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RE: My Gridcoin Journey
Watercooling a PC doesn't make the room less hot, the water is only the (way better) heat transportation medium, the heat gets transported to the radiators and then it gets blown into the air.
So, as far as I didn't misundertand something:
Watercooled GPU(s) would make sense, if you want to consume less energy? For example: I live in Germany, power cost is 0.3$/kw. I don't mind about that. But less power consumption would be for sure good. Would you recommend to buy waterblocks, just for the fact, that the electrical bill wouldn't be that high? I know, "do what you want. If you can afford it, go for it" or something like that will most likely your answer. But, asking never hurts :D
Germany here too. Watercooling is more power consuming because for air cooling you use a bunch of fans and for water cooling you use the same amount or even more fans - and the pump. At least - for a good custom loop, not these all in one 120mm single radiator jokes.
The only upsides of a good custom watercooling loop are better gpu/cpu core temperatures and (if you can afford a lot of radiator capacity and high-end fans) a more silent computer - because the fans can run slower. And a way better inside look. ;)
I have an Thermaltake Core X9. I think, I have enough space for some radiators :D
I made these calculations: If I had 2x480 radiators and 8x120mm fans (Calculated with 15W per fan) it should consume 120W more, only the fans. I don't really know how much the pump would consume. I calculated about max. 50W. Maximum: under 200W more. If @vortac is right (or techpowerup) and a GPU is consuming about 1.2W more per °C and the water cooling might get 35°C less heat than an aircooled GPU (Sorry for sentence. Might be very confusing.), it would consume up to 42W less per GPU. Let's say I would have 6 HD7970's. It would be up to 252W less with an watercooling system. If the 2x480 radiators can handle the temperature, I don't really know.
I don't know if this makes sense. Might be not, but well, I tried xD
EK Vardar fans are recommended for radiators. They consume only 1.44 watts of electric power:
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-vardar-f3-120-1850rpm
2x480 radiators would be able to handle 6 HD7970s, even with overclocking.
Pumps require about 10-20W. One 20W pump is enough to power the loop with two radiators and 6 HD7970s.
All in all, watercooling is much more power-efficient than aircooling, especially for multi-GPU rigs. Only obstacle is the high initial cost of watercooling equipment.
Wow, a huge "Thanks" from me, for you :) I am really thankful for your help. Ofcourse I want to thank the other helperful people too. :)
13 years of watercooling experience here. Feel free to ask anything you want.
Uhm... I don't know if this sounds stupid but... do 2 240 radiators are as good as one 480 radiator? I could two 240 radiator for less than one 480. Also I can't find that many 480 radiators :/
2x240 should be as good as 1x480, provided they are of same fin density (and same fans used).
That's somewhere correct and somewhere a naïve fallacy (Milchmädchenrechnung) because we talk about using the Hardware with Boinc and that means a permanent 100% full load - exept you wan't to earn less GRC then you can. ;)
Rule of thumb for radiator space is 120mm radiator space per component + 1x 120mm + 120mm per overclocked component for a PC that has an average (max. 16h/day) usage.
Unfortunately there is no rule of thumb for a 24/7 100% usage.
Makes no difference if you run your rig 24/7 or only 8h per day. Two 480 radiators can dissipate 1500-2000 watts of heat without any trouble, through the whole year. Water will get heated up to approximately 15 °C over room temperature and that's it - the whole watercooling system enters into an equilibrium then.
Sorry but there is a difference between running 24/7 at 100% or sporadic with different loads because of the heat capacity of water.
is the formula for the heat capacity of water and after the water is satiated the cooling capacity will drop and the fans have to spin faster (use more energy/becoming louder) to dissipate this heat.
Btw. Vardar Fans are good for Radiators (good static pressure) but they are imho pretty loud under full load.
There is no practical difference between running 24/7 and sporadic loads. Under 24/7 load, water gets heated rather quickly to approximately 15 degrees over room temperature (all measurements taken on my rig) but it isn't "satiated", it's still much cooler than the CPU and the GPU and its cooling capacity is affected very little, for all practical purposes.
Fans don't have to turn faster when the water is warmer, that's completely absurd. Heat transfer in the radiator is simply increased through larger temperature difference between the air (which is at constant room temperature) and the water. As the water gets warmer, heat transfer from the water to the air is increased even further and the water cooling system enters into an equilibrium naturally.
Vardar fans noise level at 1850 rpm is rated at 29.5 dBa which is again quite silent for all practical purposes. Of course, there are even less noisy fans on the market (for example Gentle Typhoons which even had 500 rpm models). Overall, compared to air cooling, watercooling is practically noiseless.
About the first two points - as i said - you are right and wrong at the same time but i don't wan't to hold a dissertation about heat capacity now.
The last point however is wrong (or outdated, some years ago your statement was correct), air cooling can be as silent as water cooling, e.g. BeQuiet SW3 fans have only 28.6 dBa at 2200 rpm, at 1850 consequently less dBa and this with a massive air flow capacity.
For watercooling i prefer Noctua fans, more static pressure and airflow then Vardar with less dBa but you need to decide if the higher cost justifies the 1-3 degrees celsius less temperature compared to Vardar fans.
I don't really know, what the conversation is about. I assume, that 2x 480 radiators might be not enough? The Thermaltake Core x9 can fit upto 4 480 radiators. So that wouldn't be a problem. Sorry if I misunderstood something :/
No fear... 2x 480 should be sufficient for 6x gpu + 1x cpu + 120mm - without overclocking.
The discussion expanded thru heat dissipation details and power consumption.