To watercool or not to watercool that is the question

[Atham]

Hey guys,
well I have built myself quite a nice system in August. It consists of:
i7 3770k @ 4GHz
ASUS P8Z77-V
Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Corsair Vengeance High profile 2x4GB 1866MHz CL9
GTX 670 Gigabyte Windforce 3
Corsair AX650
Intel 520 120GB
WD Green 1TB SATA II
NZXT Switch 810
Samsung DVD Drive SH-222BB

I was thinking about water cooling this after my iGCSEs. The question is should I do this or not? I mean for the money I could get another GTX 670 for the price of a waterblock + a XSPC Raystorm D5 RX360 kit. I mean I would like to do this, but the thing is, will it be worth it?

Aside from that, what kit/setup would you recommend me. As you can probably tell, I have never before done watercooling, but I want to get into it, as I will most likely be watercooling my brother's computer once I built it.

This is more of a debate thread as to what sort of things to get and all that.

Thanks in advance

A.T.

 

[Master&Puppet]

To be honest to see worthwhile reduction in temps you'll want to up your OC.

The lads on here which have top end air coolers get good temps at around ~4.5GHz, watercooling gets me good temps at 4.7GHz. The nature of IB means that watercooling isn't as beneficial as it is on larger die sizes.

Do it for fun if you want, not so much for the need to reduce temps (especially at your 4GHz overclock) I'd get the GTX 670 first!

 

[Atham]

So getting another GTX 670 would be a better idea than going water cooling, right? I am talking about the value here.

 

[Master&Puppet]

We're talking about gaming here I presume?

Well water-cooling will get you about 200MHz more on the CPU but games aren't going to be stressing the cpu as much as the gpu. My twin 7950s @ 1225/1650 are basically a perfect match for my 3570K @ 4.7GHz. So yea, a single gpu system is going to run out of GPU power before it runs out of CPU power.

What screen(s) do you game on? Getting a second 670 is a bit overkill unless you are gaming above 1080p. Are you getting low fps?

 

[jamesriley94]

I don't really think WC is necessary tbh...
You can push the CPU another 500mhz easily anyway possibly more. Just a case of whether you really think spending all the money on WC is worth it for 200mhz increase max

 

[Timeless]

If you have too much money do it but otherwise get the second gpu.
Also the Nvidia cards have a locked vcore so you won't get much more performance out of it with watercooling.

 

[jamesriley94]

If you have too much money do it but otherwise get the second gpu.
Also the Nvidia cards have a locked vcore so you won't get much more performance out of it with watercooling.

Not really any point in getting a second GPU since 1 670 will max out a single screen anyway

 

[Atham]

I see. I am gaming on a 1080p monitor right now. So my first water cooled build will have to be on my brother's yet to be built rig. Thanks for the advice guys. I might get a fan controller or something to keep the volume down a bit. Might get a proper keyboard and mouse as well. If there are any other suggestions/advice, please let me know.

 

[jamesriley94]

Use voltage resistors - not a fan controller

 

[ShortAlieN]

Going water cooled is a personal choice at most. It's only worth what you want to get out of your rig. If you want better temps, lower noise, higher overclocks... go for it. If you don't see any value in that, get another 670 and max out your gaming. If you dont want to go water cooled, dont. It's expensive, high liability, and a lot of work. If you want to though, I would recommend it.

Personally I do water cooling because it is another part of a computer that can be added in. I like to work on computers and building them is a great way for me to have fun. Adding a water loop is great because there is so much more that you can add to your computer that way. Hell, my current rig almost has more invested into the water cooling that the rest of the parts combined.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

[Atham]

@ above, this is what Water cooling seems to me. Well I will be water cooling my brother's PC for sure so I will get to have some fun.