Reflections on watercooling: Difference between revisions
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* <b>It's less risky than you think.</b> I rejected watercooling for many years because the entire premise seemed ludicrous: one might as well fill one's box with powerful magnets, or fragmentation grenades, or alligator snapping turtles. Water doesn't belong in machines. It's why we have them in a case rather than just sitting around in the front yard. So first off, your watercooling components needn't come anywhere near your storage, which is where the irreplaceable stuff lives. My M.2 drives are all sealed away, and my spinning disks are located far away from any water. Any leak is almost certainly going to be your fault, and will be detectable before turning on any other components: this is the <i>leak test</i>. Hook up your power supply and watercooling components, but <i>leave everything else unpowered</i>. Fill and run your loop, ideally for several hours at maximum levels. Put paper towels underneath all loop components. If the paper towels are dry, go ahead and turn everything else on, hurrah. If they're wet, you have a problem. <b>Getting water on components <i>while they're powered down</i> is no big deal.</b> | * <b>It's less risky than you think.</b> I rejected watercooling for many years because the entire premise seemed ludicrous: one might as well fill one's box with powerful magnets, or fragmentation grenades, or alligator snapping turtles. Water doesn't belong in machines. It's why we have them in a case rather than just sitting around in the front yard. So first off, your watercooling components needn't come anywhere near your storage, which is where the irreplaceable stuff lives. My M.2 drives are all sealed away, and my spinning disks are located far away from any water. Any leak is almost certainly going to be your fault, and will be detectable before turning on any other components: this is the <i>leak test</i>. Hook up your power supply and watercooling components, but <i>leave everything else unpowered</i>. Fill and run your loop, ideally for several hours at maximum levels. Put paper towels underneath all loop components. If the paper towels are dry, go ahead and turn everything else on, hurrah. If they're wet, you have a problem. <b>Getting water on components <i>while they're powered down</i> is no big deal.</b> | ||
* Avoid particulate coolants. They gunkify components over time, making them look like shit and reducing flow. Distilled water ought be treated with biocides and anticorrosive agents (easily available as coolant concentrates), which will be included in any premixed cooler. | * Avoid particulate coolants. They gunkify components over time, making them look like shit and reducing flow. Distilled water ought be treated with biocides and anticorrosive agents (easily available as coolant concentrates), which will be included in any premixed cooler. | ||
* Order of components doesn't matter <i>assuming sufficient flow</i>. If your flow rate is very low, you can get significant localized heating, at which point heat-generating components without intermediary heat-expelling components can be suboptimal. With sufficient flow rate, your loop will reach effective equilibrium. This question comes up because if you're watercooling both a CPU and GPU (or multiple GPUs) | * Order of components doesn't matter <i>assuming sufficient flow</i>. If your flow rate is very low, you can get significant localized heating, at which point heat-generating components without intermediary heat-expelling components can be suboptimal. With sufficient flow rate, your loop will reach effective equilibrium. This question comes up because if you're watercooling both a CPU and GPU (or multiple GPUs): they're generally close together, and it's unwieldy to separate them with a radiator. It's certainly not worth running distinct loops (which would require multiple pumps, which ought be able to achieve the necessary flow rate when placed in series). | ||
* Increasing flow rate is pretty much only useful up to rough temperature equilibrium. Running your pumps higher will add more heat to the loop (assuming they're immersed, as they usually are), and reduce their lifespan. | * Increasing flow rate is pretty much only useful up to rough temperature equilibrium. Running your pumps higher will add more heat to the loop (assuming they're immersed, as they usually are), and reduce their lifespan. | ||
* Tubing kinks reduce flow, as does transport (especially vertically), as do attachments (especially angled ones), as do radiators and waterblocks. | * Tubing kinks reduce flow, as does transport (especially vertically), as do attachments (especially angled ones), as do radiators and waterblocks. | ||