Water Cooling
- Thread starter Soojer
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I looked into this myself and arrived at the conclusion that different cooling methods suit different types of people:
1. Air cooling (HSF) – For those into very basic installation to get the best out of their chip, but who save money on the cooling system and invest it directly in upgrades of their CPU, mobo and RAM every now and then to get their main performance boost, or simply go for overclocking in bios. They may go to the extent of unlocking their CPU, depending how easy this is. (Also for those who can’t be arsed to overclock anyway).
2. Water cooling – for those who like tweaking and modding their PC and want to impress others with the fact they have a water-cooled system in their rig. Such people get a some extra overclocking capacity out of their chip but the temperature reduction is not that significant to stop them having to upgrading it quite regularly to keep up with the really fast CPU’s. They are happy to incur the extra cost and risk involved to get a few degrees more temp drop, but I suspect that it’s actually having water-cooling that drives many of them…not it’s actual performance. (Some might argue it’s for noise reduction as well, of course)
3. Vapochill (and similar brands) – for those seriously into getting the biggest overclock out of the cheapest chip, or running a top end chip at a speed not yet available over the counter. Put a ready-made Vapochill (around £400 including case, remember) on a basic chip costing £50-£60 and you can match the speed of someone who’s just paid £400 for their chip alone and fussed around with water-cooling. You could argue that because it enables you to avoid upgrading so frequently to keep your system at the top end of the speed range, you can eventually recoup your full investment.
My conclusion: I decided to stick with air-cooling in a big case that allows me room for playing around with loads of components. Eventually, I’ll move to Vapochill or a similar system, if and when they develop a little further, become a little more compact and a little less costly. Water-cooling offers few tangible benefits when you take all the fiddling and risks into account.
It’s only my opinion based on my own priorities, of course, and I take my hat off to all those peeps out there who have jumped into the water-cooling arena and enjoy it for what it is. With the right kit, lights etc, cabling etc, a water-cooled PC can look very impressive and even I have envied many!
1. Air cooling (HSF) – For those into very basic installation to get the best out of their chip, but who save money on the cooling system and invest it directly in upgrades of their CPU, mobo and RAM every now and then to get their main performance boost, or simply go for overclocking in bios. They may go to the extent of unlocking their CPU, depending how easy this is. (Also for those who can’t be arsed to overclock anyway).
2. Water cooling – for those who like tweaking and modding their PC and want to impress others with the fact they have a water-cooled system in their rig. Such people get a some extra overclocking capacity out of their chip but the temperature reduction is not that significant to stop them having to upgrading it quite regularly to keep up with the really fast CPU’s. They are happy to incur the extra cost and risk involved to get a few degrees more temp drop, but I suspect that it’s actually having water-cooling that drives many of them…not it’s actual performance. (Some might argue it’s for noise reduction as well, of course)
3. Vapochill (and similar brands) – for those seriously into getting the biggest overclock out of the cheapest chip, or running a top end chip at a speed not yet available over the counter. Put a ready-made Vapochill (around £400 including case, remember) on a basic chip costing £50-£60 and you can match the speed of someone who’s just paid £400 for their chip alone and fussed around with water-cooling. You could argue that because it enables you to avoid upgrading so frequently to keep your system at the top end of the speed range, you can eventually recoup your full investment.
My conclusion: I decided to stick with air-cooling in a big case that allows me room for playing around with loads of components. Eventually, I’ll move to Vapochill or a similar system, if and when they develop a little further, become a little more compact and a little less costly. Water-cooling offers few tangible benefits when you take all the fiddling and risks into account.
It’s only my opinion based on my own priorities, of course, and I take my hat off to all those peeps out there who have jumped into the water-cooling arena and enjoy it for what it is. With the right kit, lights etc, cabling etc, a water-cooled PC can look very impressive and even I have envied many!