Will Phase Change Finally Compete With Water Cooling Prices?

Some of you may say yes and others may say no but a new future is upon us. Phase change coolers are usually only reserved for the extreme among us and store bought ones such as the Vapochill Lightspeed are generally very expensive. What is our alternative to this, water cooling but is it about to be over thrown?

OCZ are set to finally release their own phase change units named "Cryo-Z". These units aren't like the Vapochill ones though, oh no, these are affordable for the average user. Release prices are set to be around $300US or around $220Euros which makes it about...well my maths not to good but I think around $450-$500AUS for us Australians. This makes it slightly cheaper than my water cooling system (GPU and GPU+2 rads).

Apparently this unit doesn't cope too well with Quad core CPUs and this may be a major draw back for it. Also for some users it may be inconvenient to have another box under their case (same deal with most other phase change units).

Well that's all I have lol. Now it's up to you to make up your own mind.
Here is a link to the original article I read:
http://www.techpowerup.com/?43114
And the OCZ web site:
Not on site yet :(

Whoooooooooaaa dude.....crazy crazy, gonna buy one?

Anything re: expected release dates? performance? stuff like that?

if i ever go phase change i'm building it myself, and maybe a cascade:)!

I probably won't buy one because I have just forked out for my water cooling system. Keeping in mind that the phase change cools CPU only and my W/C rig has CPU and GPU. It would also look like crap sitting under my NZXT LEXA lol ;). I'm not into extreme over clocking so water is fine for me, you can always add more radiators to get better performance if you want.

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

you can always add more radiators to get better performance if you want.

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true, to a point. you will never get below ambient temps on your cpu no matter how many rads. and you will for sure never hit the below zero mark.

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Originally Posted by Spawn-Inc

true, to a point. you will never get below ambient temps on your cpu no matter how many rads. and you will for sure never hit the below zero mark.

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True True but you can also cool your GPU with minimal fuss (or anything else at that matter). Phase change would be cool but I don't need sub zero temps, keeping my CPU and GPU loop around the 40*c zone is more than enough (haven't actually used the loop yet :)).

Just another update.
OCZ are planning to ship the Cryo-Z starting February 4th. The downside is that they will only be sold in the USA and maybe Canada.
Link:
http://www.techpowerup.com/?51442

Hmm ... I feel a mod coming on ... a pair of quad cores ... overclocked to hell and back with a pair of these phase changers and a water loop keeping everything else nice and cool.

Finally a review!!!!
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/132...ted/index.html

My experience with phase change is horrible. There are soooo many maintenance issues. I don't think it's worth it no matter the price. Although I did OC my 3.2 Pentium to 4.7GHz

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Keeping in mind that the phase change cools CPU only and my W/C rig has CPU and GPU.

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easy fix get 2 phasers xD

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Originally Posted by TheGreatSatan

My experience with phase change is horrible. There are soooo many maintenance issues. I don't think it's worth it no matter the price. Although I did OC my 3.2 Pentium to 4.7GHz

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always trade offs. . .

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Originally Posted by Spawn-Inc

true, to a point. you will never get below ambient temps on your cpu no matter how many rads. and you will for sure never hit the below zero mark.

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Your processor wont work below zero. Most electronics arent designed to work below 5 degrees celsius. It would have to be an awesome cooling system to get to 0c. The only thing I can thing of would be liquid nitrogen.

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Originally Posted by AMD Killa

Your processor wont work below zero. Most electronics arent designed to work below 5 degrees celsius. It would have to be an awesome cooling system to get to 0c. The only thing I can thing of would be liquid nitrogen.

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Processors will work below zero, unless you're talking about Kelvin.

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Originally Posted by AMD Killa

Your processor wont work below zero. Most electronics arent designed to work below 5 degrees celsius. It would have to be an awesome cooling system to get to 0c. The only thing I can thing of would be liquid nitrogen.

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I've seen phase coolers running at -40'C. The only reason that most electronics have an "operating temperature range" is because of the risk of condensation from it running hot in a cold environment. The beautiful thing about phase change is that the only part that is cold is the plate touching the cpu.. this means almost no risk of condensation.

Liquid nitrogen on the other hand is not only expensive (you are constantly adding more, as it evaporates), but it's difficult to store/handle, and can be potentially dangerous. Also, after seeing liquid nitrogen cooling setups, the amount of condensation (and ice formation!) can destroy hardware VERY quickly, and has happened more than a few times. Those systems always have huge amounts of isolation and shielding to stop the moisture from hitting the surrounding electrics.

The maintenance issues that TGS was talking about include the risk of compressor failure and refrigerant leaks. (Did I miss anything else?)

:)

Yeah I have seen a triple cascade phase change unit cool a CPU to -140*c. Some CPUs don't like to cold boot and the sudden surge of heat from the CPU starting up can crack the die but meh it happens. If you have a triple cascade phase change you can afford to buy another CPU.

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

If you have a triple cascade phase change you can afford to buy another CPU.

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Not always. You just spent the money on the triple cascade, so you wouldent have it to buy a new processor ;) I see what you mean though.