Beginner's Guide To Watercooling, Part 1 - Theory Options

[kismet28]

Beginner's Guide to Watercooling, Part I

1. What is watercooling?

If you're reading this, then the chances are that you're well aware that computers generate heat. Specifically, certain components within your system generate large amounts of heat over very small areas: typically your processor (CPU), graphics chip (GPU) and northbridge chip. Heat is 'a bad thing' for your rig for a number of reasons:

- heat can be harmful to silicon if it's not removed properly
- heat can be a cause of instability... if your system is running too hot, then you're at increased risk of crashes and freezes - particularly during periods of high system load, where your cpu is using a high percentage of its total power, caused by the use of programs such as Doom3, Folding@Home, etc.
- heat limits performance...because increasing clockspeed will increase heat, even without a voltage increase
- air cooling can be a noisy method of dissipating the heat generated (hear the racket made by those 4 Tornado fans in your PC?)

Traditionally, the answer to heat dissipation problems within PC's has been to apply heatsinks to the hot components, which conduct the heat away to the air in the case. This can be encouraged by fans attached to the heatsinks, which move air over them, and transport the hot air away. The CPU's heat at this point is held by the air within your system’s case - hence the additional need for case fans to draw fresh, cool air into your case and/or to exhaust warm air from the rear of your case.

So why does anyone need anything more than the above? Well, unfortunately air isn’t the best at holding lots of heat. This means that in order to manage your system's thermal performance you need plenty of fans (all making plenty of noise!) and that for any given noise level, your system's performance is limited. Oh, and chips just keeping getting hotter...Intel canned a P4 replacement due to excessive heat generation and AMD's FX-55 tops out at a toasty 104W.

So people looked to using a different medium to transport the heat: water! Water has a much higher ability to absorb heat than air. Therefore, if there was a way to use it to transfer heat away from system components such as the CPU then there should be a myriad of core benefits, such as:

- lower CPU temperature, and less of a rise in temperature when the CPU is under load...as heat is conducted away more efficiently
- better stability, potential for increased performance...both a direct result of lower temperatures
- opportunity to build quieter systems...as there is a reduced need for concentrated air flow in a watercooled system
- ability to cool ThermoElectric Coolers, or TECs (small electrically-powered plates which can be put between a chip and a waterblock to cool the chip even further, by using the Peltier Effect)

So, back in the dim and distant past, some pioneering souls decided to try and harness the cooling power of water for use in their PCs. These early systems, on which we're not going to dwell, utilised a variety of scavenged parts such as aquarium pumps and car heater cores coupled with home made waterblocks. Putting home made plumbing into your box of expensive electronics may not sound appealing to most people, but thankfully these guys did it and did it successfully. So successfully in fact, that over the following years, watercooling moved out of the category of PC Dark Arts and into the mainstream of enthusiast systems. Today, you can buy a range of watercooling solutions that range from noise-reduction oriented to performance oriented and from pre-built solutions (such as the Zalman Reserator et al) to custom kits where you choose the best combination of components that suits your needs and wallet and requires assembly at home.

In this guide we're going to be mainly looking at these 'custom-built kits', composed of individual components, rather than pre-assembled kits from a single company.

2. What does each of the components do?

- The Waterblock

Analogous to the heatsink in an air cooled system, the waterblock attaches to your CPU (or GPU/northbridge etc.). Water then flows through the waterblock, which typically is made of copper, and carries heat away. The design of the channels within the waterblock through which the water flows is a key differentiating factor between waterblocks. Some use a high surface area “maze” design; some use an “impingement” design to force water at high velocity and pressure through the waterblock, requiring a strong pump. So in your choice of waterblock you need to consider your overall system design rather than just choosing the 'best' waterblock you can obtain.

Some waterblocks have one inlet and one outlet. Others have a central inlet, and two outlets which recombine using a Y-shaped connector.

Among others, names to look out for when researching waterblocks include Danger Den and D-Tek.

