to clean the radiators and filters, but that's it. And you do that with air anyway.

 

[r9]

Hi,
What did they change on rev B to make it cheaper ?

Think it's the fans.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

U can forget about the 6 month clean outs with a coolant upgrade.

I mean, I'll vacuum out and use high pressure air jets to clean the radiators and filters, but that's it. And you do that with air anyway.

Yeah but my case limits the effectiveness of air blasts but with a simpler setup I agree.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yeah but my case limits the effectiveness of air blasts but with a simpler setup I agree.

Hi,
Here's his post about fluids good advice

Try mayhems XTR, never needs changing, maybe run it through a paper coffee filter after the first year to remove any gunk from the rest of the loop. Two years now and still good as new for me.

 

[Lei]

I have been thinking about the pro's and cons about air vs. Aio vs. Custom water cooling vs. Face cooling. I don't think I will take dry ice or ln2 in this thread as that is extreme cooling and not very usable for every day use.

What's face cooling? Is that phase cooling

I use aircooled and have all ways used it. I use it do to price that's cheaper than custom loops and a big aircooler is ...

I disagree. With air you eventually throttle. Even if you don't OC with water, 5% of your total cpu+gpu price costs the same as watercooling.

Probably 15 years ago I went with an external water-cooling solution and have never went back. Radiators, pump, reservoir with quick disconnect hoses in an external case....

Yep, most of my stuff are out of chassis. Rad, pump, res....

Also it wasn't that expensive. Don't buy "water-cooling" hoses. Just go to homedepot and get it for like .33 a foot. Don't use "Water-cooling" fittings go to a hardware store. My reservior is custom made from PVC pipe, it's inside a box why do I care how it looks? Don't buy "water-cooling" additives. Use Distilled water with a little distilled vinegar. And finally make sure you are not mixing metals. Always get nickel plated or copper blocks.

Yep, that's the hose I use. And my reservoir is this:

Hi,
Never seen any copper or brass damaged by vinegar personally
No need to beg man just post up some source showing damage you claim will do.

Copper gets real clean with vinegar. Not sure if it's damage, but it suddenly turns rosy again.

.Good water components can be an investment that can last you many years through many builds.

Except gpu block which u have to change it with every model.

That is an interesting concept.

Exactly.

 

[Tomgang]

What's face cooling? Is that phase cooling



I disagree. With air you eventually throttle. Even if you don't OC with water, 5% of your total cpu+gpu price costs the same as watercooling.



Yep, most of my stuff are out of chassis. Rad, pump, res....



Yep, that's the hose I use. And my reservoir is this:
View attachment 259567


Copper gets real clean with vinegar. Not sure if it's damage, but it suddenly turns rosy again.


Except gpu block which u have to change it with every model.


Exactly.

Yes i mean phase cooling. It was a typo.

A cpu dosent throttle on aircooling, unless the aircooler is insuficient for the task or cpu to cool. Yes a cpu does variate with core clock depending in temp. But that has not much to do with air cooling in my opinion, but more like how the manufactor wants the cpu operate. Litterly throttle to me is when the CPU throttle down to do critical temp or power limits. AMD zen 3 cpu boost parameters funktions much like that of a GPU. I no problems cooling 5950X with the cpu cooler i use. Stock all core load it keeps temp below 60 C and single peak at 73C while with PBO single temp is the same and multi raise to 76C. First with a manuel all core oc to 4.65 and 1.375 volts the cpu hits above 80 C. more precisly 86 C and close to the thermal throttle point of 90 C.

I will keep my CPU´s aircooled for sure.

 

[Morgoth]

Hi,
Long ago it might of been
Now, not so much if you've taken note to some of the wild policies they've enacted in the last couple years :zip:

But clearly no air conditioning is being used which is in it's self whack

On topic though
Both water loops were a x2 thing when I had more money than sense I spoke of
.

my system used to look like that to back in 2010 XD

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Hi,
Here's his post about fluids good advice

I use EK cryo fluid , no change ever.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

Fresh delids.

Opteron 148 top
XBox 360 (I can't remember the core code name)

 

[shovenose]

Always been a big fan of air cooling. No pun intended.

there are definitely cases where liquid cooling is worth it but they are rare.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Always been a big fan of air cooling. No pun intended.

there are definitely cases where liquid cooling is worth it but they are rare.

I agree relative to typical consumer use.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

Always been a big fan of air cooling. No pun intended.

there are definitely cases where liquid cooling is worth it but they are rare.

Really a water loop is also air cooling. The water just caries your thermals to another location for dissipation at the rads.... where the air cooling takes place.

 

[freeagent]

I disagree. With air you eventually throttle.

My results with an air cooler have been better than many using an AIO on the same CPU..

 

[dgianstefani]

My results with an air cooler have been better than many using an AIO on the same CPU..

AIOs are crap in general. They're at best, a compromise, and at worst a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

Ah there we go. Better temps already!

 

[A Computer Guy]

I use EK cryo fluid , no change ever.

I find this interesting. I've read a varying degree of opinions on this. I think it has a lot to do with particular setups so I would like to understand more how your system works without changing out the liquid.
I thought you needed to change the liquid every few years at least due to the eventual ionization of the liquid that may increase the chance of corrosion. (despite the anti-corrosives in the liquid)
For example if you want to keep nickel plated blocks looking nickel.
Is this not correct?

