Is There Still a Need for Water-Cooling?

For me, water-cooling began out of necessity. I water-cooled my first PC nearly ten years ago, when, living in a house with a flat roof, my bedroom got incredibly hot in the summer months. I was already hooked on overclocking at the time and strove to save money by buying cheap, but very overclockable hardware. Unfortunately, the combination of the house's architecture and high system temperatures meant that my PC was intolerably noisy and unstable.

Infuriated, I made the move to water-cooling - not a particularly easy one as there were few guides and even fewer off-the-shelf components back then, which resulted in regular trips to the local DIY store to search for parts. I initially water-cooled my CPU, and my overheating and noise issues were solved instantly - my PC went from a hot, noisy box to a cool and quiet machine of wonder. I had more overclocking headroom than before too.

Every one of my main rigs since then has also seen me spend entire weekends building and leak-testing. In fact, the last three PCs I've built have had a water-cooled CPU and GPU, as well as the various hotspots on the motherboard too. However, a lot of today's hardware simply doesn't need water-cooling as urgently as its equivalent back in the day. People still want water-cooling, but it seems to be a desire that's separate from the need to actually cool the hardware.

Even as far back as the release Intel's first mainstream quad-core CPUs, such as the Core 2 Quad Q6600, air coolers were quickly becoming potent enough for newcomers to question the significant outlay involved with water-cooling. The new heatpipe-clad tower coolers were becoming more efficient at every step, and there's usually an air cooler that will enable you to push all but the hottest running CPUs to the max, albeit with additional noise.

However, with Intel's LGA1155 CPUs, we've seen time and time again that air coolers such as Thermaltake's Frio and BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced are more than able to provide just as much overclocking headroom as a decent water-cooling kit, and with similar noise levels too. Our current LGA1155 thermal test kit is a case in question - we've overclocked our Core i7-2600K to a lofty 4.6GHz, and both the aforementioned coolers handled this overclock admirably.


Graphics cards are a slightly different matter, however, as we've found just as much reason to water-cool the current graphics cards such as the GeForce GTX 590 3GB as any previous generation. In fact, even mid-range graphics cards such as the GTX 560 Ti 1GB get quite warm and noisy under load, and many third party coolers haven't been able to tame them significantly.

Motherboards are a bit of mixed bag, though. I'd go as far as saying that I've had far fewer failures and stability issues since I've been water-cooling the motherboard in my PCs - the hot-running chipset on LGA1366 motherboards, for example, is almost certainly the reason for quite a few dead systems in our lab, as well as other problems I've read about in various forums.


However, water-cooling your motherboard is an expensive business - full cover blocks can retail for over £100, and most LGA1155 motherboards simply don't require shedloads of voltage either. With Intel and AMD's next-generation high-end CPUs on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how future families of motherboards fare on a day to day basis - will LGA2011 be another hot-running LGA1366 for example?

Aside from noise reduction, where water-cooling still has the edge in a few key areas, there is one other reason to invest in water-cooling. It looks fantastic. There's a reason why we award points to cases that look good, and why modding projects are so popular. Lots of us want to have a cool-looking PC and are willing to spend money achieving that goal. Thankfully, the water-cooling industry has taken notice and strived to meet the demand for a diverse and flexible range of hardware.

You only have to look at websites such as Aquatuning, Chilled PC and FrozenCPU to see the huge the range of components on offer these days, which makes it very easy to make a unique water-cooled PC. In addition, the huge range of gear is appealing to those who want to go one step further than just bolting a load of off-the-shelf parts together, and instead want to either mod their PC or even build it from scratch.

Even if the next generation of hardware doesn't notably benefit from water-cooling, there's always a small gap between air cooling and extreme cooling, and there will still be a huge market for it, for the simple reason that it's cool.

What do you think the future has in store for water-cooling? Have you been put off for any reason, or do you swear by it? Let us know in the forums.

