Should I get water cooling if I can afford it?

Oct 28, 2018
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I'm getting a new PC soon and I was wondering if it is even necessary to get liquid cooling to cool an i7-9700k? Is liquid cooling only necessary for overclocked processors?
 
Solution


Liquid cooling is nothing special. It's just a different way of cooling. In a normal aircooler you usually have heatpipes that carry away the heat and distribute it to the fins to then be dissapaited into the air. A watercooler uses the same principal but uses a liquid to transfer the heat to the fins with the help of a pump.

If you don't have to use a liquid cooler then don't as these have a lot more points of failiure compared to an aircooler that only has a fan as the moving part and liquid coolers are not necceseraly better.


Liquid cooling is nothing special. It's just a different way of cooling. In a normal aircooler you usually have heatpipes that carry away the heat and distribute it to the fins to then be dissapaited into the air. A watercooler uses the same principal but uses a liquid to transfer the heat to the fins with the help of a pump.

If you don't have to use a liquid cooler then don't as these have a lot more points of failiure compared to an aircooler that only has a fan as the moving part and liquid coolers are not necceseraly better.
 
Solution
No, water cooler is not required for overclocking. A good air cooler can do just as good as a water cooler and they are cheaper, quieter and more durable. The advantage to water cooling is they can fit in places that big air coolers cannot. So it depends on your case to what cooling configuration you can have.

The Cryorig h5 is a decent cooler for around $40 and it will give your 9700k a decent overclock. The Noctua NH-D15 is one of the best air coolers on the market for $80 and will be within a degree or two of any AIO. But it requires a case than has 165mm of CPU clearance.

With that being said, I would not get a 9700k. I would get an AMD 2600x. It comes with a very good stock cooler, it is a lot cheaper, and it is a just a few percent slower than the 9700k in gaming.
 
Short answer.... no, not necessary.

Longer answer is my stock rant on liquid cooling.
Take it for what you will.
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 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.
Past that, A AIO radiator complicates creating a positive pressure filtered cooling setup which can keep your parts clean.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
Google for AIO leaks to see what can happen.
While unlikely, leaks do happen.

I would support an AIO cooler primarily in a space restricted case.
If one puts looks over function, that is a personal thing; not for me though.
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well with a decent air cooler.