Motherboard Waterblocks

I most often see people advise not to use them since they typically restrict flow rates but I was hoping to get a clearer answer under what circumstances they become beneficial (other than really high north bridge temps). On an i7 with a base clock of 200 running 24/7, is that enough to make it worth the time to install one? I personally only have a x58, but I was wondering also the more generic factors to consider when determining whether to get one for future setups as well.

Thanks

My rule of thumb (it's pretty loose): If you are on a socket released after lga775, not running an SR2 (and on pretty extreme cooling at that), and not going for the looks of it, mobo cooling is not for you. I don't think I've heard of anyone benefiting from WCing the chipset on 1366...maybe miah when he was running LN2 on his golden 980x, but that's SUCH a fringe case.

I've only ever used a North Bridge cooler to replace a factory cooler with a noisy 40mm fan on it. That's been ages ago.
Other than that, I'd say there's little use for one. I'm not big on complicating a loop and adding points of possible failure.

If you plan for world class overclock attempts, live in a room with 40+ C temps if that would even help due to the silly DT the rads will have to deal with, LOL, or just have more money than common sense dictates, then WC the Mobo to your hearts content.

Otherwise, save your pennies.

lol, got it message is clear; there is no scenario that justifies the expense. Thank you for the responses guys.

yar said:

lol, got it message is clear; there is no scenario that justifies the expense. Thank you for the responses guys.

Click to expand...

There is, imo, one scenario that justifies it: a for looks build. Some people don't particularly care about performance (or it's at least a secondary concern) and they WC for the looks of it, and to those people, I say have at it, because it does look STELLAR.