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Cosair h100i or Custom Liquid Cooling

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  • Water Cooling
  • Crossfire
  • CPUs
  • Radeon
Last response: in CPUs
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October 11, 2014 10:04:23 PM

Building a new system (1st time) and as of now I'm planning on getting the Cosair H100i for my AMD FX 8350. I however want to eventually do custom liquid cooling to include both the CPU and GPUs (2 Radeon R9 270x Crossfire setup). Main usage will be gaming but some editing/rendering as well.

Would it be more practical to buy the Cosair now AND THEN custom cool everything down the road, or custom cool everything from the start? Money isn't that big of an issue but I would like to keep costs down.

EDIT: I guess I'd also like to know the expected price of a custom liquid cooling setup.

Let me know if you need me to clarify anything.

More about : cosair h100i custom liquid cooling

Best solution

a b à CPUs
October 11, 2014 10:24:03 PM

Doing a custom loop with 2 GPUs and a CPU would likely run you no less than $600 for decent parts.

I think the best thing to do would be just build with the h100i and then see if you need further water cooling.
For example, if the 2 cards are too close together to get adequate airflow, one will run really hot, and then water cooling would make sense, but if all the temps are well within your comfort zone, then maybe a custom water cooling loop would be an expensive way to do very little.
But, there is certainly the cool factor of a water cooling system.

If you are dead set on having custom water cooling, and you won't let something silly like practicality get in your way, then I would say buy it up front, then you reduce the amount of unnecessary money spent

And if you are going to buy a starter kit, I recommend the EK 360mm kits are excellent, though the new 360mm kit is rather pricy. (I got the previous version of their 360 kit, which was a lot cheaper, but does amazingly)
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a c 94 à CPUs
October 11, 2014 10:35:43 PM

I just feel its not a very sensible build i guess with an 8350 and 2 270x's and watercooling, doesnt seem like money well spent. imo, better spending the money on better parts in the first place. Like get an i7 which will be better for gaming and editing/rendering, you can cool it with an air cooler or any low end watercooler and still get a good OC. Get a single more powerful gpu like a r9 290 or gtx970 to avoid crossfire headaches and heat so you dont need the watercooling. The h100i would do a fine job of cooling the 8350, but for the price you may as well just start with a faster base system to begin with.
But if you want to go ahead with the full on watercooling for the look/hobbyist experience then i say go for it. I would have liked to have done it but is just out of my price range to do it properly at this time. I would probably do a diy job if i were to do it, but there are plenty of kits available that make it a bit more simple. The next question would be, do you plan to have all the watercooling stuff internally in your case? do you have room? or an external radiator system?
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October 12, 2014 4:48:12 PM

iam2thecrowe said:
I just feel its not a very sensible build i guess with an 8350 and 2 270x's and watercooling, doesnt seem like money well spent. imo, better spending the money on better parts in the first place. Like get an i7 which will be better for gaming and editing/rendering, you can cool it with an air cooler or any low end watercooler and still get a good OC. Get a single more powerful gpu like a r9 290 or gtx970 to avoid crossfire headaches and heat so you dont need the watercooling. The h100i would do a fine job of cooling the 8350, but for the price you may as well just start with a faster base system to begin with.
But if you want to go ahead with the full on watercooling for the look/hobbyist experience then i say go for it. I would have liked to have done it but is just out of my price range to do it properly at this time. I would probably do a diy job if i were to do it, but there are plenty of kits available that make it a bit more simple. The next question would be, do you plan to have all the watercooling stuff internally in your case? do you have room? or an external radiator system?


I've been rethinking the build in lieu of your suggestions and am thinking the i5 4690k + Cosiar H80i and the GTX 970. From what I researched and knowing myself, I don't think would take full advantage of hyperthreading (in the i7) even if I did decide to readily use the system for editing/rendering.
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a c 94 à CPUs
October 12, 2014 4:53:01 PM

girostrike said:
iam2thecrowe said:
I just feel its not a very sensible build i guess with an 8350 and 2 270x's and watercooling, doesnt seem like money well spent. imo, better spending the money on better parts in the first place. Like get an i7 which will be better for gaming and editing/rendering, you can cool it with an air cooler or any low end watercooler and still get a good OC. Get a single more powerful gpu like a r9 290 or gtx970 to avoid crossfire headaches and heat so you dont need the watercooling. The h100i would do a fine job of cooling the 8350, but for the price you may as well just start with a faster base system to begin with.
But if you want to go ahead with the full on watercooling for the look/hobbyist experience then i say go for it. I would have liked to have done it but is just out of my price range to do it properly at this time. I would probably do a diy job if i were to do it, but there are plenty of kits available that make it a bit more simple. The next question would be, do you plan to have all the watercooling stuff internally in your case? do you have room? or an external radiator system?


I've been rethinking the build in lieu of your suggestions and am thinking the i5 4690k + Cosiar H80i and the GTX 970. From what I researched and knowing myself, I don't think would take full advantage of hyperthreading (in the i7) even if I did decide to readily use the system for editing/rendering.


the i5 is still pretty good for rendering/editing. the i7 will save you a bit of time in certain programs, but if its just for a hobby or something its not a huge difference. You can always use cuda accellerated apps with your gtx970 for even faster rendering.
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October 12, 2014 5:21:06 PM

Alrighty then. Thanks guys. Both of you helped resolve my concerns.

EDIT: cdburner more specifically answered the questions I had but iam2thecrowe helped gave me suggestions that made me decide on a setup. Just to clarify the "best solution" choice.
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a b à CPUs
October 12, 2014 5:44:09 PM

Please don't get an H100i. There are SO many better options for that rpice point that cool better and aren't loud.
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a b à CPUs
October 12, 2014 7:00:23 PM

Majority of the noise comes from the fans, just change them to e.g. Corsair SP quiet edition or Noctua etc. then all that's left unavoidable is the pump noise
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