Always torn on whether to go water or stick with air.

Monkeyboysteve

Monkeyboysteve

Monkeyboysteve

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I have a noctua d15 and i love the performance, but it looks so damned uglya and takes up such a huge chunk of my case. (and my case it big) Always tempted to go with an AIO but then my brain panics and tells me water and electronics and water shouldnt mix.

Would love to go custom loop, but that costs so damned much. been having this dilemma ffor years now and it never changes lol. Anyone else still rocking air?
 
Monkeyboysteve said:
I have a noctua d15 and i love the performance, but it looks so damned uglya and takes up such a huge chunk of my case. (and my case it big) Always tempted to go with an AIO but then my brain panics and tells me water and electronics and water shouldnt mix.

Would love to go custom loop, but that costs so damned much. been having this dilemma ffor years now and it never changes lol. Anyone else still rocking air?
Click to expand...
The Noctua NH-D15 is great cooler, no point swapping that out. If you don't like the look, swap the original fans to Noctua NF-A15 PWM Chromax Premium Grade Fan - 140mm.

There are even these totally superfluous covers that can be purchased to change the look further:
Noctua NA-HC4 Chromax Cooler Cover - Black
Noctua NA-HC4 Chromax Cooler Cover - White
Just a couple of examples.
 
an0nym0us said:
The Noctua NH-D15 is great cooler, no point swapping that out. If you don't like the look, swap the original fans to Noctua NF-A15 PWM Chromax Premium Grade Fan - 140mm.

There are even these totally superfluous covers that can be purchased to change the look further:
Noctua NA-HC4 Chromax Cooler Cover - Black
Noctua NA-HC4 Chromax Cooler Cover - White
Just a couple of examples.
Click to expand...

It's more just the size, the clips for the fans actually rest on the backplate of my gpu. If I need to remove anything i'm a bit stuffed lol, can;t reach the PCIE retention clip, and cant remove the fans as the clips are so tight against the backplate.

I love the performance and the silence, it's literally just the size of it.
 
For air, at similar performance, can't see any alternative being noticeably smaller.
As AIO, my only experience was at the release of the 4770, so quite some time, and despite being a decent Corsair unit, I didn't liked the performance or the noise levels. Nowadays they seem more robust, but still, after going back to air, then custom water, then air and now custom water.
About prices, yes, unless willing to try your luck at the second hand market, a good CPU + GPU blocks and a decent pump, plus a good radiator or even a pair of decent ones will cost few hundred pounds.
Performance, amazing, but I'm aware not many people are willing to invest that much on cooling alone.
On top of the custom water, as I have more fans, but at a much lower speed, the airflow is good, but not as much I would like to cool the other bits of the system. An upgrade I recommend, hands down, upgrade the thermal pads to some decent ones. I'm using Gelid GP Extreme. Both M.2s don't go past 40C-42C. The VRM area, runs very cool. That's one mistake I did on my first custom water: ignore the lack of air blowing direct to main parts of the motherboard.
 
Monkeyboysteve said:
It's more just the size, the clips for the fans actually rest on the backplate of my gpu. If I need to remove anything i'm a bit stuffed lol, can;t reach the PCIE retention clip, and cant remove the fans as the clips are so tight against the backplate.

I love the performance and the silence, it's literally just the size of it.
Click to expand...
Using the Dark Rock Pro 4, my solution to remove the GPU was to use a pencil, the classic yellow with the rubber at the end. Spot on. Some coolers, not sure about yours, allows to be installed on different orientation, not just left to right airflow, but actually horizontal to vertical change, That would allow some room. But even if you can, I guess that you'll end up with even less space.
 
