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.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

Just having a nosey on through when I found this thread... Hope this isn;t too much of a necro revise

I went down the watercooling route many years ago and it's been a pleasure as I've gradually upgraded my fixings to quick release bitspower etc. I have found that the cost of the blocks has gone up so much in the past 4 years that upgrading my 2080 ti (I think?) to a more recent gpu is prohibitively expensive, so I've switched to gaming on an Xbox series x instead. I really would love to renew my system, but I just cant afford to, and quite frankly the time I have off from work nowadays it's easier to just power-on the Xbox and give Madden a blast.

My Plex/media storage server is an older PC, and I've got that fully watercooled with a R480 blocked up mining. I know it's costing more than it's generating, but it keeps my office nice and warm

This is a thread for those moving away from water cooling mostly, so it's never a necro thread at that point.

Is your system the same as in your sig?

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

I upgraded the CPU/motherboard to a 590X, but I'm still rocking the 2080ti. it does me for what I need. PC gaming got too expensive to keep up with, and with having a series of SAP projects at work, my time to spend on my PC maintaining it and keeping it up to snuff with the rest of world is very much a premium. It was my 50th last year, so I got an Xbox series X to scratch my gaming itch and now I've basically got a watercooled internet browser.

I will get back into it, but for now I'm playing on the Xbox and not spending >£1000 on new gpus (and waterblocks- I cant believe how much they've gone up in the past 5 years!!!!)

if i had a 2080ti i would likely still be running that now at 1440p 60fps maybe medium/high instead of 1440p 90fps all high/ultra as i do currently. The price of the watercooling parts are so much right now. That's part of the reason i went back to gpu air and cpu aio. my gpu fans get to a max of 1500rpm and aio gets to 1200rpm and is fairly quiet for me. about the same as custom loop

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

This 1000%

With the advent of heatpipes and decent air cooling in combination with limited overlocking potential, water cooling became more about aesthetics and just an enthusiast driven hobby.

It still looks cool but mostly not required these days. You can build a quiet, top tier rig on air these days and not have a heart attack trying to reseat a graphics card or any other maintenance.

I used to love it back in the day - early 00’s - but not really bothered much with it recently.

i agree it's mostly aesthetics and enthusiasts that are running them now. back in 2015 when i went custom loop temps were amazing and prices while still expensive was still some what affordable. Now a setup the same to what i built in 2015 would go from £400 to nearly £600.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

You can refill AIOs as well. It's less messing around than custom loop maintenance!

There are quite a few refillable aio's on the market now. Gives custom loop vibes without that much maintenance.

AIO’s are better than the air coolers and the newest one also look a lot better as you cam get ones with LCD screens.

Not to mention they can be attached to the vents of the case so the heat leaves the case and doesn’t circulate inside!

I do like the aio's with LCD screens. Thermalright have some good ones albeit very basic display info compared to others. The option to exhaust the heat using aios in better than air coolers that push it around the case more so.

I have an AIO and I will go back to air cooling for my next cooler. The Noctua is a good shout.

While air coolers are almost zero maintenance, aio's are best for heat dissipation and air flow control. However air coolers can help aid airflow over the vrms a little, so are good if you plan on using a motherboard with small and to a point inadequate vrm coolers.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

If I can get my hands on a 5090Fe my current loop will have to be drained to remove the 3090. At that stage, I’m thinking of stripping the whole loop out and going to air.

As I’ve got older, the thought of loop maintenance isn’t as appealing as it once was.

A 5090. Jealous Part of the same reason i went back to air/aio setup. I loved taken apart my system and rebuilding it from time to time. However, the effort and time needed with 2 kids made it a little hard. The simplicity of air/aio makes it so easy to upgrade and replace parts as and when needed. Taking a custom loop apart can take up to an entire day.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

I had a full custom loop on my AMD 3700x and Radeon VII setup. Then upgraded to a 5950x and was far more work to change than if I was just on air cooling. Then I bought a 7900XTX with a massive air cooler already on it and redid the loop for the cpu only and 1 dual rad. The pump and res now seem a bit overkill though. So tempted to go back to air cooling or a good AIO to remove the pump and res from my case and get some space back.

You can get a fair bit of space back switching from a custom loop to an aio. My Montech King 95 looks a little empty compared to the custom loop but also weighs a lot less. 17kg instead of 21kg with custom loop. You don't realise just how much the rads, fittings, blocks, pump/res and fluid will add to weight

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

My reservoir/pump was leaking and it was £150 to replace it. Got an AIO for £70.

GPU blocks are a pain too as the number of blocks available isn't great and only an option if you have a specific card too.

When I put the 9070xt in, it was time to call it a day.

Had an issue with my alphacool gpu block thermal pads being the incorrect size and alphacool didn't fix the issue that they were aware of so i ditched it to go back to air. Went for an AIO in my sig and original air cooler on my 4080 super. cpu is only 5c warmer at the same clock (75c max core) and gpu is the same temp (65c max) due to bad thermal paste size giving high temps for a custom loop.

I do think my current build will be last custom loop, too much time investment and money in it.

My entire loop cost me £550 and replaced it all for a £70 aio on the cpu and stock air cooler on gpu. Would have saved in total £480 and temps only a few degrees higher. That money could have been used on a better cpu and motherboard

Went with AIO for latest build LCD screen etc, would rather game than faffing about taking longer to build.

Got the thermalright frozen warframe and love it. Great price to performance coming from at custom loop.

 

[Mr Mcgoo]

For high spec setups, after the initial cost its not so expensive. I've had my setup for over 10yrs and feel like ive had my moneys worth. Changed complete cpu block twice, other cpu upgrades i could buy a new bracket to reuse the block. Gpu wise, ive been able to buy one of the cheaper sku's each gen eg palit 5090 and for the price of a new block i get better temp and noise levels than the more expensive models. I've been so happy with wc that im doing a full refresh and starting again with a mo-ra iv build. End game and hope to still have it cooling my blocks for the next 10-20 yrs.

i nearly went for the mo-ra iv but after my issues with the alphacool block i gave up on WC entirely and don't miss it anywhere near as much as i thought. at this point if i was to go back to WC, it would be for the aesthetics. the only additional cost would be a new gpu block due to the issues mentioned with current block as i still have all my WC setup in a box on the shelf next to me