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Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Posted on 17th Jul 2011 at 08:23 by Podcast with 10 comments

Custom PC veteran Phil Hartup and PC Pro's Mike Jennings join Joe and Paul for a late-night, post-pint rant. This episode of the podcast, perhaps because it's sponsored by alcohol, stumbles along with vague coherency through topics such as BioShock Infinite and Just Cause 2.

Mass Effect 2 is obligatorily drawn into the discussion too, as is tradition.

Boozy fumes aren't enough to stop us tackling the thorny issues, however - Phil explains why he expects Battlefield 3 will be a shoddy console port, while Joe shoots down the defence that 64-player multiplayer is something to be proud of.

*hic*


On top of that, Phil brings us a report on how APB: Reloaded is faring after being brought back from the dead, while Joe orates further on his favourite topic of the moment; Frozen Synapse.

As always, we've also got our weekly competition, which this time gives you a chance to win yourself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood on the PC and Raving Rabbids on the Nintendo 3DS. You can also find out who won the last competition and bagged themselves a Roccat Vire Gaming Headset.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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A Semiconductor DNA Sequencer

Last December, Ion Torrent, something of an upstart in the sequencing industry, launched its new semiconductor-based sequencing machine. At $50,000, it was a comparatively inexpensive device designed to move DNA sequencing from large, specialized centers to the standard lab bench. Now the company says its machine is en route to becoming the most popular one in a competitive market.

Life Technologies, which bought Ion Torrent for $375 million in cash and stock last August, is feeling good about its bet. The technology has already proved its worth as a valuable public health tool. In June, two different groups used the Ion Torrent machine to rapidly sequence the genome of a new strain of E. coli that killed more than 20 people in Europe. The effort helped identify the microbe's drug-resistance genes. And researchers across the globe are using it to sequence genes involved in cancer and other diseases, with the aim of creating rapid tests to determine the best medicine for a patient. 

Ion Torrent is competing with a number of sequencing technologies, all racing to become the fastest and cheapest: a landmark goal in the field is to sequence an entire human genome for $1,000, which would put it on par with many other routine medical tests. But Jonathan Rothberg, Ion Torrent's founder, says his technology, which is based on semiconductors, is getting better faster than anyone else's. 

Most advanced sequencing technologies rely on fluorescently tagged molecules and a microscope to sequence DNA. At the heart of Ion Torrent's machine are sequencing chips that detect DNA sequences electronically. This approach removes the need for expensive lasers and cameras. The chips are made in the same semiconductor fabs as computer microprocessors. And just as with computer chips, production costs per chip drop as larger numbers are produced. As sales of the Ion Torrent machine have risen, the cost of the sequencing chips has dropped from $250 to $99.

Researchers have also improved the chip's sequencing capacity by tenfold; each chip can generate 100 million base pairs, up from 10 million base pairs when the technology first launched. Rothberg says a third-generation chip capable of sequencing a billion bases will be available next year.

As a tip of the hat to the power of superconductors, Ion Torrent has now sequenced the full genome of Intel cofounder Gordon E. Moore, now 82. Moore is best known as the creator of Moore's law, which posits that the processing power of new chips would double approximately every two years. Ion Torrent's chip has improved tenfold over six months, a rapid advance that Rothberg attributes to "accumulated Moore's law," or the decades of research and billions of dollars that have gone into making faster microprocessors.

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Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Posted on 17th Jul 2011 at 08:23 by Podcast with 10 comments

Custom PC veteran Phil Hartup and PC Pro's Mike Jennings join Joe and Paul for a late-night, post-pint rant. This episode of the podcast, perhaps because it's sponsored by alcohol, stumbles along with vague coherency through topics such as BioShock Infinite and Just Cause 2.

Mass Effect 2 is obligatorily drawn into the discussion too, as is tradition.

Boozy fumes aren't enough to stop us tackling the thorny issues, however - Phil explains why he expects Battlefield 3 will be a shoddy console port, while Joe shoots down the defence that 64-player multiplayer is something to be proud of.

*hic*


On top of that, Phil brings us a report on how APB: Reloaded is faring after being brought back from the dead, while Joe orates further on his favourite topic of the moment; Frozen Synapse.

