Water cooling... worth it?

The Amish Kid

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Im thinking about getting water cooling after I get a 2gb memory kit and a x-fi sound card but I was wondering if people here think it's worth it.
 
I'm not sure if it is or is not. I mean it's good if you want to overclock like hell, but if you just want it to help maintain a low PC enviorment temperature, then no. If you want to help keep your PC cool get a System Blower. There's a few on NewEgg.com for $10 dollars and has 45cfm, that's enough to keep any PC cool any time. Just gets fans with high CFM, aftermarket fans/heatsinks and you should be good. For instance this is what I just purchsed and it will be able to keep everything in my PC cool and I'll be able to overclock, plus it looks really cool!

System Blower : 45 cfm!!!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835117010

VGA Cooler (just look at this beast!!!)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835124006

That's all I'm going to post right now, if you want to see what else I'm using to cool my PC just check out my thread titled New Case/Mod Parts Awesome! and yeah. :)
 
i voted no, but i have never had water cooling so i wanted to test it out, i think it s worth it if u want it, and usually provides lower temperatures, so i have one on order. I think u should try it out if u have the money, but i hear that a really good air system runs as cool as a low end water cooling system.
 
Well, my computer's processor stays at about 33 degrees Celsius idle and will go to about 50 degrees Celsius under a load (like playing a game) while the maximum for my specific processor (all are not the same) is 70 degrees Celsius. I've overclocked it from 2 GHz to 2.2 GHz.

My motherboard temperature stays around 30 - 37 degrees Celsius all the time. That's okay.

My graphics card runs extremely hot; probably hotter than anyone else's here. It runs at 60 degrees Celsius idle and 98 degrees Celsius while running Half-Life 2. Can't wait to break the 100 degree barrier! :D (Just kidding...) It can tolerate temperatures up to about 120 degrees Celsius, but I would never let it get that hot. I don't think it is going to go past about 98 degrees though. No artifacts yet either! And I mean none! It's a warm little device, my video card is. :D

My hard drive hovers around 28-31 degrees Celsius; nice and cool...

Obviously if you have a laptop or something the maximum temperatures will be higher. For example, the maximum temperature on my Turion 64 laptop processor is 95 degrees Celsius. The maximum for the hard drive is about 55 degrees Celsius, as well. As for the graphics card, I don't know, but I'm curious so I'm about to download RivaTuner to see what it runs at typically. Should be interesting... I'll let y'all know.

EDIT: Ah, nevermind, I can't monitor it and RivaTuner is, of course, only for Nvidia cards (D'oh! :D). So, nevermind about that, it'll have to go unknown.
 
Look like a tonne of hassle to me and surely to use it 100% you'd need to be playing with voltage mods and allsorts :|

Me thinks, unless I was an extreme overclocker I'd spend the cash on some newer hardware or summit. :D
 
I don't think I will ever get water cooled. If you have the right case and proper fan placements (in combination with excellent aftermarket heatsink/fans), there should be no heating problems. Even when overclocked. It's when you get to those crazy rates like 2.8-3GHz or beyond is when water cooling will benefit. Normal OCing, you don't need water cooling. I always have the tendency to OC my CPU anywhere from 200-300MHz more than stock. It's no big deal. If you get a high performance video card, you don't even need to OC it. They run fast stock and even if you do OC the GPU by like another couple hundred MHz, it won't raise the temp that much. Again, I have to emphasize a good case with proper fans. The Lian-Li case have 2x 120mm and 2x 80mm fans strategically placed. They also include PCI and CPU cooling features.

That's just my opinion though. It's all in the case and fans. Plus, you always have to worry about leaks eventually. Higher maintenance too.
 
If you plan to overclock massively... yes... if you plan to have an utterly (and expensive pc), yes, go for it. if you want to save money, have just as good performance (but not quite), and still be able to have quite, I would stay with air. I voted yes, although there should be a choice for, "It depends...".
 
Yeah I am just thinking about it, because today I was messing around and I got my processor up to 2.6ghz, which is a 400 mhz increase, and it felt cool knowing I was getting the same performance as a FX-55 out of a $300 processor.
EDIT: Just incase you were wondering right now I have a Zalman 7000B-Cu

The only thing though is that if I started going to LAN's which I want too, I think that it would be a big hassle transporting a water cooled system.
 
ide say watercooling is worth it because if u think about it if u keep all ur stuff cooler then ude probably extend the life of it and u can overclock it but overall everything would last until u upgraded anyways so i think just some zalman fans or any other good heatsinks would do fine but for an overclocker and gamer if u have the money deffinately go for water cooling
 
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