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Air Cooling vs Liquid Cooling?

Tags:
  • Water Cooling
  • Corsair
  • Cooler Master
  • Cooling
  • Components
  • Cases
Last response: in Components
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March 13, 2014 3:00:26 PM

I shortsightedly got quite a cheap case with limited fan mounting ability so can't get the Corsair H100i. So this means I'm down to getting the Corsair H80i or going air cooling. The idea of liquid cooling appeals to my sense of mixing things that shouldn't go together but magically do. In the future I am looking to overclock, just enough to satisfy my curiosity. I may however OC more once I'm happy with it as I run numerical simulation software as part of my college workload quite regularly.

But I've read a few places that it's highly over rated so can't fully convince myself to commit at the moment. If I were to not get the H80i I'm currently looking at Hyper 212 or something similiar.

Would the H80i be a noticeable improvement over the Hyper 212?
Secondly if I get the H80i should I get new fans for or the stock ones that come with it sufficient?

Corsair H80i
http://

Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo
http://

More about : air cooling liquid cooling

March 13, 2014 3:13:38 PM

Custom loops is where water cooling really shines. For the most part CLC are roughly equal to the high end air units.
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March 13, 2014 6:38:24 PM

Thank you IDontUnderstand, I like numerical analysis of thing.


"Custom loops is where water cooling really shines. For the most part CLC are roughly equal to the high end air units."
I've read that before, whats an example of a custom loop? Is there anything around the same price range as the H80i?
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March 13, 2014 6:43:09 PM

I have found this on Amazon but that is definitely outside my student budget.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DZSLO4A/ref=ox_sc...

Is there any custom loops cheaper than this? Once you go cheaper than that are you back into "better off getting a high end air cooler or CL liquid cooler" territory?

Thanks for your advice as well by the way

EDIT: On further googling, it seems custom really does mean custom. Think I might leave that for another project when I'm not so heavily dependent on my pc and/or have money to afford it
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March 13, 2014 6:45:01 PM

Consumer wise, there are 3 type of CPU cooler.
Air cooler,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
All-in-one liquid cooler,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Custom liquid cooling (CLC),
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/H1r (look at the pictures)

Update: CLC is not recommended without prior knowledge to how to do it and a lot of research. You have to go through selections of fittings, blocks, pumps, reservoirs, etc. and even if you just go with the highest rating components, it still takes a quite amount of effort compare to air cooler and all-in-one.

Again, CLC doesn't really perform that much better than high end air/AIO liquid coolers. There's only so much 'water' can do scientifically, aka never reaching ambient temperature.
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March 13, 2014 6:51:59 PM

Sounds like you are a tinkerer. So am I. Your lust for tinkering will not be fully satisfied until you do your first custom loop. The H80i is a toy to hold you over in the meantime, it will outperform the hyper 212. :D 
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March 13, 2014 6:58:11 PM

Well personally I would just go with a 212 Evo,it's a huge upgrade if you are currently using the stock cooler.
It's cheap and not loud.
Even if you bought a Corsair unit you will most likely be buying fans for it sooner or later.
Really depends on how much you are willing to spend and if you're going for a specific look aesthetically.(highlight your mobo and ram thru the window)
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March 13, 2014 7:26:52 PM

IDontUnderstand said:
Consumer wise, there are 3 type of CPU cooler.
Air cooler,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
All-in-one liquid cooler,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Custom liquid cooling (CLC),
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/H1r (look at the pictures)

Update: CLC is not recommended without prior knowledge to how to do it and a lot of research. You have to go through selections of fittings, blocks, pumps, reservoirs, etc. and even if you just go with the highest rating components, it still takes a quite amount of effort compare to air cooler and all-in-one.

Again, CLC doesn't really perform that much better than high end air/AIO liquid coolers. There's only so much 'water' can do scientifically, aka never reaching ambient temperature.



I'll Agree with you on the AIO and Air being similar but a custom loop does preform much better than either. WIth a proper setup 50-60 under prime95 is pretty common with good OC (4.6 4770K) but it is alot more effort to do.

When I wrote CLC I meant it as Closed loop cooler or AIO sorry for the confusion.
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March 13, 2014 9:16:17 PM

davcon said:
Well personally I would just go with a 212 Evo,it's a huge upgrade if you are currently using the stock cooler.
It's cheap and not loud.
Even if you bought a Corsair unit you will most likely be buying fans for it sooner or later.
Really depends on how much you are willing to spend and if you're going for a specific look aesthetically.(highlight your mobo and ram thru the window)

This, probably best for the price; I personally prefer Air Cooling to Liquid Cooling as the thought of the liquid leaking scares me.
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March 14, 2014 5:27:25 AM

jimthenagual said:
Sounds like you are a tinkerer. So am I. Your lust for tinkering will not be fully satisfied until you do your first custom loop. The H80i is a toy to hold you over in the meantime, it will outperform the hyper 212. :D 


That would be a reasonably fair summation.

Does custom cooling require specific graphics cards or will the blocks be a generic mount? Other than being able to cool GPUs, what actually makes custom loop better than All-in-one units?

I think I'll probably go for air cooling, save my pennies if theres not a huge difference between the H80i and Hyper 212.
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March 14, 2014 5:55:49 AM

krustie92 said:
jimthenagual said:
Sounds like you are a tinkerer. So am I. Your lust for tinkering will not be fully satisfied until you do your first custom loop. The H80i is a toy to hold you over in the meantime, it will outperform the hyper 212. :D 


That would be a reasonably fair summation.

Does custom cooling require specific graphics cards or will the blocks be a generic mount? Other than being able to cool GPUs, what actually makes custom loop better than All-in-one units?

I think I'll probably go for air cooling, save my pennies if theres not a huge difference between the H80i and Hyper 212.


It depends on your card some have full VGA blocks available (covers the card) others you have to use a universal block and cool the Vrm's yourself. and the main advantage of custom water is the much cooler temperatures you can reach letting you reach higher OC If neither of those are important to you I wouldn't water cool.
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