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#11
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Water cooling - how many case fans would still be necessary?Tower case recommendations?
Andrew Hamilton wrote:
On Sat, 6 Jun 2009 00:29:18 -0500, "Ken Maltby" wrote: So, can anyone tell me if there are watercooling systems with _ quiet _ radiator fans? I have the _ impression _ that at least some radiator fans for water-cooling systems are quite noisy. -AH Zalman makes a passive cooling system that uses a pump to move the water to an external reservoir. I believe there is a review of the system on the Silent PC Review site I mentioned earlier. Zalman claims that the total noise is below 20Db. |
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Voltage regulator =?? MOSFET on P6T series
From a thread from three months ago:
One way to look at it, is that you only need waterblocks on componets that need fans. (One exception is for devices that are also cooled by the fans installed on adjcent componets, like the voltage regulators next to the CPU. [ASUS sometimes provides a special fan for use on the voltage regulators if you are watercooling the CPU.] You can get waterblocks for the voltage regulators, as well.) In reading a LOT about air vs. water cooling, some people say that you should consider water-cooling "even the MOSFETs." I know what the acronym stands for, but not what this part actually does on a P6T series motherboard. Where is(are) the MOSFET(s) on this board? http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...NhO&templete=2 Select the left thumbnail image from the right side of this page. Thank you. -AH |
#13
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Voltage regulator =?? MOSFET on P6T series
On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:59:42 -0700, Andrew Hamilton
wrote: From a thread from three months ago: One way to look at it, is that you only need waterblocks on componets that need fans. (One exception is for devices that are also cooled by the fans installed on adjcent componets, like the voltage regulators next to the CPU. [ASUS sometimes provides a special fan for use on the voltage regulators if you are watercooling the CPU.] You can get waterblocks for the voltage regulators, as well.) In reading a LOT about air vs. water cooling, some people say that you should consider water-cooling "even the MOSFETs." I know what the acronym stands for, but not what this part actually does on a P6T series motherboard. The MOSFETs being referred to are part of the voltage regulator circuitry. Where is(are) the MOSFET(s) on this board? http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...NhO&templete=2 Select the left thumbnail image from the right side of this page. They are under the two copper-colored heat sinks above and to the right of the CPU socket. It looks like that board uses a heat- pipe arrangement to cool the MOSFETS and north/south bridge chips using the airflow generated by the CPU cooler. If you are planning to use a fanless CPU cooler of some sort (water cooling or a large passive heatsink), you'll either need to provide an alternate source of airflow over those copper heatsinks or remove the heat-pipe system and water cool all four of the areas covered by it. |
#14
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Voltage regulator =?? MOSFET on P6T series
Mike Paff wrote:
On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:59:42 -0700, Andrew Hamilton wrote: From a thread from three months ago: One way to look at it, is that you only need waterblocks on componets that need fans. (One exception is for devices that are also cooled by the fans installed on adjcent componets, like the voltage regulators next to the CPU. [ASUS sometimes provides a special fan for use on the voltage regulators if you are watercooling the CPU.] You can get waterblocks for the voltage regulators, as well.) In reading a LOT about air vs. water cooling, some people say that you should consider water-cooling "even the MOSFETs." I know what the acronym stands for, but not what this part actually does on a P6T series motherboard. The MOSFETs being referred to are part of the voltage regulator circuitry. Where is(are) the MOSFET(s) on this board? http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...NhO&templete=2 Select the left thumbnail image from the right side of this page. They are under the two copper-colored heat sinks above and to the right of the CPU socket. It looks like that board uses a heat- pipe arrangement to cool the MOSFETS and north/south bridge chips using the airflow generated by the CPU cooler. If you are planning to use a fanless CPU cooler of some sort (water cooling or a large passive heatsink), you'll either need to provide an alternate source of airflow over those copper heatsinks or remove the heat-pipe system and water cool all four of the areas covered by it. MOSFET water blocks. Acrylic top, copper bottom, O-ring seal. "EK-Mosfet ASUS X58 KIT" http://www.scan.co.uk/Images/Products/1032958-a.jpg http://www.scan.co.uk/Images/Products/1032958-b.jpg Example of original heatpipe assembly. http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/7585/stocktopej0.gif http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6...kbottomvk4.gif As for what MOSFETs do, see page 11 here for a sample schematic of a VCore. VCore circuitry surrounds a CPU socket, and provides power at up to levels of around 100 amps at a low voltage to the CPU core logic. This power design might have been used on a P4 motherboard. http://web.archive.org/web/200403310...5ADP3180_0.pdf A conventional switching