Water cooler for i7-3960X

[bogo663]

Hi, I have never attempted to install water cooling before. I was recommended to water cooling solutions that should be easy for me to install and require little to no maintenance.

Corsair H70 Core High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181019&Tpk=corsair%20h70

Thermaltake CLW0217 Water 2.0 Extreme/All-In-One Liquid Cooling System
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106190#top

Does anyone have experience with these two water coolers and can recommend me one over the other. Thanks!

 

[mouse24]

I don't really recommend going with cheap water cooling vs expensive air cooling.

I recommend either building your own loop or going with expensive air cooling. Noctuas NH-D14, Theres more but I can't think of them right now off the top of my head. :3

 

[rubix_1011]

Avoid Thermaltake watercooling at all costs. Avoid Zalman Reserator/watercooling at all costs. Larkooler...most likely the same.

The H70 performs about the same as most good air coolers, almost apples to apples, except for price. Don't expect miracles from it. I've said this many times, but saying an H70 is a liquid cooler compared to full watercooling is like comparing a Honda Civic to a Ferrari and classifying both as being 'cars'.

 

[inzone]

The thing with those coolers are that they are closed loop water coolers so it's just like installing a heatsink/fan and there is no maintenence because you supposed to keep the loop closed. However in a regular water cooling loop your supposed to change the fluid every 6 months or so and keep anti-microbal additive in it to prevent growth of microbes and anti-corrosives to prevent corrosion so I'm not sure what the life expentancy is on those coolers if your not supposed to open them up. It would seem to me that the performance would suffer after a while.
Granred building your own loop would be expensive since you have to buy all your own parts and assemble them but it is a lot of fun to do just like building your own computer is. The first time is always the hardest because your not quite sure how it all works but there was a first time to building the computer also.
These are some of the coolers that I would look at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209054

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103176

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

 

[bogo663]

Best answer selected by bogo663.