Liquid cooling vs. Heatsink+Fan

kristian221 · Apr 17, 2011

I am building my first rig and I plan on overclocking it. I know when overclocking you need to up your cooling a bit to get the performance out of it, but I was wondering, what keeps the CPU cooler, a fan and heatsink, or a liquid cooling system?

Also I will be having an:
i7 2600k
GTX 590 Nvidia
1200W power supply
7200rpm hard drive

what component gets hotest? Would I also want extra cooling on the graphics card?

m0r7if3r · Apr 17, 2011

That all really depends? Are we talking an h50 or a custom water loop? Custom water will (almost) always be cooler than air. Once you put your CPU on water, your major source of noise will be the GPU, so if you're eliminating noise it's worth it on water. It also (imo) looks fantastic to have cpu and gpu under water. CPU and GPU are the hottest, nothing else needs heavy duty cooling these days.

Conumdrum · Apr 17, 2011

Liquid cooling hands down. The difference is cost. Cooling your CPU can be easily done for under $250 with an XSPC or Swiftech or EK setup. All great stuff.

Notice I didn't mention the H70 premade setups. Thats barely worth the trouble. Technically watercooling, but comparison-wise a Volkwagon Jetta next to an Ford Mustang GT. They both have 4 wheels.

IF you want to add the GPU to the watercooling, then you'll be adding quite a bit of cost. More rad and the cost of the GPU block, which will bring you closer to $450 total.

charles1 · Apr 17, 2011

yeah w/c all the way useful and reduces noise. Listen to conumdrum he knows what he is talking about. Helped me out with my new build which i still have to start.

BudTheChud · Apr 21, 2011

Just my 2 cents. If I'm ponying up close to $1000 on a card I wouldn't run it on anything less than water.

eviljab · Apr 23, 2011

If you plan to go the custom water cool route and its your first water cool build, be sure to do your homework (atleast two weeks of reserch) before even thinking of buying a single part. If not, your more than likely going to waist money on the wrong part(s). Custom wc is not for everyone (so it may or may not be right for you) it requires checking often and taking apart atleast once a year.

LennyRhys · Apr 25, 2011

lol... the "water cooling = less noise" premise is an absolute fallacy. What cools a heatsink? A 120mm fan. What cools a radiator? A 120mm fan.

With a top-end air cooler you can run the same silent/low rpm 120mm fan that you would put on a radiator and get very efficient cooling (that's what I've been doing with my TRUE).

WC for best performance; air for best value.

repilce · Apr 25, 2011

LennyRhys said:
lol... the "water cooling = less noise" premise is an absolute fallacy. What cools a heatsink? A 120mm fan. What cools a radiator? A 120mm fan.

With a top-end air cooler you can run the same silent/low rpm 120mm fan that you would put on a radiator and get very efficient cooling (that's what I've been doing with my TRUE).

WC for best performance; air for best value.

Lol, I see your point, but for the most part your not going to run 800rpm fans on your TRUE now are you?

cbshahji · Apr 26, 2011

LCLC water cooling are great these days, honestly someone had good sense of doing a research (and we are all thankful to that company) so there isn't a point of going that way, unless you are planning on cooling the video card and mobo, than is the only way to go all the way on full loop which will cost a lot more and will require more time.

BFG had some sense of making LCLC video card cooling, too bad they shut down (i know on this forums it's not really best way) but for noobs who get into these things the additional $50-100 can make world of difference of screwing 4 screws or spending 6 hours to just to get that (long) pipe fit inside the case.

m0r7if3r · Apr 26, 2011

cbshahji said:
LCLC water cooling are great these days, honestly someone had good sense of doing a research (and we are all thankful to that company) so there isn't a point of going that way, unless you are planning on cooling the video card and mobo, than is the only way to go all the way on full loop which will cost a lot more and will require more time.

BFG had some sense of making LCLC video card cooling, too bad they shut down (i know on this forums it's not really best way) but for noobs who get into these things the additional $50-100 can make world of difference of screwing 4 screws or spending 6 hours to just to get that (long) pipe fit inside the case.

It's not 4 screws for the LCLC's, it's gonna be at least 8, usually 16. The d14's mounting system uses 6 iirc and it performs better than everything buy the h70 (and even then, it beats it in low noise operation) with less noise. Why anyone would buy an LCLC to use in a build where space wasn't an issue is completely beyond me. The price is high, the performance is average, and they look cheaply made (imo)

LennyRhys · Apr 26, 2011

replice said:
Lol, I see your point, but for the most part your not going to run 800rpm fans on your TRUE now are you?

Why not? - my CPU fan (Delta) is tamed to 800rpm 99.9% time. I know the cooler's performance scales very well with high rpm, but nobody needs that kind of cooling power for everyday use even from an overclocked system like mine.

Granted my idle temps are warm (35-40) but that's no biggy as it's the load temps which matter, and these rarely break 60... with an 800rpm fan.

One word very accurately sums up the general attitude to "enthusiast" PC cooling: overkill. The only reason I have a 200 CFM fan on my CPU cooler is that I occasionally put 1.6v into my CPU

Liquid cooling vs. Heatsink+Fan

kristian221

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