Quote:
Originally Posted by
Skripka 
Remember, a socket lasts 3 years. Getting 3 years of performance, worst case, out of a $60 water block is a pretty good return...odds are the hold down pattern will last longer that than even. AMD hasn't changed their socket or hold down in what, a decade?
I'm a witness to that. The consistent footprint at least gives you a nice range of cooling options to work with. It was nice to take the cooler that was on my AM3 board and just transplant it to a socket FM1 without even thinking twice.
On topic:
Water cooling / pc enthusiast gear is a money pit. If you are trying to go long with a piece of gear, coolers don't strike me as good candidates. General peripherals do (keyboards, mice, monitors, cases) because the technology moves at a notably smaller pace and an upgrade is not necessarily THAT significant. Heck, I'm still running a 19" trinitron tube on one machine, and another has a keyboard in service that I bought from the age of the 386.
I suspect I'm a minority here, but I don't run for the latest new shiny thing constantly like I used to. It's saved me a lot of money and sanity. Both of which seem to be uncommon commodities in my world.
Hex.
[ Makes it look like an accident on purpose... ]