Water cooling vs air cooling

[g8mou]

im recently building a new moderate gaming pc

cpu is i5 2500K, planning on doing OC, but not by much

is water cooling (Corsair H60 is 50 bucks) or air-cooling (cooler master v8 or v6GT) able to do the job?

budget on whole pc is 900, already spent 340 on mobo and cpu...
the v8 and v6GT is 30 bucks now

which one should i get?

thanks!

 

[beenthere]

Either will work fine up to a point but air-cooled HSFs can't leak and damage your expensive PC hardware.

 

[spentshells]

Minor overclocks don't need much additional cooling

 

[techyv20]

Computers are not that loud regardless. If you feel the sound of a running fan is annoying then your only solution is to not get a computer. If you go with liquid cooled you are still going to hear the pump running. You also will need fans to cool your hard drive and the GPU will have the loudest fan anyway. Liquid cooling isn't for a making a quite system, it is for overclocking period. Most fans today are very quite anyway. The place to look out is the video card and after market Heat sink Fan. They are what will tend to make the most noise. If you are playing a game are you really that concerned about the noise of a fan?


Check out some reviews at: http://www.techyv.com/questions/how-setup-good-cooling-system-my-desktop-computer

 

[g8mou]

thanks for all the replies

i have to agree on the fact that who would care about the noise of fan when playing games...u might be having a noise-cancellation headphone on anywayz

but i just want to know if water-cooling (corsair H60 $55) is better than a coolermaster aftermarket cpu fan? some ppl said water cooling system might leak?!

water cooling system has its benefits such as less space needed compared to a aftermarket heatsink fan....

thanks yall!

 

[spentshells]

h50 actually doesn't cool as well as the CM v6GT no kidding look for a few benchmarks

 

[rage33]

I agree with everyone else, I see no reason for liquid cooling based on your needs. There are plenty of very adequate aftermarket air coolers available.

 

[alyoshka]

Well, it depends on the dust levels in the place you are , since both the coolers you have mentioned will work well with standard overclocks, people use the water cooled setups to usually cut on dust inside the case and a lot less noise, irrelevant of what people say that the pump makes a sound, it does not go above the sound or isn't as loud as the standard case fan. I have two liquid cooled setups and none of them can be heard. Ambient temps here are like 27-30C so the liquid cooling loop does help a hell of a lot, dust levels? you'd be shocked to see them after a day of working. So it's best that you decide which one you need and would fancy more.
I never heard of a company closed liquid cooling setup leak and spoil stuff since the liquid used is mostly very low conductive mixtures. But still haven't heard of a closed liquid loop leaking unless messed up by the buyer real bad.
And not to mention it's a lot more easier to clean up.

 

[gazum123]

Hey, if your thinking about overclocking with liquid cooling you might aswell do total submersion. For overclocking your cpu a good air cooler with a couple of fans will be fine.

Regards
Gazum

 

[diellur]

I never heard of a company closed liquid cooling setup leak and spoil stuff since the liquid used is mostly very low conductive mixtures. But still haven't heard of a closed liquid loop leaking unless messed up by the buyer real bad.

Maybe do a quick Google, then. While it's a minority of users that are affected, closed-loop water coolers like those provided by Corsair have leaked. Can you tell me where it says they use low conductive mixtures, too? First I've heard of it myself.

Another reason for choosing a water-cooler is that not all PC users like the idea of hanging a heavy weight off of their motherboard. Some after-market coolers weigh up to (and sometimes in excess of) 1kg.

 

[alyoshka]

Corsair had the leaking problems way back.... not in recent history and that too in certain batches only, like they have the bad Pump in the h100 recently. And that minority is also full of people who'd twisted and bent the pipes way beyond the usual.

 

[hellfire24]

hyper 212+ EVO

 

[gnomio]

A air cooler can't drop your temps below ambient.
The hyper 212 is also a bang for buck cooler going for 25usd.

 

[Homeboy2]

Either will work fine up to a point but air-cooled HSFs can't leak and damage your expensive PC hardware.

Beenthere is obsessed with leaks

 

[g8mou]

Best answer selected by g8mou.