General cooling question

[Rastalovich]

Just wanted to throw this question up for discussion, I have no personal bias either way, but:

Watching some1 sum up the parts and etc kit for a water cooling system kinda triggered the thought.

What kinda balance do you have to strike before or after you think of a water cooled pc -

1. You`ve paid $xxx dollars for your mobo+cpu+gfcard+memory+psu+case (other items in pc are arguably basic) -- let`s say u`ve just spent $850 (for arguements sake), a pretty workable gaming platform and it scores 14000 @ 3DMarkXX

2. You ask and price up a water cooling system for your pc, and advice has it, you require a further $400 (arguements sake again, I have no idea how close that could be)

3. You add the cooler to the pc, get some excellent o/c advise, and your 3DMarkXX is now 15500 (pfft imaginary number)

Ok, now my line for discussion is, with the extra $400 - could the pc have been built with that much better parts to exceed the additional 1500 3DMark score ?

OR, is it better to look at it that you`ve now got the w/c and it`s easy to connect up to another pc in the future - so u`r future pc can have an existing cooler.

OR, is it the case that a w/c system may need partially replacing within a certain amount of time - so considering it existing kit is only half true.

I`m interested in your thoughts.

(of course I understand that oc is a philosyphy in itself, and can be view that way also)

 

[FragTek]

They way I look at is that no one that spent $800 on a computer would spend $400 for a GOOD watercooling setup.

You'll more than likely see this kind of money being spent for super high end systems to get that extra bit of power that can't be had for an extra $400 spent on actual hardware upgrades.

Thats my view at least.

 

[FarFarAway]

I'd watercool for one of two reasons:

1: To make an Ultra High-End machine even faster and better looking

2: For a bit of fun and experience

EDIT: I will also say that I have kept my watercoling frmo 939 to 775 with only adding a GPU cooler

 

[NoL]

And water is quieter.

My original watercooling was $89 though (NOT A KIT) with all custom blocks, its a fun experience.

 

[FarFarAway]

Yeah knew there was a third reason but couldn't remember what.

3: If I wanted a cool and quiet PC

 

[Rastalovich]

Kinda what I figured from an enthusiatic point of view, it`s branching on a hobby, cept a hobby in computer terms is verging on "1337".

I personally think you`ve gotta have some "balls" to do it for the first time, the majority of people can slap a pc together - get to the bios, set some things they don`t 100% understand - and yet probably find once your under-way with wc or have already done it, you`d be fluent at it the next time. With the added bonus of experience and extra advice from the legends. Cheaper/better sourceing and so on.

I hear you 2000% with the quieter thing - at the worst case I`ve had 4 pcs running with 6 fans each, excluding the cpu+bridge+psu ones - people can tell when I`ve walked out of the room whilst on the phone.

I further understand the `looks` side of it too, even in the short few weeks I`ve been on here, not just using it as a reference, I`ve seen some outstanding (tbh) looking pcs, forget whatever was inside them or what 3dmark they got, and seeing XMS` P40 one last night - ouch!

I think Frag almost said it best in the first reply, the feeling I get is that each of you guyz -- if you had a quality K7 board, AMD Athlon XPxxxx+, ddr400 lying around the place, and a wc that somehow became redundant from something - and some1 (a mate prehaps) asked you for a pc to play simple games, wouldn`t just slap the parts together "here you go m8" - u`d stick the wc in for the hell of it and take the 2600+ to the level of something like a 3000+, obtain a slick casing - and presto the guys got something that not only works well but looks probably better than they`d ever imagine. And not only that the rest of us would enjoy the documentary on the forum about it It`d be an awesome pc with extras dinged in from all angles.

It`s an experience tbh, I`m used to sticking stock bits in black (although good) cases, installing the software and away you go - it`s as good as it`s shipped, with maybe minor tweaking, and I aint paying for it if I don`t feel it`s worth it at the time.

But maybe that`ll change, it`s noticeable that it seems once guyz here have the cooling bug, that it grows. I get ideas, but it`s running with the ball once u`ve got it I guess.

Thanks for that.

 

[FarFarAway]

Great commentary mate spot on

I was loath to get water in my rig, mainly for the hassle. But as they say: once you've done it once...

I love having a PC with water flowing through it and temps are more than cool - they're 1337

Now all I gotta do is wait for NoL to get me my cheap as chips (geddit) phase unit and I'll be a happy clocker

Seriously though watercooling gives your PC that extra "wow" feature. Add a bit of UV glow bling and some serious case modding and it's a hobby made in heaven. I certainly love doing it (much to my fiancee's annoyance )