Air cooling vs Water cooling

Minty649 · Sep 27, 2014

Hi, i am looking to invest in better cooling for my cpu (FX 8350) and i cant decide whether or not to go for a really good air cooler or a watercooler. I do want to overclock my cpu, but nothing too extreme, maybe around 4.6ghz or something. So my question is, what should i go for??

I have seen this, but i am not sure if i need it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-265-XS

Thanks

Specs:

mobo: Asus sabertooth 990fx r2.0
GPU: R9 280x
CPU: FX 8350
PSU: XFX pro series 750w
HDD: WD 1TB
CPU cooler: Cooler Master hyper evo 212
Case: Zalman Z11(changing if i get a watercooler)
RAM: crucial tactical tracer 2x4gb, 1600

Dat_Robot · Sep 27, 2014

Water cooling is surly better but it's more expensive and you can have trouble with the liquid (evaporation). You will have to pay AT LEAST 50$ for a liquid cooler that performs better than air one. So if your tight on budget just get a Hyper 212 EVO it will give you plenty of headroom for OC'ing

jaimelmiel · Sep 27, 2014

Since you are not going for an extreme overclock air will do fine for you. But for me to make a real recomendation please post your specs especially your case. Also is your ram low profile?

Minty649 · Sep 27, 2014

jaimelmiel :

sorry, specs are updated

geofelt · Sep 27, 2014

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

I suggest a noctua nh-D15 or phanteks with dual 140mm fans.
Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well

Minty649 · Sep 27, 2014

Dat_Robot :

i currently have a CM 212 evo and i am not really on a budget

Minty649 · Sep 27, 2014

geofelt :

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

I suggest a noctua nh-D15 or phanteks with dual 140mm fans.
Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well

its a hard decision, i am going to get a new case soon, so i can get about 3 fans from that and 2 come wit the new case so tere will defo be good air flow. so maybe just a better air cooler will do the job

blackdevilmt · Sep 27, 2014

Depends If I were you I will set a budget. First I would get a budget case that will accommodate all of my wanted items. I own a 900D but if I was going to buy once again I will go for the corsair A540 series. Watercooling offers no " HUGE" temp drops over an AIO cooler infact a custom watercooling will be bang for the buck if we can say like that is when you add a gpu to the loop as it will be a waste of money.

Generally people going for a custom loop either want a dead silent system, Like I did hooked up with a fan controller most important or are looking for over clocking. An AIO cooler should do in your case such as the H110 and thb I don't like the z11 infact you should get a A540 which is cheap, robust and a viable way if you want to get your watercooling loop.

The only thing which I don't like in that loop is the pump. If you intend to go for a custom loop I'd get a D5. I can send you some suggestion if you want but Rubix has already has a thread on WC thread. Either way if you are on a tight budget I'd cross out going for a custom loop, it's addictive and expensive.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-232-XS&groupid=962&catid=1532 that seems better. I love XSPC together with EK. I own the AX360 D5s kit and I can not give any negative feedback, they are great and I wouldn't be looking for a much cheaper solution. Getting a custom loop is fun but looking at the downside you have to flush everything every year, I use EC6 coolant or EKWB coolant Clear, if you want colour coolant get some tubing and most importantly plan of doing a drain port simply by buying a T or Y ,male to male and a ball valve an additional compression fitting hooked up with a tube and install it when drain of loop is needed. Anyways sorry for the long answer.

Minty649 · Sep 27, 2014

blackdevilmt :

Depends If I were you I will set a budget. First I would get a budget case that will accommodate all of my wanted items. I own a 900D but if I was going to buy once again I will go for the corsair A540 series. Watercooling offers no " HUGE" temp drops over an AIO cooler infact a custom watercooling will be bang for the buck if we can say like that is when you add a gpu to the loop as it will be a waste of money.