As an aside, it should be noted that while watercooling is most commonly applied to CPU, GPU and northbridge chips (in that order), it is also possible to find waterblocks for hard disk mounting, MOSFET cooling and even watercooled PSUs(!).

- The Radiator

This functions just as you might expect: hot water from the waterblock passes through the core of the radiator where it is cooled by the passage of air forced through by fans. Although available to suit a range of fan sizes, the most useful types are those designed to accept 120mm fans (which can be mounted on one or both sides of the radiator).

Thermochill is a key name to look out for when considering a radiator purchase. Their radiators are available to take multiples of 80mm, 92mm and 120mm fans, and are purposely designed for PC water cooling applications.

- The Reservoir

The reservoir's functions are to make your system much easier to fill and bleed (with the quid pro quo being a slight reduction in overall system pressure), and to catch any air trapped in the loop. There is a considerable variety of reservoirs available, including those designed to mount in drive bays. As with the waterblocks, they are either designed for high flow-rate (large connectors) or low flow-rate (smaller connectors). Reservoirs can also be useful (depending on positioning) in providing an unrestricted flow to the inlet of the pump, hence in many scenarios the reservoir is found directly before the pump in the loop.

Danger Den are, again, a name to consider for this type of component.

- Fillports

It is common to find watercooling loops without reservoirs - here a “T-line” is used (a bit like a T-junction in the tubing) where the additional section of tubing is used to fill the system, and catch any air bubbles. A “fillport” seals the end of this tubing.

- The Pump

The volume of water circulating through the block and radiator is crucial, as it is this movement that carries the heat with it, just as a high-speed fan does a better job of taking heat away from a conventional heat sink.

There are dedicated pumps for PC applications but historically aquarium pumps have been pressed into service. This latter type requires a dedicated mains power supply (mains power relay PCI cards are available to simplify powering/turning on and off of your mains pump). Dedicated PC watercooling pumps can be run from your PSU via a standard molex connector, or more recently (such as the C-Systems pumps) from 3 pin fan headers utilising RPM monitoring features of the motherboard to monitor flow.

Eheim, Hydor and Danger Den are among the names to look out for when deciding on a pump for your rig.

- The Coolant & Additives

The coolant is a mixture of water and additives. But not just any old water will do for watercooling, like tap water or bottled mineral water. In order to avoid unpleasant effects of the impurities in these types of water, you will need to use distilled or deionised water. To this you will need to add a small (typically between 1/2 cap and 1 cap per system) amount of an additive such as Water Wetter, Zerex or Purple Ice. This will do a number of things: inhibiting corrosion; and inhibiting the growth of bacteriological nasties. Some additives are even advertised as being able to improve the thermal performance of the coolant. However, too much can have adverse effects! For more info on coolants see http://racingcoolant.over-clock.com

- The Tubing

Ranging from inexpensive but inflexible PVC tubing to top of the line laboratory grade Tygon, this is the stuff you will use to plumb your watercooling system together. Tygon and top end tubing contain UV Filters which filter out UV light, resulting in a poor response when used with UV Dyes... although they are still the better tubing to use.

- The Barbs

These items screw into your other system components and provide a point at which to attach your tubing. Available in plastic or brass, straight or angled, and in a variety of diameters.

3. What’s with the different diameters?

There are two schools of thought regarding the style of components in watercooling, specifically the diameter of the tubing. American companies (for example, Danger Den) believe in large diameter tubing, with a strong pump and fast flow rates. This pushes a large volume of water through the waterblocks very quickly, so that cold water is continuously going through the block, and the water doesn’t rise too much in temperature. This typically involves 1/2” inner diameter tubing.

The less common approach is to have slow flowing water, which absorbs more heat from the block (per volume of water) but spends longer cooling in the radiator per cycle. This alternative approach is adopted by German company Innovatek, and typically uses 10 mm inner diameter tubing and a low flow rate pump. These smaller tubes can be easier to work with, and allow for a neater system.

It is possible to combine products from the two different styles, using special connectors/barbs, but this may result in a loss of performance.

