Fan or Water cooling?

[markyzola]

Ive read a posts about water and fan cooling but what is better and why?

Reason I ask is new system on the way, I7 950 over clocked to 4.00ghz.. 5970/ or 580 graphic card. what would be the most efficient and do the job?

Can you run both? (yes im a tad naive lol)

 

[JonJ678]

Water cooling usually involves fans. In brief, it lets you use more fans and/or place them more effectively.

If air cooling will suffice, and you don't like the technical challenge water cooling implies, go for air every time. Water is an expensive upgrade, if you don't feel strongly that you want it, don't buy it.

Water cooling is better though, in that it (generally) cools the computer more for less noise. It costs more and takes a lot more time, and it can destroy components if you're lazy/unlucky, so you have to be reasonably hard core (or mad) to think it's a good idea.

 

[3t3P]

As I have just found out, watercooling is:

Cool looking
cool performing, especially on graphics cards that run hot
quieter than air if done right

Cons:
costs loooaaadds, this money could easily get you another high end GPU for SLI/Xfire or in some cases an entire system overhaul!
as jonj said, it can destroy your PC in theory!

it's not outright 'better' than air cooling, it's so DIFFERENT and a hobby in itself. it is not fit and forget either like air can be for most people and it makes changing things around a pain in the a$$.

 

[Greboth]

Water cooling itself is really a mix of water and air as it simply moves the heat to radiator which is air cooled. Which is more efficient between air and water, in terms of performance water definately as load temps are so much cooler in terms of time air as it is plug and play.

There is extra hassle with watercooling, no argument there. 3t3p has pretty much got the pro's and cons in post above, only you can decide whether it is worth it though.

Being a first time water cooler myself (built loop about a month ago) I would say that if you go into watercooling - take your time with everything! If its your working PC then depending on how busy you are be prepared to have no pc for a minimum of a few days. I set aside a whole weekend to do mine and it took putting the block on the gpu in the week, with the loop being built and leak tested over friday night and weekend. First power on under water was about midnight Sunday. You can do everything you can to do it right but be aware that you could break something/everything if something goes wrong.

Personally its more of a hassle to build it and will be hassle if/when i start changing parts but I don't know if I could go back to air now for both temps and noise. During gaming I have noticed a drop of about 40C on my graphics card. Also overnight I can turn all my fans down to ~700rpm which at that speed my hdd makes more noise.

I see it as it comes down to two quesitons
1. Can you afford it? By this I mean, can you build the pc you really want then afford the £XXX on top?
2. Is the reward of lower temps/less noise worth the risk of destroying a part/whole pc if something goes wrong?

If yes to both I say go for it.

 

[Essexraptor]

A good air cooler will be more than capable of keeping that i7 cool. Only if you plan going beyond 4.2Ghz would I really bother with water cooled frankly.

If it's your first real foray into high performance computers stick with air for now until you build up the knowledge and confidence to change to water cooled systems

Lastly enjoy your new rig

 

[markyzola]

Ill overclock to 4.00 but no further.

Thanks for the help guys.