Moving away from watercooling!

[Mr Mcgoo]

So I have decided to move away from water cooling and go back to air after 10 years of custom loops. It was a hard decision to make but the maintenance can take a large chunk of your day away which as it currently stands, I don't have. With me planning to upgrade to 15th gen intel shortly after release, I no longer look forward to the maintenance and part change/upgrades like I used to. Guess water cooling had it's peak in my life but now more simple routes are the way forward and with very little maintenance going air cooling you can't really lose. maybe i will return one day once my kids get older and but as it stands, I have a while to wait for that.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

Guess you could run with an AIO instead, they're really popular these days and the market is saturated with them.

that's true but i think air is better. The only thing to fail on air cooler is the fan so less issues in regards to failing parts. i have used aio in the psat and not had much luck which is the reason i went custom cooling loop as i felt it would be more reliable. It was but also very expensive and very time consuming. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

I never understood people complaining about maintenance. The bulk of my water-cooling setup hasn't changed for 15 years at least. I did 3d print an ABS mounting plate to allow me to use an old waterblock when moving to AM4 platform.

I guess the problem is people using colorants and dyes that then separate out and clog stuff up. I just run boiled water with Zerex purchased from 'TheOverclockingStore' many moons ago....I replace the water so infrequently I still have plenty left. I've probably flushed the rads 2 or 3 times at most and never had anything come out of them. CPU fins always been good. I'm more amazed the Laing D5 has been running all this time...easily 50K hours of service.

Other than that a dust blow out every few months which you would do with air cooling anyway.


The biggest nuisance would be buying GPU blocks just due to added costs, but my latest card isn't water-cooled at the moment as I just don't need to do it.

Don't get me wrong, a well maintained loop can last a long time. i started at a gtx 980>gtx 1070>rtx 2070>rtx 2080 super>rtx 4080 super and loved getting new blocks and better pumps and reservoir fans and all that. But as time got on i spent more time with friends and family. Then cost of living slapped us in the face and now cost is a major issue.

thankfully i already had money saved for an upgrade but i could only get a gpu at the time and slowly saved enough for a 14700k and the intel 15th gen got announced and now waiting for that. That requires a new cpu block and a maintenance strip and clean and i don't have a day to do that. Going air cooled, while it can be louder and not as good at cooling, there is next to no maintenance. Besides i just got myself a gamemax twin600 that i will be putting 2 ml120 elite fans on and treated myself to a slighter smaller case, the montech king 95. I might go back to a custom loop in the future but who's knows

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

Ive been considering it lately too, Ive not touched my loop for years, but the hassle and additional costs when wanting to upgrade really starts to drag, its not just getting the blocks, its the hours of research finding the right card, and making sure someone does a block for it. You cant just grab a gfx card then pop a block on later its all got to be planned.

Will see though, ive had the all clear to build a new rig after too many years so if im doing a whole build it may still have water

Agree on the time spent researching for the right gpu and compatible block being a drag. Watercooling was more than just a hobby for me. Tinkering with settings for that perfect balance of dba to performance and sometimes seeing what OC you can get now that your system is much cooler. After a while it just lost it's touch felt i was spending more time tinkering than playing games. Either way build log when you get the parts

Depending on the CPU to be used, an AIO would be more advised. More failing parts but would keep high end CPUs at reasonable temperatures.
For a 7800x3D, any Thermalright at £30+ is plenty.

For now a 10700kf at 5ghz 1.25v and soon to be a mid range 15th gen intel. the cpu cooler i will be getting, today now looking at the time, is the gamemax twin 600 that matches thermalright peerless assassin se in performance. as long as i can stay below 80c on the cpu and 75c on the gpu then i'm happy. Before i would look at 50c gpu and 60c cpu. with a custom loop no problem. on air good luck without underclocking and undervolting. i already know i will get around 70c max of my gpu and about the same on the cpu when going back to air and i'm happy for that

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

So here is the before and after on my transfer from water to air.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

After testing my cpu and gpu for temps, i was surprised. My cpu temps under max load 170watts hit 72c after 30 mins of load. As for my gpu it's better than i thought at 60c and 70c hotspot 230watt 30 mins. Memory temps are good at under 58c max recorded. At 3000mhz 1.050v i got 75c and 86c hotspot with 67c memory which again is not bad at 320watts.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

So my gpu block was another reason i gave up watercooling. After draining my loop and taking it apart for alphacool's photo inspection 5 times and them refusing to see an issue with my temps, 70c/80c hotspot, or vram thermal pad thickness issue. 2 of the vram thermal pads where almost twice as thick as the other one but that was not an issue so they refused replacement or refund. Thanks to the e-tailer i used contacting alphacool on my behalf they still refused my refund and instead agreed to send out the correct pads for the vram. I will wait for the replacement pads hoping they are the correct ones and i might go back to my custom loop again but it wouldn't be for a while.

I do fear alphacool is likely to send out the same pads as before and them being too thick at which point i can request a refund. However, credit to the other e-tailer for doing there part.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

That's an awesome build pastymuncher. Great use of modular design

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

This happened sooner than expected. Sold my factory block GPU and bought an air cooled 3080 from a mate for a very good price. Decided to drain the loop and remove it all.

I had 3x intake fans + 360 rad at the bottom, and 3x exhaust fans + rad at the top in an OM11D-XL. I did get occasional lock ups, not entirely sure what caused it but I am suspecting ambient air in the case being too hot.

I've now got 3x intake fans at the bottom, 3x intake fans at the side, and a 240 Corsair AIO at the top (which I'm borrowing until my AMD kit turns up). I'll be moving to a 360 AIO on the new setup.

So far I'm very pleased. CPU & GPU temps around 60-65 in games, no lock ups so far, and no change in noise levels. No regrets, the case looks cleaner in terms of aesthetics. And swapping out components is going to be considerably easier.

Edited to add that I did consider an air cooler for the GPU, but I think I'm restricted in my case with height, and it would have meant buying 3x more fans and another Corsair Commander.

You did exactly what i did. no more noise than my custom loop and much easier to change parts and clean the system as and when needed.