4. What should I get?

Much like performance tweaking a PC, or tuning a car, the secret to good performance is to systematically reduce bottlenecks. It does not matter how good one component is, if it is held back by another component of lower specification. This is why you need to pay equal attention to each and every part of the cooling system.

- The Pump
Many suitable pumps for water cooling are sold as pond pumps, and are readily available in many different powers and prices. Your first consideration when buying should be to choose an inline pump. This means that it has hose fixings on both the input and the output, and does not require you to submerge the entire thing in a reservoir of water.

Pumps are sold by two main specifications. These are the flow rate, and the head. The flow rate refers to the amount of water per second it can pump when there is nothing restricting the flow. The head is measured in metres or inches, and is the height of vertical pipe that the pump can push water up. The head is the most important figure, as it represents the pumps ability to over come the resistance of the waterblock and radiator. Look for at least 150 gallons per hour flow rate, and a 1.5 metre head.

Most pumps are mains voltage, and come without a plug on the end. If you know what you are doing, you can splice the leads into the power supply, so it uses the same power cord. Otherwise, it can be connected to the mains socket via a relay, which switches the pump on with your computer.

Common choices: Eheim 1250; Hydor L30; Danger Den DD12V-D4

Pump performance (top to bottom : best to worst):

2x MCP600 in series evenly spaced across the loop (discontinued)
2x DD12-D4 in series evenly spaced across the loop
2x DDC in series evenly spaced across the loop
2x CSP750MkII in parallel
1x MCP600
1x Eheim 1260
1x DD12-D4
1x DDC
2x Eheim 1048
1x Eheim 1250 / Hydor L30
1x CSP750MkII
1x Eheim 1048 / Hydor L20
1x Eheim 1046 / Eheim compact1000

(Think that's about right....)

Heat Dumped by pump into water:

Eheim 1046, adds around 1.5W of heat to the loop
Eheim 1048, adds 3W of heat
Eheim 1250, adds 9W of heat
DD12-D4/MCP600/LaingD4, adds 8W of heat
DDC/MCP650/C-Systems MAG, adds 15W of heat
Iwaki MD-15R @ 60Hz, adds 22W of heat
Iwaki MD-20RZ @ 60Hz, adds 31W of heat
Iwaki MD-30RZ @ 50Hz, adds 50W of heat
( see HERE )


- PCI Relay
This is a handy component for switching on your pump at the same time as your computer. You wire your pump into the Relay card (which slots into a PCI slot), and the card is plugged into the mains, through the back of card. This avoids having to feed the pump's original plug out of your computer. It does requires cutting off the plug from your pump, but makes things a lot easier.

Common choice: Criticool PowerPlant II PCI Relay

- The Waterblock
There are an ever increasing number of waterblocks available, and there is usually little to choose between them in terms of price or performance. Build quality and ease of installation vary greatly from product to product. Some blocks will be held down by the normal six socket lugs, and others will use the four mounting holes in the motherboard. Waterblocks cost from £40 to £60. We recommend you avoid the cheapest blocks, as they will either have low performance, or be badly made and hard to fit. A good quality block is only a few pounds more, and well worth it.

The Danger Den range of blocks are good examples of well built, easy to fit waterblocks.

Common choices: Danger Den Maze4, TDX and RBX; D-Tek LRWW

- Additional Waterblocks
As well as cooling the CPU, there are also waterblocks available for your northbridge chipset and your graphics card. However, it is generally recommended to not watercool your chipset, as these small waterblocks can restrict the flow of the water, not to mention making tubing a hassle. The chipset can be cooled just as well, if not better, with a MicroCool Northpole.

Watercooling your graphics card is advised, especially if you want to overclock it. Some waterblocks only cover the GPU, so heatsinks may be necessary on the graphics card's memory chips. Check with the manufacturer's website to see if their block is compatible with your card.

It is also possible to cool your hard drives (where it is always better to watercool the sides of a drive rather than the PCBs / top surface).

