Watercooling - Is it worth it?

Monstermunch

Monstermunch

Monstermunch

Associate
Joined
7 Mar 2005
Posts
1,597
Location
Eating PI
I'm not far off my new build and thought I had it all sussed, but read a few threads recently about how far some people have managed to clock gfx & CPU's on water.

I really know nothing when it comes to water cooling and just want to know whether the extra is worth it and also whats available that'll do the job I want.

If I do it i'll want the whole lot, CPU, VGA & Chipset.

I suppose the main reason i'm now considering is that adding the seperate air coolers I want together comes to around £75, which nowadays doesn't seem that far removed from the water kits.
 
Thanks for the reply's, I do like the sound of it and I don't really tend to tinker with my setup once installed (except new gfx card every 12-18months) and a good clean with an air duster every now and again.

What's the swiftech H20 like then.....Any good?

If I do go down the water route I would like to try and keep budget to around £150ish - can I get a good system for that?
 
Rob43 said:
Get the Swiftech Apex kit,great kit for the money ;) You would have to buy a vga block seperate though.

The swiftech MCW55 vga block is doing a fine job on my X1900XT ;)

Rob
Click to expand...

What kind of increases are you getting, eg from xx to xxx!

Cos the aircooled Ati's i've had experiences with don't tend to clock that well. My 9800pro HIS excalibur Ice-Q thingy only manages 410core, 375mem (Stk=378core, 337.5mem) and it's supposed to be great for clocking. I remember getting much better clocks from my previous 4200ti
 
Okay well here's my next question then, if i'm going water cooled will I be better of with a 7900gt or an x1900xt.

TBH i'm still torn between the two, my main conclusion over time regarding ATI vs GeForce is that ATI seem to be much closer to their limit at stock than the GeForce cards. So IME GeForce tend to clock better and IMO are more stable than ATI......

Or am I wrong
 
smids said:
I don't think that is a fair summation. ATi's are indeed harder to clock (less programs support clocking and CCC limits overclocks on ATi's before Coolbits does for nVidias), but the world record is held by an ATi IIRC. ATi's can be software adjusted fully e.g. voltage etc and nV's need a hardmod for say voltage adjustment. Heat is not even a point when watercooling as the water has a much larger heat capacity than air and the difference in temps between the two will be minimal.

Each has their own quirks in all honesty but did you mean GTX vs XT, because GT is unfair :p ;).
Click to expand...

Havn't made up my mind yet, it'll all depend on what's around at the time and best vfm etc. The one thing I need to keep in mind is that for my new system I want the NEC 20" widescreen IPS panel. So whatever route I go I think i'll be better off with 512mb instead of the 256mb on the gt.

Am I right in thinking that the x1900xtx is about equal performance wise to the 7900gtx, but the x1900xt is better than the 7900gt?

Basically, all things being equal I would prefer an nVidia card, however if the ATI's are better then i'll be buying one of those.

My HIS 9800 pro, has problems with artifacts and frequently crashes in games - plus it doesn't clock very well, surprising really cos it has the extra large dual speed fan attached which takes up another port, which does sod all as far as I can see.
 
Another question, how do you go about fixing the water cooler into a case, will it have to be modded or does it depend on the case.

The cases i'm looking at are:

Akasa Eclipse 62
Lian-Li PC7+
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream

Bedget for case upto about £75ish
 
Thanks for that but 1 more question, how do you get your signature images to look so clear?

The only way I could get mine down to size was to reduce it to 0 quality jpeg, now it just looks pants!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom