Watercooling -- Always above room temp?
 

Its my understanding that watercooling setups always run at or above ambient temps when running strictly with radiators.

I was introducing a friend of mine to the concept of watercooling pc's and he became instantly leery about condensation possibilities.

Take all questions below in the worst possible case such as there are no heat sources in the system. (i.e. cpu is off and pump doesn't add any heat)

Is there any possibility for the water temps to drop below room temp with a rad?

Could room temp changes cause the water to at a given point in time be cooler than room temp?

If I brought my system in from the cold outside into my nice warm room would i get condensation (i know this is a stupid question just have to ask it)?

Thanks,

Cyph3r

There is no possible way your temps will go below ambient room temps.

Your water will never be below room temp and so there will be no condensation problems there, unless your room temp swings ALOT (eg. 5*C in a minute), even then you probably won't get any condensation. If you bring it inside from a really cold area then yes you might get condensation, but no more so than if you brought in a non-water cooled system in.

To sum up, there is no more chance at all of condensation with a water cooled system than with a hsf system.

PS. You did say strictly with rads so you can ignore this. You might have problems with a bong cooled system.

Edward

it is impossible to cool a medium below the temperature of the cooling medium.

because if it was, we would really be happy about it!

1.. 2... 3... wtf?!? :) :)

If using phase change it is possible. That includes bong coolers. Then again, you're reducing the temp of the cooling medium. But then again the cooling medium of the cooling medium is hotter than the cooling medium and may or may not be cooler than the cooled medium. Ya see?

Edward

totally... cool medium that is... or is it just cool? :cool:

ok, if you have say a block of Al, and are spraying room temp water at it, how can it go below room temp?

if you are blowing air at a radiator at room temp, how can the rad temp go below room temp



'it is impossible to cool a medium (water) below the temperature of the cooling medium (air).'

In those you probably won't get below ambient temps, well maybe on the Al block and definately not on the rad. However in a bong cooler the water evaporates taking with it its latent heat of evaporation. This evaporation can still occur at or bellow ambient, (a block of ice still evaporates, very very slowly) dragging the temp down furthur. There comes a point where heat loss due to evaporation is equal to heat gain by conduction with air (this gain can only occur at temps below ambient) so that sets your limit for water temp.

If you already know this then disregard. However I did say bong cooler and phase change in my previous post.

Edward

yes, I know that. The easiest way to show this is to get temp probe. Measure the ambient temp, then stick it into some water, measure the temp, take the probe out and sit it in air. there will be some water on it, which quickly evaporates, taking some heat energy away from the air and the probe, so the probe may drop down to 20C or so when the water temp is 23C and ambient is 25C. Then within a minute or so, the probe goes back to ambient

I think the main point u are trying to make is that there is a required phase change to bring a cooling medium to below ambient. Which is how the vapochill stuff work and even bong coolers... Bongs use evap which is a phase change.. not near as effective (maybe more efficient tho) as compressor setups...

Cyph3r

Exactly. ;']

Edward