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WaterCooling - Here to Stay or Passing Fad?

by David Ross on 24 December 2002, 00:00

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaow

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Introduction

As CPU's get faster, they tend to get hotter – Fact. Yes, the manufacturing process may get smaller each time around, but as the number of transistors rise, so does the temperature.

One option we have to cool our hotter CPU's is a large heat sink and an even larger fan, but quite frankly I've had enough of ear damaging Delta's. Some may prefer the idea of a loud fan to the thought of pumping water around a PC, but each to their own and as they say, "Don’t knock till you’ve tried it".

So, my latest project is to WaterCool my AMD XP2000 CPU and GF4 rig. I have two aims in this project:

  • Overclock the CPU higher and at lower temperatures.
  • Reduce the overall noise levels of my PC.

Now, back in the days when WaterCooling was an art, a black magic if you like, there was one member on an online forum that used to have all the answers for people wanting to WaterCool their PC's. Step in one JessFM, as he was known on the forums. Jess has since turned his hobby into a business, now when someone does that, they tend to only sell items that they believe in and would use themselves.

When I decided that WaterCooling was the route I wanted to take, I looked into options that were open to me. I considered kits from America, Germany and the UK. Prices varied enormously, as did the quality. Now as I said above, when I saw that Jess had set up OCPC I had a feeling the items were going to be well made.