Generally people going for a custom loop either want a dead silent system, Like I did hooked up with a fan controller most important or are looking for over clocking. An AIO cooler should do in your case such as the H110 and thb I don't like the z11 infact you should get a A540 which is cheap, robust and a viable way if you want to get your watercooling loop.

tbh i am actually leaning towards water cooling, the noctua nh- d14 seems really good, and its so much cheaper

The only thing which I don't like in that loop is the pump. If you intend to go for a custom loop I'd get a D5. I can send you some suggestion if you want but Rubix has already has a thread on WC thread. Either way if you are on a tight budget I'd cross out going for a custom loop, it's addictive and expensive.

Sorry for the late reply, I am going to get a full tower case anhways soon enough. Im leaning towards the noctua dh n14, it seems a decent cooler for the price. But the h100i seems a good choice aswell

Beezy · Sep 27, 2014

I personally would go with the noctua if the case permits. That or high end phanteks. I don't see the appeal from liquid coolers. Only liquid cooler I would ever use is a swiftech h220

blackdevilmt · Sep 27, 2014

what case are you looking at? Where are you from? If you are from UK I'd suggest getting items from inland. I live in Malta I found a great site called computeruniverse.net and they sell A540 for 110euros which is great as conversion from Euros to £ is 1.26 which is pretty much high and shipping is basically a one way plane ticket. The A540 is a great case, personally I'd go for something corsair as the build quality is definetly excellent.

Back to your original question if you are going for a DH N14 or H100i/h110, I am looking over overclockers.co.uk and if I was going to buy I'd go for a H110 and change the crappy fans they come with. The corsair are the worst fans you can get they are noisy even though they perform well. A much cheaper solution and a much more quiet system even if they aren't robust as them are the sickelflow CM 120s. Personally with the money I would save from getting a big useless case is to get a phobya fan controller 4 channel x30w per channel hooked up with some Y's. To be honest for rads I like getting XSPC fans 2000rpm which are majorily desinged for rads and put them in a push pull config and above all they are cheap and perform well, watercoolinguk.co.uk have them as specialtech.co.uk didn't restock them.

EDIT: there is the 1650rpm version and a 2k rpm, have them both and tbh having a little more headroom doesn't hurt. The 2k rpm are a good choice honestly, a much more expensive solution would be the Noiseblocker nb-e but one fan nearly costs as much as 4x xspc fans lol, http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/XSPC-120mm-2000RPM-Fan-120x120x25mm_25726.html

blackdevilmt · Sep 27, 2014

Beezy :

Agree and he can't extend his loop, it is much more expensive but pump permits to cool gpu +1 the h220 is a great AIO solution much better than a corsair h110. I hate the idea of not being able to change coolant every year or so.

Minty649 · Sep 28, 2014

blackdevilmt :

what case are you looking at? Where are you from? If you are from UK I'd suggest getting items from inland. I live in Malta I found a great site called computeruniverse.net and they sell A540 for 110euros which is great as conversion from Euros to £ is 1.26 which is pretty much high and shipping is basically a one way plane ticket. The A540 is a great case, personally I'd go for something corsair as the build quality is definetly excellent.

Back to your original question if you are going for a DH N14 or H100i/h110, I am looking over overclockers.co.uk and if I was going to buy I'd go for a H110 and change the crappy fans they come with. The corsair are the worst fans you can get they are noisy even though they perform well. A much cheaper solution and a much more quiet system even if they aren't robust as them are the sickelflow CM 120s. Personally with the money I would save from getting a big useless case is to get a phobya fan controller 4 channel x30w per channel hooked up with some Y's. To be honest for rads I like getting XSPC fans 2000rpm which are majorily desinged for rads and put them in a push pull config and above all they are cheap and perform well, watercoolinguk.co.uk have them as specialtech.co.uk didn't restock them.

