Water Cooling Advice Needed

smudger1767

New member
Hi all,
These are my PC Specs:
COOLERMASTER COSMOS II ULTRA
ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+
Sapphire HD 7850 OC Edition 2GB
Corsair CMPSU-1200AXUK Professional Series Gold AX1200
AMD 8 Core FX-8120 AM3+ 3.1GHz 16MB cache, Black Edition Processor
Xigmatek PTI-G3606 Thermal Grease
Thermalright Silver Arrow Extreme SB-E Dual Tower CPU cooler, 2x 140mm TY-143 Fa
CRUCIAL 16GB (4 X 4GB) DDR31600Mhz Gaming Memory Kit CL9
or
Corsair high performance Vengeance memory module 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz 9-9-9-24, 1.5V

Not sure weather to go for a complete kit or go for seperates. I'm looking to cool just the cpu at the minute as the Sapphire HD 7850 is already overclocked and runs really cool allready. So single loop.
BUDGET: £300 max
Any suggestions much appreciated
Paul
 
I personally don't really see the necessity to watercool your rig...

The Silver Arrow should keep your chip cool enough and should be quiet enough as it is really.
What's your current overclock? I doubt watercooling will give you that much advantage tbh.

I also don't think AMD cpu's should ever be watercooled as they aren't really worth it - and the 7850 won't ever need watercooling IMO.

If you really really want to do it - save money and get a kit such as the RS240 and swap out the fans.
 
to those who posted replies I guess you dont see the reason to water cool as others do. Water cooling is not a NEED to thing its a want to thing. It looks freaking awesome, so what if AMD cpu's dont really need to be water cooled as they normally tend to run cooler. But putting them under water and having a setup you love looking at is awesome.

Now to the poster I say go for it. One of the XSPC kits should suit you fine. I've used the XSPC 360 kit before i went with my custom loop and I found it to be more than adequate for the task.
 
to those who posted replies I guess you dont see the reason to water cool as others do. Water cooling is not a NEED to thing its a want to thing. It looks freaking awesome, so what if AMD cpu's dont really need to be water cooled as they normally tend to run cooler. But putting them under water and having a setup you love looking at is awesome.

Now to the poster I say go for it. One of the XSPC kits should suit you fine. I've used the XSPC 360 kit before i went with my custom loop and I found it to be more than adequate for the task.

In my original reply I wasn't saying I think he shouldn't do it because he doesn't need the extra cooling. I was saying it because I don't think someone should waste money tricking out a Skoda. :lol:

Totally elitist I know. But at least I'm honest.
 
I agree with SIN, as much as watercooling is for temps, I and many others are persuaded by the "cool factor". If the guy has the money and wants to watercool, let him.
 
to those who posted replies I guess you dont see the reason to water cool as others do. Water cooling is not a NEED to thing its a want to thing. It looks freaking awesome, so what if AMD cpu's dont really need to be water cooled as they normally tend to run cooler. But putting them under water and having a setup you love looking at is awesome.

Now to the poster I say go for it. One of the XSPC kits should suit you fine. I've used the XSPC 360 kit before i went with my custom loop and I found it to be more than adequate for the task.

I do see the reason behind it, and I fully understand if he wants to.

But, I also think that if someone's prepared to spend £300 on something that's only real benefit is aesthetics then they should have as good a rig as they can do first.

Considering the £300 could have been put to use to get a 3570k and a 670, and there would still have been enough money left over to watercool the cpu with an XSPC kit.

I just said I personally wouldn't do it - but did say if he wants to, get the XSPC kit...
 
I do see the reason behind it, and I fully understand if he wants to.

But, I also think that if someone's prepared to spend £300 on something that's only real benefit is aesthetics then they should have as good a rig as they can do first.

Considering the £300 could have been put to use to get a 3570k and a 670, and there would still have been enough money left over to watercool the cpu with an XSPC kit.

I just said I personally wouldn't do it - but did say if he wants to, get the XSPC kit...

I'd like to see someone buy a 3570k and 670 for anywhere close to L300 and still have anything left for a XSPC kit what ya smoking today james???

I just priced 3570k on Aria and it was L167 and the 670 was L327 or more depending on specs. that adds up to ALMOST L500 so way out of his budget.


While I agree the intel route is the better one lets not knock what one already has and help them with what they are asking. This was not a post about hey should I buy the water cooling or save my $$$ for a better rig it was simply asking what do you recommend for a wc kit. Plus if he gets the wc kit he can always change the rig later if they feel the need.
 
