Is watercooling pointless if I don't overclock anymore?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've got an old Swiftech system that I've just got laying around because I couldn't stand the noise of the two 120mm fans over the radiator and the water bubble noise. I've since moved to a silent air cooling solution and it works just fine. I don't really overclock anymore either.

Is there any reason for me to keep this or should I just sell it?

 

[Corporate Thug]

if your air solution is quitter and you dont need the OC, then sell it

 

[MrK6]

You shouldn't have any bubble noise if you bleed the system properly. That said, if you aren't using it, why keep it?

 

[chimaxi83]

I have 5 fans running around 700rpm on my 2 radiators, and they're barely audible. Sadly, all I hear is my pump. MrK6 is right, bubbles = you're doing it wrong

 

[nitromullet]

IMO, if you're even considering not water cooling anymore you probably already know the answer to your own question. I went back to air and never looked back.

 

[VinDSL]

I went back to air and never looked back.

Yep! Pointless...

Since heat pipes hit the scene, I don't see any reason for water-cooling.

 

[PsiStar]

THE only caveat is that I find the radiators much easier to clean/blow dirt out of than the air cooled heat sinks sitting on top of a CPU. This is not the thorough cleaning of disassembling everything and making it like new. Just a simple cleaning that is adequate for a couple of years when done routinely.

This only makes a difference because you already have the WC system.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

If we are talking about CPU cooling, then yes watercooling isn't really worth it. The exception is SB-E, that is a big chip that makes a lot of heat when you overclock it.

GPU cooling is a whole different story. A decent GPU loop will halve GPU temps and cut down noise considerably.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

If we are talking about CPU cooling, then yes watercooling isn't really worth it. The exception is SB-E, that is a big chip that makes a lot of heat when you overclock it.

GPU cooling is a whole different story. A decent GPU loop will halve GPU temps and cut down noise considerably.

:biggrin: +1

 

[Jman13]

GPU cooling is a whole different story. A decent GPU loop will halve GPU temps and cut down noise considerably.

The loop will HALVE GPU temps? Wow. Didn't know water cooling could drop a GPU from something like 80C at load to -96C (which is a halving of temperature)! Incredible!

Sorry...one of my nerdy nitpicks...when you talk ratios of temperature you have to do it in Kelvin. Because, well, if you don't....a drop from 2C to 1C would be 'halving' it, even though that's an absolutely negligible drop in temperature.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

The loop will HALVE GPU temps? Wow. Didn't know water cooling could drop a GPU from something like 80C at load to -96C (which is a halving of temperature)! Incredible!

Sorry...one of my nerdy nitpicks...when you talk ratios of temperature you have to do it in Kelvin. Because, well, if you don't....a drop from 2C to 1C would be 'halving' it, even though that's an absolutely negligible drop in temperature.

Pardon me. A solid GPU loop will lower temperatures by about 12.4% while drastically reducing noise.

318k/363k = 0.876



If we want to be really nit-picky the best way to evaluate a cooling system is to compare the difference between ambient temperature and the hardware temperature. In the case of GPU cooling this difference can be greatly reduced.

Furmark temps of my 6970s (powertune +20%)
Ambient: 25C
Air cooling: 90C, 880mhz, and lots of noise
delta from ambient: 65C (or K)
Watercooling: 45C, 995mhz and much quieter
delta from ambient: 20C (or K)

watercooling reduces the difference between ambient by 69.3% while enabling higher performance.

 

[chimaxi83]

The loop will HALVE GPU temps? Wow. Didn't know water cooling could drop a GPU from something like 80C at load to -96C (which is a halving of temperature)! Incredible!

Sorry...one of my nerdy nitpicks...when you talk ratios of temperature you have to do it in Kelvin. Because, well, if you don't....a drop from 2C to 1C would be 'halving' it, even though that's an absolutely negligible drop in temperature.

Talking about temps in K is irrelevant here. All the temps we talk about are in C. Leave K for a topic in highly technical.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Jman13]

Really? Leave K for a topic in highly technical? Listen, I acknowledged it was a nitpick, but come on... It's not like I was going into extraneous detail, I was actually correcting incorrect information. 80 to 40 C is not a halving of temperature. Period. In any way, shape or form. It's simply not. I mean, what happens if you drop it to 0C? Is that infinite cooling reduction? I would agree that we shouldn't reference our CPU temperature in Kelvin, but if you want to find a ratio of temperature reduction, it's the ONLY way to do it. (if you don't want to do ratios, of course, a comment such as "it'll drop temps 30C" is perfect.)

We talk about a bunch of technical things here, and I don't think a reference to Kelvin temperature is 'highly technical' for the average computer enthusiast.

Listen, I acknowledge it's being ultra-nerdy and somewhat pedantic, and I said that in my post, but it's not irrelevant to the discussion.

 

[SZLiao214]

If we are talking about CPU cooling, then yes watercooling isn't really worth it. The exception is SB-E, that is a big chip that makes a lot of heat when you overclock it.

GPU cooling is a whole different story. A decent GPU loop will halve GPU temps and cut down noise considerably.

I agree with this. For the newer CPUs water cooling really isn't worth it with all the fantastic heat sinks out there. It is usually quieter and much more economical to go air.

Graphics card can make great use of water cooling even though there are some great heat sink designs.