transit921

is watercooling worth it , for water cooling system its about 350 bucks, for aircooling about 100, but with water cooling you have a mess of tubes/pumps/resevoirs/and radiators , im thinking of tryig watercooling when i get my tax return,with all 1/4 inch tubing instead of 1/2 inch/but not sure if its a good idea

tK FuRY

If you're lazy, no.

After selling my i7, I decided to go back to air on the Duo because temperatures were the same as on water.

EDIT 2 : apparently first one didn't go through, main reason you might want water is if you're trying to quiet the PC, or have a small area.

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Mr_Nibbles

Watercooling is not for performance. Don't let anyone try to tell you that the price is worth the temps. But... the price is very worth the cool factor.

And if you do watercool, do not go with 1/4" tubing. Go with 1/2" or 7/12".

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ArmenianLegend

lol what? watercooling IS for performance where u getting ur stuff from?

yes it is worth EVERY penny, when your shooting past 4Ghz, but before going water, you have to make sure your chip can actually attain those clocks, if it doesn't then its absolutely pointless

Rick Arter

If you are a big overclocker or folder I say go for water.

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iquark

If you're not really interested in liquid, or don't want slightly higher clocks then it's not worth it. Of course, if you think the whole idea of pumps, radiators, and the thermal transfer from a copper block to a liquid is really cool then water is for you.

You don't need to put out 350$ for a CPU only loop, when you get serious we can figure something out for most price points. Just don't expect a low to mid level loop to to THAT much better than high end air. I saw about 20* off Prime small FFT, and about 25* off IBT with my loop, but I had a crappy zalman cooler before I went H2O. Depending on your current setup and what components you go with you may see the same, or only gain a few degrees with h2o.

Also, you can make a very clean liquid setup, look around the forum to see pics of many of the systems around. You have to do your research to get water done right, and water done wrong is a huge charlie foxtrot.

Damir Poljak

I do not go Aircooled because I love it.
It is because I do not have money for expensive watercool (I don't trust cheap ones), and because I do not know how

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urgrandpasdog

Watercooling most definitely can be for performance. And how can you immediately dismiss it as not worth the price? Those temps could be the difference between a very nice overclock that maintains safe temperatures, or a smoldering pile of unstable garbage.

Though I agree on that second part.

BlackHoleSun

I went under as soon as I could afford it. My first personal computer, I went for it and now I can't live without it, and trust me I have tried.

It is true that good air cooling will get you temps that are on par with a low end setup, but once you start getting into some mid grade to high end water setups, they are probably the best 24/7 high clockers around. Sure the MCR-320 is a good radiator, but the thicker radiators usually can hold more heat, and with good fans you can dissipate pretty well. My setup is all about quiet so I have Scythe Gentle Typhoons, but they are VERY robust fans with good static pressure, and I also run four of them on my quad. My load temps didn't hit 60 C last time I stress tested (wish I took a screenie) and I am running at 4.2 GHz with HT ON. Granted that doesn't seem as good as what some others on air can do, but I also have the IMC on the chip pretty taxed thanks to 12GB of ram running past it's rated speed. All this at whisper quiet fan noise. I can hear rushing water and my external hard drives seeking when I use my computer, so it was way worth it for me.

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Syrillian

I suppose it depends upon several factors (although not limited to):

• How high of an Overclock do you want to maintain
• How warm it gets in your PC's environment
• Do you like twiddling with stuff
• Do you have the extra money

In many situations Liquid cooling is not really worth the effort, but if one or more of the aforementioned (especially the first two) factors is pertinent to you then you may enjoy the exciting (and occasionally frustrating) world of liquid cooling.

Chances are that you could maintain a respectable OC with an effective air cooler and have your hardware no worse for wear (MTBF).

The single most decisive boon to air cooling is the ease of swapping components. If you are one to constantly be swapping CPU's, GPU's and other expansion cards, then a liquid loop will only consume time and of course money.

If you are inclined to run a high OC, live in a warm climate and intend to create a build that will go unmolested for 10-18 months then previous consideration is moot. You may need liquid cooling to fill all those needs without bring harm to your components.



Also... Liquid cooling really shines the ladies on.


...nah. But that would be cool if it did.

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