Watercooling or SLI?

Miidget · 2 Nov 2011 at 15:54

Im not sure how to spend my cash

If im running a 570GTX SOC would it be more well spent if i went the route of a custom watercooled case or adding another for SLI?

I have a Corsair 600t SE white and if i do not custom loop, an antec cpu water cooler but the rest of the case would be on air cooling.

Whats the thoughts?

Bluntwrapped · 2 Nov 2011 at 16:22

If you are getting decent temps already I would go for another 570GTX SOC. Have you already overclocked the cpu?

Miidget · 2 Nov 2011 at 16:24

Its more hypothetical really as im half way through building this rig, i have the i5-2500k so yes i will be overclocking to around 4.5Ghz hopefully

Bluntwrapped · 2 Nov 2011 at 16:33

Go for another card and buy a better air cooler further down the line if needed. You might be able to reach that overclock with stock cooling.

Miidget · 2 Nov 2011 at 16:42

im getting an antec 620 or 920 to cool my gpu so what sort of overclock do you think would be viable?

Bluntwrapped · 2 Nov 2011 at 16:48

It all depends on your cards/cpu/mobo/psu. That Antec cooler is a CPU cooler & not for GPU. The only way to find out is to build it and test

Miidget · 2 Nov 2011 at 17:00

Yeh i know but unless i start going mad ill stick with the gpu stock coolers

beasty6 · 3 Nov 2011 at 23:45

dont get the antec water coolers! i had the 620 and have a i5 760 and had it overclocked to 3.6 and the seals split on the waterblock!

it leaked onto my gtx480 but luckly it only went onto the plastic on the side and not the card itself!

just a headds up here thats all, not trolling but maybe look elsewere for those type of coolers, if you have the money why dont you try the new corsair h100 ??

beejjacobs · 4 Nov 2011 at 02:03

Corsair H100 is not worth it. When you can OC an i5 with a basic air cooler thats just overkill, its not even much better than the h80 from what ive heard.

With any water cooling set up there will be times when they go wrong, bound to happen with anything mass produced. I had a Corsair H50 and it was great. I had two infact (different PCs they didn't break

)

Miidget · 4 Nov 2011 at 07:50

Ive relooked at my budget and played around a bit and i think im going for full watercooling, single loop build.

Andy__C · 4 Nov 2011 at 12:51

Whichever one you do first, you'll end up doing the other as well..... guarantee it!

Reckon its better to go SLI first, then you'll know which parts to suit your watercooling to later on.

RollerBall · 4 Nov 2011 at 13:57

What's your res?

Miidget · 4 Nov 2011 at 14:10

1920x1080

idiocious · 5 Nov 2011 at 00:18

I guess it depends on whether or not you're having any problems with FPS and settings on any of the games you play. If not, and you're not going to upgrade resolution any time soon, then watercooling sounds like the line you want to head down.

I'm going to be facing a similar dilemma myself in the near future but I play most games at 5760x1080 which could benefit from a third 6950 but I'd need a new mobo to support that. I also desperately want to watercool my setup but funds won't allow for that! At least I don't have decide for now.

Akagi · 8 Nov 2011 at 14:52

Miidget said:
im getting an antec 620 or 920 to cool my gpu so what sort of overclock do you think would be viable?

i would not recommend these watercoolers.

Mine only gives me load temps of 60*c at 4.2ghz (which is beaten by many air coolers) with one fan pulling cool air in from the rear of the case.

The pump has also developed an extremely annoying sound which i can only compare to an old fridge, buzzing on and off constantly. Very noticeable and VERY annoying.

Looking around the internet, many people have also been having this issue.

Also the stock fan/s are not particularly good, i swapped the antec fan out for a lian-li fan because of the excessive noise.

DELETED_74504 · 10 Nov 2011 at 14:05

In my opinion multi-gpu setups are more trouble than they're worth. I've had crossfire and sli setups and the only thing that was consitent was the fact that there was always some sort of issue. Some games run slower, multi-monitor support was buggy, microstutter etc...
SLI and Crossfire is fantastic when it does work but personally I like things to just work, no questions, every time.
Water cooling is great fun, gives you better temps and if done well gives really beautiful asthetics. So I say go water cooling!