Is watercooling easy/worth it?

water cooling lowest temps posible = room temp + ~5ºc

Intel chips these days are also very efficent and dont need over the top cooling

i wouldnt bother unless its one of those pre-made loop kits (even then a good air cooler is about the same but cheaper, easier to install, easier to maintain etc)

Maintainence - yes every so often you have to replace the coolant out of the system


Short answer - i wouldnt bother

how hard is it to install a water cooler?
ANSWER: not hard depending on what type of cooling system you want. a closed loop cpu cooler like the corsair h80i for instance is very easy to install and will fit 99% of mid+ cases. if you want to get into a custom water cooling build then yes, it can be very hard to install and get everything right.

does it require any maintenance once set up?
ANSWER: a closed loop cooling system requires no maintenance. just check the tube connections every other month.

can they leak easily?
ANSWER: newer closed loop systems almost never leak. I have heard people say they have in the past but not so much recently.

are they overpriced?
ANSWER: not at all.

and are they worth it?
ANSWER: depending on your OC ambitions they can be very efficient and effective. if you do not plan on overclocking your cpu I see no reason to install one other than for looks.

I was in your situation about two weeks ago and I then purchased my first water cooler, the H60 (2013) edition. It was rather easy to install as I checked with the actual diameters of the cooler and compared it so that the water cooler would fit in my exhaust 120mm fan port and not be resting on any capacitors on my motherboard. Now when I was on my AMD stock cooler my temps, when playing games such as Borderlands 2, would go up to the high 50's, which isn't that bad. However NOW with the water cooler installed I seldom breach 30 degrees when under load, which is fantastic. I have been able to over clock my CPU easily and I would highly recommend this water cooler. The lowest idle temperature I have ever had with my water cooler was 6 degrees!

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  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CW-9060007-WW-Series-Performance-All-In-One/dp/B00A0HZMGA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370855427&sr=8-1&keywords=h60+2013

It was rather easy to fit in my water cooler, you may, depending on the water cooler you get need a second pair of hands to hold the fan(s) and radiator into place while you position the water block on your CPU. The pre-built Water coolers such as the H60 or H80i (From Corsair) Need NO maintenance after installation, however I like to clean the fan from time to time with a lint cloth (the kind of cloth you clean glasses with). I cannot answer your final question as it completely depends on the quality of the individual product. If the water cooler has no cracks or any inflicted damage then it is VERY unlikely that it will leak, especially the pre-built ones. The Corsair series have a five year warranty on them.

I would definitely recommend a water cooler or a high end air cooler but think carefully on which one to choose and make sure that it will fit in your case. is it a performance tower midi?

From what it looks like your case will be able to support up to the H80i, which is a rather chunky (fan,radiator, fan) water cooler. You should have no problems with fitting a water cooler in your case as it seems equal dimensions to my case. My case is this, the Corsair Carbide 300R >

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  http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006I2H0YS

I shall say again, I highly recommend the H60 (2013) Edition if you really need it. I believe getting a good after market air cooler will be fine.

I guess what has needed to be said about CLC options has been said, so I'l just provide info on custom water-cooling.

1. Depends on the complexity of the loop and whether your the kind who has to have everything perfect. But that being said, Custom water is harder than air or CLC water-cooling to figure out and pick the right components. Physically its a bit harder and more complex, but as long as you have researched sufficiently then your fine.

2. Not really unless you do something stupid like put Aluminium in the loop or use some kind of dye. If you run with plain distilled water and a kill-coil, the most maintenance you should do is change the water every 6 months or so (and even that's more recommended than actually necessary). If you do include a dye, expect to be changing the water every 2 months and cleaning out your blocks as well.

3. The chances of a custom loop leaking are inversely proportional to the amount time and effort you put into researching and assembling it. Its all down to you here.

4. Arguably yes, their price/performance against air cooling is pretty horrendous. But, you get the absolute best performance and can overcome the limitations of air cooling (I'd like to see a graphics card that runs 40°C under Furmark load on air).

5. In Australia the price of some of the lower end Raystorm kits is equal with a H100i, its definitely worth doing then.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_160_45&products_id=21055
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_160_45&products_id=22307

If your interested in going down the custom water route, I suggest you read the water-cooling sticky.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky

My opinion in regards to CLC water-coolers, dont bother. Air-cooling is cheaper and achieves the same results, for instance a Noctua NH-D14 performs the same as a H100i, while costing significantly less. The aforementioned H60 performs the same as a 212, and costs twice as much.
Stick with air until your looking at top end units like the H100i or the Swiftech H220, but even then custom is a better option given that in Australia low end custom are high end CLC's are basically the same price.