Water Cooling of CPU...Too Risky or just Paranoid?

The net is full of horror stories, and parts fail all the time. There have been uses who reported their power supply exploded causing massive fire damage. Should we Un-plug ours every time we leave home?

Yes, there's a risk in using water coolers, no doubt; but there's also the risk of the above happening with any electrical component in your system.

I bring this up because there's always going to be a "what if"

Anyway good luck on whichever way you go. I was once where you are so I understand

Peace

Computer0304 said:

Well you can never be to careful like my sig says |
\ /
But liquid cooling is a great alternative to air cooling and as long as the tubes are not thin, cheap ones, you should be okay. If you want to, you could check the inside of your computer once in a while to make sure there is no developing holes on the tubing.

Highly agree with that, especially if you're running any type of water cooling setup. For me, I do regular inspections on my system anyway. Got that habit from being an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force.

Anyway there's always going to be those who doubt so... the OP asked an opinion, we gave it. It's up to him to decide.

Good luck :)

Indianatone said:

Hi Guys and Gals,
On one of my main rigs I have a Newegg.com - CORSAIR Hydro Series H75 CW-9060015-WW Water/Liquid CPU Cooler 120 MM installed keeping my FX 8350 around 17C or lower. My sister system has a Cooler Master Hyper 212 with push pull fans and the FX 8320 runs at 17 C or less. Not really any difference in performance. What is scaring the bejesus out of me is as an Electronics guy water and expensive electronics do not mix. A couple of reviews have made me question the water cooler in so much as I ordered another Cooler master 212 from Amazon. The review from LEOPOLD R .on New Egg has me somewhat concerned as does this:
My friends liquid cooling system leaked onto his Titan and sparked an electrical fire. Is the card salvageable? The LC company refuses to reimburse more than $150 for the card. : techsupportgore
I cannot afford to lose my system as I am no longer working and recently did an upgrade on 3 machines costing $1500 to $2000 (my wife was mad for a few till she got her new machine) and have somewhat shot my wad so to speak. What are everyone's thoughts? Am I being paranoid or is it like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park? When the ride breaks down the Dino's eat the guests. If this cooler leaks bang goes my CPU, GPU, MB and Soundcard at least...

17C ? you both must keep your house really cold!
Most likely that LC system that sparked a fire was custom and not an All-in-one. AIO also can fail. There are also other risks you take DIY.

If you aren't overclocking heavily (> 35% say) then you don't need liquid cooling. Good air cooling will suffice. Sounds like you have cold ambient so air cooling is a no-brainer to me.

Britton30 said:

Opinions are like Uranus, we all have one. here's mine:
I wouldn't be too quick to condemn a product based on an extremely small amount of reported problems. We have many users here at SF who use custom and closed loop water cooling, if there were major problems with one, someone would really make a point to complain about it.

Yeah, what he said

Britton30 said:

Gene, a 35% OC is fairly heavy.

Yeah, he could use a bit of cooling there :)

Damn homie you get the double +... too bad I need to spread some love

GeneO said:

Indianatone said:

Hi Guys and Gals,
On one of my main rigs I have a Newegg.com - CORSAIR Hydro Series H75 CW-9060015-WW Water/Liquid CPU Cooler 120 MM installed keeping my FX 8350 around 17C or lower. My sister system has a Cooler Master Hyper 212 with push pull fans and the FX 8320 runs at 17 C or less. Not really any difference in performance. What is scaring the bejesus out of me is as an Electronics guy water and expensive electronics do not mix. A couple of reviews have made me question the water cooler in so much as I ordered another Cooler master 212 from Amazon. The review from LEOPOLD R .on New Egg has me somewhat concerned as does this:
My friends liquid cooling system leaked onto his Titan and sparked an electrical fire. Is the card salvageable? The LC company refuses to reimburse more than $150 for the card. : techsupportgore
I cannot afford to lose my system as I am no longer working and recently did an upgrade on 3 machines costing $1500 to $2000 (my wife was mad for a few till she got her new machine) and have somewhat shot my wad so to speak. What are everyone's thoughts? Am I being paranoid or is it like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park? When the ride breaks down the Dino's eat the guests. If this cooler leaks bang goes my CPU, GPU, MB and Soundcard at least...

17C ? you both must keep your house really cold!
Most likely that LC system that sparked a fire was custom and not an All-in-one. AIO also can fail. There are also other risks you take DIY.

If you aren't overclocking heavily (> 35% say) then you don't need liquid cooling. Good air cooling will suffice. Sounds like you have cold ambient so air cooling is a no-brainer to me.

That 62F for the north Americans. I suspect the monitoring software is incorrect.

Cooling with h2o is as safe as air if you know what you are doing. I have AIO's that have been running 24/7 for about a year and zero issues. Modded AIO's with out issue and a custom dual pump three sink system. They are as safe as the person doing the assembly. Distilled h2o is not conductive and does not short electrical components. It's common practice to clean motherboards in a dishwasher, when dry they are fine. It's the impurities in h2o that is conductive, not the oxygen and hydrogen atoms. A typical diy loop with distilled water picks up about 40ppm from the brass and cooper used in the components in the first 24hrs, this builds to about 100-150ppm after a period of time. Most responsible diy'ers drain, flush and refill the loop every six months.

I've read some of the stories of hose coming off of AIO's. How hard did you have to pull on that anyway? Did you check the hose clamps before installing? It's not the equipment that fails, it's the operator. The quality of today's h2o equipment is as bullet proof as it gets. It's come a long ways since aquarium pumps and thin plastic tubing.