Without the 8120, 990X Sabretooth and 7850 purchased there should be enough money...
Probably be close :p

Still we are recommending the same thing at the end of the day - everyone's said the XSPC kit.
I don't see anything wrong with a bit of side chat :)
 
james quit being an tool he already has the other stuff this thread is about watercooling what he has not changing what he has
 
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Jesus...

I've not said he should change anything...
I've recommended what he should buy...it is you that is starting to be argumentative here.
 
There is plenty of reasons to watercool AMD kit,it performs much better with cold.
This elitist BS is unacceptable,who are you tell someone what they should and should do?
He didnt ask you to tell him that crap,he wants to spec a loop,if you cant assist with that then dont post.

This kind of thing makes me angry....
 
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You could get a nice XSPC Raystorm Kit that will include everything you need to get started or you could piecemill some parts together and have a fully custome loopwith tube res, pump, fans, rad, fittings, tubing and Waterblock. Becareful on the fittings though they can get expensive and really eat away at your budget. 300 is a nice budget to get your CPU loop up and running. IMO the new Raystorm kits are a bit to expensive but they will definatly perform very well.
 
Smudger,

You have a very capable case there so adding a water cooling loop is very sensible although I would suggest that water cooling your CPU should be something that you are doing for fun rather than performance on the FX series. If you are choosing to water cool because you want more performance then I would suggest spending the money on a new CPU and mobo instead.

For a CPU only loop the XSPC D5 & raystorm RX240 kit would be great. You'll find that you will get a better deal buying a kit rather than separates. From here you could expand the kit if you ever needed to without needing to replace any of the components.

Everyone else,

People flashing up over nothing here guys...all the comments are sensible.

Yes it might have made sense to spend that £300 on the components when the rig was purchased depending on what Smudger wanted at the time but the deal is done and unless anyone is suggesting that the whole rig is sold second hand and re-bought then there is little point saying much more on the topic.

Also, I disagree with recommending a 3570K as being 'elitist'. It's plain good advice for gaming rigs. There is no point having these forums at all if we recommend components that are not ideal for the purpose. The 3570K is indisputably the gamer's chip.
 
Smudger,

You have a very capable case there so adding a water cooling loop is very sensible although I would suggest that water cooling your CPU should be something that you are doing for fun rather than performance on the FX series. If you are choosing to water cool because you want more performance then I would suggest spending the money on a new CPU and mobo instead.

For a CPU only loop the XSPC D5 & raystorm RX240 kit would be great. You'll find that you will get a better deal buying a kit rather than separates. From here you could expand the kit if you ever needed to without needing to replace any of the components.

Everyone else,

People flashing up over nothing here guys...all the comments are sensible.

Yes it might have made sense to spend that £300 on the components when the rig was purchased depending on what Smudger wanted at the time but the deal is done and unless anyone is suggesting that the whole rig is sold second hand and re-bought then there is little point saying much more on the topic.

Also, I disagree with recommending a 3570K as being 'elitist'. It's plain good advice for gaming rigs. There is no point having these forums at all if we recommend components that are not ideal for the purpose. The 3570K is indisputably the gamer's chip.

I dont agree,the FX chip is a good gaming chip and certainly not worth chopping out a new board and chip for instead,he has a single card so any advantage the Intel rig may of had is lost. AMD are fine gaming rigs for single card setups.
This whole its not worth WCing an AMD chip is rubbish,I have watercooled all my AMD chips for more OC headroom and gained from it,the FX series are no different.
The SB and IB series chips dont need water either,they dont run particularly hot,so singling out AMD for the same reason is poor.

Mainly tho,he didnt ask anyones opinion on his rig,he just wants a loop specced for it,these posts about chips and whatnot are off topic and contribute nothing.
 
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I dont agree,the FX chip is a good gaming chip and certainly not worth chopping out a new board and chip for instead. This whole its not worth WCing an AMD chip is rubbish,especially as the GPU is going under water too...
The SB and IB series chips dont need water either,they dont run particularly hot.

Mainly tho,he didnt ask anyones opinion on his rig,he just wants a loop specced for it,these posts about chips and whatnot are off topic

That's what makes OC3D better than other forums though.

Other forums just see someone doing something like:
Is: 3960x, R4E, tons of RAM, Quad SLI 680s etc.... a good gaming rig?

They'll just answer yes.

Here at least we answer the question and give our opinions on what the user should do, where they can save money to get the same performance and tell them that they don't need anywhere near that spec for games....

Who cares if we have slightly longer thread of people giving their proper opinions and not just yes or no answers. It's up to the user at the end of the day if they take the advice or not - nothing wrong with them hearing it at all...

