why should i go with liquid...?

[storm21]

alright here it is... i really want to get a liquid cooling system, because of the usual... minimum noise "cooler temps" etc. But idk if the cost justifies the means...

The Zalman cnps9700 according to reviews on Newegg.com

"I was running the stock cooler on my Phenom II x4 940 and it would idl at 43 - 44 and would get to the mid 50's under load, slapped this baby on now its idling at 33 and about 38 - 39 under load, and fits great in my antec 1200 case
Thanks Zalman!" -newegg customer-

and i also looked at various cooling systems on newegg and found out that it would cool the cpu, the 940, to around the upper 40's C sooooo.... the price for the air cooler is less than half of what the liquid would cost...but the temps are a little "not worth it" ; does liquid cooling show its muscle only in high OCing?


because this customer says with the air cooler:

"and now on my Phenom II 940 OC to 4.0GHz still has not gone above 40c

so its probably the best air cooler i have ever used" -newegg customer-

i dont get it what the hype all about for water cooling besides ultimate silence? are these guys lying? I do realize though that water cooling your graphics card does help A LOT because reviews on that were claiming between 10 C to 18 C drops in temp...

thanks for any help!!!!

 

[Bobnova]

Water cooling kits are by and large overpriced junk as i understand it.
You can spend the same or less and build a far better system yourself. Better meaning lower temps, mostly.

 

[Blazing fire]

You are right in saying that the benefits of water cooling over air increases as heat load inceases. However, the i7 cores do not seem to be benefitting much from water. Even with a high end setup, a 1.44v, 4.2ghz i7 is usually at 65C+. On air, around 70C+. 65C over 70C does not affect clock speeds much. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

For WC a GPU, you will gain quite a bit, sometime as much as 30C difference at load (70C vs 40C)

As for whether WC is worth the cost, no one can answer that question for you.

FYI, good first hand WC setup usually starts at $250.

PS: I don't suggest looking at newegg reviews, or any reviews from online stores for that matter.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

A Sunbeam 120mm Tower or an Xigmatek DK/ s1283 would blow the **** out of a water cooling "system". Now if you built your own loop then obviously it would be better, but much more expensive as well.

 

[deadlysyn]

TBH, NewEgg reviews are questionable at best. There was a post here a while back, where someone had said their tech level was "high" and cut the tops off the heatpipes of a Xigmatek to fit it in his case, and had no idea why his temps were so high. The top performers for air cooling these days are (in no particular order), ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme, Prolimatech Megahalems, ThermalRight IFX-14, Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer, Xigmatek S1283/Dark Knight, and a few of the other Heatpipe Direct Touch coolers that I can't remember off the top of my head. The ones that come with stock fans, are very quiet, and have very good performance. The offerings from ThermalRight and Prolimatech do not generally come with a fan, which gives you the option to customize, with dual fans in push/pull, single fan in push or pull, and you can use the fans of your choice, like low speed for silence, or ultra high speed for performance. There are many options out there, and no definite need to go WC, unless that is really the route you would like to go. Of course, there are several air coolers out there that will keep your temps in line, and cost nowhere near as much as a good WC loop.

 

[Perseus]

alright here it is... i really want to get a liquid cooling system, because of the usual... minimum noise "cooler temps" etc. But idk if the cost justifies the means...

TBH, if you have to justify water cooling from a cost perspective, you should stay with air for now. TCO for water can be fairly high, especially if you want a high performance system that's also low-noise.

Temps? There's nothing magical about the i7. It simply has a different thermal signature than what came before. Block designs have caught up and can cool it nicely, if you pick the right one. Putting water to my 295 was a real treat. It was capable of reaching the upper limit of its thermal range and creating a large hot spot on the back of my case with air. Now it never exceeds 45c with a comfortable ambient. So yeah, you can have great temps, but with water it's going to cost you hard.

 

[storm21]

alright guys, thanks i think i will stay with air cooling just because of money restraints like you all said....