Wait until someone mix an aluminium WB and a copper one in a loop. Then we will laugh. However, it's not a bad idea, and done in the right way there is a big chance that the performance will be really near the "premium" copper ones.
Yea this is a bit of a risk for them. There WILL be people buying standard EKWB copper blocks and putting them in these loops. I, for one, am looking forward to fun, new pictures of extreme galvanic corrosion.
Pardon my ignorance, but is water cooling still necessary? I know the 7700k had some issues running hot, but for the most part aren't we sitting around 60 celsius at load? I wouldn't think that would degrade the lifespan of the chip much, and it seems like the best water coolers get that down to about 40 under load. We have seen that neither Intel nor AMD seem to be thermally limited when it comes to overclocking, so really the major benefit is lower load and idle temps right? So if it improves the chip's lifespan from 7 years to 10 is that worth the cost of a replacement chip? I know it looks cool and all, but is there really a point to water cooling anymore?
Watercooling can allow for better heat-transfer in cases that don't allow for tall heatsinks, by utilizing space near the front or top of the chassis for radiators.
Additionally, watercooling has the biggest effect for GPUs, which would normally hit 70C on stuff like founder's edition cards, down to 45C or so on water.
$239 for a full aluminum based EK kit, including the GPU waterblock sounds like an attractive price, but would prefer if it came with a 360mm rad.
I think if I were personally to go for a cheap/noob-friendly watercooling solution, I'd utilize two 240mm all-in-one CLCs (~$100 ea at sale/rebate prices) and a $30 NZXT Kraken G12 to use as a mounting bracket for the GPU. In this way GPU and CPU each get their own 240mm rad (GPU's 240MM at the front of the case, CPU's 240MM at the top of the case), and there's no fuss on whether the installation was done right, water leakage test, for a reasonable ~$230 or so.
For GPUs the biggest win IMO is the sound level. The big 140mm fans on my radiator are nearly silent. During the interval last fall when I was rebuilding my loop and back on air, I couldn't believe how much louder the fans on my GT1080 were. Every time I found myself wondering if the hassle of rebuilding my loop was I just had to remember the racket I heard everytime I gamed to know that yes it was.
Yes, WC for the CPU is a bit overkill and if you have space, with very big air radiator like the Noctua D15 or similar you will hit the same temperatures, with the advantage of a more "rapid" response when load is off (temperatures tends to stabilize with WC when the loop liquid content heats up). However the GPUs greatly benefits form water, since the card air radiators will never have the same fin surface of the big CPU rads, frequently have much higher TDP than CPUs and the airflow is pretty much completely blocked from the card itself. GPUs on water "fly" because the don't throttle and get good temps without unbearable noise.
It was never really "necessary" but just like any other premium item, it has its niche....it allows for a powerful system to run quiet with decent temps no matter the workload. Is that necessary ? of course not, but sure as hell fun to own and build.
It's always better if you're overclocking a CPU to get it under water, you'll get extra room and can get rid of the heat easily. Think how much water would benefit an 12 - 18 core CPU.
Actually, during a small window in time, watercooling was the only way to get decent cooling without the excessive noise. I'm talking during the early 2000s, with the end of the P4 and Athlon XP generations, which had TDP up to 150W, and before heatpipes started being used in computing. At that time, the CPU heatsink was basically a big block of copper with lots of fins and a strong fans blowing on top. Overclocking your CPU would push TDP even higher and your computer would start sounding like a jet engine. Once heatpipes started getting used, air cooling improved by leaps and bounds, settling into the tower coolers we now have.
In general, it makes more sense for quiet computing than anything else. As far as I know, you really can't coax any more clockspeed out of a Ryzen with watercooling than without.
To be honest, I really doubt there was ever "a real point" to watercooling (especially with AIO units) and point to the lack of direct support for GPUs by those things. Sure, there were rare 3rd party interfaces, but typically AIO included a few CPU only (hopefully both Intel and AMD) adapters and ignored GPU cooling altogether. If you needed watercooling, you almost certainly needed to cool the GPU *first* and the CPU second.
How far we've come... I remember water cooling an AMD K6 back in the stone age, using a plastic cooling block glued to the chip's heatspreader with clear silicone. A fish tank pump and a salvaged radiator completed the loop. After a few years the water actually eroded most of the heatspreader.
https://giacongxima.com/ This is a website dedicated to inquire about the field of metal plating and you can ask about the fields related to metal here.
