Geekness requested

[furrycelt]

I am more of a front-end geek than a backend geek (id est: I like to program and design; I don't muck with hardware and OS's and networks unless I have to).

Having said that...

You do not want a watercooled system, no matter how geeky it is. My best friend (a backend geek) has one that he put together. He did a bang up job, it works great... and he hates it. He learned they are way more trouble than they are worth. The set up is bulky, the hoses get in the way in the case, you run the risk of getting your hardware wet, and when it is all said and done, you still have to deal with the heat. All the water does is move the heat, so you have to figure out a way of cooling the water down. Most use radiator with air blowing over it.... which is what the water system replaced! (seems reduntant, eh?).

If you want to maintain your geekiness and up performance and bring down the chill... go with a peltier.

If you still want to do the fluid thing, just sink your entire box into a tank with circulating chilled carbon-tetrachloride. Any and all heat is instantly wisked away, and the fluid is non-conductive, so the electronics do not care that they are in a liquid. Of course this chemical is poisonous and unstable so you should wash your hands after handling.

[yoippari]

I have done some reading in the past couple of days and I must say a couple of things.

when it is all said and done, you still have to deal with the heat. All the water does is move the heat, so you have to figure out a way of cooling the water down. Most use radiator with air blowing over it.... which is what the water system replaced! (seems reduntant, eh?).

The goal of the water is to get the heat away from the processor where it can be cooled quickly and more efficiently. Get a bigger radiator and you can leave the water in there longer to cool down more. That is something you can't do with a heat sink fan setup, well, at least not very well.

If you want to maintain your geekiness and up performance and bring down the chill... go with a peltier.

Everything I have read about peltiers is that they are expensive and don't work well by themselves. In fact as far as cpu cooling it looks like they are always used with watercooling. Even then it is just a water cooling system with a different medium. Instead of using water to move heat away from a cpu you are using an electrical current, then you transfer it to a water cooling system (or maybe a hsf but if you are going with a peltier why go half way).

tank with circulating chilled carbon-tetrachloride.

When all I can find for three pages on google for something is materal safety data sheets saying that the stuff is very poisonous I can't believe this is a serious suggestion. The fourth page included a list of manufacturers followed by more MSDSs.

I don't mean to pick on you or anything but first you say watercooling is too much trouble and doesn't make sense as to why you should do it (contrary to almost all of the overclocking community), then you say to use just a different version of the system you just say not to do which just so happens to almost always involve watercooling anyway, followed by an extremely dangerous suggestion. I do take offense to your post now that I have done my research into the technologies you mention. I don't get offended easily.

Besides my goal is not to "be geeky" but to get more preformance and life out of my hardware. It just so happens that I am a geek and other geeks know how to do what I want.

[furrycelt]

I don't get offended easily.

Dang, and I wasn't even trying. ;)

I didn't mean to offend. The third suggestion was so out-in-left-field, I figured the humor was obvious.

For the record though, a decade ago it was normal for super-computers to be sitting in a vat or that stuff. Since that time, its use has declined because it is a dangerous chemical for humans. And there was a time when electronic engineers used to run circuit boards in a tank of that stuff to isolate small short-circuits. The chemical's low boiling point would show a stream of bubbles above any hot spot.

Besides my goal is not to "be geeky" but to get more preformance and life out of my hardware.

I use the term "geek" as a positive thing. Being "geeky" would imply wanting to get the most out of your hardware (be it performance or longevity).

-ian