Anyone else regret going full water ?
- Thread starter Bolton7935
- Start date
Not so much regret, I remember doing all the research and buying all the bits with a lot of enthusiasm. Ran WC'ed for a 2 years but when it came to maintenance or upgrading I found it a major PITA.
Although that was probably because how I had laid the tubing out. It was almost like the tubes were pinning the motherboard onto the case. The nice colours and shiny things dull after a while with dust.
So after just wanting a PC that works without the major hassle of taking it apart if I want to upgrade it, I moved to air cooling with quiet fans.
With all the motherboard fan control options nowadays built in, you can get a pretty silent air system for general use. The only time it starts making noise is if gaming or doing something intensive like video rendering.
Wouldn't go back to it as I'd rather save the money for a better system a year or two down the line. Great to look at others building them though, but not for me anymore.
Although that was probably because how I had laid the tubing out. It was almost like the tubes were pinning the motherboard onto the case. The nice colours and shiny things dull after a while with dust.
So after just wanting a PC that works without the major hassle of taking it apart if I want to upgrade it, I moved to air cooling with quiet fans.
With all the motherboard fan control options nowadays built in, you can get a pretty silent air system for general use. The only time it starts making noise is if gaming or doing something intensive like video rendering.
Wouldn't go back to it as I'd rather save the money for a better system a year or two down the line. Great to look at others building them though, but not for me anymore.
For me the fact that my system always makes as little noise while gaming as it does when idle is enough justification for the extra few hours it takes at upgrade time.
I suppose some of us are more bothered by noise than others.
Can't you get the fans to shut off? I suppose my setup helps (FT02 case with the 3 x 180mm fans in the bottom) as I have the fans on a super low speed that I can't tell if they're on but they still push some air, and the heat naturally exhausts upwards.
TBH I can't hear anything unless I really try (desk is on the floor) and replacing the HDD with an SSD has made it even quieter.
As for the noise whilst gaming, most of the time (although it depends on the game) the game sound drowns out any higher fan speed, so it's not a huge issue again.
I had a FT02, in fact it was the case I bought when I tried to give up watercooling for much the same reasons as you have and while I agree the 180mm fans are very quiet unfortunately at the time at least there wasn't a GPU available with anywhere near silent fans when gaming.
My PC sits on the desk about 60cm away so I find any case noise to be annoying even with game audio, maybe I should just turn it up but then it would still annoy me when there is quiet moments in the game.
It may take longer to upgrade my PC but once it's done I know I can game in silence for months and months ahead.
Also I actually enjoy the process of putting a loop in a new case, it's fun figuring out the best place to put things and make the cleanest loop.
I hear this all the time "I can't hear mine you must have cat ears"
Well I can, to top it off due to the placement of my room there is nowhere the massive pc can go but on the desk next to me, not buried under the desk (Sucking up dust) or behind something else so sound travel is direct thus not absorbed.
Very very happy with mine at the moment, water temp never goes over 24 c and that's pretty much passive fanned expect a few inside the case purely to prevent heat pockets.
The External Rads were a pain to set up but I absolutely love it now.
Well I can, to top it off due to the placement of my room there is nowhere the massive pc can go but on the desk next to me, not buried under the desk (Sucking up dust) or behind something else so sound travel is direct thus not absorbed.
Very very happy with mine at the moment, water temp never goes over 24 c and that's pretty much passive fanned expect a few inside the case purely to prevent heat pockets.
The External Rads were a pain to set up but I absolutely love it now.
Do near silent GPU's exist now? I mean I have an EVGA ACX one which doens't spin the fans until it gets warm which adds to the silence, but I do notice the difference in noise when a game's loaded.
I did enjoy the planning process when I did my first loop, but lost it somewhere along the way (probably during the maintenance parts and upgrading). I also hated having my PC offline for long periods and never had a backup one to use.
Soldato
There were a few points where I regretted it, like when I had to wait on some new tubing to be delivered, when gunk got all up in my GPU and the extra few days downtime I had. It also made upgrading more expensive and more of a chore...