Common choices: Danger Den Maze 4 GPU and 6800 GPU blocks

- The Reservoir
There are a few types of reservoir: different in size, mountings, connector size and style. Just choose which suits your needs best.

Common choices: Danger Den clear reservoir, bay reservoir, or a Fillport

- The Radiator
You have two options when it comes to purchasing your radiator. The conventional option is a commercial watercooling radiator, which will be built for either one or two or three fans on each side, and come equipped with small sized hose barbs or connectors, and will set you back £50 to £100.

A more exciting option is to go scrap yard raiding. A car heater core is ideal for the job. They typically sport much more surface area than a commercial radiator, and connect to half inch hosing easily, allowing for greater flow.

You can read more about Thermochill radiators in the Thermochill FAQ and this thread on shrouds.

Common choices: Thermochill 120.2 or 120.3; Heatercores

- The Tubing
Tubing for watercoolers comes mostly in two sizes. 3/8" / 10 mm, and 1/2" / 12mm. We recommend the use of 1/2" tubing for the entire system, as it costs no more, flows more water, is suitable for fitting to Heatercores and will also fit over 15mm copper piping, which can be used as a connector.

Commercially sold tubing comes in three different materials: PVC, Silicone, and Tygon. Tygon is the most expensive, and is transparent. It is very strong, and very kink resistant. This unfortunately can make it a little more difficult to work with. Danger Den Clearflex is as close as you can get to Tygon, but a lot cheaper. It’s also available in UV reactive colours.

Common choices: Tygon; Danger Den Clearflex60

- Clamps
You must clamp every single joint firmly. Do not use plastic hose clips, these are inadequate, and guaranteed to leak sooner or later. Use metal Jubilee Clips, and eliminate risk altogether.

- Water
You may think that the water would be the easiest part of a watercooling system, but there are still a few things to bear in mind.

Limescale build up is the last thing you want, You must use deionised or distilled water. You can buy this very cheaply from a car spares shop, as “car battery top-up water”.

If your system uses more than one kind of metal in its construction, (and it almost certainly will) then they will form a crude battery. This can cause the more reactive of the two metals to corrode. You can avoid this by adding Zerex, Purple Ice or Water Wetter. Only a small capful is enough for most systems. Consult the additive's instructions for the correct ratio.

- Connectors/barbs
Once you have decided on your tubing size, make sure both your radiator and waterblock have the appropriate size connectors or hose barbs. Self-clamping tubing connectors may look convenient, but they restrict the water flow, so are best avoided. Ideally, a system should have no elbows or unnecessary connectors, but sometimes they are needed.

Details on barb and connector sizes can be found here.

- Fans
Quoting from the Thermochill FAQ:

Panaflo -M fans are always the best for use with Thermochill rads for a noise vs performance balance... the Panaflo -H fans are superb for a high performance system that can be silenced via rheostat.

PAPST 240v fans work brilliantly and are the best I've used on them... however they're expensive, metal framed and metal bladed. FanGuards are a MUST. They WILL remove a finger... and you need a light-dimmer if you want to vary the voltages.

Delta 120s are just too loud for me. Even at 5v they have a distinct whirr that protrudes above ambient noise that the Panaflos don't have. YS-Techs also have the same motor whirr when at low rpm.

Any of the advertised reputable "silent" fans such as the PAPST 12v and SilentX fans are useless on the Thermochill core. They don't move enough air to penetrate it at all.

There are full test results of the rads with various fans over at the thermochill site (www.thermochill.com) that BillAdams of Swiftech (ex-ThermalManagementTesting) did a commissioned technical analysis of, which goes into detail on flow rates, airflow etc etc... but it is a HIGHLY technical analysis... not light reading I'm afraid... and I've never gotten round to dumbing it down to make it lighter on the eyes either - whenever I try it just gives me a headache...!

