Bottom Line: Is watercooling quieter than air??

S

skypine27

Gawd
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
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First off:

I've been screwing with PCs for a long time. I had a Peltier on a Pentium X so long ago I forgot what model it was. A P3 something, that I had OC'ed to hell. The chip ran at sub zero temps with the Peltier, and lasted about 4 months before destroying itself (this is before you could set voltages in the BIOS). Condensation could have also played a factor...

But anyway, my new big thing is a silent/near silent, high end PC (see sig). My system is not loud. Way quieter than my previous systems, when I thought loud ass Panflow fans that sounded like a jet engine intake were cool. However, Im looking to make my system near total silent.

So the bottom line is, is watercooling quieter than air? I have a stacker 830, and I can totally seal up the "Mesh" sidepanels with sound dampening matts:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/3039/noi-02/FrozenCPU_Noise_Dampening_Material.html?tl=g7c117s208

...or I can buy spray can type stuff from pepboys/autozone, mask up the mesh panels, and spray it all over the place until it dries and also create a decent sound barrier.

In any case, I can seal my stacker up pretty tight, as far as air/noise goes.

I just want to know, is watercooling quieter? I don't plan on ever going crazy with CPU/GPU overclock on this one. I run a QX6850, and I simply upped the multiplier to 11x to get 3.66 (stock 3.0) and thats it for CPU OC (22% OC). In the future, I may buy a 9770, which I'd also only mildly OC by changing the multiplier. As for the GPU, I bought a factory OC'ed GX2 model and will never even feel the need to install Riva Tuner to see if it can do more. I might swtich to a 9900 GX2 when they come out, but same thing, I'm not going to change its clock speed.

I just want the system to be dead quiet. Right now, the loudest thing in the system is the PSU intake fan, and I realize there ain't nothing I can do about that. See temps and volts under a medium load of creating an ISO from an 8GB DVD9 of FSX DVD1:



I run 6 fairly low RPM, quality, quiet fans. 3 Scythe S-Flex 21E's @ 1200 RPM, and 3 x 21Fs @ 1500 RPM.

If I go to WC for the GPU and CPU, can I ditch pretty much all the fans (except for 2?) I don't care if the HDs, Ram, and Mobo temps rise. But I assume I'm still going to have to run 2 case fans, one intake in the front and one exhuast in the rear just too cool the ram, mobo, and provide fresh air for the internal radiator. Then, I assume I'm going to have to run 2 x 120mm fans on the radiator. That's 4 fans, right now I only run 6 (well 7 if you count the fan on the GPU which would go away with a water block).
Then there's the pump noise. Then there's the fact the loudest part in my system is the 135mm intake fan on my PSU.

However, with watercooling I could totally seal up the mesh top, bottom, and side panels of the case and nearly totally block noise/airflow except for the bottom front intake and top rear exhuast. (I assume the radiator would be inside the case)

Bottom line, you think internal (ugly to do external) WC is queiter?

Thanks guys

Edit: some pics of the case I'd be sealing up:



 
For high performance, high heat components, custom water cooling can easily be much quieter than air. However, for low heat, low performance applications, air tends to be a much better choice.

For example, the rig I'm posting from now was built for silence, not performance. The only noise producing components it contains are three 400 RPM fans and two hard drives, though only one is powered on at any given time. Everything was chosen for silence, from the passive 2600 Pro, the Green Power hard drive, to the low heat E2180. I couldn't cool a QX6850 with the same setup, obviously.

I use liquid cooling in my gaming rig because it allows me to run those high performance, high heat producing components at an acceptable level of noise, but not a silent one. Again, I have all the gear meant for quiet operation, from the low restriction blocks, the low airflow restriction radiators, to the quiet, low powered pumps. One thing to note is that you generally use more fans in liquid cooling, not less, but you can run them at much lower speeds.

In the end, it really comes down to your definition of silence. I have exceptional hearing, so I would consider anything above a 400RPM fan easily audible. Anything above an 800RPM fan is loud to me. Some people claim 1900RPM fans are silent, which makes me think they're either deaf, or insane. :p
 
Of couse it is.
You should pair a good Rad that designed to use with low RPM fans (about 800-1000 rpm). It's not only quieter but better cooling than air.
 
Well, in all reality, until someone comes out with a fanless 800-1000watt PSU, or a watercooled one (people out there have already been crazy enough to route a "non conductive" water cooling system around a freakin PSU) then I guess I'm sticking with air.

And I have crappy hearing. A 1200 rpm fan to me is totally silent, until I put it right up to my face and hear "the air flow"

:)

Edit:

Deton:

The rad, res, and pump have to be internal and fit in a fairly crowded Stacker 830. Any ideas?
 
skypine27 said:
Deton:

The rad, res, and pump have to be internal and fit in a fairly crowded Stacker 830. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if your case is big enough to fit a 120.2 rad?
It might fit a 120.1 (back exhaust fan), the next place is the bottom of the case. It's going to be a tight fit (you have to measure the clearance from the video card) but you will loose the feauture use of PCI slots.

I think you have to do external installation due to it design unless you want to upgrade to Cosmos S. This case will fit a tripple rad perfectly right at the top.

sample pic: http://www.swiftech.com/assets/images/products/nv-triple.jpg
 
Thanks for the link.