EDIT: there is the 1650rpm version and a 2k rpm, have them both and tbh having a little more headroom doesn't hurt. The 2k rpm are a good choice honestly, a much more expensive solution would be the Noiseblocker nb-e but one fan nearly costs as much as 4x xspc fans lol, http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/XSPC-120mm-2000RPM-Fan-120x120x25mm_25726.html

I am from northern Ireland, yeah i was looking at the H110 and it dosent look to bad, i am not to bothered about noise. Would the h110 perform much better than the noctua nh d 14? the case i was looking at was the phantek eentroo pro full toewer case

blackdevilmt · Sep 28, 2014

Both perform exceptionally well and have similar performance. What I don't like is about the Noctua is that is big and covers most of the motherboard but that's just me. As @Beezy said the H220 is a better investment and I agree with that.

The H110 frees up space above your motherboard, but is a little more expensive than the noctua. The AIOs also use fairly cheap pumps, which, from what I've seen, typically fail in anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Once the pump fails, you have to replace the entire unit. H110 versus the noctua nh d14 I would go for the noctua hands down.

Meanwhile on the other hand if you are interested in a liquid cooling Swiftech H220 is a full watercooling kit. It is sealed at the factory and guaranteed for 5 years. However, it is very simple and easy to expand the loop, since it just uses normal watercooling parts. The pump is Swiftech's proprietary pump, and there's no word so far on how long it lasts. The pump is significantly stronger than the ones used in AIOs such as corsair only downside of it's the most expensive option.

As I said earlier better get a A540 which looks nice and above all is affordable and invest in a better cooling solution that will offer you option to expand loop like adding another rad and will give you the option to watercool your gpu which is possible. Remember that CPU/Gpu offer little resistance to flow unlike a motherboard waterblock which is restrictive.

Source :http://www.overclock.net/t/1404897/official-corsair-carbide-air-540-240-owners-club-gallery/2960

Minty649 · Sep 28, 2014

blackdevilmt :

Both perform exceptionally well and have similar performance. What I don't like is about the Noctua is that is big and covers most of the motherboard but that's just me. As @Beezy said the H220 is a better investment and I agree with that.

The H110 frees up space above your motherboard, but is a little more expensive than the noctua. The AIOs also use fairly cheap pumps, which, from what I've seen, typically fail in anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Once the pump fails, you have to replace the entire unit. H110 versus the noctua nh d14 I would go for the noctua hands down.

Meanwhile on the other hand if you are interested in a liquid cooling Swiftech H220 is a full watercooling kit. It is sealed at the factory and guaranteed for 5 years. However, it is very simple and easy to expand the loop, since it just uses normal watercooling parts. The pump is Swiftech's proprietary pump, and there's no word so far on how long it lasts. The pump is significantly stronger than the ones used in AIOs such as corsair only downside of it's the most expensive option.

As I said earlier better get a A540 which looks nice and above all is affordable and invest in a better cooling solution that will offer you option to expand loop like adding another rad and will give you the option to watercool your gpu which is possible. Remember that CPU/Gpu offer little resistance to flow unlike a motherboard waterblock which is restrictive.

Source :http://www.overclock.net/t/1404897/official-corsair-carbide-air-540-240-owners-club-gallery/2960

i have been looking at the swiftech h220, but i cant seem to find a good seller in te UK

rubix_1011 · Sep 29, 2014

Let's stop to consider that AIO or closed loop coolers are vastly outperformed by actual watercooling loops. That being said, they both work on the same principles; it's like of like saying a Kia and Mercedes are both cars.

Please read through the watercooling sticky linked in my signature below. There are a number of items included within that should be able to help answer some of your questions.

Search

Air cooling vs Water cooling

Minty649

Reputable

rubix_1011

Dat_Robot

Honorable

jaimelmiel

Honorable

Minty649

Reputable

geofelt

Titan

Minty649

Reputable

Minty649

Reputable

blackdevilmt

Distinguished

Minty649

Reputable

Beezy

Dignified

blackdevilmt

Distinguished

blackdevilmt

Distinguished

Minty649

Reputable

blackdevilmt

Distinguished

Minty649

Reputable

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page