• Is Water-cooling worth the cost?
    19 replies, posted
Like the title says is Water-cooling really worth the cost of it? or do you think with just a good set of fans and cable management be able to handle it? Also as I don't wanna make a new thread what is bottle necking my computer? [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Qa377.jpg[/IMG]
Why do you need watercooling? Those temps are fine, also what do you mean what is bottlenecking your computer?
It makes sense for certain situations, your isn't one that makes sense for it. If you are running a 2500k@4.8Ghz and have 2 GTX580 in SLI it makes sense. You can overclock a water cooled videocard much farther and your max temperatures will still be much lower then air even in a smaller case. These systems specs are nearly identical except for the fact one is water cooled and the other is air cooled. CPU and GPU usually run closer together in temperature because single loop systems are easier and you don't gain much from a multiloop. [img]http://media.bestofmicro.com/O/8/309320/original/image026.png[/img] The lower temperature one is this [img]http://media.bestofmicro.com/N/4/309280/original/mini-monster_760W.jpg[/img] The higher temeperature one is this [img]http://media.bestofmicro.com/H/A/307774/original/2011-Q2-SBM-filled.jpg[/img] There is almost no difference in cost between the two, one is a microATX and one is standard ATX.
I was wondering because my computer heats up very very fast when playing a video game. And I'm working on upgrading and was wondering if it would be necessary. And by bottle necking I mean like what's holding my computer back. Because my graphics card is like 2 years older than my CPU so I was wondering if that was limiting my speed.
Well nothing is "Bottlenecking" it, its just the fact your GPU cant keep up with most things, and a GPU will NEVER "Bottleneck" Your cpu. Also if you want to get watercooling just get this unless you know how to maintain a good watercooling system. [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181019&Tpk=H70[/url]
[QUOTE=Zerokateo;33265361]Well nothing is "Bottlenecking" it, its just the fact your GPU cant keep up with most things, and a GPU will NEVER "Bottleneck" Your cpu. Also if you want to get watercooling just get this unless you know how to maintain a good watercooling system. [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181019&Tpk=H70[/url][/QUOTE] No, don't get a premade loop. In your situation you are better off on just air. A Cooler Master Hyper 212 can more then take care of a Phenom II. Yes a 9600GT is the weakest link in his setup, its still by no means a bad card. My roommate has the same processor and moving from a 9600GT to a HD4850 was a massive jump in performance. If your processor is at 100% utilization it is the bottleneck, the rest of the time its your graphics card preventing you from getting a higher framerate. It depends on the game for what is a bottleneck though.
went from liquid cooling to a hyper 212 with no noticeable difference. you need to pay alot for good lcs'es.
[QUOTE=4RT1LL3RY;33265202]It makes sense for certain situations, your isn't one that makes sense for it. If you are running a 2500k@4.8Ghz and have 2 GTX580 in SLI it makes sense. You can overclock a water cooled videocard much farther and your max temperatures will still be much lower then air even in a smaller case. These systems specs are nearly identical except for the fact one is water cooled and the other is air cooled. CPU and GPU usually run closer together in temperature because single loop systems are easier and you don't gain much from a multiloop. [IMG]http://media.bestofmicro.com/O/8/309320/original/image026.png[/IMG] The lower temperature one is this [IMG]http://media.bestofmicro.com/N/4/309280/original/mini-monster_760W.jpg[/IMG] The higher temeperature one is this [IMG]http://media.bestofmicro.com/H/A/307774/original/2011-Q2-SBM-filled.jpg[/IMG] There is almost no difference in cost between the two, one is a microATX and one is standard ATX.[/QUOTE] And this is why you don't buy cheapy watercooling kits, you build your own from scrap instead. People who are saying watercooling makes no difference are all using cheap builds. I've spend about $500 building a custom loop and the temperature changes are drastic.
[QUOTE=4RT1LL3RY;33265669]No, don't get a premade loop. In your situation you are better off on just air. A Cooler Master Hyper 212 can more then take care of a Phenom II. Yes a 9600GT is the weakest link in his setup, its still by no means a bad card. My roommate has the same processor and moving from a 9600GT to a HD4850 was a massive jump in performance. If your processor is at 100% utilization it is the bottleneck, the rest of the time its your graphics card preventing you from getting a higher framerate. It depends on the game for what is a bottleneck though.[/QUOTE] never said the 9600 was a bad card also I was only suggesting that cause I don't know his experience with water cooling.
So then what card do you guys suggest I should get to upgrade my rig? (I'd prefer an Nvidia)
[QUOTE=Polaco202;33296121]So then what card do you guys suggest I should get to upgrade my rig? (I'd prefer an Nvidia)[/QUOTE] 560ti. If you can fork up 200~ dollars.
[QUOTE=Zerokateo;33265361]Well nothing is "Bottlenecking" it, its just the fact your GPU cant keep up with most things, and a GPU will NEVER "Bottleneck" Your cpu. Also if you want to get watercooling just get this unless you know how to maintain a good watercooling system. [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181019&Tpk=H70[/url][/QUOTE] "It doesn't bottleneck it, it just *the definition of bottlenecking* ok???"
[QUOTE=Rastadogg5;33296265]560ti. If you can fork up 200~ dollars.[/QUOTE] Which company do you feel that gives the most bang for my buck? The one I currently have is EVGA
[QUOTE=Polaco202;33307342]Which company do you feel that gives the most bang for my buck? The one I currently have is EVGA[/QUOTE] All of em are usually fine but I have bad troubles with sparkle cards... I dont know if they make a 560 ti but their 9500 and 9800 GT's were crap and didnt even have a fan just some dumb heatsink and dont even support SLI.
A friend of mine decided to buy a cheap £80 water-cooling system, he told me the difference it made was negligible but everything was running <45 celsius for him anyway, so it's probably not worth it if your machine's already pretty cool.
[QUOTE=Zerokateo;33307413]All of em are usually fine but I have bad troubles with sparkle cards... I dont know if they make a 560 ti but their 9500 and 9800 GT's were crap and didnt even have a fan just some dumb heatsink and dont even support SLI.[/QUOTE] Because sparkle made passively cooled eco edition cards. Maybe you should have checked why your cards didn't have fans back when you had them.
What heat-sink would you guys recommend? I keep hearing that the stock heat-sinks usually suck.
212+ or 212 evo if it's not too much more, great value. If you're looking for performance then the NH-D14
Okay cool, I really wish we had a Questions megathread. I'm tired of bombarding this one with non-title related questions but. I was looking at the EVGA 550TI superclocked, 560TI superclocked, the 570 Superclocked and the 580 Superclocked. all by EVGA, is the 560TI really worth the price bump from the 550TI because the 550TI seems pretty good.
Yes. The 560 Ti is awesome and worth every cent more than the 550 Ti. Runs BFBC2, Crysis, BF3, etc. really fast. Now I just need to get a second...
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