Actually, submerged systems should not be overclocked too much. The heat capacity of oil is higher than for air, but the oil in a submerged system still moves slowly to and from the heat sources.
The main point of a water cooling system is to move the cool water quickly enough through the water-blocks so that the water temperature will not change too much. And generally, a well-build watercooler can already handle all the heat generated by any overclocked CPU/GPU. To overclock more, you need a compression system or liquid nitrogen/helium, so that the CPU inner temperature remains in its operational range even if the thermal gradient within the chip exceeds 100°C.
Ultimately they can't be silent for long. You've got to cool all that liquid as it warms up and have some form of circulation in the liquid. You can use fans in the liquid, but unless you draw that heated liquid away and cool it back down, it will retain that heat more than air. This is why I think closed-loop liquid will always be superior to tank-style, but now with server farms starting to test with submerged cooling, it will be interesting to see what innovation comes forth.
A few years ago this company tried to stop me swapping a psu that wouldn't fit in my case that I bought online. They had no regard for British law and my rights. They have a terrible reputation for customer service. I once visited the store in Stoke on trent and the guy on the counter Litterally thought he was gods gift to technology. I have no used this company for 3 years since
Overclockers UK was taken over by www.caseking.de over a year ago, since then they/we have won the PC Retail awards for best customer service and massively improved their/our online rankings. Infact they/we are are now the best in customer service in the UK. Yes I work for OcUK but can confirm things have changed hugely and in a very positive way for both staff and customers.
To prove this to you feel free to drop our MD an email on steve.ling@overclockers.co.uk who can help compensate you for the poor service you received 3 years ago as we'd like to have your custom back and prove to you we are indeed a changed company. :)
No offence but you didn't have to go to trading standards and threaten legal action to get a refund which I was entitled to by law. The previous owner was a ****
I'll contact you when I do my next build. I'm glad you have been taken over since my experience. I'm happy to give a company another chance. It's also positive that you actually took the time to reply.
That's good to know; I had an annoying experience with you guys around three years ago and decided not to use you again (and I'd spent a few grand with you over the years). I'll be building a new system soon and might give you another try.
You should definitely have had them mention this in the article. The old OCUK had such a terrible reputation that many people wouldn't touch them with a bargepole and I was amazed to see Anandtech do an article on them. It's good to hear that things have changed.
May I just say I used to buy a lot of gear from Overclockers years ago. I still use your site as its a quick and easy site to spec systems up on.
However, then I usually transfer the build list or similar over to Ebuyer as generally their prices are slightly cheaper and (this is the big kicker)..they do free delivery.
I often see your deals of the week, say a HDD for £70 + £4 delivery but then check on Ebuyer and it's £67 with free delivery (the free stuff turns up in two days average). Another lost sale.
Years ago I wouldn't have touched Ebuyer but have now bought tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit through them with next to zero issues.
Would be nice to have some competition from others for my money.
I bought a simple Corsair H55 Watercooler that ended up leaking after a few months of use and ruining the whole PC. When I called OC for help I was told to RMA it myself and try to seek compensation for the ruined parts. This was to involve shipping the lot to Holland at my expense and without any likelihood that I would be reimbursed. I felt completely let down with the support I received - all the engineer was concerned about was defecting any responsibility away from OC. This was the first time I'd called them for support after being a long term customer for nearly 10 years. I felt completely let down and on my own. This was just under a year ago. Needless to say I didn't progress the RMA due to the potential of further loss of finances, so I'm not sure about the statement above!
Totally unnecessary, totally ridiculous, and totally badass. If you're going to blow some money on a custom, branded, high end system, this is the way to do it.
Now all it needs is games that can fully use all that power. They should hook up with someone like Boris of the ENB series mods to create custom modded versions of the top games that only systems like these could play.
Back of a napkin maths for the Hypercube suggests you could build it for ~£5.6k (inc VAT) from scratch. £1k on binning, labour and tuning is pretty steep. Does it come with a three year warranty as well?
If the binning is really getting you a chip in the top 2% (article mentions 1 out of 50 qualify), how do you put a price on that? Doing it yourself by purchasing 50 chips and attempting to resell 49 is going to cost more than the 1K pounds in time if not in actual money and I'm not aware of other sources?
