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Are those all in one water coolers any good?

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Simon:
i have been considering water cooling my CPU. I expect that any water cooling will be more effective than air. So I started looking at bits and yea it's not cheap. But then I stumbled across these https://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-hydro-series-h75-120mm-all-in-one-hydro-cpu-cooler-2x-120mm-sp120-pwm-fans-white-led-pump-in . Well I do wonder if they are any good. I was preparing myself to purchase a dual 140m fan radiator or even 2 of them to make sure I dumped the heat as effortlessly as possible.

Now as it happens I actually work for a radiator manufacturer and potentially could probably drag something out of a scrap bin that does not leak and would not even have to worry about a fan on it. With these radiators costing near what a car one does well... erm...

So my limited knowledge of thermals would tell me that in order for this to outperform my air cooler I need the radiator to have more surface area than the air cooled heat sink. At the end of the day the heat rejection is a function of CPU temperature to ambient difference and the amount of time the system has to blow the ultimate coolant - ambient air - over the radiator to dump as much heat as possible. But do these puny little radiators cut it? Are they no better than air cooled and just a gimmick or a decent entry to water cooling?

Simon:
Oh well, I just found a 2x140mm one, I've gone with that. It also has a quick coupling in it so that it can be expanded.

brucehoult:
I have the Corsair Hydro Series H100-110 on my 32 core ThreadRipper 2990wx that uses around 375 W when heavily loaded. This is my first water cooling system ever. I was surprised how little plumbing there is compared to other systems I've seen on youtube. It works fantastic. The machine is extremely quiet even under full load and also stays cool.

mc172:

--- Quote from: Simon on April 18, 2020, 09:40:51 pm ---I expect that any water cooling will be more effective than air.

--- End quote ---

You're doomed from the start then. Water cooling is air cooling.

james_s:

--- Quote from: mc172 on April 19, 2020, 01:03:34 am ---
--- Quote from: Simon on April 18, 2020, 09:40:51 pm ---I expect that any water cooling will be more effective than air.

--- End quote ---

You're doomed from the start then. Water cooling is air cooling.

--- End quote ---

Don't be pedantic. Water cooling is water to air cooling but that's just semantics, obviously the distinction here is direct air cooling vs water to air cooling. The advantage of water is that it has a tremendous capacity to absorb heat and you can use a pump to rapidly move the water away from the heat source and replace it with new cooler water instead of relying purely on conduction to the heat dissipating fins. Then you can cool the water with a large water to air heat exchanger (radiator) located elsewhere in the case.

The downside is that water likes to leak and having a water cooling loop creates opportunities for a mess.

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