Watercooling vs Fans for price

michaelp · 12 Sep 2012 at 12:16

I have plans to do a build in January and was wondering if i should watercool it or not. It seems to me that its a lot more expensive to do a watercooled rig than a fan cooled one.

I plan on doing a pretty high end build with a budget of about £2000 without keyboard, mouse and OS but i don't want to blow most of my budget on watercooling.

So overall how much more expensive is it to watercool the CPU and GPU than conventionally.

**Edit**
Should probably have put this in Overclocking & Cooling my bad.

robj20 · 12 Sep 2012 at 13:02

I would say a lot, just a block and a pump will cost more than a top air cooler.

Tediore · 12 Sep 2012 at 17:04

Average price for a decent performer in each category based on my own research:

CPU block: £50
GPU block: £70+
Pump: £40+
Radiator: £70 (SR1 360mm)
Reservoir: £20+
Fittings: £3 - 5 each
Tubing: £3 - 4 per metre

And then you need a case to accommodate the radiator(s). It's not cheap. About £300 would be a reasonable budget for full system watercooling if you exclude the cost of the case.

Tea_Bag · 12 Sep 2012 at 17:35

...and you still have to buy fans. looking at £12 each for a good gentle typhoon. 3+ of those. I've bought 6.. it adds up.

Tediore · 12 Sep 2012 at 18:07

How did I forget fans?

They're the unseen killer of watercooling costs

andybird123 · 12 Sep 2012 at 23:06

Tediore said:
Average price for a decent performer in each category based on my own research:

CPU block: £50
GPU block: £70+
Pump: £40+
Radiator: £70 (SR1 360mm)
Reservoir: £20+
Fittings: £3 - 5 each
Tubing: £3 - 4 per metre

And then you need a case to accommodate the radiator(s). It's not cheap. About £300 would be a reasonable budget for full system watercooling if you exclude the cost of the case.

i spent;
25
35 (x2)
17
15 (+10 on adaptors)
9
1.50 - 2 each x7
0.60p per meter, 5 meters
and £4 each on fans x12

Watercooling doesn't have to be expensive if you're prepared to put some work in

michaelp · 13 Sep 2012 at 11:10

If I was to watercool i would want to also watercool the GPU/'s but there pretty expensive to buy with the water block on and im not to sure how much i trust myself not the **** up putting my own on.

andybird123 · 13 Sep 2012 at 22:55

If you can fit a cpu cooler then you can fit a gpu one too

eddyr · 14 Sep 2012 at 00:11

You can always use universal gpu only blocks instead of fullcover ones. Set some heatsinks on the mosfets and ram if you want and you're good to go.

BrianB · 14 Sep 2012 at 06:23

Watercooling is an expensive hobby, you can't really even use the gpu waterblocks on upgrades. If I had the money I would. £300 is another 7970 for me so watercooling isn't appealing.

andybird123 · 14 Sep 2012 at 10:30

BrianB said:
Watercooling is an expensive hobby, you can't really even use the gpu waterblocks on upgrades. If I had the money I would. £300 is another 7970 for me so watercooling isn't appealing.

huh? if you get GPU only blocks you can... the MCW82 fits everything from a GTX 8800 through to 670/680 and they have adaptors for 7970 etc. and they even tend to do matching full cover heatsinks (eventually - still waiting on 670 ones but they are listed as in progress)