02-12-2016, 06:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2016, 07:17 PM by epixoip.
Edit Reason: grammar
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(02-12-2016, 05:11 AM)mamexp Wrote:(02-11-2016, 08:57 PM)epixoip Wrote: lol watercooling, gtfo.
How old are you? ... cause you talk like my teenager son.
My apologies. I was merely attempting to talk to you on your level, since recommending water cooling means you're about as experienced as my teenage nephew.
First, water is completely unnecessary. If you can't cool on air, you're doing something very, very wrong. Especially with new Nvidia GPUs; they draw a fraction of the power AMD GPUs draw, and are a cakewalk to cool.
Second, just because you're cooling with water doesn't mean you've removed the heat, you've merely moved the heat. This is what Flomac was attempting to tell you: you still have to have a way to dissipate all that heat you've collected. If you try to do it with a traditional radiator setup, you'll end up in the exact same position you'd be in with air cooling, in that you still have to remove all that heat from the room. So you've gained nothing by using water.
Third, no respectable datacenter or colocation facility will permit you to rack up anything water cooled. They will laugh you out of the building. And if your company has their own datacenter / server room, good luck convincing your Network Infrastructure team to let you rack up something that's water cooled.
Fourth, water cooling is a major pain in the ass to maintain. Water cooled systems require a very watchful eye to regularly inspect for leaks and to ensure the reservoirs are topped off, which is highly inappropriate for remote systems located in a datacenter. They also need to be completely torn down, flushed, and thoroughly cleaned at least once every six months, because the water blocks and reservoirs will get all gummed up due to the biocides, antimicrobial additives, and other gunk. When you tear the system down for cleaning, you also need to replace all of the seals and o-rings, because they never quite seal right once they've been used, removed, and replaced (they're essentially one-time use items.) The hoses also need to be replaced at least annually, because they too will also start to break down over time. All of this means continued maintenance expenses and downtime, both of which are highly inappropriate for production systems.
And if you decide to forego or skimp on the maintenance, then you get to experience the joys of catastrophic failure, because when water cooling fails, it fails spectacularly. De-ionized water doesn't stay de-ionized; as soon as de-ionized water comes into contact with metal and air, it beings stripping the ions from them. This means as soon as you add de-ionized water to your system, your de-ionized water is no longer de-ionized and will conduct electricity, which is great news for your GPUs and motherboard!
Anyone who has been doing water cooling for at least a few years, if they're honest with you, will tell you they have experienced at least one leak, if not two or three. But it's hard to find someone who's actually been doing water cooling that long, because most abandon it after a year or two due to the maintenance overhead. And most people who will tell you that water cooling is awesome and worry-free are those who have been doing it for less than two years, and have not yet had their first leak.
All in all, water cooling is fad that you should do only because you genuinely enjoy the hobby of water cooling and don't mind the maintenance involved. If you do it for any other reason, you will be sorely disappointed. Everyone I know who has flirted with water cooling has gone back to air cooling, and the only people I've encountered who think it's cool are people who've never actually done it before.
So great job recommending water, grandpa. Looks like you really know your shit.