Im torn

[stampy]

First off I know this is not going to be a precise thing I just want a pretty good idea of what the results would be.

I’ve been going back and forth on what type of cooling I should do. I’ve read on a few forums including this one that with heatsinks getting better and better that air cooling is starting to catch up with water cooling as far as temps go. ok so lets say I have damn good air circulation in may case for both water cooling and air cooling. I’ve got a e7200 at say 3.8-4ghz. how much difference would there be?

The air setup: A true 120 with 2 highcfm 38mm fans on it in a push pull config. $120

The h20 setup: A nice 1200lph pump, a 3x120 rad with 3 mid range 38mm fans, and a dtek fuzion v2 or something that performs similar. $250

[muddocktor]

For an E7200, I think I would recommend going with a TRUE with 1-2 medium cfm fans on it over water. That E7200 just doesn't dump enough heat into the heatsink (or waterblock) to justify the extra cost for watercooling. Now if you were running a quad processor, I would go the other way. An overclocked quad can easily dump >200 watts of heatload, which is where a decent loop would handle much better than a TRUE, IMO. And I own both watercooled systems and a TRUE that is mounted on a Q6600, so I am speaking from some experience here.

And with the TRUE, you don't need high cfm fans for effective cooling, especially if you run 2 fans in push-pull on each side of the heatsink.

[stampy]

even at 4ghz the e7200 wont run to hot? i guess that saves me money :)

[QuietIce]

I'm staying out of the basic thrust here, since the only Intel I have is a Q6600. But you're talking WAY over price for the water-cooling system. What you've got listed would cool an OC'ed quad and a video card as well! For a single DC chip all you really need is the Swiftech H20-120 Kit (http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/coliki.html) @ $120. Even the H20-220 is a bit of overkill for one dual-core CPU.

A custom $250 system will typically cool a dual-core CPU and two video cards OR a quad CPU and one video card ...

[Hazaro]

E7200 runs hot because it's not soldered to the IHS, so the cores get hot, but it's not putting out much heat.

You don't even need a TRUE imo. Definetly don't need two high CFM fans either.

Two 40CFM is more than enough.

[stampy]

wouldent i be able to over clock more if i went with the wc setup (over 4ghz, if my mobo will let me) cause it will keep the processor cooler? and i plan on adding a gfx block when ever somebody comes out with a full cover block for the 4870.

[muddocktor]

No, watercooling it wouldn't give you any more overclocking headroom compared to a TRUE with that E7200 because the TRUE can easily handle the heat dump of a dual core Intel Core-based processor. But going with a water loop like you posted in your first post would future-proof the loop to add a graphics block into the loop later on down the road too. And it would future-proof yourself for a quad upgrade later on down the road too. So basically it is your call on this.

[stampy]

Ok im cool with going air it will save me money and i wont have to worry about leaks.