Navigate: Advice Beginners BIOS Guide CPUs Links Mainboards Memory Network Storage Video/Sound Cards Contact Forum SiteMap Sponsors Home PC Hardware from Made-in-China.com Search: Enter your search terms   Web www.lostcircuits.com Submit search form	.
Prices:

Everybody uses either air- or watercooling and while both methods have their distinct advantages, there is no way that they should be as mutually exclusive as the "either / or" black and white world might suggest. The biggest question is whether there is any sense in combining both technologies, that is whether water cooling can be improved by additional air cooling or else, whether the entire approach is counterproductive in that possibly the warm air inside the case could negate the advantages of watercooling. There is only one way to solve the riddle and even though slightly modified approaches might yield somewhat different results, at least, we have done it for you to find out what we came up with.

Please note that any link to a commercial website in this article does not constitute an endorsement; it is merely an attempt to give credit where it is due.

INTRODUCTION

The traditional method for cooling a CPU is to use a heatsink/fan combo and distribute the heat generated by the CPU throughout the case. Most systems also have one or more fans that exchange air (and heat) between the case interior and exterior. Some large PC manufacturers such as Dell and HP will custom design cooling systems that move air across the heatsink and then directly out of the case. Regardless of the path traveled, air is a relatively poor medium for moving heat.

The starting point of the hybrid system are a waterblock from 2CoolComputer and a Thermalright SK6 standard heatsink that are going to be combined.

For the past few years adventurous hobbyists have been building liquid (usually water) cooling systems for their computers. I'll skip the basic description of watercooling since most readers will already be familiar with the concept. Some disadvantages of watercooling are that the necessary components are more expensive than a high quality heatsink/fan combo and the system must be carefully assembled and tested to avoid disastrous leaks. For those that use watercoolers these drawbacks are outweighed by one simple fact: water works better than air.

The idea behind this article is that while watercooling works better than a traditional heatsink/fan combo, the two methods are not mutually exclusive. Remember that in a watercooled system the heat goes first from the CPU to the water block, then to the coolant. Why not mount a heatsink on the water block to achieve a "dualcool" effect, where heat is removed by both air and water?

It seems like a simple idea, but I've never heard of anybody doing it. There are quite a few people who have enclosed a heatsink to make it into a water block, but the closest I've found to what I'm doing here is at this link, where a reviewer took a none-too-thrilling heatsink and drilled a water channel through it. Also somewhat similar, but not quite the same, is the CPUfx Reactor waterblock, which mounts vertically and has aluminum sides machined to increase surface area. I'm taking a water cooler that is already effective and adding a high-performance heatsink to see if there is any improvement. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody has tried this before, but there has been only one short report on a similar setup at Overclockers.com. Here we go...

next page:    => Components And Some Thermodynamics =>