As always, we've also got our weekly competition, which this time gives you a chance to win yourself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood on the PC and Raving Rabbids on the Nintendo 3DS. You can also find out who won the last competition and bagged themselves a Roccat Vire Gaming Headset.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/-4ayxHYG6jU/

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Push Intensifies for Larger Deal on Debt Impasse

The White House suggested for the first time that Mr. Obama might be willing to agree to a short-term increase in the debt ceiling by Congress ? perhaps for a few days ? if such a deal was in sight, stepping up the pressure on the two parties to come to terms.

Mr. Obama met separately at the White House with Republican and Democratic leaders. But neither side reported any substantive progress as they searched for a formula that would include deep spending cuts, cost-saving changes to entitlement programs and an overhaul of the tax code that would increase revenues by closing certain tax breaks and eliminating deductions but also lower some tax rates.

Politically, the main question remained whether House Republicans would be willing to negotiate over any package that could be construed as raising taxes, and throughout the day there were signs of internal debate among party leaders.

Speaker John A. Boehner has shown continued interest in a deal if it can be done in a way that emphasizes lower tax rates.

But Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican, and others like Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Budget Committee chairman, warned that the most specific proposal to be made public so far ? and the one that has done the most to reopen the possibility of a bipartisan accord ? relied far too much for them on higher revenues to cut projected deficits.

That plan is the one put forward Tuesday by the so-called Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of senators who worked for months to reach an agreement and whose work was lauded by Mr. Obama as a sign that a deal was possible. The plan included a net increase in government revenue of about $1 trillion over a decade.

?I am concerned with the Gang of Six?s revenue target,? Mr. Cantor said.

Deepening the impasse was growing opposition among House Republicans to a fallback position developed by Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised without any support from Republicans but also would not impose the dollar-for-dollar cuts in spending that have been central to the party?s negotiating position.

But given the looming prospect of Congress?s missing the Aug. 2 deadline and risking a default on United States government debt ? a development that could shake financial markets and harm the already weak economy ? some Republicans appeared more willing to consider a deal locking in spending cuts that Mr. Obama has said he would take if balanced by new revenues. Conservatives have split over sticking to their no-taxes principles if it means walking away from progress toward restraining the growth of government.

At the White House, officials alternated between a sense of encouragement and growing concern that time is running out to avert a full-scale crisis.

?There is still time to do something significant if all parties are willing to compromise, because the parameters of what that might look like are well known,? said Jay Carney, the White House spokesman.

With an eye on the calendar, the president summoned leaders of both parties to build on Tuesday?s release of the $3.7 trillion deficit-cutting plan by the Senate?s Gang of Six.

At the Capitol, however, the emphasis was on a plan that Mr. McConnell has been putting together with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, to empower Mr. Obama to raise the borrowing ceiling.

The four House leaders ? Mr. Boehner, Mr. Cantor; Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader; and Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat ? met Wednesday and, according to officials, reviewed problems with the McConnell plan.

Such talks between the two parties? leaders in the House, which are rare given the polarized relations in that chamber, reflect the recognition that the Republican majority cannot pass the increase in the debt limit without a significant number of votes from Democrats.

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Justice Department preparing subpoenas for News Corp investigations

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing subpoenas for preliminary investigations around the bribery and phone hacking scandal that has ridden News Corp. over the last few weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The subpoenas still require approval from the department?s top leadership, and would require News Corp. management to divulge the information it has regarding all of the controversial scandals that the company has been called on in recent times.

The U.S. investigation seems to center around the voicemail hacking of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Justice Department says it is also looking into allegations that News of the World staff bribed British police ? it seems there is a tangle of jurisdictions in this case that, to my legally untrained eye, would appear to complicate the process.

