Will water cooled PC's become mainstream?

In a nut shell, most of PC power has gone unused nowadays for everyday users. However, power leakage will be under controlled soon enough. It is mainly a costing factor.

Don't forget Intel's gross margin target is >55%. In another word they make $45 for every $100 CPU in sales.

Pushing the envelope in reaching the untouched territory is human nature.

As for AMD, let's hope they make good money or a good profit this year. They have been losing money for three straight years.

actually the procédé already went under the 100nm process so we're already using nano-technology. in an interview with the CEO of Intel, he said we would be moving step by step to a 5nm procédé. then we would hit a wall.

we're already over 20 years making the chips with the same process (baking silicon). I've once (long ago) read we'll come up with the magic new process that will make CPU's that use very little power.

I'm pretty sure watercooling will never become mainstream. look at the heatsinks the manufacturers are packaging their CPU's with: alu fins, copper base. full-copper heatsinks are simply too expensive to use. watercooling is several times more expensive, so I wouldn't hope for it.

Intel is pretty much a problem: their architecture isn't that great. remember calantak his overclocked PIV 3.0?
two years later Intel chips weren't much faster then they were back then. so they stuffed them with more cache. they were faster, but at the cost of power consumption and heat.

AMD are doing great with their 64 bit stuff. cool 'n quiet, that's the example set for good computing.

but after all: do most users really need CPU's that are tremendously faster?
Windows XP and office doesn't run THAT much faster. if you're playing games, the video card can be the bottleneck.

I believe water-cooling will become mainstream, but only for a short time (2-4years). I think PC's maker's and how they package their processor's will come to a fork in the road. As a very loose theory: lower-powered (consumption) chips will remain heat-pipe air-cooled in Notebooks, and Desktops will go H20. I also think a segment of budget PC's will also remain air-cooled.

I believe in three to five years there will be a breakthrough in "nano-technology" and at this point we are unable to predict the how's an why's, but it will change the nature of the microprocessor so heat is no longer a problem.

I don't really think that watercooling will be the future. It has too many risks for people who don't know a thing about it, and it requests much more maintenance then aircooling (companies etc will not like it ).
Intel moving their pentium-M chips to the desktop, is a good sign. More (heat)efficient design and equal speed.

out of inspiration?

still no new poll?

Yes, water start ionizing, which makes it conductive. Besides, distilled water is less good then demineralized water, as you still have minerals in it -> conductive.

Concerning the poll, I think it's gonna be in almost all computers, as it's better performing, more reliable, etc. then aircooling.

Of course, you won't be able to overclock with them, like the standard aircoolers. It will just cool enough for not having the computer crash...

I just swapped a DVDrom for a DVDrw in there, 2min job, took the chance to add a 120mm fan in the back, replacing the one in the front, it's even cooler now and less noise!

Solution:
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=208

imo, for enthousiasts only...
i think most people will start buying quiet pc with some sound damping material and 120mm low rpm fans + fanless psu.

What will be your budget expense for next year if you are the IT manager in a medium size companY (sales less than $1 Billion per year) with say 1,000 PC's using water cooling?

Budget expense covers:
1) Repair maintenance in labor.
2) Repair maintenance in parts.
3) Loss time due to down time.

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What will be your budget expense for next year if you are the IT manager in a medium size companY (sales less than $1 Billion per year) with say 1,000 PC's using air cooling?

Budget expense covers:
1) Repair maintenance in labor.
2) Repair maintenance in parts.
3) Loss time due to down time.
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If W/C will become mainstream; when do you think Dell will offer W/C systems in Best Buy; Corporate Purchase?

How do you figure repair warranty on Dell; HP/Compaq; Gateway, etc?

If you can convince Corporates to buy W/C systems; you would become a mulit-millionaire overnight. I wish you the best of luck; come back here to visit the peasant (me) from time to time.

yes, because of the dirt particles everywhere it won't be non-conductive anymore

Most of you know how I think.

ik was eerder aan stof aan't denken

I think not, it's still the same water, noting changed (except some anti alg liquid or something like that).
Or maybe the erosion of the waterblock will make the water conductive. But you have to wait a few 1000 years for that I think

does distilled water become conductive after that it's been in your wc loop?

It's still a risk to use water and electricity together, so WC will never get in workstations.
Plus, Intel has already tried to improve the cooling (BTX).

I think there are three groups who will use a wc:
the overclockers
the case modders
those who want peace and quiet.

but the big mass will stick to good ol' air cooling.

And isn't Intel already taking a different approach? their dothans offer a nice combination of low power consumption, low heat output and top performance.