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sfuzzz - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Wait until someone mix an aluminium WB and a copper one in a loop. Then we will laugh. However, it's not a bad idea, and done in the right way there is a big chance that the performance will be really near the "premium" copper ones.owan - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Yea this is a bit of a risk for them. There WILL be people buying standard EKWB copper blocks and putting them in these loops. I, for one, am looking forward to fun, new pictures of extreme galvanic corrosion.fanofanand - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Pardon my ignorance, but is water cooling still necessary? I know the 7700k had some issues running hot, but for the most part aren't we sitting around 60 celsius at load? I wouldn't think that would degrade the lifespan of the chip much, and it seems like the best water coolers get that down to about 40 under load. We have seen that neither Intel nor AMD seem to be thermally limited when it comes to overclocking, so really the major benefit is lower load and idle temps right? So if it improves the chip's lifespan from 7 years to 10 is that worth the cost of a replacement chip? I know it looks cool and all, but is there really a point to water cooling anymore?JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Watercooling can allow for better heat-transfer in cases that don't allow for tall heatsinks, by utilizing space near the front or top of the chassis for radiators.Additionally, watercooling has the biggest effect for GPUs, which would normally hit 70C on stuff like founder's edition cards, down to 45C or so on water.
$239 for a full aluminum based EK kit, including the GPU waterblock sounds like an attractive price, but would prefer if it came with a 360mm rad.
I think if I were personally to go for a cheap/noob-friendly watercooling solution, I'd utilize two 240mm all-in-one CLCs (~$100 ea at sale/rebate prices) and a $30 NZXT Kraken G12 to use as a mounting bracket for the GPU. In this way GPU and CPU each get their own 240mm rad (GPU's 240MM at the front of the case, CPU's 240MM at the top of the case), and there's no fuss on whether the installation was done right, water leakage test, for a reasonable ~$230 or so.
DanNeely - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
For GPUs the biggest win IMO is the sound level. The big 140mm fans on my radiator are nearly silent. During the interval last fall when I was rebuilding my loop and back on air, I couldn't believe how much louder the fans on my GT1080 were. Every time I found myself wondering if the hassle of rebuilding my loop was I just had to remember the racket I heard everytime I gamed to know that yes it was.sfuzzz - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Yes, WC for the CPU is a bit overkill and if you have space, with very big air radiator like the Noctua D15 or similar you will hit the same temperatures, with the advantage of a more "rapid" response when load is off (temperatures tends to stabilize with WC when the loop liquid content heats up). However the GPUs greatly benefits form water, since the card air radiators will never have the same fin surface of the big CPU rads, frequently have much higher TDP than CPUs and the airflow is pretty much completely blocked from the card itself. GPUs on water "fly" because the don't throttle and get good temps without unbearable noise.Hxx - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
It was never really "necessary" but just like any other premium item, it has its niche....it allows for a powerful system to run quiet with decent temps no matter the workload. Is that necessary ? of course not, but sure as hell fun to own and build.HomeworldFound - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
It's always better if you're overclocking a CPU to get it under water, you'll get extra room and can get rid of the heat easily. Think how much water would benefit an 12 - 18 core CPU.frenchy_2001 - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
Actually, during a small window in time, watercooling was the only way to get decent cooling without the excessive noise.I'm talking during the early 2000s, with the end of the P4 and Athlon XP generations, which had TDP up to 150W, and before heatpipes started being used in computing.
At that time, the CPU heatsink was basically a big block of copper with lots of fins and a strong fans blowing on top. Overclocking your CPU would push TDP even higher and your computer would start sounding like a jet engine.
Once heatpipes started getting used, air cooling improved by leaps and bounds, settling into the tower coolers we now have.
wumpus - Saturday, June 3, 2017 - link
In general, it makes more sense for quiet computing than anything else. As far as I know, you really can't coax any more clockspeed out of a Ryzen with watercooling than without.To be honest, I really doubt there was ever "a real point" to watercooling (especially with AIO units) and point to the lack of direct support for GPUs by those things. Sure, there were rare 3rd party interfaces, but typically AIO included a few CPU only (hopefully both Intel and AMD) adapters and ignored GPU cooling altogether. If you needed watercooling, you almost certainly needed to cool the GPU *first* and the CPU second.
serendip - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
How far we've come... I remember water cooling an AMD K6 back in the stone age, using a plastic cooling block glued to the chip's heatspreader with clear silicone. A fish tank pump and a salvaged radiator completed the loop. After a few years the water actually eroded most of the heatspreader.serendip - Friday, June 2, 2017 - link
A plastic cooling block made out of chopped-up plastic rulers epoxied together, mind you. A metal water block would've been a godsend back then.[email protected] - Thursday, January 4, 2018 - link
https://giacongxima.com/ This is a website dedicated to inquire about the field of metal plating and you can ask about the fields related to metal here.