I have just picked up a used 3570K and Asus Maximus Gene V motherboard and am about to decide how I want to cool this combo down. Should I use my trusty modified Noctua cooler: Or should I buy one of the new Corsair 80i GT? My goal is of course to OC the CPU, but I dont know if a beefy water cooler or my really good air cooler will allow me to get the best results?
Water will always give better results, but do you need it? The short answer is no, you don't. A decent air cooler will do everything you need. Some will argue that a decent air cooler and an ok AIO will be close in price . But do you want/need that extra 5 degrees off your temps? Why spend £80 on a decent AIO (all in one) when you can spend £30 an a air cooler that will do the job, or £60 on a top spec one. Also, how long is your upgrade path? An air cooler will keep going like a tank. It dies when the fan does...oh wait you can replace those. How long does a pump last..realistically? It is up to you basically. Both will serve you well. But a good air cooler will perform close to the best AIO and will last forever.
I never thought about it like that, but it makes a bunch of sense! Even so that I already own a top spech air cooler, and even upgraded it above the normal specs it has, then I should be very home safe. Thanks a lot, you just saved me money
that cooler looks a bit skinny and probably wont cool as well as an aio would. cooler temps mean potential for a higher more stable overclock, but not guaranteed. if you're happy to spend the money then the one you suggested would be fine, but it's quite pricey for a single 120mm rad cooler and their performance doesn't differ too much, it's more dependant on the fans.
Maybe it is time to upgrade even the cooling, it is close to 2 years ago I bought this one so there is a lot that has changed since. I am looking what is out there now and I keep bumping into one called Cryorig R1 Ultimate. Can any of you sugest that one or there is one better than that? http://www.cryorig.com/r1-ultimate.php
I would put a shout out for an AIO for the following reasons: Much less fiddly to fit Much smaller footprint in the case making your overall build easier. Less pressure placed on the mobo because of the weight. Better airflow due to less obstruction.
Air will usually be quieter than an AIO for the same cooling power, and the two will have roughyl the same performance at the high end (a custom loop will give you better performance, but only in the most ultra-extreme overclock-all-the-things circumstances). AIO has two big advantages though: - Very little weight on the board itself, so no worries with moving a system when you have a kilo of copper mounted to your very expensive PCB. - The block/pump combo is very small compared to a full heatsink, so it's very easy to work on the motherboard (e.g. swapping ram, changing headers, etc) without needing to demount it.
Those are very valid points I really appreciate, because yes I must say the many kgs of weight on my new awesome motherboard is not ideal in my book. I am using the NoFan CS-70 chassis were the mb is on one of the sides, so the cooler is pushing all its weight downwards. I have some good space above the board, so there should be room for a AIO like the Corsair I linked to. If I dont choose that AIO which one would you guys advice me to look at? I only have space for a single 120 in footprint, but of course push/pull is also an option. I have not disassembled my rig yet, but I do think I could maybe use the backside of the chassis and mount a dual radiator, but it would require some modding I would very much like not to do.
Top air like R1, NH-D14, NH-D15, PH-TC14PE, Silver Arrow IB-E, out-perform CLCs with out a doubt. They are quieter, cheaper, more dependable and no harder to mount. I'm seeing many who went to CLC coming back to air. Even some custom loop people are coming back to top air. CLC are cheaply built, mostly by Asetek becasue the have the patent on CLC. Pump failures are a known problem, and when the pump fails there is no cooling to the CPU .. meaning system cannot be used until a new cooler is installed. With air coolers there is only the fan to fail, which rarely happens. If fan does fail system still has some cooling and any fan will do until proper replacement is found. R1 Ultimate is very good. Here is link to many of top coolers with size and clearances. http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=3501347&postcount=17 You might find this guide to optimizing airflow interesting http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=3694292&postcount=12
Well, now that everyone has given you sensible answers, I'm here to tell you to go for your own custom watercooling loop! I could tell you that you'll get better cooling at the top end, and/or quieter as well, but really, the main reason I do it is because I enjoy the days of planning, the hours of work, and the minutes of swearing that it brings me. Fizzban will tell you that you can get by fine with air, and that's true, but if you're going down that route, you don't really need a gaming PC, a console would do just as well, and really, why get a brand new console, you can still play games on the last generation. Or you could do it the Bit-tech way and build your own custom water cooling rig, the choice is yours! (tongue partly in cheek )
more features too. You can't drink your air. You can't wash your car with air. You can't swim in air. You can't ride a jetski on the air. Breathing is pretty important I hear though. & planes I guess.
Don't listen to the scaremongers spouting ROFL-science - closed loop coolers are very effective and it's quite nice not to have a kilo of metal hanging off the CPU socket.
I've only had two pumps though... so if one did fail, I'd be pissed. (not AIO here but certainly understand their appeal over colossal heatsinks & all the faffing about with custom loops)
The only real advantage I can see from AIO is, as spreadie said, to free up the CPU socket. From a cooling point of view I agree with doyll... top air is just as good as AIO and "better cooling" is not a valid reason to opt for the latter. To get the best cooling you have to get a custom loop with a big res, powerful pump and large rad. I have yet to see an air cooler beat the TS140P that I'm still using. Soon (hopefully) I'll be doing some testing which compares the TS140P with a good AIO. I don't think the air cooler will be far behind, if it is behind at all.
Interesting thread, I had (wrongly) assumed that the CLC would be quieter and was thinking about getting one for my next system. I sit corrected!
I have only just last week got my first AIO. Enermax LiqMax II 120S. My main reason for getting it was the complete faff of fitting fans to my Thermalright IFX-14 and the limits it puts on which RAM you can use. RAM clearance is no longer a problem, if anything it is slightly quieter plus I've knocked roughly 10deg of my full load temps.
