best way to cool a PC

[mjatas]

What is the best and easiest way to cool a desktop PC without getting too expensive and making your PC too loud?

[forizzle111]

the easiest/cheapest is air....... then there is watercooling which cools better and costs more...... then there is phase change cooling which cools the best and costs the most

[mjatas]

but I am not fimiliar with those terms like water cooling and the last thing you said. But air I understand

I mean like how do they work, what things you need to install them and how to install these coolers. Is there places to learn how to install for begginers. I mean I know how to build my own basic PC, but coolers and stuff I am not sure or gaming PC's I am not sure.

[forizzle111]

umm well to start with watercooling is umm..... cooling ur PC with water by running it through tubes that connect to blocks mounted on the CPU/GPU what ever else u want, then the water runs through a radiator to cool the water back down. phase change is kinda complicated and im not sure about it too much., but it is the idea of changing from liquid to gas and back to a liquid to cool. u can buy watercooling kits online or piece them together urself.

[TwoRails]

Originally Posted by mjatas What is the best and easiest way to cool a desktop PC without getting too expensive and making your PC too loud?

Assuming no OCing on your part, the easiest and cheapest way is to use a Retail CPU which comes with a HS/fan combo designed for proper cooling, and a decent case, such as Antec, and use just the one or two fans that come with it. No extra expense that way (meaning no additional fans or controllers) and quite (as in you don't need 4, 5, 6 fans to cool a system).

[David M]

What are your specs? We would be glad to make some reccommendations that would fit your computer. I would stick with air cooling for now. Its the simplest and most reliable form of cooling. There are a number of better than stock HSF's that are still relatively quiet. Once you learn more, liquid cooling would be the next alternative. Liquid cooling is quieter and creates more opportunities for overclocking than air cooling but the downside is the complexity, cost, loss of warranty and potential for damage.

[The_YongGrand]

I afraid if I do my super-air cooling, then all of the comp's heat will be dissipated to the surroundings, making the whole room to feel like a sauna.... Is that right?

[TwoRails]

Well... yes, but the same is true no matter how you cool it: the heat will disapate into the surroundings. The cooler a computer runs means the heat is disapating faster from the computer into the surroundings.

[mjatas]

Originally Posted by David M What are your specs? We would be glad to make some reccommendations that would fit your computer. I would stick with air cooling for now. Its the simplest and most reliable form of cooling. There are a number of better than stock HSF's that are still relatively quiet. Once you learn more, liquid cooling would be the next alternative. Liquid cooling is quieter and creates more opportunities for overclocking than air cooling but the downside is the complexity, cost, loss of warranty and potential for damage.

AMD 64 - 1.8 Ghz (2800+ socket 754)
Kingston 1024MB DDR RAM 400MHz
Asus K8S-MX motherboard
Enermax 370W - ATX 12V v2.0 Power supply (2 fans)
Samsung 16x DVD-Rom / BenQ LightScribe DL DVD-RW
1 extra case fan
GARBAGE CASE (will by new one next week)

[04nmr85]

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050609/

^Looked to be a good article about water cooling

Wasn't able to find much on phase change cooling but it is some what expensive.

[spyder003]

What are you doing with this PC? If you're not an extreme overclocker/have money to burn, just use air. A stock and HSF and one case fan is more than fine for normal use and it's not loud...

[mjatas]

Originally Posted by spyder003 What are you doing with this PC? If you're not an extreme overclocker/have money to burn, just use air. A stock and HSF and one case fan is more than fine for normal use and it's not loud...

Actually I use the PC a lot for my website, running a radio station on internet, sometimes downloading, doing multi-tasking and a lot of other stuff. This computer is mainly for my business though so I really don't want it extremely powerfull and don't intend to spend a lot of money on it. I just wanted to know about cooling and maybe in the future build another better PC or upgrade this one. The thing is I want this computer I have now to be totally silent and for some reason it still makes noise, and I am not sure what makes the noise, however I know for sure it's not the power supply or the CPU fan. So maybe the hdd?

[David M]

Its difficult to get a computer that is absolutely silent. There are a few special cases that are pretty much sealed and use an external fanless radiator to get rid of the heat. Did you mean zero noise or minimal noise?

Google "silent computer" or "silent computer cases"

[piasabird]

I have seen some motherboards for desktops that use a Pent-M Processor. Aopen sells some and also a couple bare bones kits. With an integrated video solution it barely uses 37 watts with one DVD and one hard drive. The drawback is that the motherboards are expensive and the processors can be pricey. However, Toms hardware had a review on this and when they installed the cooler sometimes the fan did not even run when it was idle.

This is kind of radical.

This is an approach which seems to make sense even thought it would mean a more expensive computer. In the long run you would save money on the electic bill to make up the difference.

[mjatas]

Originally Posted by David M Its difficult to get a computer that is absolutely silent. There are a few special cases that are pretty much sealed and use an external fanless radiator to get rid of the heat. Did you mean zero noise or minimal noise? Google "silent computer" or "silent computer cases"

well not zero, but close enough. I think one of my hdd is making noise though because it's a little older.