Of course getting back to practicality, I doubt there are many users who truly require a top 2% chip and of the ones who do there may be entirely other classes of machines that would serve their needs better.
Still, I like the offerings. I know there are users out there paying top dollar for custom systems that too often aren't really any faster that what the average enthusiast puts together for himself at a fraction of the cost. If it were my buddy and they were really determined to blow their bonus on a needlessly badass system for bragging rights or whatever, I'd rather see them spend the extra thousand or two and actually get a system that really will be king of the heap.
Oh, the binning is insanely expensive and it's pretty much the only way any normal person will be picking up a chip that will do 4.9GHz stable on water, but a £1k premium on that means you *really* need to want that.
I'm not really sure what else you could do better - SBE is basically a waste of money, the 780 is a better gaming card than the Titan, though I guess you could go quad-SLI.
All said, my biggest gripe is the case. CaseLabs do great options for watercooling, but you'd sort have hoped that £6.6k would get you a better looking case.
If you are of the mentality to even consider spending more than £5000 on a PC then paying an extra £1000 for a custom/tested build isn't much of a stretch.
Once you get to those levels and are a person of those means then it's not an issue.
Lot of money to spend on being the top dog for all of 6 weeks though.
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27 Comments
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420baller - Thursday, September 5, 2013 - link
First!Wow these are impressive!
MDX - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Great interview!ruzveh - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Shit man.. those system looks like a thermal power stationsdishayu - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
I am really keen on submerged systems. 0 sound and the overclocking headroom on them should be immense when compared to regular water cooling.ShieTar - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Actually, submerged systems should not be overclocked too much. The heat capacity of oil is higher than for air, but the oil in a submerged system still moves slowly to and from the heat sources.The main point of a water cooling system is to move the cool water quickly enough through the water-blocks so that the water temperature will not change too much. And generally, a well-build watercooler can already handle all the heat generated by any overclocked CPU/GPU. To overclock more, you need a compression system or liquid nitrogen/helium, so that the CPU inner temperature remains in its operational range even if the thermal gradient within the chip exceeds 100°C.
nathanddrews - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Ultimately they can't be silent for long. You've got to cool all that liquid as it warms up and have some form of circulation in the liquid. You can use fans in the liquid, but unless you draw that heated liquid away and cool it back down, it will retain that heat more than air. This is why I think closed-loop liquid will always be superior to tank-style, but now with server farms starting to test with submerged cooling, it will be interesting to see what innovation comes forth.nathanddrews - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
That was a reply to dishayu. Oops.Fx1 - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
A few years ago this company tried to stop me swapping a psu that wouldn't fit in my case that I bought online. They had no regard for British law and my rights. They have a terrible reputation for customer service. I once visited the store in Stoke on trent and the guy on the counter Litterally thought he was gods gift to technology. I have no used this company for 3 years sinceGibbo205 - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Hi FX1Overclockers UK was taken over by www.caseking.de over a year ago, since then they/we have won the PC Retail awards for best customer service and massively improved their/our online rankings. Infact they/we are are now the best in customer service in the UK. Yes I work for OcUK but can confirm things have changed hugely and in a very positive way for both staff and customers.
To prove this to you feel free to drop our MD an email on steve.ling@overclockers.co.uk who can help compensate you for the poor service you received 3 years ago as we'd like to have your custom back and prove to you we are indeed a changed company. :)
piroroadkill - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Oh, the shame. We need the Germans to tell us to be polite?Fx1 - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
No offence but you didn't have to go to trading standards and threaten legal action to get a refund which I was entitled to by law. The previous owner was a ****Fx1 - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
I'll contact you when I do my next build. I'm glad you have been taken over since my experience. I'm happy to give a company another chance. It's also positive that you actually took the time to reply.BugblatterIII - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
That's good to know; I had an annoying experience with you guys around three years ago and decided not to use you again (and I'd spent a few grand with you over the years). I'll be building a new system soon and might give you another try.charleski - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
You should definitely have had them mention this in the article. The old OCUK had such a terrible reputation that many people wouldn't touch them with a bargepole and I was amazed to see Anandtech do an article on them. It's good to hear that things have changed.Death666Angel - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
It is in the article, at the end on the second page. :) Unless that was added after your reply. :Djabber - Sunday, September 8, 2013 - link
May I just say I used to buy a lot of gear from Overclockers years ago. I still use your site as its a quick and easy site to spec systems up on.However, then I usually transfer the build list or similar over to Ebuyer as generally their prices are slightly cheaper and (this is the big kicker)..they do free delivery.
