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Unread 09-06-2006, 12:22 AM   #19
Rusty075
Cooling Neophyte
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: usa
Posts: 14
Default Re: watercooling lost its magic

Yeah, I think you hit the main points pretty well Joe.

Ultimately it is the combination of converging factors that had led to the decline in WC:

The latest generation of CPU's are both higher performing and produce less heat than their predecessors, so the big driving force in cooling system development has dried up.

Add that to the diminishing returns of CPU upgrading. The whole industry is feeling that. My parents are using a Duron 800/ 8mb 3DFx system that I built for them years ago....and they probably will be until something in there dies.

Plus, as CPU's have gotten faster, there's less incentive for OC'ing. Besides the "my 3DMark score/penis is bigger than your's" crowd, there not much to be gained from making a 3.6Ghz CPU run at 3.8Ghz. The rise of AMD has actually hurt the OC'ing market...now that there's two viable competitors the CPU pricing structure is flatter: why would I buy a $200 WC'ing rig to get an extra 200Mhz out of my CPU, when I can pay $150 more for a CPU that's 500Mhz faster right out of the box?


For the non-enthusiast market, (ie, 95% of the market), PC's are transistioning from "technical devices" to "appliances". They're no different than a toaster: the average person doesn't care how they work, so long as the do what they are supposed to, and stay out of the way. That's part of what is driving the smaller/prettier/quieter movement.

The 5% of the market - the gamers and tweakers, have driven alot of the development and marketing for the past few years. (as evidenced by the 1000watt PSU's being sold for systems that draw 1/5th that). But even that market is showing signs of fade.


A semi off-topic aside: In between reading the parent thread of this, and reading Joe's editorial on the loss of the magic of WC'ing, UPS dropped off one of Zalman's fancy new Reserator II systems here for me to review. Funny part is, I'm not even exicted enough about it to take it out of the box...I guess the magic really is gone.
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