Water cooling or air cooling?

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Palidion

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Jun 19, 2013
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Ok, so right now I'm looking at this water cooler for my CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181031
I plan to overclock my intel core i5 3570k from 3.4 to 4.4 and it is supposed to be a good processor for the job. My question is will I be better off doing water cooling or air cooling for overclocking/general cooling? My budget for a cooling system is at most $100, and I've been told by another site that "real" water cooling systems start at $200-$300 range. Either way, the aforementioned H80i is what I'm looking at right now, but I've also read that it has problems with it's Corsair link that tells you what your CPU temp is, and that the customer support sucks. Help/advice/input would be greatly appreciated.
 
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sophiebeth100


Yes, that cooler will fit both the motherboard and case. Both great choices :) And yes, it's the same cooler. There's also a blue version, which may match your case lights even better? :) And yep, air cooling is very robust and will most likely last as long as it takes you to upgrade your CPU anyway. :D
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sophiebeth100

sophiebeth100

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Mar 14, 2013
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It depends whether you care more about aesthetics or the performance of your machine. I would personally go air cooling. It's quieter, cheaper, and just as effective. It just doesn't look as 'clean' as watercooling. For air cooling, here's three coolers you'll want to take a look at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018 Noctua NH-D14
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709004 Phanteks PH-TC14PE
These will both outperform the H80i.

The watercoolers that match these air coolers are gonna be over $100. Hers's a couple:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835146028 NZXT Kraken X60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181032 Corsair H100i
The first cooler will need a larger case to mount it, and the second is a pretty tight fit in some mid towers too. The air coolers above will need around 165mm case clearance at the side, too.

To answer your question, the H80i should get you to 4.4, depending on whether you get a good overclocking chip or not. However, for the same money you can get an air cooler than will out-perform it.
 
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Palidion

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So between the Noctua and the Phanteks, you'd recommend the Phanteks for a maintainable 4.4-4.5 overclock on my 3570k?
Also, is this basically the same Phantek as the gal above mentioned?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709001
I'm using blue LED's all over the place and the red fan in the pic wouldn't really work with that, but the silver and white one above would. o_O
Also, in terms of longevity, does air cooling keep a CPU working as long/well as the cheap water cooling? I'm hoping to not have to upgrade for at least a few years (other than adding an SLI GTX 770, I think I mentioned that in another post here) and I'm worried that overclocking might hurt my CPU's lifespan. This is my first build, though, so I have no idea.
 
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sophiebeth100

sophiebeth100

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Mar 14, 2013
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Yes, that cooler will fit both the motherboard and case. Both great choices :) And yes, it's the same cooler. There's also a blue version, which may match your case lights even better? :) And yep, air cooling is very robust and will most likely last as long as it takes you to upgrade your CPU anyway. :D
 
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Palidion

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Thanks :) If you could link the blue one I'd appreciate it. I couldn't find it o_O Also, picked you for best solution :p
 
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sophiebeth100

sophiebeth100

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Mar 14, 2013
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Thanks! And here you are: http://www.amazon.com/PHANTEKS-PH-TC14PE_BL-Heat-Pipes-Premium-Patented/dp/B005OQJVP0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374661029&sr=8-2&keywords=phanteks+ph-tc14pe
 
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