I often see your deals of the week, say a HDD for £70 + £4 delivery but then check on Ebuyer and it's £67 with free delivery (the free stuff turns up in two days average). Another lost sale.
Years ago I wouldn't have touched Ebuyer but have now bought tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit through them with next to zero issues.
Would be nice to have some competition from others for my money.
gregoryholt - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
I bought a simple Corsair H55 Watercooler that ended up leaking after a few months of use and ruining the whole PC. When I called OC for help I was told to RMA it myself and try to seek compensation for the ruined parts. This was to involve shipping the lot to Holland at my expense and without any likelihood that I would be reimbursed. I felt completely let down with the support I received - all the engineer was concerned about was defecting any responsibility away from OC. This was the first time I'd called them for support after being a long term customer for nearly 10 years. I felt completely let down and on my own. This was just under a year ago. Needless to say I didn't progress the RMA due to the potential of further loss of finances, so I'm not sure about the statement above!gregoryholt - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
Sorry I meant to reply to Gibbo205.Carl Bicknell - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Looks a lot like Digital Storm.I hope Overclockers UK have better acoustics...
Inteli - Friday, September 6, 2013 - link
Well then. I really hope the only modifications necessary to those CaseLabs were the logo on the front.I want that Hypercube.
brucek2 - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
Totally unnecessary, totally ridiculous, and totally badass. If you're going to blow some money on a custom, branded, high end system, this is the way to do it.Now all it needs is games that can fully use all that power. They should hook up with someone like Boris of the ENB series mods to create custom modded versions of the top games that only systems like these could play.
Primum - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
Back of a napkin maths for the Hypercube suggests you could build it for ~£5.6k (inc VAT) from scratch. £1k on binning, labour and tuning is pretty steep. Does it come with a three year warranty as well?brucek2 - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
If the binning is really getting you a chip in the top 2% (article mentions 1 out of 50 qualify), how do you put a price on that? Doing it yourself by purchasing 50 chips and attempting to resell 49 is going to cost more than the 1K pounds in time if not in actual money and I'm not aware of other sources?Of course getting back to practicality, I doubt there are many users who truly require a top 2% chip and of the ones who do there may be entirely other classes of machines that would serve their needs better.
Still, I like the offerings. I know there are users out there paying top dollar for custom systems that too often aren't really any faster that what the average enthusiast puts together for himself at a fraction of the cost. If it were my buddy and they were really determined to blow their bonus on a needlessly badass system for bragging rights or whatever, I'd rather see them spend the extra thousand or two and actually get a system that really will be king of the heap.
Primum - Sunday, September 8, 2013 - link
Oh, the binning is insanely expensive and it's pretty much the only way any normal person will be picking up a chip that will do 4.9GHz stable on water, but a £1k premium on that means you *really* need to want that.I'm not really sure what else you could do better - SBE is basically a waste of money, the 780 is a better gaming card than the Titan, though I guess you could go quad-SLI.
All said, my biggest gripe is the case. CaseLabs do great options for watercooling, but you'd sort have hoped that £6.6k would get you a better looking case.
jabber - Sunday, September 8, 2013 - link
If you are of the mentality to even consider spending more than £5000 on a PC then paying an extra £1000 for a custom/tested build isn't much of a stretch.Once you get to those levels and are a person of those means then it's not an issue.
Lot of money to spend on being the top dog for all of 6 weeks though.
Oscarcharliezulu - Monday, September 9, 2013 - link
These looked fantastic, great builds, great to see someone take it all the way.lyssword - Friday, July 8, 2016 - link
haha, how much is that worth now? like 1/10th of original price?