How much would a decent system cost?

mart1985

mart1985

mart1985

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My current pc is in my profile. It runs too hot for my liking on an aircool set-up and I was wondering how much it would cost to go water cooled?

I have no idea about water cooling, so would have to get someone to do it for me. I could change case if necessary.

I have seen anything from £400-2000 mentioned, depending on how well spec'd people want them.

I see temps in the mid-80s when gaming for a while and the fan noise is very irritating.
 
I guess it would depend if you want to watercool your CPU, GPU or both. That would dictate how many rads/rad area you might need. Then you would need to think about hard line or soft line. As a rough idea to do both you'd need:
CPU block
GPU Block
2 x 360mm Rads
Reservoir/Pump combi
6 x fans for the rads
Tubing
Fittings
Inline thermometer for the water
A way to get that info into your system - your Mobo doesn't have a thermometer header so you'd need something like an AquaComputer Quadro
Actual fluid
that's assuming you're going to get someone else to do it. If you're going to do it you'll need some tools.

It's not a cheap endeavour!
 
Blimey, that's some list!

Thanks for the reply. If I did it, I guess I would go for both the CPU and GPU, which from that list, looks like we are talking £1k+?

What sort of temps would a system like that run at? I'm guessing it would be far, far less noisy?
 
The only reason to watercool is because it looks cool and because you can.

There are not real benefits when it comes to temps/heat/noise so my advice is to sell 3090 and buy 4080 and you get a performance boost and all your issues with power/heat/noise go away. There is no need to watercool your 5900x so whatever cooler you already have is most likely adequate to the task and not too loud.

Your problem is the 3090 FE being power hungry and noisy. 4080s are relatively frugal with power consumption in comparison and they share the humongous 4090 coolers so they run very quiet. You may need a new case to fit the enourmous cooler but it will work out cheaper than a full custom loop.
 
It's not cheap nowadays definitely
But some of us have been doing it a very long time
So don't have the cash outlay all at once
Since we gradually sort of evolve our loops
So buy a new part and sell the old part
Plus if you have access to members market
You can get second hand parts much cheaper

Yes it's partly aesthetics
If you have a glass/acrylic side panel
If its a solid panel or if you don't care what it looks like
Then you could do it cheaper as stuff doesn't have to
Match visually

Would have to disagree with there's no temp/noise benefits
Gpu especially sees a major temp drop
And with some of the latest multi core cpus at least an AIO is recommended
Yeah they say theyre fine at 90c
But my 5950x barely sees 65c while gaming
And my 2080ti sits at 50c

A lot of us old farts started watercooling because
Back in the day graphics cards sounded like jet engines
And 60/80mm cpu and case fans too
120mm fans
And humongous gpu heatsinks have certainly helped with that
But the amount of cpu cores
And gpu power draw have obviously seriously increased too
Meaning more heat
 
I'm not concerned with the aesthetics of watercooling, my tower now sits on a stand off to the side of my desk and I don't really see it. The noise and temps are definitely something I want to improve on.

I could go down the 4080 route, but I only purchased the 3090 two years ago. I know that's a while in computing terms, but it doesn't struggle performance wise with anything I run, it's 'just' the temps.

An AIO would help the CPU, but wouldn't affect the GPU temps would it? A bigger case would help with more fans, but that just makes more noise?

Someone has mentioned changing the voltage on the 3090, so will have a look into that.
 
Correct an AIO will only do cpu
Likewise with gpu I am still on a 2080ti
As see no point upgrading while it still plays 1440p games fine
You may be able to undervolt it
Think I read somewhere you can lower temperatures a fair bit
But still maintain most of the performance
Though its not something I have tried since mines at 50c gaming no need to

A bigger case with more fans isn't necessarily noisier
Since more fans means can set lower rpm to move as much air
May also be able to use 140mm fans too
Got 13 fans in mine lol
 
As above, I would also disagree with the comment that watercooling doesn't providing any noise or cooling benefits. I all all the fans in my system at 800rpm so its near silent and my GPU doesn't go over 45 degrees and cpu's hovers around 50 in games. I've been watercooling now for 15-20 years and prices of parts have become eyewateringling high in some instances unfortunately. Do your research, price some parts up and then its upto to decide if the outlay is worth the benefits really.
Also I'd stick with soft tubing if I was you and avoid all the gimicky distro plate nonsense. Cheaper and easier to work it :)
 
Would the AIO have some benefit, purely just due to residual heat from the CPU?

