PW850i or air cooler?

Hi all,

I'm considering switching to i7, as I managed to get hold of a 920 and a P6T SE all for £200. The two expenses that I haven't yet covered are the cooler and the RAM. To address the former, I bought a thermaltake PW850i water cooling kit, because I know you can get LGA 1366 brackets for them for about £8. I bought it cos it only cost me £40 which seemed like a good deal (they're usually £80-£90).

Now I know everybody thinks that thermaltake sucks, and I had a couple of thermaltake cases which were made out of the foil they put pies in. But on the other hand, I doubt I could get a good air cooler for much less than the £48 net that the PW850i cost me (good ones seem to be about £35-40).

So the questions is: should I use the WC kit or get an air cooling solution? Which will offer the better performance?

Cheers

Thats a single rad one right? I'd go high end air.

From a review.
"As we learn more about the new Thermaltake PW 850i ProWater liquid-cooling system we realize that it doesn’t meet the minimal criteria for the efficient liquid-cooling system that we pointed out in the introduction. And the test session did prove that Thermaltake PW 850i ProWater may not be suitable for overclockers. Even though it is a relatively inexpensive liquid-cooling system, it can’t compete against much cheaper air-coolers.

Nevertheless, it does have a few indisputable advantages besides the price. Thermaltake PW 850i ProWater is a universal system supporting all contemporary platforms, it is easy to assemble and install and is pretty quiet at the minimal fan rotation speed."

Thats the first Google result, I didn't cherry pick the review.

Source;
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermaltake-pw850i-prowater.html

I'd go with a good air cooling solution. It will perform at least as well as the TT kit and won't introduce the possibility of a leak. Why chance getting your system wet if it doesn't get you anything in return?

Wow those 1366 air coolers are even more expensive than I thought - £40-£60 for a good one! That makes them just as expensive as the watercooling I bought. Still going with the air?

Also, why are 1366 air coolers so much more expensive than 775 air coolers, even ones that are materially almost identical? Because they can get away with it?

Actually, the price on the TRUE hasn't changed. It's still a very good 1366 and a 775 cooler. You pay more there for a top cooler than we do. It just might be economics, dunno. The Meg and the new Thermalright Venomous is a better iteration, and the tests prove it, thus they cost more. Most of the top coolers ship with 3 different backplates and front plates too, 775, 1366, and AMD. That adds to the cost.

There are plenty top 10 coolers that still would be better than that TT system, and they come in under $50 US.

I'm looking at an Akasa Nero (because I'm cheap) - but it seems to be a good performer.

Alternatively, on the very cheap cheapness side of things, I could buy a bracket to fit my CNPS9500, and that would cost about £3.

Have a look at reviews for the Titan Fenrir.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Tita...17dBAplus-HDT-CPU-Cooler-(775-1366-K8-AM2-AM3)

I would get a high end cooler
Venemous X the best as of now
Megahalelem
Noctua NH-D14

budget coolers
Mugen 2
Dark knight