ECO Advanced Liquid Cooling (A.L.C.)



Quote:
Originally Posted by Nimo /forum/post/18112731


less heat means longer life cycle for your hardware.

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Not really. Unless you are really cooking the thing beyond its design temps, less heat doesn't really mean much. It's just one more number that gearheads can compare to show off their E-dork machismo.


Honestly it is heat cycling that puts strain on the traces of circuits. Once it is up to steady state, there is little to no wear on it, unless you are cooking it to the point that the individual materials are breaking down.


Has anyone had a CPU, kept at a relatively sane but by no means cool temp, die on them before it was completely outdated and useless?


Regardless, if you like the cooler and it suits your needs, have at it. Personally, I don't think I would ever bother with water cooling in this day. CPUs are just too robust and efficient now to have a need for the complexity.


-Suntan



Quote:
Originally Posted by Suntan /forum/post/18114391


Not really. Unless you are really cooking the thing beyond its design temps, less heat doesn't really mean much. It's just one more number that gearheads can compare to show off their E-dork machismo.


Honestly it is heat cycling that puts strain on the traces of circuits. Once it is up to steady state, there is little to no wear on it, unless you are cooking it to the point that the individual materials are breaking down.


Has anyone had a CPU, kept at a relatively sane but by no means cool temp, die on them before it was completely outdated and useless?


Regardless, if you like the cooler and it suits your needs, have at it. Personally, I don't think I would ever bother with water cooling in this day. CPUs are just too robust and efficient now to have a need for the complexity.


-Suntan

Click to expand...

Since I built this system I've got the hardware bug in me. I think I'll take your advice and save my money.

If having a stable HTPC is your end goal which I assume is the goal of almost anyone here considering that the lack of stability is the htpc's largest fault basically then overclocking an HTPC is probably the most counter productive thing you could do. I have done overclocking and I have spent many years reading on overclocking forums. The only way to get a stable overclock is to barely overclock. Anything more and you spend countless hours tinkering. Considering the countless hours already spent tinkering just to maintain stability of everything else on an HTPC this seems like a huge bunch of nonsense when you could simply just buy a slightly faster processor. And since you dont need the fastest processor for an HTPC the end goal of overclocking is basically pointless. The tiny bit of performance achieved by a slight overclock is basically pointless as well and could probably be achieved with a few bios tweaks and the stock cooler or as I stated earlier probably about $20 by getting a faster processor.

I spent a lot of time and money on quiet cooling solutions.


Went with watercooling haven't looked back.


I've got a reserator 1 on my serious PC and a Reserator XT on my HTPC ( I'm a sucker for analogue needles).


The XT gave me some problems with the Zalman coolant it came with ( advice: use 100% distilled water and some anti-algae additive instead).


And the flow indicator is notorious for breaking down because of a design fault ( quite easy to fix yourself or you can buy fixed new ones).


Apart from that both have given good service for years. The Reserator 1 is pretty much completely silent ( have to put your ear to it to hear the pump). The XT has a fan which makes a little noise but is still quieter than the hard drives or the fans in my plasma and projector so isn't an issue.


Hottest either machine gets under load is about 42C , usually idles at about 32 and thats with the XT and HTPC in a cabinet and its cooling the cpu and gpu on the same loop.


I have one silent undervolted zalman fan pressurising the case at the front. One sucking a little bit of air out a blowhole on the top and the PSU is one of those active ones that only spins up the fan when it detects heat ( I've never seen it activate in all the years I've had the PSU). You still need a bit of airflow through the case even when you watercool.


Plan to put my 360 into the reserator loop to try and quieten that sucker.

we, should no better than to talk about Liquid cooling at the avsforum.

First of all. You MUST do a 48 hour leak test before you put your components in there


Second of all, there is another 48 hour test with everything but your motherboard plugged in and hard drives powered up.


Third, the distilled water won't immediately destroy your components, believe me, I know about this. I had my NB waterblock leak all over my video card. It's a mess, but it won't destroy it immediately.


This leak was only because I didn't leak test it first.


Most of the water components for sale today wouldn't have ANY reason to blow.


I am Tony and I have been watercooling for 3 years.



Quote:
Originally Posted by AnthonyB /forum/post/18119375


First of all. You MUST do a 48 hour leak test before you put your components in there


Second of all, there is another 48 hour test with everything but your motherboard plugged in and hard drives powered up.


)

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I give the loop an hour on its own outside the case.


Then I check the interior of the PC for leaks over the next few hours.


Then I'll give it a routine inspection with a torch every week or so.


Never had a leak (avoid some of the kit that is knocked up in someone's backyard though).


Don't use any toxic additives beyond a few drops of anti-algae solution. That way if you do get a leak the water shouldn't be too conductive and it won't stain anything.