Air vs Water - Cheap i5 Overclock

[Max1s]

Hey guys, so I am gonna make myself a new system (i5 2500k, Geforce 260GTX, 8GB 1600 DDR3) and I know that I will want to be overclocking that i5. I have heard people saying that they get over 4ghz with the Scythe Mugen 2 (air cooler), which for me would be about 32 euro, but I also am seeing the Antec H20 620/920, and the CorsairH60 for around 50 euro. Also, I am thinking that If I get one of these pre-built water sets, I wouldn't be able to cool my graphics card for future OCing. (And dont worry, I wont have the 260GTX forever)

I dont want to spend much money, so for me, is it worth buying a CPU-only air or water set, or would it be worth it to build me own water set and OC my graphics card? I have never done any building of water kits so I am a little afraid....

 

[residentdean]

Don't really need water cooling for i5 2500k I would go with an air cooler. hyper 212 with a push pull fan system will be plenty. I got my oc to 4.8 @ 1.34 vcore with this config. Be sure to get good mobo I would recommend an asus!

 

[simon12]

+1 the 2500K does not run very hot so you don't need more than the 212+

 

[rubix_1011]

I'd say for your budget, stick with a good air cooler. It really isn't worth getting into water cooling until you get to the point of spending $150+ or something like the XSPC Rasa kits. LCS coolers are fine, but they aren't expandable (without a lot of modding and warranty breaking).

However, there are a lot of folks running their i5's and i7's at 4.5ghz and higher...once you get closer to 5ghz...you start pushing some pretty high temps...I'd start considering a different cooling solution if you go that far.

 

[Max1s]

Ok, unfortunately due to where I live I wont be getting the 212, I am looking at the Scythe Mugen 2, and the Xigmatek HDT-S1283, which looks like it preforms better. The Xigmatek also is cheaper, but dosnt mount on 1155, only 775 and AM2, so I'd also need some plastic 1155 socket bracket thing.

and residentdean, I picked out the Gigabyte p67A-D3-B3, thats a respectable mobo right? Some people said I should go with a z68 chipset because of the more features, but I wouldnt really be taking advantage of those features anyway and the p67 is cheaper. (I have a pretty low budget.)