It?ll be fun to watch and see whether the scrutiny unleashed upon News Corp. leads to more of this corrupt empire being broken up, as has already happened to News of the World. That said, here?s hoping that governments don?t jump on this as an opportunity to constrict the press; everything News Corp. did wrong is already illegal and is not a matter of press freedoms, but when Chairman Gillard of the People?s Republic of Australia wants to ask Murdoch ?hard questions? I get a little scared.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/07/22/justice-department-preparing-subpoenas-for-news-corp-investigations/

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Music industry hopes to squeeze more cash out of LimeWire

Hoping to squeeze every last cent from the defunct citrus-flavored filesharing service, the recording industry has filed another lawsuit against LimeWire. This time, an independent music trade group by the name of Merlin has targeted LimeWire founder Mark Gorton to collect a long-promised settlement.

The organization, which represents some 12,000 indie music labels and artists, claims that it issued LimeWire a cease and desist back in September 2008, but agreed not to pursue the matter in court despite believing that LimeWire owed the organization millions in damages for copyright infringement.

Apparently, LimeWire agreed that if it reached a settlement with the major labels (i.e. Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI), the peer-to-peer network would extend that same offer to Merlin. Well, LimeWire has since lost its case against the industry titans, but it has yet to fulfill its agreement with Merlin.

Last May, US District Judge Kimba Wood found LimeWire guilty of copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and unfair competition in a lengthy court battle against the RIAA. Just over two months ago, LimeWire and the RIAA finally put the suit to rest with a $105 million settlement.

In a briefer yearlong case that was resolved this March, the NMPA (representing eight major music publishers including the aforementioned firms) reached an undisclosed settlement with LimeWire. According to industry sources, LimeWire agreed to cough up $12 million, but this is unconfirmed.

"Merlin confirms it has filed a breach of contract claim against Lime Wire in the US District Court...for damages believed to be in excess of $5m," the company said. When confronted, LimeWire supposedly clenched its purse strings and refused to pony up. No court date has been scheduled yet.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44784-music-industry-hopes-to-squeeze-more-cash-out-of-limewire.html

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Push Intensifies for Larger Deal on Debt Impasse

The White House suggested for the first time that Mr. Obama might be willing to agree to a short-term increase in the debt ceiling by Congress ? perhaps for a few days ? if such a deal was in sight, stepping up the pressure on the two parties to come to terms.

Mr. Obama met separately at the White House with Republican and Democratic leaders. But neither side reported any substantive progress as they searched for a formula that would include deep spending cuts, cost-saving changes to entitlement programs and an overhaul of the tax code that would increase revenues by closing certain tax breaks and eliminating deductions but also lower some tax rates.

Politically, the main question remained whether House Republicans would be willing to negotiate over any package that could be construed as raising taxes, and throughout the day there were signs of internal debate among party leaders.

Speaker John A. Boehner has shown continued interest in a deal if it can be done in a way that emphasizes lower tax rates.

But Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican, and others like Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Budget Committee chairman, warned that the most specific proposal to be made public so far ? and the one that has done the most to reopen the possibility of a bipartisan accord ? relied far too much for them on higher revenues to cut projected deficits.

That plan is the one put forward Tuesday by the so-called Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of senators who worked for months to reach an agreement and whose work was lauded by Mr. Obama as a sign that a deal was possible. The plan included a net increase in government revenue of about $1 trillion over a decade.

?I am concerned with the Gang of Six?s revenue target,? Mr. Cantor said.

Deepening the impasse was growing opposition among House Republicans to a fallback position developed by Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised without any support from Republicans but also would not impose the dollar-for-dollar cuts in spending that have been central to the party?s negotiating position.

But given the looming prospect of Congress?s missing the Aug. 2 deadline and risking a default on United States government debt ? a development that could shake financial markets and harm the already weak economy ? some Republicans appeared more willing to consider a deal locking in spending cuts that Mr. Obama has said he would take if balanced by new revenues. Conservatives have split over sticking to their no-taxes principles if it means walking away from progress toward restraining the growth of government.

At the White House, officials alternated between a sense of encouragement and growing concern that time is running out to avert a full-scale crisis.

?There is still time to do something significant if all parties are willing to compromise, because the parameters of what that might look like are well known,? said Jay Carney, the White House spokesman.

