Watercooling vs Air

Mortah

Mortah

Mortah

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This will probably cause a lot of arguments but I'm looking to get an Athlon X2 3800+. I will most likely give it a bit of an overclock (whatever it will stand without any modding etc!). Ideally I want a system that is as quiet as possible:
1. Would watercooling be much quieter than the quietest HSFs available?
2. Would the performance of the watercooled system be much over the HSF version?

Cheers!
 
Just remembered... Also going to be getting an ATI 1800XT. Obviously if it was watercooled I wouldn't have to worry about the noise it is making. But otherwise I'm guessing replacing the air cooler would be in order. Are there also good performing (and quiet!) air coolers available for these cards?
 
From what i've seen, the temps on the CPU with watercooling are similar to the temps on air with a good hsf. It's on the graphics card where you see a real difference in temps, reducing both load and idle temps by quite a bit.

When i go watercooling (when i get a new card due to my card not being supported by any block :( ) i'll probably just cool the graphics and keep the cpu on air. My Freezer 64 (non pro) does a great job and keeps the cpu at around 39 load.

With watercooling, you don't need fans for airflow, apart from on the rad. As long as you get a 120mm rad and the right choice of fans then you won't be able to hear it.
 
Whate your budget mate.

There are several options, Id say cost was an important factor in your decision though. Also are you going to be overclocking?

Mortah said:
1. Would watercooling be much quieter than the quietest HSFs available?
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No some of the quietest hsf's on the market really are quiet, and you wouldnt really hear them at all, the quietest ones out there are easily as quiet as watercooling, so it makes sense to stay on air rather than spash out. But you have to remeber that a lot of the quiet heatsinks and fans really sacrifice, cooling power.

Mortah said:
2. Would the performance of the watercooled system be much over the HSF version?
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Well yes put simply. But I think we need to know your budget and weather or not you want to overclock in order to go any further.
 
Mortah said:
Just remembered... Also going to be getting an ATI 1800XT. Obviously if it was watercooled I wouldn't have to worry about the noise it is making. But otherwise I'm guessing replacing the air cooler would be in order. Are there also good performing (and quiet!) air coolers available for these cards?
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The Zalman VF900 is a good cooler and will fit your card :)
 
Well, I'll want to overclock it as much as is possible without needing really big and noisy fans or extensive modding (sawing and drilling) etc... Roughly what sort of extra overclocking potential does watercooling actually give over decent fans?

I'm not too bothered about cost, it would be nice to save the cash but I'm just trying to work out whether spending an extra 100 quid or so on watercooling is really worth it!
 
Mortah said:
Well, I'll want to overclock it as much as is possible without needing really big and noisy fans or extensive modding (sawing and drilling) etc... Roughly what sort of extra overclocking potential does watercooling actually give over decent fans?

I'm not too bothered about cost, it would be nice to save the cash but I'm just trying to work out whether spending an extra 100 quid or so on watercooling is really worth it!
Click to expand...

It is possible to overclock an air cooled system to water cooled levels (but maybe harder?). I think it's more important to do some research in regards to ram timings, voltages etc. and of course plenty of luck with the hardware you buy.
 
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Watercooling makes far less ifference to CPU temps now compared to even 18months ago. It wasn't hard to knock 20°C off of your CPU temps when switching from air cooling to water cooling.

Main reasons being that CPus themselves run a lot cooler than they did, heatsinks are a lot more efficient than they were and they run less Vcore.

The main benefits to watercooling now are on your gfx card and in the noise produced.
 
Problem is though, that the OP has stated he wants the quietest available.

Generally the quiet ones are ok, but dont shift enough air to perform decent overclocks, and you say you want to overclock as high as possible.

You say you want to know if spending an extra £100 on watercooling is worth it. The answer to that is No, not if you get a high end HSF....but beware that a high end HSF will not be very quiet, and you seem to want this.
 
So, if both performance and quietness are my goals then watercooling looks to be the way forward?

Any ideas what sort of performance difference there would be between a watercooling system and an air cooled system that emits about the same amount of noise?
 
As you're looking to OC a X2 3800+, take a look for yourself what difference watercooling makes ... LINKAGE

The top rigs there are either water cooled or have SERIOUS air cooling - e.g. XP-120 with a delta fan. Now consider that the delta puts out 59Db and a water cooling system will put out say 15 with some volt modded Akasa ambers, while still giving better cooling power anyway.

The answer is plain tbh :)

I'm looking to go over to watercooling fairly soon and I have the 3800+ clocked to 2500 on air, so I hope to get 26/2700 out of it ... as should you.
 
yeah... after posting that I realised that it would only take me two minutes to look at the mobos forum!

Thanks for the help guys!
 
I have a 2600 overclock on my X2 3800 (maybe I should put it in that thread) and I'm running an Akasa Evo33 HSF. This is running what you guys would call Loud, as it's a Amber fan, running at over 4000rpm.
I don't find it that bad, and not irritating, otherwise I would have tried very hard to find a panaflo fan. But just to say, that what people call "hardcore" air coolers aren't the only HSFs that do a decent job! It doesn't even hit 50 degrees C at full load :)
 
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