For best temps, pull-pull. IE: On each Thermoschill shroud stack a PAIR of fans pulling thru the rad, one fan attached to the other fan attached to the shroud attached to the rad. This has always produced better temps than push, push-pull, push-push, and pull on the HE range cores. Generally this would result in:

Grill/Guard > Fan > Fan > Rad > Case > Grill/Guard

- Other Parts
We also suggest PTFE tape to seal your barb's threads with, and you may wish to consider an anti-vibration mounting kit for your pump (effectively isolating it from your system chassis) although a small piece of foam will do the job.

5. How do I put it together?
A detailed guide to putting together your watercooling kit will feature in Part II (coming soon), but for the moment, here are some important points to think over.

- Order of flow
Generally, the water should flow from the pump output, straight into waterblocks, and then on to the radiator, then back to the pump. There has been much discussion into the “correct” order of components, but there are some factors which outweigh the influence of the order:
- the length of the tubing has more of an effect on the temperatures - the simpler the better
- impingement waterblocks - these require maximum flow rate, so placing them just after the pump is best

- What goes up, must come down
The pump is a device for creating pressure. It pushes at the water inside it, which in turn pushes on the water in the hose, which pushes on the water inside the radiator, and so on until it pushes at the water in the inlet side of the pump, and then the water begins to move round. Because the system is sealed, the only force being exerted on the water is the force exerted by the pump. Gravity has little effect, because what is lost by pumping the water uphill, is gained again as it flows back down. This means you are generally free to put your components as high or low as you like, with no real adverse effects on performance.

- Radiator Installation
The radiator needs to be fed with the coldest air possible. The best way to do this is to mount the radiator in the top of the case, and have the air sucked in from the top. You will see the system temperatures rise slightly due to the warmer air inside the case, but as a trade off, system performance will be better. This will require making appropriately sized (and spaced) holes in the top of your case.

If you have a full tower, you can make use of the empty space above the power supply. You can easily fit a twin or triple fan radiator. If you have a midi tower, then the best place is at the front of the case. This may require a little more modding, depending on the size of the case and the radiator.

If you have the space in your case, then using an old fan, make a spacer between the fan and the radiator. This will eliminate the dead spot in the middle of the fan and should cause greater performance.

Other locations include: sitting on the bottom of your case (but requires creating a gap to allow airflow beneath the radiator); attached to the exhaust case fan mounting holes on the back of your case; or simply just sitting outside your case.

6. What should I expect?

- Cost
The following is a very rough guide to what you can expect for your cash. The next section summarises what the [O-CuK] store provides, so for a more accurate answer, look there.

Less than £100: This can get you a set of basic components, or a cheaper “company-built” kit (eg. Asetek), most likely for just cooling the CPU. To be honest, whilst this gets you into watercooling, the performance won’t be very impressive, perhaps not much more than high quality aircooling. The company-built kits appear good value for money, but are difficult and/or expensive to upgrade.

Up to £200: This will get you a good performing kit for the CPU, and possibly a GPU waterblock. Money can be saved using a smaller radiator (Thermochill 120.1, for example, requiring less fans) or Clearflex tubing (similar to the expensive Tygon, but cheaper).

Over £200: This will get you a full kit of top of the range components, including GPU and Northbridge (if you want) cooling, with a large radiator (Thermochill 120.3 with 6 fans, for example).

- Temperatures
Generally, the better (and more expensive) the kit, the lower the temperatures. Watercooling will give you around 10 degC lower CPU temperatures. For example, with an Athlon XP processor, you might expect 40 - 50 degC on aircooling, and 30 - 40 degC with water. Without additional help, watercooling cannot cool your CPU lower than ambient temperature (the temperature of the air around your watercooling loop). With the inaccuracy of BIOS temperature readings, a more reliable way of measuring your CPU temperature is by attaching a temperature probe to the back of the CPU (but this is not possible with every CPU).

One of the most appealing features of watercooling is the ability to keep the load temperatures closer to the idle temperatures than is possible with aircooling. Whilst with aircooling the temperatures under load can exceed 60 degC, under watercooling the load temps can be only a few degrees higher than when idle.