With an eye on the calendar, the president summoned leaders of both parties to build on Tuesday?s release of the $3.7 trillion deficit-cutting plan by the Senate?s Gang of Six.

At the Capitol, however, the emphasis was on a plan that Mr. McConnell has been putting together with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, to empower Mr. Obama to raise the borrowing ceiling.

The four House leaders ? Mr. Boehner, Mr. Cantor; Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader; and Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat ? met Wednesday and, according to officials, reviewed problems with the McConnell plan.

Such talks between the two parties? leaders in the House, which are rare given the polarized relations in that chamber, reflect the recognition that the Republican majority cannot pass the increase in the debt limit without a significant number of votes from Democrats.

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Pure Nanotubes by the Kilo

An improved process for making large amounts of pure metallic carbon nanotubes could hold the key to overhauling the electrical power grid with more efficient transmission lines.

Researchers at Rice University plan to generate a large quantity of this material by the end of summer. They'll use these nanotubes to make long and highly conductive fibers that could be woven into more efficient electrical transmission lines.

There are a few different classes of carbon nanotube, each with slightly different properties and different potential uses. Unfortunately, existing production methods result in a mixture of different nanotubes, with varying dimensions and wildly different electrical properties. Purely semiconducting nanotubes, useful for future integrated circuits, are in the mix with metallic nanotubes that could be used to make highly conductive wires. So nanotubes have to be separated by type, a slow and expensive process, says Andrew Barron, professor of chemistry and materials science at Rice.

"There is a subset of nanotubes that are the best conducting materials to be found, that don't lose any energy to heat," says Barron.

Barron is part of a group at Rice that wants to make something very large from these nanotubes: miles and miles of highly conductive electrical transmission lines for a more efficient energy grid, which will be important as the use of renewable energy grows. This was one vision of the late Rice professor Richard Smalley, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his codiscovery of fullerenes, a new type of carbon structure. The Rice researchers have made long, pure carbon nanotube fibers, but since they have been working from impure samples, these fibers are not as conductive as they could be.

Barron and his colleagues have now improved on a method for making pure nanotubes that they first developed in 2006. Called "amplification," it should eventually allow them to turn a nanogram of pure carbon nanotubes into a gram, then a kilogram, then a ton. They start by separating a small amount of pure metallic nanotubes from a mixture, and then attach a catalyst to the tip of each tube. They then put the nanotubes into a pressurized, temperature-controlled chamber and feed in a mixture of gases. Under these conditions, the nanotubes double in size, growing from the catalyst at the tip. The existing nanotube acts as a template that dictates the diameter, structure, and properties of the extra length of the nanotube. The nanotubes are then cut and the process is repeated.

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New Battlefield 3 multiplayer footage surfaces, Battlelog detailed

Although many of you are undoubtedly still chapped about EA not offering Battlefield 3 through Steam, we imagine most hardcore FPS gamers will stop at nothing to get their mitts on the title when it launches on November 25. If you haven't crossed the shooter off your list of must-haves, you should definitely check out the fresh gameplay footage posted online this week.

The unofficial clips show more than 15 minutes of multiplayer combat from a prerelease build. In other words, they've been "leaked," so we wouldn't be surprised if EA has them yanked. Although there's probably only a limited window to savor that forbidden fruit, the publisher has just released a minute-long multiplayer trailer that you'll have all the time in the world to ogle.

Battlefield 3 SDCC 2011 Operation Metro Gameplay Trailer

In addition to the new videos, EA has shared a few morsels about Battlefield 3's social networking and statistics platform. Although we've long known about the the military shooter's "Battlelog," the service was further exposed by a couple of leaked screenshots last week. EA has since confirmed that those images were legitimate and has posted some more shots on its blog.

The company said that Battlelog will make Battlefield 3 a more social experience than previous iterations by changing how gamers communicate, play, compete and share content with their friends across all computing platforms, including handsets. One of the screenshots in particular shows a real-time "Battlefeed" that will display status updates -- not unlike Facebook.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44783-new-battlefield-3-multiplayer-footage-surfaces-battlelog-detailed.html

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