Questions on cooling for a new PC (WC vs Air)

[Technex]

Hi all,

Sorry if this has been asked lots before... I guess I just need a final kick in one direction or the other.

I'm looking to buy a new mid-range PC before next year starts for myself. I don't care about noise but want pretty low maintenance (i.e open case every few months), also not planning to overclock much at all but I love low case/component temps. I am looking to slightly case mod with a few neons etc, a UV dye would look awesome.

I love the look of water cooling, I love the fact that water and radiators etc are working together to cool the system, the "coolness" factor is great

. And of course temps are lower if you do it right.

Negatives are price? And perhaps more areas to fail. Also still need air cooling for rest of system + rad.

Now as for air cooling, get a big f--- off heatsink, good system cooling and the temps are pretty good as we all know.

We have dust build up but that's pretty easy to clean out, and you would get that on a water cooling set-up's rad?

Air cooling price around 80 quid tops?

Water cooling price around 200? I'm not sure on this seems to vary a lot.

After typing this it just seems like air cooling looks more suited to me.. Lets see what you guys say

.

Cheers,

Laurence

 

[thestepster]

£60 tops for the noctua nh-d14 air cooler if you have room and watercooling would be pretty pointless for u as ur not pushing ur hardware to its limits so no need for such good cooling

and dust will gather on rads like it will on a heatsink as there's air flowing through them both

 

[Technex]

So yeah, seems the only advantages for me would be better cooling + sweet looks.

True about the dust... Same for both systems. Thanks for your reply

 

[TMaksimov]

Hmm, what sort of rig are you planning on component-wise?

 

[nightfallsafire]

Sounds like air cooling would be best for how you intend to use it, there is definitely less to worry about but then again you can always go with a self contained Wc system..but it would probably have negligible gains in cooling

Clicky

 

[Technex]

I've decided on air cooling guys

. If I was made of money I would go for WC though...

Going to go for the Noctua NH-D14 and a nice case should get very low temps.

Will pick up a new Sandy Bridge i5 CPU not sure on gfx card yet.

 

[TMaksimov]

Cool stuff!