The Neophyte's Custom Liquid Cooling Guide: How To, Why To, What To Expect
by Dustin Sklavos on September 30, 2013 12:01 AM ESTThe last part of our objective testing is in measuring noise levels, thermals, and power consumption. All of these theoretically go up due to increased voltages on the CPU and graphics cards as well as just the overhead in running the liquid cooling system. Remember that we've added a water pump and essentially increased the number of case fans from three to six.
As I mentioned in my initial review of the Corsair Carbide Air 540, noise levels for the case itself aren't particularly stellar but they're not horrible either. Where we do benefit from the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 motherboard is its spacing between the two graphics cards; the board is designed to support four cards, so there's plenty of room for both cards to breathe.
First, we'll take a look at thermals.
What should be striking is the increase in temperatures on the CPU going from air to water, but remember that we also were able to add a substantial amount of voltage in the process to hit 4.4GHz. Doubly striking is the way the load temperatures on the 780s are more than halved.
Despite the GPUs drawing substantially more power (and thus generating more heat) than the CPU, they also have much higher surface area and less overall heat density. We also benefit from direct contact between the heatsink and the GPU die, while Intel uses poor quality glue and thermal paste to bond the 4770K's die to the heatspreader. Ultimately it becomes too difficult to transfer heat off of the 4770K fast enough.
The reality is that none of these noise results are particularly uplifting, but there is a silver lining. If you shift down to 4.3GHz and lose all that voltage that was needed to hit 4.4GHz, you can also reduce the speeds on all of the fans and at least get your noise levels down substantially. Idle noise drops to about 31dB, with load noise closer to 35db or 36db. It's a lot more tolerable.
Given the way idle voltages are handled by Haswell and Kepler, it's reasonable to suggest the liquid cooling system adds about 15-20W of overhead as opposed to air cooling. Subtract 20W for the loop, and you're looking at our modest overclock tacking another 30W of power consumption on over the air cooling system. I'm at least a little nervous about what will happen when I flash the BIOSes of the GTX 780s to unlock a small voltage boost down the road.
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bojaka - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
And right about THERE I lost my interest in water cooling - Thanks :) I actually believed water cooling would be a viable solution to make my computer silent, but apparently not. Thanks for a great article!!utnorris - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
You can make a near dead silent water cooled system that allows you to overclock. Unfortunately, the fans you are using in the article, while good, are not the best, regardless what marketing says. I have built probably 40 to 50 systems over the last 5 years using water cooling and noise was never an issue. If you are not overclocking then a full blown water cooling setup is not worth it, but for the added performance, it's well worth it. Also, there is no need for additives like the Hydrx, distilled water with a silver coil or some anti algae drops from your local pet store is all you need and would be less toxic. Last, as already mentioned, delidding would have seen about 10c drop on the processor and if you are going to water cool, you might as well delid your chip.Aikouka - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
You REALLY shouldn't take a SINGLE article on water cooling as the end all, be all on whether water cooling can provide a silent build. Dustin was NOT pushing for a silent build, but rather just a build with whatever parts he was provided. I have a custom loop with an i7-4770k and two GTX 680s, and it isn't noisy at all. It is going to be a bit noisier at idle because of having significantly more fans (I have 7 120mm fans just on the radiators), but it doesn't get any noisier at load! I also use a fan controller that lets me set the fans to the speed -- and consequently, the noise level -- that I find acceptable.piroroadkill - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Yeah, some people think this, but since you're shifting water at the same time as pushing air, there are simply more moving parts involved. Just get a giant tower heatsink and run those fans sloooowly, and choose a GPU with a really good factory heatsink.tim851 - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Depends. There are much better, i.e. quieter, pumps available. The best one imo is the Aquastream by AquaComputer. Even then, a single Cpu-single Gpu system is quieter on air. A Thermalright HR-02 and an Accelero Xtreme will take care of it. Once you go SLI, however, you're running into space and heat evacuation problems. Watercooling is your only chance of acceptable noise at load now.piroroadkill - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Yeah, multi-GPU rigs are a different beast. At that point a custom water loop is probably your best bet.But for single CPU/single GPU rigs, water is basically a vanity project, not one that will actually give you lower noise.
piklar - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Great article Dustin! It just so happens I have been considering a watercooling project this summer (new Zealand time) using the Corsair Air540 with 4770K and SLI GTX 780s. Ironicly it appears The Raven RV03 is doing just as good if not better job of the cooling with Corsair H80 and reference card cooling. You have shown how luck of the draw Haswell can be since the 4770Ks Ive come across all do 4.6ghz on 2.8- 3.0v no probs. Still your article was very useful and much appreciated.Death666Angel - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
2.8V to 3.0V? That's not right. :PRazorbak86 - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
LOL. My thought exactly. I'm sure he meant 1.28-1.30V. ;-Ppiklar - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
soz was half asleep, thanks for clarifying that I meant meant 1.280 - 1.30V for 4.6ghz with 4770K with H80.