Air VS Water...

[Anomaly1964]

I know you guys don't believe in pre-built systems alot, but if all things were equal, and you could get a pre-built, water cooled system from Cyberpower PC for less than you could get the same parts from Newegg, what would you do?

Do you guys FULLY trust a water-cooled system over an air cooled one?

• *BASE_PRICE: [+995]
• CASE: * Coolermaster HAF-X Gaming Full Tower Case w/ 1x230mm Red LED Fan, 1x200mm Fans, 2xFront USB 3.0 Port [+130]
• CD 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
• CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
• CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Color Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+15] (Blue Color)
• FAN: CyberPower Xtreme Hydro Liquid Cooling Kit 360MM w/ Triple Fan(CPU & GPU Liquid Cool Capable, Extreme Overclocking Performance + Extreme Silent at 18dBA) [+93]
• FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
• HDD 90GB Corsair Force 90 Gaming MLC Solid State Disk [+117] (Single Hard Drive)
• HDD2: 1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+65] (Single Hard Drive)
• KEYBOARD Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
• MEMORY: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (Corsair Dominator [+38])
• MOTHERBOARD * [CrossFireX/SLI] GigaByte GA-P67A-UD4 Intel P67 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 3 PCIe x1 & 2 PCI [+67]
• MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
• MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network [-70]
• OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
• POWERSUPPLY: 700 Watts - XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply [+10]
• RUSH: 5% Instant Rebate for Non-Rush Delivery Order over $999 - Ships within 3 Weeks - Must Enter Coupon Code "NORUSH" during checkout
• SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
• SOUND HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
• USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+256] (EVGA Superclocked [+25])
• _PRICE: (+1736)
• 5% savings...$1649

I know you guys alot of time say "you don't know what you are getting in pre-built but this all seems to be quality stuff!

Tell me what I am missing!

This is the water cooling:

 

[Petey!]

Water is definitely cooler then air, but it`s more work and more expense.

I think if you want to go water, you should build the computer yourself. If you can`t or don`t feel comfortable doing it yourself, then water is probably not for you.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Water is definitely cooler then air, but it`s more work and more expense.

I think if you want to go water, you should build the computer yourself. If you can`t or don`t feel comfortable doing it yourself, then water is probably not for you.

If it's "pre-built" from Cyberpower (or anyone for that matter) and comes with a warranty, is there any special maintenance you need to do to a water cooled system?

 

[Petey!]

Yeha, they require maintenance and purging every once in awhile. It's not like air where you can set it up and just leave it forever.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Yeha, they require maintenance and purging every once in awhile. It's not like air where you can set it up and just leave it forever.

Hmmm, something else to consider then...

...last thing I wanna do is douse my motherboard in water!

 

[Zap]

If that water cooling is for the CPU only, unless you are going for record overclocks I'd pass. Sandy Bridge CPUs should run really cool and a triple 120mm rad for a Sandy Bridge is overkill by about two 120mm. The graphics card would benefit a lot more.

 

[Anomaly1964]

If that water cooling is for the CPU only, unless you are going for record overclocks I'd pass. Sandy Bridge CPUs should run really cool and a triple 120mm rad for a Sandy Bridge is overkill by about two 120mm. The graphics card would benefit a lot more.

This is why I ask you guys, you consider things I don't fully know about yet...THANKS!

 

[smakme7757]

I have just spent quite a bit on my own watercooling kit. I could have almost purchased a 2nd GTX 580 for the price i spent on the watercooling gear.

My primary goal is to cool the GPU (GTX 580) and CPU (i7-2600k) and have them running some decent overclocks; as overclocking is my hobby it will help in that regard. But my 2nd reason is why i bothered with watercooling in the first place.

I'll be heading back to university after 7 years in the workforce and for a long time i have been wanting to give watercooling a go, but have been put off by both price and the net gain in relation to price/performance (i'm a saver what can i say). So this is my way of giving myself this simple pleasure of building a complete watercooled system with top of the line components before i become a student with very little disposable income.

I guess i'm taking the long way in saying unless you have money to burn don't watercool. Rather put the money into better hardware :thumbsup:. But if you do have some money to burn, then why not go all the way; just build it yourself instead of buying a prebuild kit!

 

[Zap]

You're welcome.

If you're curious and want to learn more about what I said and how I came to that conclusion...

