PC Cooling Whats Best?

[FireFoxConn]

Ok so Im new here but i've been moding cases and electronics for a while... I'm only 16 but I started at 10 thanks to my dad... I'm working on a Borg Cube case With an ABIT SL6 Mobo and two 40 gig hdds. I want to put my two Nvidia Gforce 4000MX video cards in with a TV tuner PCI card and a USB 2.0 PCI Card. It runs on a 1 GHZ pentium III and 3 PC133 256mb sdram. I know this is kinda out of date but it's cheaper then getting the latest stuff. But i need to find out what the best way of cooling it would be. Here's the upload on the research I found: A large amount of fans could put a load on the psu but if you balance it with a few fans with good rpm you could survive. Then there is the water cooled technique. But that can get expensive. and then there was an article on this new liquid that remains at a cold temp and does not carry electrical current, you can submerge your mobo and hdds in this liquid and it will not corode or damage any electronics. but again, that is really expensive. What should i do?

FireFoxConn a.k.a Evil Genis

[Airbozo]

Assimilate the fans. You can get different sizes and speeds for airflow and noise.

[ajmilton]

Ok so Im new here but i've been moding cases and electronics for a while... I'm only 16 but I started at 10 thanks to my dad... I'm working on a Borg Cube case With an ABIT SL6 Mobo and two 40 gig hdds. I want to put my two Nvidia Gforce 4000MX video cards in with a TV tuner PCI card and a USB 2.0 PCI Card. It runs on a 1 GHZ pentium III and 3 PC133 256mb sdram. I know this is kinda out of date but it's cheaper then getting the latest stuff. But i need to find out what the best way of cooling it would be. Here's the upload on the research I found: A large amount of fans could put a load on the psu but if you balance it with a few fans with good rpm you could survive. Then there is the water cooled technique. But that can get expensive. and then there was an article on this new liquid that remains at a cold temp and does not carry electrical current, you can submerge your mobo and hdds in this liquid and it will not corode or damage any electronics. but again, that is really expensive. What should i do?

well, if you do it right, you can do that with distilled water or some synthetic oil. but yeah, that's expensive. lots more expensive than, say, buying a second 200 watt power supply to drive the fans :p i saw an article on using oil to cool a pc ... think it was on tom's hardware, but i'm not sure now

i'd guess that if you're interested in seriously cooling that standard watercooling is probably the best bet ...

Assimilate the fans. You can get different sizes and speeds for airflow and noise.

hee hee. borg cube.
"your distinctive cooling will be added to our own. resistance is futile."

[sirkillalot617]

im only 15 and wanted watercooling so im making it myself from copper pipe max it should cost me 50 pound inclueding the pump

[AKA_RA]

and then there was an article on this new liquid that remains at a cold temp and does not carry electrical current, you can submerge your mobo and hdds in this liquid and it will not corode or damage any electronics. but again, that is really expensive. What should i do?

FireFoxConn a.k.a Evil Genis

theres dielectric grease but it doesnt stay cold, nothing will. amd are you sure they submerge a HDD, sounds like it would die instantly seeing as how there are moving parts inside and there are actually areas where liquid could flow in.

[ajmilton]

if it's nonconductive and doesn't impede the movement, i don't know why it would kill a HD.
you do bring up a good point - any cooling system is going to require something to radiate the heat that it picks up, somewhere. otherwise you're ****in with some pretty solid laws of physics

[Omega]

if it's nonconductive and doesn't impede the movement, i don't know why it would kill a HD.
you do bring up a good point - any cooling system is going to require something to radiate the heat that it picks up, somewhere. otherwise you're ****in with some pretty solid laws of physics

There's the problem -- It will impede the movement. Water is denser then air, 'tis a fact. Even if you use de-ionized water, It's non-conductive, but still denser. And it'll probably mess up the drive needle and how it reads, as well.


Submerged Optical or Hard drives isn't a good idea. At all. It is, however, a good concept...

[Omega]

if it's nonconductive and doesn't impede the movement, i don't know why it would kill a HD.
you do bring up a good point - any cooling system is going to require something to radiate the heat that it picks up, somewhere. otherwise you're ****in with some pretty solid laws of physics

It's impossible, as far as we know, to cool any other way. Even if you have Liquid N, it's still radiating the heat (or rather, since Liquid N tends to evaporate quickly, it would evaporate quicker due to the extra heat.)

[AKA_RA]

its dissipation. the returning of natural balance basically. hot to cold and vice versa until both surfaces are the same temp. if you introduce a heat source, lets say an Intel Pentium 4 CPU, you need to, in turn, provide proper heat dissipation, using a medium of some sort, water/air/etc. active cooling implies circulating the medium via fan/pump. for my next trick, i shall attempt to employ said tactics in my current project without introducing a completely separate type of "element," and thus far, my only true adversary, Fire. Ug, Me no like electrical fires.

[nil8]

What you're talking about is immersion cooling. I have tried my hand on it with an old 500 mhz k6-2 and a fishtank and all I have to say is that it is REALLY MESSY. You have to have a good airtight seal or else after a few weeks you get impurities in your oil. Dead bugs, dust and hair don't mix well with computers dunked in oil.

Another problem is what can't be submersed easily. The power supply, hard drive, and optical drives can't be submersed. They will stop working.

Another concern is hookups. You have to extend the keyboard, mouse, usb, video, etc hookups from the submersed mobo to a level where you can hook them up without problems.

There's also the matter of moving the oil around so you don't create hotspots. Air is a fluid as well and the same concepts work for air as most liquids. Dissipation can occur, and a moving fan helps.

Water cooling is much better for large cases or open designs where if there is a problem, you can get to it easily and quickly. It's all about spotting the problems before they fry equipment.

Your best bet is to design it with a couple of 120 mm fans in mind. They're low db and they shouldn't suck up enough power to cause problems. Plus, running the hardware you are, there shouldn't be that much heat with a nior amount of thought put into ventilation.

Whatever you choose, good luck and I can't wait to see it in the worklogs.