Michael Marini said:
Using the Dark Rock Pro 4, my solution to remove the GPU was to use a pencil, the classic yellow with the rubber at the end. Spot on. Some coolers, not sure about yours, allows to be installed on different orientation, not just left to right airflow, but actually horizontal to vertical change, That would allow some room. But even if you can, I guess that you'll end up with even less space.
Click to expand...
It wont work on mine I dont think, even if it did, it would literally just suck all the air from my hot backplate as the fan would be touching it and have no room for air.
I dont even think I can fit a pencil down there because the middle fan is in the way. I really wish they would change the way these clips work, with modern GPUS its impossile to reach them without a tool if using air.
 
My basic opinion is that a machine used for work should be reliable and safe. But custom water is interesting, fun to work on and satisfying technically.

So I see custom water as part of the fun of building PCs - let's face it, it's an expensive hobby either way. So I may as well go for more expense and enjoy it more. But I wouldn't put water in a computer at work, or something I needed to be available 24/7 without downtime. Hence I don't see the point of AIOs when air coolers are so good now and more reliable. Water = hobby, air = functional, I guess.
 
LuckyBenski said:
My basic opinion is that a machine used for work should be reliable and safe. But custom water is interesting, fun to work on and satisfying technically.

So I see custom water as part of the fun of building PCs - let's face it, it's an expensive hobby either way. So I may as well go for more expense and enjoy it more. But I wouldn't put water in a computer at work, or something I needed to be available 24/7 without downtime. Hence I don't see the point of AIOs when air coolers are so good now and more reliable. Water = hobby, air = functional, I guess.
Click to expand...
If I could afford it I would love to go for it, but if I was going to do it i would want to get decent stuff (obviously) and it justy takes me way over any budget I have. Also I Have no idea what im doing which doesnt help lol.
My goal is to have a full loop one day that I build myself, just so i can say I have done it.
 
Don't go into water-cooling with cost being a negative factor. I'm not showing off here but it can add up to several hundred for good quality parts when establishing a loop.

You also need to view it as a side quest hobby within a hobby. The loop itself is its own entity.
If you make that state of mind change its really worth it.
Temps are amazing, rig is so quiet, more overclocking headroom on GPUs (in particular), looks amazeballs/fries people's minds when they see it:p
 
I'd stick to the d15 unless you decide to jump into watercooling.

My loop was around £300 for dual rads cooling CPU + GPU. Bought a cheap CPU block, 2nd hand GPU block, cheap/2nd hand rads, fans I got on sale, fittings I got on clearance. Only thing I splurged on was £100 for pump res.

It's actually probably saved me money as I used to buy a new GPU every year, but with the cost of waterblocks I skipped Maxwell and will probably skip Turing.
 
If NH-15 is too close to GPU you could change to NH-D15S which has offset base so doesn't reach as far toward PCIe sockets.

While PCIe sockets placement is standardized, their size is not .. and CPU socket placement is also not standardized. In your new build the CPU to x16 PCIe may be closer or farther from CPU socket placement. What will new motherboard be? Post what it is and I can figure out how clost D15 will be.
 
Monkeyboysteve said:
It's more the size. It actually rests on my gpu backplate which really doesn't help with sag. Also not sure if that affects thermals ( for either) also makes removing components a massive pain in the ass when needed.
Click to expand...
I would be surprised if it effected thermals. Back of GPU is acting as one side of air duct to / from D15. Is it actually pushing GPU at an angle?
 
Watercooling can last a very long time.

Until recently I was still using my old Lianli tower with a early EK block. I've had most of the components for 10+ years and it still works fine.
Soft tubing helps a lot when changing components, as does a core only GPU block.

The current trend for hard tubing and full cover blocks makes for a better looking build, but more expensive and less practical.

Air cooling is far more sensible these days unless you want a quieter system and have the £££.
 
doyll said:
I would be surprised if it effected thermals. Back of GPU is acting as one side of air duct to / from D15. Is it actually pushing GPU at an angle?
Click to expand...
It must be pushing it down slightly as it's actually resting on it. It has epic sag and I had to buy an anti sag kit to push it back up.
I was worried it would Rip the damn socket off. didn't know if heat would would transfer from backplate to the cooling fins in d15 or vice versa.
 
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