Water v.s air cooling!

badogblue · 31 Jul 2009 at 15:04

Hey everybody, im thinking of water cooling my new i7 920 rig.
I want to get 4ghz with low temps, planning on keeping it awhile.
Would prefer air cooling (cheap), eg: Thermalright ultra 120 extreme or the coolermaster v8, or would i be better going water! (budget max £150).
Will there be a significant drop in temp with a £150 water cooler compared to the above air coolers. I would like to keep the cpu for at least 2-3 years.

Any advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

'Wes · 31 Jul 2009 at 15:12

I prefer air cooling, so i'm going to say go with the Noctua cooler.

oggiet · 31 Jul 2009 at 15:13

Have you got D0 ? If yes it would be better to go for air cooling if you only want 4gHz

badogblue · 31 Jul 2009 at 15:19

Yes i got D0, would air cooling keep it cool enough to last for 3 years! Will be used daily for like 4-8 hrs.

CK61938 · 31 Jul 2009 at 15:24

I used two CPU coolers (TRUE and Noctua) and wasnt getting the temps I was looking for...it was at 4GHz as well...but idle temps were mid 40s and going over 90C when running Prime. But since going water I have noticed idle temps are at mid 30s and not going past 75C when running Prime. So much better results for me and loads quieter too

oggiet · 31 Jul 2009 at 15:33

badogblue said:
Yes i got D0, would air cooling keep it cool enough to last for 3 years! Will be used daily for like 4-8 hrs.

Well idealy water would be better but IMO air will be ok if your cpu is a decent batch.
I have water in my pc as i see it as investment, i like to oc for fun so temps are not gonna be much of a problem.
Meaby look around and see if you can get second hand water bits, will be worth it in the long run

JonJ678 · 31 Jul 2009 at 16:23

You'll have to absolutely thrash it to kill it within four years. Air is capable of 4ghz at around the 85 degrees load mark.

£150 water will do better if you buy second hand, or about the same if you buy new. Depends on a few factors though, I think my watercooling has cost significantly over 150 but I'm expecting good temperatures from my i7. It's idling at about 28 for what little that's worth

uv · 31 Jul 2009 at 16:38

badogblue said:
Will there be a significant drop in temp with a £150 water cooler compared to the above air coolers

Barely. £150 will get you a Thermaltake kit, which would perform worse than air. Second hand, you'd be able to get water that performs similarly to air.

If you want higher clocks, lower temps and volume than air, you have to spend quite a significant amount - which, imo, would be better spent on just buying a faster CPU to begin with.

JonJ678 · 31 Jul 2009 at 16:40

oggiet said:
I have water in my pc as i see it as investment

uv said:
spend quite a significant amount - which, imo, would be better spent on just buying a faster CPU to begin with.

Amused.

I vote that the price difference between the 920 and 950 is enough to justify getting the 920 and £250 of water cooling, at which point it's likely to run faster than the 950 anyway.

oggiet · 31 Jul 2009 at 16:45

JonJ678 said:
Amused.

I vote that the price difference between the 920 and 950 is enough to justify getting the 920 and £250 of water cooling, at which point it's likely to run faster than the 950 anyway.

His max budget is £150 .

MikeTimbers · 1 Aug 2009 at 11:23

oggiet said:
His max budget is £150 .

So as long s he goes second-hand he can still do it.

1kiwi · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:37

MikeTimbers said:
So as long s he goes second-hand he can still do it.

This - other as above just get a high end CPU cooler & fans

bulldog147 · 1 Aug 2009 at 16:33

badogblue said:
Hey everybody, im thinking of water cooling my new i7 920 rig.
I want to get 4ghz with low temps, planning on keeping it awhile.
Would prefer air cooling (cheap), eg: Thermalright ultra 120 extreme or the coolermaster v8, or would i be better going water! (budget max £150).
Will there be a significant drop in temp with a £150 water cooler compared to the above air coolers. I would like to keep the cpu for at least 2-3 years.

Any advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Have you forgotten about excellent H50 water kit that kept my 4.2Ghz at under 78C full load for 15 hours prime95 blend without any freeze or crash. I use i7 920 D0 at 4.2Ghz at vcore 1.31v at the bios with 200x21.