- Overclocking
It is difficult to predict how much greater an overclock you can achieve by shifting to watercooling, as there are so many factors to consider. However, returning to the Athlon XP example, it is generally possible to overclock a Barton to around 2.3 GHz on air, but up to 2.5 GHz by using water (and 2.7 with phase change).

- Sound
In a watercooling loop there are two sources of sound: the pump and the radiator fans. Generally the pump cannot be heard over the fans. The most popular pumps are the Hydor L30, the Eheim 1250 and the DD12V-D4. The L30 and the 1250 are considered to be effectively silent, provided the vibrations are absorbed well (for example, by placing a layer of foam underneath the pump). The DD12V is a little noisier, but a quieter version is expected around Christmas 2004 from DangerDen. An alternative way of quieting it is to reduce the voltage supplied to it to 7V (it requires a minimum of 6V to start).

The other source of noise are the fans used to cool the water in the radiator. Sufficiently powerful fans are necessary, as with low CFM fans the air will not penetrate through the radiator. This suggests noisier fans are required. 120mm fans have the advantage of high CFMs and low sound levels (measured in decibels, adjusted to the sensitivity of human hearing - dBA). The sound level quoted for the fans is for 12V operation, and ranges from 35.5 dBA of the Panaflo -M (whisper quiet) to the 48 dBA of a Delta (as loud as a fridge). The frequency of the sound from 120mm fans tend to be lower than that from 80mm fans, so when at similar sound levels, larger fans will be easier on the ears.

By using a rheostat, or fan controller, it is possible to reduce a fan’s voltage, and hence its sound level. Therefore you can alter the fans for quiet running (for when you’re trying to sleep), or anything up to 12V for the maximum cooling (for when you’re trying to get higher overclocks). It is also possible to use a power converter to drop a 12V molex connector down to 5 or 7 V. Whilst this doesn’t allow you to vary the voltage on command, it avoids a bay being taken up by the controller if you’re stuck for space.

You can generally be assured it will be quieter than the typical high performance CPU heatsink and fan.

7. What does the store have?

The full range available in the [O-CuK] store can be found here. Along with details of each product, there is also a link to a list of reviews, to help you find out more about particular items. There are three ways of getting your kit:

(i) Full Kits: Contain everything you need, assembled for a range of budgets.
(ii) Custom Kit Builder: Allows you to build a complete kit, choosing exactly what you want from components available. Includes all the barbs, connectors, etc. necessary.
(iii) Individual Components: All the components supplied by the store. For when you want to upgrade your kit.

Other useful links:
Fans and accessories
Fan controllers

Second-hand parts are often available in the Trading section of the forum, available to members of the forum.

8. What could go wrong?

Q: It’s leaking?!
A: If you notice any leaks, shut down your PC at once. Try to find the leaking joint. Once you know where the leak is coming from, drain the system and take apart the suspect joint. Check that the jubilee clip is on tightly, the hose is not torn, and that the connector or hose barb is not cracked. This shouldn't happen if the system has been properly leak-tested though!

Q: Do I need to maintain it?
A: Once the system has proven its reliability over a month or two, the only maintenance that needs to be done is cleaning dust out of the radiator occasionally, and maybe top up the reservior. Take the fans off, and clean them with a soft brush. You can then use a vacuum cleaner to unclog the radiator fins.

Q: My pump seems to be making a gushing sound, how can I stop this?
A: The gushing sound is most likely some air trapped inside the pump. They should work their way out of the pump within a few hours of it being on.
If your pump sometimes gushes, sometimes doesn’t, this is usually caused by your pump sucking through air from, for example, your reservoir.

This can be solved or avoided by ensuring that your reservoir is as full as possible with water. If you still have some air in your res, and it gets sucked into the pump, try tilting your case or res. a bit, so the air travels away from the barbs.
Example thread

Q: I’ve filled my reservoir with water, turned on the pump but it isn’t sucking through the water. Is my pump broken?
A: Most likely not. The pump can only move water, and if there is no water in the pump the impeller will be spinning but it can’t move air. Check that the pump has a supply of water in the tube affixed to the inlet, and water inside the pump. If there isn't water in the pump, suck some into it.