regulator consists of the "brains", a chip with more pins at the bottom of page 11. They try not to make it dissipate too much power, so the PWM1,PWM2,PWM3,PWM4 signals are buffered with 8 pin chips, before the drive signals arrive at the MOSFETs. In that example design, there are three MOSFET transistors per phase (Q1,Q2,Q3 belonging to one phase). The toroid coil or square cube is L2. Q1 handles the "high side". Q2 and Q3 are "low side" MOSFETs. Either Q1 is turned on, or Q2+Q3 are turned on. Since Q1,Q2,Q3 have large gate capacitance (like 3000 pF), the tiny eight pin chip ends up pumping current at the 1 amp level, in pulses, to charge the gate on each transistor. It makes the whole process easier to cool, if the chips are split up, and the 8 pin driver is separate. The 8 pin driver should get a little warm on its own. Q1,Q2,Q3 are the MOSFETs. They're supposed to operate saturated. In other words, when commanded to conduct, the channel resistance drips to Rds_on, and a lot of current flows. If Rds_on is low enough, the I squared R loss is pretty low, so the MOSFET shouldn't get hot. You can make MOSFETs "bigger", but then the gate capacitance goes up, and the eight pin driver would start to fry from the load. So the choice of the number of MOSFETs, their RDS_on, is a trade off between "hot MOSFETs" and "hot driver chip". The price of the MOSFETs, also plays a part in their selection. L1 and C1 thru C6, are the input side filtering. They help prevent the pulsed operation of the Vcore circuit, from being felt by the power supply. On the output side, C21 thru C28 is the bank of capacitors for the output. Capacitors filter the AC component coming from L2, L3, L4, and ampere level currents will be flowing through C21 thru C28. The caps have to be rated for some level of "ripple current", to operate for thousands of hours trouble free. Multiple capacitors are required, to get enough total ripple current rating. Otherwise, one fat ass capacitor could have been used, if all they wanted was the capacitance itself. The capacitance is not quite as critical, as the ripple current rating. I still haven't found any oscilloscope signal pictures, to demonstrate what it is doing, so I'll leave the rest of the explanation to the fine datasheet from Analog Devices. On page 19, you can see a drawing of the layout of the circuit. The three MOSFETs on each phase, haven't been place optimally for usage with a rectangular cooler to fit over the top of them. So the assumption in that picture, is likely air cooling coming from the "spill air" from the CPU cooling. You'd need to line the MOSFETs up in a neat row, to place a cooler over them. You'll notice, in the figure on page 19, the mention of a thermistor. On my P4C800-E, Asus didn't include that. If they'd included the thermistor, the Vcore would have been able to better handle transitions from "busy" to "idle". The Vcore voltage is off by 0.05 volts for a few seconds, while the copper coils cool off. If the thermistor had been included, the circuit would have been temperature compensated, and the voltage error would have been minimal. So even when you pay for a "Deluxe" motherboard, the design isn't always as "Deluxe" as it could be. That is what I like, about digging up these datasheets. HTH, Paul |
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Voltage regulator =?? MOSFET on P6T series
"Paul" wrote in message ... Mike Paff wrote: On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:59:42 -0700, Andrew Hamilton wrote: From a thread from three months ago: One way to look at it, is that you only need waterblocks on componets that need fans. (One exception is for devices that are also cooled by the fans installed on adjcent componets, like the voltage regulators next to the CPU. [ASUS sometimes provides a special fan for use on the voltage regulators if you are watercooling the CPU.] You can get waterblocks for the voltage regulators, as well.) In reading a LOT about air vs. water cooling, some people say that you should consider water-cooling "even the MOSFETs." I know what the acronym stands for, but not what this part actually does on a P6T series motherboard. The MOSFETs being referred to are part of the voltage regulator circuitry. Where is(are) the MOSFET(s) on this board? http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...NhO&templete=2 Select the left thumbnail image from the right side of this page. They are under the two copper-colored heat sinks above and to the right of the CPU socket. It looks like that board uses a heat- pipe arrangement to cool the MOSFETS and north/south bridge chips using the airflow generated by the CPU cooler. If you are planning to use a fanless CPU cooler of some sort (water cooling or a large passive heatsink), you'll either need to provide an alternate source of airflow over those copper heatsinks or remove the heat-pipe system and water cool all four of the areas covered by it. MOSFET water blocks. Acrylic top, copper bottom, O-ring seal. "EK-Mosfet ASUS X58 KIT" http://www.scan.co.uk/Images/Products/1032958-a.jpg http://www.scan.co.uk/Images/Products/1032958-b.jpg Example of original heatpipe assembly. http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/7585/stocktopej0.gif http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6...kbottomvk4.gif As for what MOSFETs do, see page 11 here for a sample schematic of a VCore. VCore circuitry surrounds a CPU socket, and provides power at up to levels of around 100 amps at a low voltage to the CPU core logic. This power design might have been used on a P4 motherboard. http://web.archive.org/web/200403310...5ADP3180_0.pdf A