But through all of that the excellent cooling and awesome silence of the system really made it worthwhile. Though I planned to not go for a full loop on my new rig I'm having second thoughts, but this time I would be a bit more adventurous and go with hard tubing as it looks even better. I really did enjoy the experience of building it.
Probably the most awesome part for me was hitting really good overclocks on the GPU, CPU not so much but the GPU was blazing.
But through all of that the excellent cooling and awesome silence of the system really made it worthwhile. Though I planned to not go for a full loop on my new rig I'm having second thoughts, but this time I would be a bit more adventurous and go with hard tubing as it looks even better. I really did enjoy the experience of building it.
Probably the most awesome part for me was hitting really good overclocks on the GPU, CPU not so much but the GPU was blazing.
Associate
"
Mucky boy"
never regret tho, must just keep an eye on it a bit more, silver coils help
never regret tho, must just keep an eye on it a bit more, silver coils help
Soldato
AIO's, no, no regrets.
Custom, yep massive regrets. I'll also give EK a bit of a wide birth in the future too.
Custom, yep massive regrets. I'll also give EK a bit of a wide birth in the future too.
Associate
No regrets
Associate
Don't know about AMD but for nvidia cards palit/gainward are reputed to be the quietest generally, along with zotac amp extreme, anything with a triple slot cooler layout really.
Soldato
Having recently moved back to air I would say I do regret it. Although it was another fun hobby and experience and I don't regret the stuff I've learned from it.
Same speed and temps under AIO with CPU and gpu around 65c at 25mhz slower. Surprisingly quieter than my custom loop and no other complications. Far easier to strip and swap bits. No cost/time for blocks or other extras.
Had a leak from a failed fitting the other week and that's what put the nail in for me. Nearly wiped out both GPU's.
Same speed and temps under AIO with CPU and gpu around 65c at 25mhz slower. Surprisingly quieter than my custom loop and no other complications. Far easier to strip and swap bits. No cost/time for blocks or other extras.
Had a leak from a failed fitting the other week and that's what put the nail in for me. Nearly wiped out both GPU's.
Soldato
Yeah exactly, I had an EK fitting (That I got new) almost take out my TXP, and has stained the cream carpet in the office (Red coolant)
Soldato
A lot of these issues are put forward as anecdotal evidence, but how many of these issues are created by installation errors? We're relying on the person who is potentially at fault to own up to that, and let's be honest...
Man of Honour
Both my EK blocks (EVO cpu/Thermosphere gpu) had the O rings fail, although I was lucky and it was just a drip a day. I guess I caught it in time. This was around the same time that the original Predator had similar issues. Both where still in warranty and the cpu block was less than a year old. EK support was bloody terrible and even implied that I had fitted it them incorrectly even though I followed the manual to the letter. How that would effect the O rings is beyond me anyway. In the end I got the sizes of the O rings from EK-Luc on here and replaced them all myself. I will never touch a EK product ever again based on the useless customer service I recieved. I have already replaced the gpu block with a Aquacomputer one and have a Alphacool XTX sitting here waiting for me to rebuild the pc into my desk and that will be me EK free.
I'll quite happily admit when I make mistakes and I've made quite a few over the 9 years I've been watercooling but as someone who as bought a lot of EK kit over the years from my experience the design of the kit itself is fine, it's just their QC was/is dreadful.
I've had only 3 problems with EK kit which I don't consider an extreme amount.
1. A GPU block that leaked because they didn't fit the O ring correctly, once I'd opened the block up and refit it I never had another problem with that block. This problem I blame 100% on EK QC.
2. I had a few leaky 45 and 90 degree fittings, I think this was because of poor/faulty o-rings. Due to this I won't use angled fittings anymore. This problem I blame 100% on EK QC.
3. I had a rad that started to leak although this was after over 5 years of use and after being moved between a good few cases. This problem I consider normal wear and tear so don't blame anyone.
I still buy EK after the problems, I just make sure to check their parts more closely before fitting.
Saying that though I certainly don't consider myself particularly loyal to EK and would happily buy parts from other manufacturers.
Soldato
I hear you. the failed fitting went back to EK who confirmed it was knackered and replaced it.
The seal on the threaded rotating bit (which you cannot handle/see) on the right.