Q: I’m getting some green kind of growth somewhere in my loop. What should I do?
A: The growth is algae. The best thing to do is empty the water that you have in the loop currently, and flush it with water (de-ionised) and [possibly] washing up liquid for a few hours, until the build-up has gone. Once the build-up has gone empty the solution you used for flushing and re-fill your system with de-ionised water and your choice of additive.
It's also a good idea to make sure that your water loop is airtight, as this also helps to stop the growth of algae.
Example Thread 1
Example Thread 2

Q: I’ve had a leak and I’ve got some water on my Graphics card. It was off at the time, but now it’s damp, can it be saved?
A: Hopefully, yes. Remove the graphics card from the system and place it in a warm place (such as the airing cupboard) for 4 days to a week. Even if the card / device appears to be dry before this time there are multiple layers to the PCB, and there can still be moisture between these layers.
This also applies to anything that may have got condensation formed on it through sub-ambient cooling.

This goes for any parts in a watercooling system:

If they leak they leak, in which case reach for either the phone (if it's new), the ptfe tape or the silicon sealant, if they don't they don't. That's about all there is to it. Just don't fit them into yer rig prior to leak testing.

Slightly edited from this thread.

Q: My pump is making a loud vibrating noise, how can I stop this?
A: This can be stopped by mounting the pump on some Anti-vibration pump mounts, or a piece of neoprene or sponge.
Example Thread

Q: Are my temperatures alright?
A: Basically 45 degC and below is fine for a watercooled chip. If you think that your temps may be too high, try reseating the CPU block.

Despite best intentions, and setting up everything perfectly, things can go wrong. It's just life. If you've got a strong heart, read this. This was the result of an uncooled TEC, as the pump had failed... but don't let this put you off.

9. What should I read next?
The following vary from essential watercooling advice, to just generally interesting material.

Many of the watercooling myths are exposed in this article.

Guides on installing watercooling components can be found here. They include WaterWetter additive information, DD Maze3 and Maze4 installation guides, and how to cut blowholes for your radiator.

Thermal properties of water - http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/24_162.html

Explanations of the ANOMALIES of water - http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/explan4.html

Thermal properties of metals (higher the thermal conductivity figure the better) - http://www.engineersedge.com/properties_of_metals.htm

Thermal properties of air - http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/19_156.html

And finally (most importantly!) The Beginner's Guide to Watercooling Part 2 - Practical!

10. Credits

Main writers: kismet28, DodgyDave, Rockin', anthonyi, FreeWill
Also thanks to: Rinsewand, Marci

[Marci]

Duplicated into Articles & Guides section also (still need to format it a bit more in there - will sort that tomorrow), and pimped on the frontpage.

[Mark23]

couldn't of put it better myself!! good work kismet!!!

[Electronic Punk]

pimped on osnn.net
(i linked to the article)

[Father-Time]

Awesome work Kissy

Well done to all involved

[anthonyi]

pimped on osnn.net
(i linked to the article)

Hehe...them's my words you quoted on osnn.net
Must be my Warhol-istic 15mins!

Made my day!



This post has been edited by anthonyi: Nov 26 2004, 12:27 PM

[Electronic Punk]

I needed a topnotch summary type like paragraph

[kismet28]

I mentioned this guide in DFI-Street, the DFI support forum, and the post has been stickied

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/forumdispl...p?s=&forumid=18
under "Interested in Watercooling"

[GarethS]

Cheers for that Kismet, water cooling kind of made sense before but only from a thermodynamics viewpoint, I now understand from a PC viewpoint as well.

[Rockin]

I mentioned this guide in DFI-Street, the DFI support forum, and the post has been stickied

[snapback]73682[/snapback]

Saw it ealier whilst flicking through DFI-street. Like the pimpage factor for O-CuK too

Top work d00d

[Twisted]

Pimped on [Enter non existent website]

Cheers guys, It'll help when I get round to W/C when funds allow