Those 3 x 120mm fans on the rad, no matter what rpm, give me the feeling they are giong to be louder than my setup, when considering I will still have to have 2 x 120 mm fans for case intake and exhust. (ram, HD, and mobo cooling)

I fear the era of the high end, yet silent, system is just not "hear" yet. Maybe 12 months?
 
I would say it would depend on your configuration.

You can get a air cooled rig just as quiet as a water cooled rig, although, water may cool better.
 
You can get a air cooled rig just as quiet as a water cooled rig, although, water may cool better.
Click to expand...

Of course you can ;). Nothing like a 5v Yate loon on a Q6600 :p.
 
For the life of me, I have never gotten water cooling to be quieter than air and the reason being is that on water, you tend can crank up your cpu or gpu or both and as you crank up the new quads and vid cards, they add a ton of heat to your loop. Maybe if you ran a mild or no oc at all and ran the 120mm fans down under 1krpm you could get a "quieter" running machine
 
With a big rheostat on my 6 yate loons the only thing I hear is my 6 hard drives :p Load temps at 60C, but I am not concerned. Even with the rheo off, my laptop is louder.

It all depends who's listening, and what sort of sound is 'loud' to that person. I'm obviously not going to say that a 92mm tornado is quiet, but when I had one, I got used to it.
 
water cooling its more performant then air cooling,but costs its big,in comparation with air cooling,
 
a Swiftech/Black ice triple and three noctura 800rpm fans + ehhhh quiet pump (look around lol) = "you've got your 9800GX2(s?) passivly cooled? No? really? its so quiet!"
 
for extreme performance cooling,you need powerfull fans with a lot of rpms and cfm,this is noise,but very cool rig at higher temperature from outside
 
Watercooling will always cool better with a fraction of the noise, hands down.
 
I think the first reply had the best answer so far. Water or air cooling is not necessarily quieter than the other... both have potential to be quiet or loud at cooling.

Technically air can be quieter.. I haven't seen any pumpless water setups so right there is a source of noise... yet for air cooling there are fanless systems. If you look at real quiet systems tho its not even about noise from cooling cpu or video card... passive gpu cooling is pretty easy... getting a fan <18dB is not really that hard... but getting rid of hard drive noise, that is difficult if you can't afford an ssd. Or getting rid of coil whine from a PSU... that is real difficult as two identical models have varying amounts of coil whine.

Another big factor might be people willing to go water are not going for generic setups. If you spend the money and are that into building a nice system you generally will have high end parts that draw more power. The typical water cooled system is generally higher end than the typical air cooled system.

Overall I would say air can quietly cool most setups but for high end water is the only way to get a quiet setup.
 
Long story short: If the PSU is your loudest noise right now, and you're not doing crazy OCs, then yes, you could probably benefit from replacing your PSU, possibly getting a new case, and switching over to watercooling.

Would it be worth it? No.

~S
 
water moves more heat than air cooling,in romania,at this hour ,its evening and 30 grades celsius,in the middle of the day,temperatures rise 34-35 grades celsius,my rig stay cool,in 40-45 grades,its great temperatuers at this summer,my rig stay all the time at 3,2ghz.
 
There are passive radiators that can provide decent cooling with no fans on them. However, they are usually a bit larger and require being mounted externally.

Honestly, if you run everything at stock speeds, you really don't need that many fans. I bet you could use some creative ductwork and eliminate half your fans (or at least 2 out of the 6) and still be within manufacturer specs.

2 intake + 2 exhaust (including PSU) should be sufficient flow for a "stock" clocked machine.

If you want watercooling, go for it. A large enough radiator could be mounted externally (think about the size and shape of a sidepanel about an 1" or so thick, mounted next to the case) would eliminate most of your fans. You'd need probably only 2 for the case. One intake, and then the exhaust on your PSU. Some high-performance fanless NB, SB, and RAM sinks will be sure to take full advantage of the low airflow. The CPU + GPU could be cooled by the radiator.
 
mellojoe said:
There are passive radiators that can provide decent cooling with no fans on them. However, they are usually a bit larger and require being mounted externally.

Honestly, if you run everything at stock speeds, you really don't need that many fans. I bet you could use some creative ductwork and eliminate half your fans (or at least 2 out of the 6) and still be within manufacturer specs.

2 intake + 2 exhaust (including PSU) should be sufficient flow for a "stock" clocked machine.

If you want watercooling, go for it. A large enough radiator could be mounted externally (think about the size and shape of a sidepanel about an 1" or so thick, mounted next to the case) would eliminate most of your fans. You'd need probably only 2 for the case. One intake, and then the exhaust on your PSU. Some high-performance fanless NB, SB, and RAM sinks will be sure to take full advantage of the low airflow. The CPU + GPU could be cooled by the radiator.
Click to expand...

I find my case stays cooler with water too, Blow in air over the HD's and reversed the exhause, push hot air from CPU, GPU and NB out of the bottom of the case by mounting the radiator to the bottom of my stacker. The Panaflow L1A and L1Bx are pretty quiet when inside the case, without the side on it is at least twice as loud (same as if I mounted them externaly).
 
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