That's what makes us more of a community at OC3D.

Anyway - this thread is a month old...
The OP has a post count of 2...
I don't think he cares anymore.
 
That's what makes OC3D better than other forums though.

Other forums just see someone doing something like:
Is: 3960x, R4E, tons of RAM, Quad SLI 680s etc.... a good gaming rig?

They'll just answer yes.

Here at least we answer the question and give our opinions on what the user should do, where they can save money to get the same performance and tell them that they don't need anywhere near that spec for games....

Who cares if we have slightly longer thread of people giving their proper opinions and not just yes or no answers. It's up to the user at the end of the day if they take the advice or not - nothing wrong with them hearing it at all...

That's what makes us more of a community at OC3D.

Anyway - this thread is a month old...
The OP has a post count of 2...
I don't think he cares anymore.

But if someones asks about a loop,i would expect the thread to reflect that rather than 'Buy Intel'.
I cant believe I have wasted my time on a necro bleeding thread too.....
 
Ha I didn't realise that it was a dead thread either.

@ B Negative.

Don't get me wrong, I've got no beef with a water cooled AMD rig. This time last year I had a water cooled 1100T and it did me proud. It's still working today actually (although at stock on air) in my parents desktop, which is a little overkill...

Anyway - you are right that water cooling is far from a necessity. I've got full water cooling on my 3570K rig and it does very little for the clock - I get about 200MHz extra but it does look awesome. I think that the temperature benefits are more noticeable on the larger die CPUs or when you have a confined space with multiple heat sources where it is better to exhaust through a radiator than have components breathe each other's hot air.

All I was trying to say is that water cooling is great as long as you don't expect £300 worth of extra performance. I was just stating that performance wise it would have been better to spend that cash on an intel platform if performance is what he was looking for. I think it would have been remiss of us not to mention that if the OP spent £300 to only get 5fps more when he was expecting 30.

I know that AMD is fine for a gaming platform but there are advantages to intel. There are various games out there, like shogun 2 which I play regularly, which can crush my 3570k at 4.6GHz when I play hard because of game mechanics. I know that if I had an FX chip that it would be brought to it's knees noticeably earlier. In gaming terms the 4100 is the equivalent of an i3. If that isn't enough then adding more cores isn't going to help because games just can't parallel thread to make use of it so you have no choice then but to look at intel. Anyone can overclock an AMD chip as hard as they want but it still won't beat the intel solution and you'll be pumping out huge amounts of Watts in the process.

I've stated that for the record, people can make their own choices and should be happy with it - I honestly don't mind what people decide upon. Having said that there is not much point being on these forums if we don't give people ideas which might better suit what they want. After that it is up to them and that is fine by me.
 
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Ha I didn't realise that it was a dead thread either.

@ B Negative.

Don't get me wrong, I've got no beef with a water cooled AMD rig. This time last year I had a water cooled 1100T and it did me proud. It's still working today actually (although at stock on air) in my parents desktop, which is a little overkill...

Anyway - you are right that water cooling is far from a necessity. I've got full water cooling on my 3570K rig and it does very little for the clock - I get about 200MHz extra but it does look awesome. I think that the temperature benefits are more noticeable on the larger die CPUs or when you have a confined space with multiple heat sources where it is better to exhaust through a radiator than have components breathe each other's hot air.

All I was trying to say is that water cooling is great as long as you don't expect £300 worth of extra performance. I was just stating that performance wise it would have been better to spend that cash on an intel platform if performance is what he was looking for. I think it would have been remiss of us not to mention that if the OP spent £300 to only get 5fps more when he was expecting 30.

I know that AMD is fine for a gaming platform but there are advantages to intel. There are various games out there, like shogun 2 which I play regularly, which can crush my 3570k at 4.6GHz when I play hard because of game mechanics. I know that if I had an FX chip that it would be brought to it's knees noticeably earlier. In gaming terms the 4100 is the equivalent of an i3. If that isn't enough then adding more cores isn't going to help because games just can't parallel thread to make use of it so you have no choice then but to look at intel. Anyone can overclock an AMD chip as hard as they want but it still won't beat the intel solution and you'll be pumping out huge amounts of Watts in the process.

I've stated that for the record, people can make their own choices and should be happy with it - I honestly don't mind what people decide upon. Having said that there is not much point being on these forums if we don't give people ideas which might better suit what they want. After that it is up to them and that is fine by me.

True.

I have dual 1366,i would be screwed without WC.....
 
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