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Appropriate PC Cooling

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  • Water Cooling
  • Cooling
  • CPUs
  • Gaming
Last response: in CPUs
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December 15, 2013 2:49:09 PM

I'm building my first gaming PC, and I want to know if water-cooling is necessary for my build. Also, how large of a power supply would I need?

-Intel Core i7-3930k CPU
-ASUS P9X79 PRO Motherboard
-NVidia GeForce GTX 780 GPU
-Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 2133MHz RAM
-Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD

I was considering the Cosmos II case because of the space and design; is that okay for what I'm trying to get?

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December 15, 2013 2:56:16 PM

Water cooling is not necessary for that rig.
But there are some advantages; water cooling can be more effective for overclocking, and it would put less physical stress (heat sink and fan weight) on the motherboard.
On the other hand, a heat sink and fan setup would require less maintenance over the long run and leaves less of a mess compared to a broken water hose or leaky radiator.
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December 15, 2013 3:00:28 PM

650W PSU will be enough for that build. If you want to SLI the 780 in the future, 850W might be an option.
Depending on your budget XFX Core Pro 650W or the XFX Core Pro 850W modular or not will be a good choice for that build.
Seasonic X series 1050W or Seasonic Platinum 1000 if you want to go 'high end'.
Antec, Corsair, Seasonic and XFX are the preferred brands for PSU's.

As for the watercooling, if you want to get the largest overclocks then watercooling is the way to go Corsair H100, other option is to go with big air, such as noctual NH-D14. Or obviously you could go all custom loop and cool the GPU with water as well, but that is quite a bit more expensive and requires quite a bit of know-how to do.
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December 15, 2013 3:02:26 PM

a 700W PSU would be fine.

You only need water cooling on a highly overclocked CPU that runs close to 100% for long periods and you want it to be quiet. Then you need a very large radiator with large, slow spinning fans. Also, the interface between the heat spreader and CPU die is important. Some aren't so good, so no matter how good the cooling, the heat can not transfer quick enough from the die. Others are better.
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December 15, 2013 3:18:39 PM

2x4b said:
Water cooling is not necessary for that rig.
But there are some advantages; water cooling can be more effective for overclocking, and it would put less physical stress (heat sink and fan weight) on the motherboard.
On the other hand, a heat sink and fan setup would require less maintenance over the long run and leaves less of a mess compared to a broken water hose or leaky radiator.


rvilkman said:
650W PSU will be enough for that build. If you want to SLI the 780 in the future, 850W might be an option.
Depending on your budget XFX Core Pro 650W or the XFX Core Pro 850W modular or not will be a good choice for that build.
Seasonic X series 1050W or Seasonic Platinum 1000 if you want to go 'high end'.
Antec, Corsair, Seasonic and XFX are the preferred brands for PSU's.

As for the watercooling, if you want to get the largest overclocks then watercooling is the way to go Corsair H100, other option is to go with big air, such as noctual NH-D14. Or obviously you could go all custom loop and cool the GPU with water as well, but that is quite a bit more expensive and requires quite a bit of know-how to do.


Awesome, thanks for the quick response. I feel a lot more comfortable now. Would I be able to run the Bethesda series of games like Skyrim and Fallout on Ultra settings with multiple hardcore texture mods?
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December 15, 2013 3:30:38 PM

Those should run just fine.
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