I will look at a new case then as a starting point, it seems like a bigger case wouldn't hurt and I have the room.

Then it seems like deciding whether to spend out on a 4080 or water cooling. The issue with water cooling is I don't have any experience with it and wouldn't feel confident trying - did build the pc but felt I couldn't really bodge that up too badly! Would have to find somewhere local that could do it for me as I wouldn't want to ship my pc anywhere to be dealt with.

Those are crazy temps, not far off half what I am seeing on mine.
 
I haven't tried undervolting, will give that a go.

Looked at the video for changing the thermal pads and paste on the card and looks quite fiddly with my lack of experience! Did appear to make ~10 degree difference on the video I saw though.
 
mart1985 said:
Would the AIO have some benefit, purely just due to residual heat from the CPU?

I will look at a new case then as a starting point, it seems like a bigger case wouldn't hurt and I have the room.

Then it seems like deciding whether to spend out on a 4080 or water cooling. The issue with water cooling is I don't have any experience with it and wouldn't feel confident trying - did build the pc but felt I couldn't really bodge that up too badly! Would have to find somewhere local that could do it for me as I wouldn't want to ship my pc anywhere to be dealt with.

Those are crazy temps, not far off half what I am seeing on mine.
Click to expand...

If your looking at spending £500 to a £1000 on watercooling I would probably put that towards a new gpu in all honesty instead. Sell the 3090 and get either 4080, 4090 or 7900xtx. 4080s and 4090s have huge coolers and run very quietly as does the Sapphire 7900XTX Nitro+.
I'm all for watercooling but with how much it costs nowadays if I didn't already have a full setup I don't think I'd be willing to pay the cost of entry.

Also just noticed the part where you said you have no idea about watercooling and would get somebody else to do it for you. This is a bad idea imo as watercooling needs maintenance so unless you have someone who can help you with that its definately best to do your research, learn how everything works and do it yourself. That way when the times comes you'll be able to strip, clean and maintain your loop :)
 
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the thing is once you buy most of your gear that's it well until it breaks .. i'd say my water setup is at least 8 if not 10 ys old .. but the most expensive thing to cool is your gpu .
as it's a full face block .. my cpu block (amd) has been used for 6+ yrs and the one for the vega was second hand ..
 
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mart1985 said:
I haven't tried undervolting, will give that a go.

Looked at the video for changing the thermal pads and paste on the card and looks quite fiddly with my lack of experience! Did appear to make ~10 degree difference on the video I saw though.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it’s a lot easier than doing a full water loop from scratch ;-)
 
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mart1985 said:
Would the AIO have some benefit, purely just due to residual heat from the CPU?

I will look at a new case then as a starting point, it seems like a bigger case wouldn't hurt and I have the room.

Then it seems like deciding whether to spend out on a 4080 or water cooling. The issue with water cooling is I don't have any experience with it and wouldn't feel confident trying - did build the pc but felt I couldn't really bodge that up too badly! Would have to find somewhere local that could do it for me as I wouldn't want to ship my pc anywhere to be dealt with.

Those are crazy temps, not far off half what I am seeing on mine.
Click to expand...
AIO may make a small difference
Due to residual heat
Assuming the AIO is exhausted out the case
Though if your case has reasonable airflow it's probably only going to improve a small amount
Building a loop isn't really that hard
Soft tubing is easier and more forgiving if you don't cut to exactly the correct length
Using a leak tester during Building makes it easier too
Add a component leak test add another component leak test etc
Scariest part is taking apart your expensive gpu to fit the block
But its much easier nowadays
In the old days we had no YouTube or Facebook or forums to get help with it
 
Thanks for all the recommendations.

I followed a video on undervolting the 3090 last night. Temps were definitely lower, and therefore fans were quieter. Performance drop off was a bit more than expected, so probably need to play around with it a bit.

The advice on doing the watercooling myself makes sense, which is likely why I will steer away from it as I don't feel confident playing around with it on a 2k+ rig!

Will look at a bigger case and more fans, then likely a change to a 4080 at some point as advised.
 
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