conventional switching regulator consists of the "brains", a chip with more pins at the bottom of page 11. They try not to make it dissipate too much power, so the PWM1,PWM2,PWM3,PWM4 signals are buffered with 8 pin chips, before the drive signals arrive at the MOSFETs. In that example design, there are three MOSFET transistors per phase (Q1,Q2,Q3 belonging to one phase). The toroid coil or square cube is L2. Q1 handles the "high side". Q2 and Q3 are "low side" MOSFETs. Either Q1 is turned on, or Q2+Q3 are turned on. Since Q1,Q2,Q3 have large gate capacitance (like 3000 pF), the tiny eight pin chip ends up pumping current at the 1 amp level, in pulses, to charge the gate on each transistor. It makes the whole process easier to cool, if the chips are split up, and the 8 pin driver is separate. The 8 pin driver should get a little warm on its own. Q1,Q2,Q3 are the MOSFETs. They're supposed to operate saturated. In other words, when commanded to conduct, the channel resistance drips to Rds_on, and a lot of current flows. If Rds_on is low enough, the I squared R loss is pretty low, so the MOSFET shouldn't get hot. You can make MOSFETs "bigger", but then the gate capacitance goes up, and the eight pin driver would start to fry from the load. So the choice of the number of MOSFETs, their RDS_on, is a trade off between "hot MOSFETs" and "hot driver chip". The price of the MOSFETs, also plays a part in their selection. L1 and C1 thru C6, are the input side filtering. They help prevent the pulsed operation of the Vcore circuit, from being felt by the power supply. On the output side, C21 thru C28 is the bank of capacitors for the output. Capacitors filter the AC component coming from L2, L3, L4, and ampere level currents will be flowing through C21 thru C28. The caps have to be rated for some level of "ripple current", to operate for thousands of hours trouble free. Multiple capacitors are required, to get enough total ripple current rating. Otherwise, one fat ass capacitor could have been used, if all they wanted was the capacitance itself. The capacitance is not quite as critical, as the ripple current rating. I still haven't found any oscilloscope signal pictures, to demonstrate what it is doing, so I'll leave the rest of the explanation to the fine datasheet from Analog Devices. On page 19, you can see a drawing of the layout of the circuit. The three MOSFETs on each phase, haven't been place optimally for usage with a rectangular cooler to fit over the top of them. So the assumption in that picture, is likely air cooling coming from the "spill air" from the CPU cooling. You'd need to line the MOSFETs up in a neat row, to place a cooler over them. You'll notice, in the figure on page 19, the mention of a thermistor. On my P4C800-E, Asus didn't include that. If they'd included the thermistor, the Vcore would have been able to better handle transitions from "busy" to "idle". The Vcore voltage is off by 0.05 volts for a few seconds, while the copper coils cool off. If the thermistor had been included, the circuit would have been temperature compensated, and the voltage error would have been minimal. So even when you pay for a "Deluxe" motherboard, the design isn't always as "Deluxe" as it could be. That is what I like, about digging up these datasheets. HTH, Paul Very interesting, Paul. I wonder if motherboard OEMs actually do all that math. I suspect not, they probably use recommended reference values, or use software that you just plug your design parameters into to get the component values. The missing thermistor, probably a 25 cent item, shows how cheap these manufacturers are. Personally, I wouldn't mind spending an extra 10 bucks, if it ensured all component design specs were fully met. I think nowadays, that besides moderate increased performance specs, deluxe just means more unneeded bells and whistles, rather than increased quality. |
#16
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Voltage regulator =?? MOSFET on P6T series
Andrew Hamilton wrote:
From a thread from three months ago: One way to look at it, is that you only need waterblocks on componets that need fans. (One exception is for devices that are also cooled by the fans installed on adjcent componets, like the voltage regulators next to the CPU. [ASUS sometimes provides a special fan for use on the voltage regulators if you are watercooling the CPU.] You can get waterblocks for the voltage regulators, as well.) In reading a LOT about air vs. water cooling, some people say that you should consider water-cooling "even the MOSFETs." I know what the acronym stands for, but not what this part actually does on a P6T series motherboard. Where is(are) the MOSFET(s) on this board? http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_I...NhO&templete=2 Select the left thumbnail image from the right side of this page. Watercoling the mosfets is generally not needed. Thay have a far better temperature tolerance than the other semiconductors. Hwever you may want too cool the filter capacitors that are in close proximity. This can basically be done with air. The second problem is that most mosfet "coolers" sit on the top of the mosfets, which is thermally insulated by epoxy resin. The heat oes out the copper ins on the bottom. As a consequence the only good waty to watercool mosfets would be to dismount them from the board and mount them on a copper plate or the like with their own copper mounting area. This is not really possible. To sum up: mosfet coolers are ineffective. However good airflow on the area lengthens the lifetime of the capacitors there. Arno |
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