EggXpert

As I continue on in my quest to satisfy my need for upgrading my computer and learning more about computers (without taking classes), I've decided to start thinking about liquid cooling. For me, it's more of a dust-free thing more than anything else; my current case, which I love, has seven 120mm fans, so you can imagine the dust intake. But apart from the price, I'm worried about the complexity of liquid cooling more so than anything, because I have a test computer that no one seems to want to buy that I can use as a guinea pig. My first question is, has anyway tried using a mainly gravity-fed system, with the pump only used for cycling liquid back into the tank, and if so how good is it? It seems to me that flow rate isn't really important, so long as liquid is continually channeled across the hottest components. I figure one could use a smaller, quieter pump this way, since it would only have to pump from the bottom of the case to the resevoir at the top.

I'm also interested in liquid nitrogen cooling. I've always had an obsession (for reasons unknown to me) with having as cool a case as possible, and a liquid N2-cooled rig would be the uber king of cold (and could probably also double an an air conditioner). Does this require special components aside from a storage tank (e.g. blocks, tubing, pump)? And where would a cheap place be to buy a small tank of L. N2? I would imagine that perhaps only 20oz. would work well enough.

Lastly, has anyone tried using metal (e.g. copper) piping instead of tubing/hosing? I realize that you lose a lot of flexibility using solid pipes, but it might cut down on costs, especially if PVC could be used (though that might be leak-prone).

The biggest thing I see with using copper tubing is that you'd need to solder the joints which would have to be done in the case most likely. PVC requires pvc cement which would probably melt any circuit board. And I don't know about you, but I'm not talking a blow torch and dripping solder anywhere near my pc. I don't know how much quieter a gravity fed system would be due to the fact that most systems have one pump which you'd still need to pump the coolant from the bottom reservoir to the top and also through the radiator.

Good pumps are quiet, the fans to cool the rad are the noisiest component.

 you need good flowrates to cool a block,

dust is still a prob because you still need air flow over your board regardless of water,

copper vs standard tubing? copper is very expensive and not flexible

Liquid nitrogen???? read here, you may want to rethink that unless all you plan to do with that PC is bench.

So if I had a quiet fan(s) on the radiator, it would keep it quieter then?

Is it powered by the computer itself or is it external?

I will start off by saying that if you go water make sure you have time and money for it. a nice WC setup that is quite will run around 400 dollars or more and thats for CPU. I always run a loop for CPU and another for GPU.

 Next i would say is say that using copper tubing will cost a huge chunk and look clunky in there. go with regular tubing because its CHEAP and its easy to do.

As for Liquid Nitrogen, its around $1500 for the Blocks. Unless you have 2 or 3 gtx 280's or plan on 2 4870x2's and getting 4gb of ddr3 and a q9650 that will clock to 5ghz, there is no point for it. Also they only sell LN2 by the liter and i think the smallest is 20 liter, and thats alot. A forum i am on, there is one person doing LN2 and each time he does it its around $500 to do benchmarks.

If you have the time and cash then water is great. I love it and love it for benchmarking, but it comes with a hefty price (i prefer not to buy thos junky kits) and it need to be maintained. I clea mine every 2-3 months. Full system clean

Liquid cooling also isnt completely dust free. You still need some case fans to make airflow through the parts that arent watercooled, like the components on the motherboard.

Liquid nitrogen systems are really hard to make. Everything has to be insulated to keep your skin from coming off even if you touch outside the pipe. Also, you'd need to make a pressurized system like in an air conditioner. Otherwise, if its open to the air, the liquid nitrogen will evaporate extremely quickly and you wouldnt be able to use it for day to day computing.

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Sony PCV-RX755 (old but still runs great!)
MOBO: ASUS OEM board
CPU: 2 GHz Socket 478 Pentium 4 Northwood
RAM: 2 GB Kingston ValueRAM
GFX: EVGA Geforce 6200 AGP
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 100 GB ATA-100

No, the tubing would be too insulated for that. There are actually hard drive waterblocks, but they're just uncommon. I couldnt find one on newegg, so heres a link:

http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l2/g30/c203/list/p1/Liquid_Cooling-Water_Blocks_HDD.html

What i mean by cooling other components i mean the small stuff that normally would be taken care of by the airflow in the case, like capacitors, voltage regulators, chipsets for stuff like SATA, etc.

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Sony PCV-RX755 (old but still runs great!)
MOBO: ASUS OEM board
CPU: 2 GHz Socket 478 Pentium 4 Northwood
RAM: 2 GB Kingston ValueRAM
GFX: EVGA Geforce 6200 AGP
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 100 GB ATA-100