Water Cooling worth it for me?

[Altiris]

To start off I am on a budge of $400. Currently I have an Apevia X Trooper case and because of a heatsink on my mobo, the radiator for water cooling will not fit in the case. I also right now only have an i5 2400 and can't overclock, the watercooling kit will really only be to good use when I get an i7 3770k. I will need to buy a new case, probably a HAF 912 or something which is $60 and then plus the RX240 water cooling kit which is $170, $230 total (without tax and shipping). I will have to remove all of my parts and then move them in to the new case, then set up the water cooling kit.

Is a watercooling kit just not worth it for me right now? Should I just instead upgrade some stuff in my PC like from 8GB to 16GB of RAM and another 1TB HDD?

 

[rubix_1011]

Depends on your overclocking goals, overclocking abilities and your actual watercooling budget. Watercooling isn't mandatory for overclocking, but having good overclocking knowledge and having a good cooler of some sort IS.

Only you are able to determine if watercooling is worth it to you...the rest of us are quite biased since the majority of us currently watercool in some form or another. It comes down to personal preference, intended goals and the budget to accomplish both.

 

[Altiris]

I will just want to have an i7 3700k OCed to 4.5ghz. An H80i closed loop should do the job no?

 

[rubix_1011]

You tell me.

This is something you'll need to understand prior to purchasing a cooling option and overclocking your chip.

 

[Altiris]

Well Im not sure however an H80 could handle it so an H80i could probably handle it. I was reading the H80i and it seems they still create loud noise, I dont have money to buy extra fans so I will probably have to stick with them. The Hyper 212 Evo is a cool air cooler but I read can only handle 4.3ghz or so.

 

[rubix_1011]

Have you compared OC results with an H80 vs. a Hyper 212 Evo?

 

[geofelt]

In a decently ventilated case, there is minimal difference in the OC capabilities of a good air cooler and a good all in one liquid cooler.

Usually, the air cooler will be cheaper, quieter, and more reliable.

how high you can OC your 3770K is dependent on the luck of the binning, but 4.5 +/- 0.1 is reasonable.
And... how important is 0.1 to your app or game anyway?

Worth is something only YOU can determine.

Personally, I think most will be very happy with a $30 tower type air cooler like the cm hyper212.

Spend the $ elsewhere.

 

[rubix_1011]

This should be an excellent learning process to determine performance of both coolers and performance value of cost.