Read this review of your CPU. There is a picture about halfway down that shows the retail box cooler they used to hit 4.4GHz overclock. Yeah, that dinky ONE INCH TALL heatsink was sufficient. Heck, come to think of it, it looks even smaller than an inch (I'm talking about the metal part, not including the fan).

You can also see what Intel says about the TDP. TDP is Thermal Design Power. There are a lot of arguments going on all the time in the more esoteric forums regarding how different companies measure and rate their TDP, and how it relates to actual heat, but the gist of it is that the higher the TDP, the more electricity it consumes and the more heat it puts out. The Intel link shows 95W for the 2500K. Presumably that is at stock (Turbo?) speeds with all 4 cores loaded plus the graphics core loaded. Heck, you won't even be using the graphics core.

Compare that to the GTX 570 graphics card. Click on Specifications, and scroll down to "Graphics Card Power (W)" and you'll see a whopping 219W.

 

[Anomaly1964]

I have just spent quite a bit on my own watercooling kit. I could have almost purchased a 2nd GTX 580 for the price i spent on the watercooling gear.

My primary goal is to cool the GPU (GTX 580) and CPU (i7-2600k) and have them running some decent overclocks; as overclocking is my hobby it will help in that regard. But my 2nd reason is why i bothered with watercooling in the first place.

I'll be heading back to university after 7 years in the workforce and for a long time i have been wanting to give watercooling a go, but have been put off by both price and the net gain in relation to price/performance (i'm a saver what can i say). So this is my way of giving myself this simple pleasure of building a complete watercooled system with top of the line components before i become a student with very little disposable income.

I guess i'm taking the long way in saying unless you have money to burn don't watercool. Rather put the money into better hardware :thumbsup:. But if you do have some money to burn, then why not go all the way; just build it yourself instead of buying a prebuild kit!

GREAT advice, I always learn from you guys...

 

[aigomorla]

yeah u say watercooling the cpu on SB might not be worth it.

However im seeing a lot of retails report high load temps vs the ES samples i saw.

Also, i am gonna make a bold statement.

I see water not being focused on the cpu for the next couple platforms but more on the board and gpu end.

The board for reasons that its very difficult to get good air flow when your loaded on gpu cards.

And the gpu cards for reasons like this:

I like having load temps lower then 99.9% of the people's IDLE's temps @ the added cost of 0 noise introduced into the system.

 

[Anomaly1964]

I know I must be driving you guys CRAZY, but I have decided to stick with air cooled and build it myself...

 

[BoomerD]

Geez...make up your mind, will ya?

 

[Anomaly1964]

Geez...make up your mind, will ya?

I know, I know...SORRY

 

[aigomorla]

Geez...make up your mind, will ya?

Lulz.. u think deciding on air vs water is bad...
Imagine if he went water..

then it would be multi loops or not? vs KL-360 or the EK HF, or tube res vs a bay res...

I know, I know...SORRY

no no.. nothing to be sorry about.
If your gonna migrate.. i want to make sure its something you truely want to do without any remorse when looking back. :thumbsup:

 

[Anomaly1964]

Thanks again, fellas, I know these aren't "life or death" decisions but $1500 is a lot to drop on a PC (for me anyway) and I wanna do it right!

 

[Petey!]

Thanks again, fellas, I know these aren't "life or death" decisions but $1500 is a lot to drop on a PC (for me anyway) and I wanna do it right!

Your absolutely on the right track. PCs are expensive, especailly gaming ones, and every piece should be researched to make sure you're getting the most for your money. I die a little inside everytime I'm at a computer store and I see someone misinformed recommending something that is just bad to other people. There's always lots of options at price points, but there's just some products people should avoid all together. I'm looking at you Thermaltake.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Your absolutely on the right track. PCs are expensive, especailly gaming ones, and every piece should be researched to make sure you're getting the most for your money. I die a little inside everytime I'm at a computer store and I see someone misinformed recommending something that is just bad to other people. There's always lots of options at price points, but there's just some products people should avoid all together. I'm looking at you Thermaltake.

Thanks man, I wanted a big, bad case so I went with this one...

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

 

[prtuc2]

The thing about water cooling is that cooling the gpu will be the best due to the heat and noisy fan. Air cooling vs. water cooling in term of cooling potential WC going to win due to additional rad can be added in the future, air cooling is really limited to the heatsink's potential + fans unless you going to buy a new heatsink.

Is definitely a hassle for maintenance and cost, but once you don't have to worry about the noise at the end is your preference.