 

[Lei]

Hi,
I've never personally used it for anything not even salad

But most I've read have used a little bit mixed with distilled water to clean radiators.

Then you are really missing Caesar salad.

Really a water loop is also air cooling. The water just caries your thermals to another location for dissipation at the rads.... where the air cooling takes place.

There's air blowing on many other planets, but they're either too cold or hot. What keeps your body and earth at stable temps is large amounts of water. Amazing internal heat capacity.

By ambient i mean the literal room temp becomes 40C

You might become the first person to leak himself on his pc

Summer here is just... not good for existing. Went to the beach, 45C, 100KM/h winds, thunderstorm blowing in which of course felt great - was like being in front of an open oven door.
And the lightning started the bushfires i had to drive through to get home so... yeaaaaaah.

Aussie + high wattage system = learn to undervolt.

I love Aloha t-shirts. They camouflage any sweat stains.
And the Old Spice deodorant with Trevor Philips ads

That's the GTV5 guy.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Watercooling here for me. I did it to keep things quiet while still keeping the temps reasonable.

 

[freeagent]

Ah there we go. Better temps already!

View attachment 259578

As summer draws to a close..

I took advantage of some cooler temps the other morning, had the winderz open and the front fans on max, and 1.55v on the sticks I believe

 

[JrRacinFan]

@freeagent hey there bud. Nice clocks there!

 

[Deleted member 185158]

As summer draws to a close..

I took advantage of some cooler temps the other morning, had the winderz open and the front fans on max, and 1.55v on the sticks I believe

Tough actin tenactin in action right there!!!

Bench live with you guys right now.

I had to convert the mp4 to gif cause forum stuff I guess.

 

[cvaldes]

All cooling solutions (passive, air, AIO, custom liquid, more exotic methods) are compromises. It's just like any choice you have (and not just PC cooling).

In this instance: thermal performance, acoustics, maintenance overhead, risk tolerance, computational performance and of course cost. And yes, also aesthetics for some.

It's also worth noting that today's AIOs are far more reliable than the ones from 10-15 years ago. If they were still really bad, there would be people reciting horror stories of tubes bursting, ruined PCs, etc. on a daily basis at Reddit, here, elsewhere. But no.

For sure, water as a coolant has more thermal capacity than air. That's physics, not opinion. Ever splash water on your face on a hot day? Same physics.

It's important to note that one can mix cooling solutions in the same build and choose different solutions for another build. Just because I prefer a custom cooling loop on a high-wattage GPU like my 3080Ti and 2070 Super doesn't mean I necessarily want it for an RTX 3050 or RX 550.

I currently have four builds running, all of them using liquid is some format. One build (my primary gaming PC described in System Specs) is a full custom cooling loop for both the CPU and GPU. The other three have AIOs on the CPU, one with a custom cooling loop for the GPU, the other two have the stock air coolers for the graphics cards.

One thing I do notice with AIOs and custom liquid is that I can delay the fan response time and still get great thermals. I do this because my ears are sensitive to fan speed changes. This is something that doesn't show up in test results in hardware reviews. Reviewers only record sustained noise levels from peak loads via a benchmark which is not my usage case. My typical everyday usage makes CPU and GPU temperatures bounce up and down.

If I can cut the number of fan speed changes by 50% by using a water-based cooling solution versus air, that's a win for me because it's a far better experience from a total ownership perspective. Again, that's directly related to water's superior thermal capacity. I am willing to pay more for better acoustics.

For my daily driver PC (using an RTX 3050 with the stock cooler), I set the GPU fan curve to always have the fans at a minimal speed. That's because going from 0 rpm to 800 rpm is an audible annoyance.

In my primary gaming PC, the waterblocked graphics card is vertically mounted and an air cooler cannot fit on the CPU.

Another noteworthy detail: using AIOs on CPU sockets provides easy physical access to the adjacent m.2 slot. More than any other component in my PCs, I move the boot m.2 SSDs around. I can reach these without disassembling anything. This is the main reason I have stopped using CPU air coolers in my builds.

I still keep a couple of air coolers around when I have a motherboard I'm testing on a table, but I won't use them in a case anymore.

 

[Chicken Patty]

I've used air, AIO, and custom water over the years and atleast for me since I'm in Miami and it's never really "cold" here my cooling comes down more to ambient temperatures. With a good air cooler, I get just as good Temps as any water setup I've had. However, my latest build has a NZXT AIO and where this does beat air cooling is in noise. I set my pump and fans to silent thru the NZXT CAM software and voila, hear next to nothing.

I now decided to go custom water with a distro plate simply because I wanted to do something unique I had never done before, and different than your traditional water cooling. Of course many have done this, but to me it's new.

So yeah, honestly as far as performance for me it's been the same for all methods. Just comes down to cost/looks to me. This can be different for others, for me personally I don't consider noise as it doesn't bother me.

 

[ThrashZone]

Then you are really missing Caesar salad.

Hi,
Being in Texas I'm a ranch dressing man put it on everything

Yeah I'm on all air on one build it was on water though but this is easier to move fast

 

[A Computer Guy]

First my old X58 system. The zip ties o nthe CPU cooler are there to lift the cpu cooler bit so it dosent hit the fans on the chipsæt else it would made a nasty noise. Well Ghetto mode, but it worked well.

I still have that same Antec case in use today. It was an airflow beast for it's time and nice features with the user controlled fan speeds and cleanable dust filters and of course the side panel fan.