Water vs Air (in therms of noise)

Craws · 10-23-2008, 04:33 PM

I must say, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to water cooling a system. Though, I do know that some fans are still necessary. I'd just like to know, will a water cooled system always be far quieter than an air cooled one?

I'm not planning to overclock or anything, so I do realise that water cooling is certainly not necessary, but I want my system to be as silent as possible.

Thanks, any help is much appreciated.

**manic** · 10-23-2008, 07:48 PM

Quieter yes, far quieter that depends. If you water cool your video card/
cards that takes away alot of noise, but if you just water cool the
cpu, it will be a little quieter but not by a great margin. Most noise
is generated by the gpu fan/fans ramping up. Imo

Craws · 10-23-2008, 10:53 PM

Ah ok. Thanks for the reply manic. I might go with an air cooled case, most likely an Antec P182. Water is a little bit expensive, more maintainance, and I'm sure an air cooled P182 will be significantly quieter than my noisy Dell Dimension 8400.

**magnethead** · 10-23-2008, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craws

Ah ok. Thanks for the reply manic. I might go with an air cooled case, most likely an Antec P182. Water is a little bit expensive, more maintainance, and I'm sure an air cooled P182 will be significantly quieter than my noisy Dell Dimension 8400.

even an antec 900 with all fans on low is decent on noise, for the amount of fans in it.

**stressfreesoul** · 10-26-2008, 08:45 PM

It depends on your fans, cheap ones are invariably loud. I use thermaltake all through. To explain how quiet it is, I have an AMD powered PC right next to my rig with one 90mm and one 72mm fan (my rig has 3x 120mm and 1x 130mm Thermaltakes). You cant hear my main rig over it. Pay for quality and quietness.

10-23-2008, 04:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
Craws Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP SP2	Water vs Air (in terms of noise) I must say, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to water cooling a system. Though, I do know that some fans are still necessary. I'd just like to know, will a water cooled system always be far quieter than an air cooled one? I'm not planning to overclock or anything, so I do realise that water cooling is certainly not necessary, but I want my system to be as silent as possible. Thanks, any help is much appreciated. Last edited by Craws; 10-23-2008 at 05:02 PM. Reason: Spelling in title.

10-23-2008, 07:48 PM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,238 OS: xp	Re: Water vs Air (in therms of noise) Quieter yes, far quieter that depends. If you water cool your video card/ cards that takes away alot of noise, but if you just water cool the cpu, it will be a little quieter but not by a great margin. Most noise is generated by the gpu fan/fans ramping up. Imo __________________

10-23-2008, 10:53 PM	#3 (permalink)
Craws Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: Water vs Air (in therms of noise) Ah ok. Thanks for the reply manic. I might go with an air cooled case, most likely an Antec P182. Water is a little bit expensive, more maintainance, and I'm sure an air cooled P182 will be significantly quieter than my noisy Dell Dimension 8400.

10-26-2008, 08:45 PM	#5 (permalink)
stressfreesoul Semi-Absent (life, eh?) Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: County Durham UK Posts: 1,852 OS: XP, Win7 RC x64, Ubuntu x64 multiboot My System Blog Entries: 7	Re: Water vs Air (in therms of noise) It depends on your fans, cheap ones are invariably loud. I use thermaltake all through. To explain how quiet it is, I have an AMD powered PC right next to my rig with one 90mm and one 72mm fan (my rig has 3x 120mm and 1x 130mm Thermaltakes). You cant hear my main rig over it. Pay for quality and quietness. __________________ TSF Folding@Home, find out how to do your bit in the fight against Cancer "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut" xbox Live tag: storiedmedal Warning!! GTA IV addict! Join my game at your peril!