new to water cooling & concerned about condensation
 

hey all,

this is my first post on the forum and i have a couple of noob questions that i am having trouble finding answers for.

i have spent the last couple of months doing some research on watercooling and have decided to give it a go with a simple CPU waterblock setup. i have a pretty good grasp on everything with the exception of condensation.

i have gotten information from several different sources about this issue, half of them saying its not anything to worry about, and the other half saying that it is a major concern.

so...... exactly how much of a concern is condensation with a waterblock setup and what can be done to counteract it if it is???

thanks in advance,
KryPTyK

There is no condensation with radiator based water cooling. None. Only when the water gets below ambient temp do you need to start worrying about that.

thanks for the info nik.


one other quick question...... im using a 12.5" x 5" radiator with a 92mm fan. what are the odds of the temp going below ambient??

oh yea, what is the best way to route everything??? should the water travel from the pump, to the radiator, and then to the waterblock??? or should it go to the waterblock first and then the radiator???


thanks,
KryPTyK

Physically impossible to go below ambient unless your using a TEC or Chiller or Phase Change or some other active cooling.

EDIT: Remember ambient is the temp your air is in the room your rad is in. Being a rad is air cooled then how would it be possible for the air to cool the rad below it's temperature. ;)

good point Jaydee.


thanks for all the information guys...... it has help lay to rest the last of my fears concerning watercooling and now i dont have any reservations about plumbing water into my PC.

and thanks for putting up with my rather simple noob questions.

-KryPTyK

okay...... so i have gotten all the necessary components to put together my WC setup. its beasically second hand stuff that i acquired from a friend when he upgraded and consists of a Danger Den MAZE1 cpu block, heater core out of a 92 Camaro, an Eheim (sp) pump, and ½" ID tygon tubing.

i am going to be using this setup on my Athlon XP2500+ Barton (1.85Ghz) and want to OC to 3200+ (2.2Ghz). realistically speaking, what kind of results can i expect from this setup???

im not expecting anything stellar, b/c i know that this is a somewhat obsolete waterblock, but for the price i coulndt pass it up (free), and i didnt want to spend 2-3 hundred dollars on a setup and find out that i dont like watercooling.

thanks,
KryPTyK

My little brother got his 2500+ to 2.3GHz with a 20 dollar heatsink. I think you'll easily beat that unless the chip is a dud or something unlucky like that.

Also, who the heck told you that you could get condensation? Thats something I'd except a 7th grader to understand, let alone anyone who'd actually managed to put together a watercooled system.

Hehe... I once got a 16 page thread (all in one day, most posts were by the starter) who insisted that 1/16" tubing was the way to go, and that the purpose of a radiator was to cool the tubing, and that condensation would occur (he talked to a plumber who told him that changes in temperature would cause condensation.) In retrospect, it was probably a troll.

i was told by someone who i thought, at the time, to be fairly knowledgeable on the subject, but looking at it in retrospect, i was wrong. when i confronted the person that made the comments with the information in this thread, he informed that he was just trying to discourage me from going with WC b/c he wanted to have it first. quite childish in my opinion.

thanks for the info and replies everyone.

-KryPTyK