Water cooling
computers has become increasingly popular these days. Companies
are founded on nothing more than these products. When niche hobby
markets like overclocking and case modding can fund new businesses,
it’s apparent that the niche markets are becoming more popular.
Water cooling in the past has been seen as a bleeding edge technology
when in fact it dates back to some of the first computers manufactured.
With Intel and AMD along with their cohorts nVidia and ATI building
us the super fast chips we so adore, cooling has definitely become
an issue. OEM coolers are becoming as loud as the high end aftermarket
products we love. For the sensitive ears, water cooling is an obvious
choice. The loudest part of an H2O system is the fans on the radiator,
heater core or bong. The fans don’t necessarily have to be
extremely powerful which cuts back on noise.
Many people
have the impression that the pumps make a lot of noise. This is
incorrect. A properly mounted pump will make only a slight hum which
is undetectable once the machine is on. If your pump is making to
much noise then get it out of the top of your H2O loop because the
only way they get loud is if there’s air in them. There are
numerous types of pumps available from many different manufacturers
all over the world. Some are 12V DC and others are 110V AC. I prefer
AC pumps as they seem to be stronger and have proven to be much
more reliable.
As with all
of our reviews I wanted to test the pump based on the manufacturer’s
specs and also with a real world “idiot proof” way to
understand the results. As most avid water coolers know, it’s
not necessarily the gallons per hour (GPH) that make or break the
pump but the head volume. Many manufacturers put a super high GPH
on the pump which can only be true if it pumps downhill with no
backflow? Head Volume is a way to measure how far up a pump can
push water. If a pump has a head volume of 1ft then it’s obviously
not the right pump for a computer. Most cooling setups need a pump
rated at 4ft or more to give us the desired flow rate while still
being able to reach the top most component in the loop. The higher
the head volume usually means more GPH, at least with the types
of pumps we’re discussing today. Hopefully in this review
I’ll be able to give you a slightly above beginner’s
course on the theory behind water cooling and also give you an enormous
amount of information to use while putting together your H2O system.
|
