Which Cooling Method

is Best For Computers

Purpose
The purpose of my experiment is to determine
which method of computer cooling would be
the best at cooling computers. I’m going to
be testing air cooling, anti-freeze cooling, and
water cooling.

Hypothesis
If I use coolant for computer cooling then it
would work the best, because it is the more
expensive method and people often use it too
cool computers that run really hot.
Background Info
The first computers with microprocessors were
fanless
A heat sink and fan is the most common way to
cool the processor


Other methods of computer include

Liquid Nitrogen
Phase-change cooling
Passive heat sink cooling
Heat pipe
Submerged Liquid Cooling
Background Info Cont.
The first programmable computer was first
invented at around 1937 by a person named
Konrad Zuse
The original Internet was invented in 1969
The actual definition of computer is pretty wide
so the first “computer” can be traced back to
2,000 years ago with the abacus




Materials
Titan Nikita Water Cooler Set
A computer (parts list for the computer)
 Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Computer
Case(comes with fans)
 Asus p5k Motherboard
 2gb of DDR 800 MHz RAM (1GB each chip)
 Intel® Core™2 Duo 2.66GHz E6750 Desktop
Processor
 PYN Technologies GeForce 7300GT Graphics Card
 500gb Serial ATA Hard Drive
 ULTRA Xconnect Power Supply
 Samsung DVD Burner
 Toshiba DVD Reader

Procedure
1. Build computer & install all software/ hardware/ operating systems
needed
2. Start up computer and begin normal use of computer
3. Pick a task that would need a lot of CPU power to run (normally a
game that demands a lot of processing power) and do that for
about 30 minutes
4. Record initial temperature and continue to record temperature for 30
minutes while still gaming or doing the CPU power requiring
task
5. Turn off computer and let it cool
6. Follow instructions provided in the user manual in the Titan Water
Cooling Set
7. Instead of putting in the provided antifreeze solution in, just fill
reservoir with water
8. Repeat steps 2-4
9. Now add the provided solution
Results
Air Water Anti-Freeze
Temperature Of Processor in Fahrenheit
Min T1 T2 T3 AV T1 T2 T3 AV T1 T2 T3 AV
0 73 72 73 G
72.6 73 72 73 G
72.6 71 74 72 G
72.3
5 73 74 73 73.3 73 72 73 72.6 70 74 73 72.3
10 74 75 74 74.3 73 73 74 73.3 71 75 74 73.3
15 76 77 75 76 74 76 74 74.6 74 75 75 74.6
20 77 76 77 76.6 76 75 77 76 75 76 75 75.3
25 80 79 79 79.3 78 78 78 78 76 76 76 76
30 82 80 81 81 77 79 78 78 77 76 77 76.6
Results
Results Cont.
The Coolant kept the processor cooled longer
and the temperature lower throughout the
whole experiment
The Water kept the processor at a lower
temperature than just air cooling but the
coolant worked better.
Air cooling the cheapest cooling method and
didn’t work as well its still efficient in keeping
Conclusion
In conclusion my
hypothesis that the
Liquid cooling would
work better than the
air or water cooling
was correct. The null
hypothesis was
rejected. The anti-
freeze worked better
because it had a
higher specific heat
than water. So it took
longer for the anti-
freeze to warm up
than it took for the
water to warm up
than the anti-freeze.
Discussion
Some mistakes that would have affected the
results of the project would be that the
temperature of my room could change as I
did this experiment on different days. I could
of used the processor more during one time
than another so that some trials the
processor generated more or less heat than
previous trials.
Some other variables could be add to future
experiments, its possible to try a different
liquid to use to cool with or use a different
type of case or combine two variables
together so that you could have liquid and air
running at the same time.
Reference List
Melchiore, Dave. "Computer Cooling Guide." Xoxide. 2005. 21 Mar. 2008


<http://www.xoxide.com/computer-cooling.html>.


Pabst, Thomas. "Hot Spot: How Modern Processors Cope with Heat
Emergencies."
 Tom's Hardware. 17 Sept. 2001. 11 Apr. 2008
<http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hot-spot,365.html>.


Rutter, Daniel. "The CPU Cooler Snap Judgement Guide." Dan's Data. 01 Apr.
2008.
 09 May 2008 <http://www.dansdata.com/gz012.htm>.


"technabob". "66-Fan Casemod Keeps Things Cool." Technabob. 11 Nov. 2007.



07 May 2008 <http://technabob.com/blog/2007/11/23/66-fan-casemod-keeps-

things-cool/>.


Völkel, Frank. "Strip Out the Fans, Add 8 Gallons of Cooking Oil." Tom's
Hardware.
 09 Jan. 2006. 21 Apr. 2008
<http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/strip-fans,1203-10.html>.