is it worth going water cooling?

joewizard100

joewizard100

joewizard100

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I just use an AMD 3.4GHz phenom II BE. But I want to overclock it to like 4.0GHz, should I stay on my air cooler (hyper 212) or go water cooling? And whats the best water cooler kit for the price.
 
By watercooling were you thinking real watercooling or fake watercooling (allinones?).

If fake watercooling, a big air heatsink is better option.
 
I just switched from a H100 to XSPC Watercooling with a few extra rads. Most definitely worth it 15c better under load and I can now get the magic 5ghz from my 2600k.
 
worth is entirely subjective

as mentioned above, the all in one coolers are marginally cooler than a decent air heatsink, so probably not worth the extra expense

custom watercooling loops are even more expensive but will give radically better results than either an air cooler or an all in one, but whether £150-200 is "worth" it to you or not is a question only you can answer
 
If you like rolling up your sleeves, messing around with tools, PC hardware, tubes, AND don't mind getting wet, don't mind completely dis-assembling and rebuilding your PC every year of so, maybe even every 6 months. Maybe you even enjoy it, then water cooling is for you.

If you don't, then get an all in "one unit type thingy", or stick with air.
 
the all in ones are on a par with a medium to good air cooler, a top end air cooler will beat most all in ones most things being the same
however they are generally quieter and offer that advantage and are an entry into water cooling
custom water cooling or decent kits are better again and offer that degree of uniqueness and DIYability and a lot more satifaction

then you have highly modified and home made systems which offer that extra mix and fun trial and error factor and ofc sometimes fail factor

worth it depends on what you want out of it

personally im in the last 2 categories above buy custom kit then modify it some more is my thing.

but if you cant get what you want as far as an oc on air is concerned with a good cooler and your goal is a specific (realistic oc) then it will be worth it me thinks if you dont mind messing with stuff.

hope that makes sense.
 
I have to say I was never that bothered by a custom loop at first. But you get the bug for it, and the temp differences and silence especially on gfx cooling is insane. Now I honestly cringe when I hear my brothers 580 fans on the whuuuuuuurrrrrrrrr.

So IMO yes a custom loop is 100% the way to go.
 
Not worth spending that money on watercooling that processor IMO. Even if you get 4.0 GHz, its slower than a stock 2500k. Better off selling mobo and CPU and adding the money to it for a CPU and mobo upgrade.
 
is it worth going water cooling?
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The way i would answer this question is:

If you build computers to use them, going watercooling will just be a hassle

If you build computers because you like building computers, youll love it :)
 
As above I always wanted to try water cooling so I gave it a go and enjoyed the build, as my temps are much lower than on air it was worth while too :)
 
pgi947 said:
This

It can be a monumental effort at times, especially when things don't go your way!

If I'm planning a drain to add a component to the loop I need to give my self a good 4 hour minimum to get it done.
Click to expand...

also, watercooling with dyes isn't for clumsy people with carpeted floors :eek:
 
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