Cooling headaches: Air vs Water

So with the Rig I'm slowing coming up for Video & Photo Editing, it's to the point where I'd need to decide on the cooling and I'm split/torn between decision.

Here's what I have so far:

CPU: Intel I7-3930K
Mobo: ASRock X79 Extreme6/GB
Ram: G.Skill Ripjaws 8x4 32GB
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr III
Case: Cooler Master Stacker 830


Now onto the decision of the cooler: I was leaning toward for for simplicity and hassle free cooling thinking that I can get 4.5ghz OC with a good cooler.

A couple researches showed that the Noctua NH-D14 would fit my RAM. However, according to a user on youtube, it wouldn't clear the top PCI-e Slot I have on this mobo. ***FML***

So, I'm torn:

Should I choose a different Air Cooler?

or fork out the money and go watercooling and get something like this?:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...360_Radiator_and_Free_Kill_Coil_Hot_item.html

Thanks,

Water cooling (not sealed loops like the Corsair H series) requires periodic maintenance as well.

Here's the thing though, it's expandable. You can add more radiator or more powerful fans and stuff in the future and throw your GPUs in the loop too. You can make the whole thing cool as well as you want and be as quiet as you want it, you're just limited by the noise. If you don't care about noise air cooling is fine. There should be smaller coolers that can still OC that CPU to 4.5GHz. Try some Prolimatech Megahalems or a Thermalright Venomous-X. The classic TRUE isn't a bad cooler too, a VenX mounting kit is compatible with it.

Depending on the software you use, a NVIDIA card might suit your purposes better. I did some research on Vegas Pro for somebody else, and why they do include OpenCL support now, it seemed like NVIDIA/CUDA was still more prevalent among plug-ins. It also seemed like people were still opting for high end GTX5xx cards as the 6xx didn't perform much better but were more expensive.

Thanks Knufire, you've been pretty much helpful on a lot of my questions recently

I did a lot more research and realize that the watercooling would be the best bet with room to expand later down the road. Is the above kit okay or there's a better suggestion for the $300 mark?

About the GPU - I figured for the $300 Budget, that MSI would be the best bet given that the GTX 580 does work Better, but come at 2x the price almost.

CS6 has pretty much everything Compatible with OpenCL with the exception of 4 task which I don't really mind.
http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2012/05/opencl-and-premiere-pro-cs6.html

Vegas Pro does take advantage of OpenCL, though not as much as the CUDA cores, but it's definitely a lot faster, given the $300 budget I had for the video card.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro/gpuacceleration

once again, thank you for all the help so far.

GTX570s can be had new for $250. GTX570s shouldn't be anywhere near that expensive, street price might be $300-350 though.

For the watercooling, first read all the stickies in the WC section once or twice (since if you make a thread, that's what they're going to tell you to do anyway). After that, you should be able to do a parts list or find a kit that you like, and they'll give you any suggestions there.

^Yea, I research on WC setups and seems like the kit posted would be the best bang for the bucks, cheaper than priced individually

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...360_Radiator_and_Free_Kill_Coil_Hot_item.html

However, I'm not sure of the CPU Water block would be efficient for the 3930 or is there a better setup out there for the $$.

Look at waterblock testing on Martin Liquid Labs or Skinnee Labs if you want to check.

And head to the WC forum and read the stickies. That pump/res is okay....... okay.

It's a great starter kit.

Don't forget Swiftech for REAL NICE kits. For example, many when upgrading many buy Swiftech pump setups, so why start at middle and spend more later?

at 4.5Ghz, I don't think you need anything complicated bro.

if a top end air cooler won't fit.

Corsair h100 ? no maintainance there.


just thought you should consider these options first.