The Lifetime Economics of Water Cooling

[jibroni]

Sup, 

So I've been looking a lot into water cooling lately and everything says blah blah blah not worth it etc.  However, I've been thinking about it and a good amount of the money spent on water cooling is able to be reused, correct?  I don't know how long pumps or tubes last (I've seen it stated as about 5 years), butt all your fittings, gpu /cpu blocks, and radiators are able to be reused for your life, correct?  So you have an initial investment and then a maintenance cost of however much a pump and toob is every fiveish years, right?

 

Anywho, sorry if this has been answered or whatever, like I said I've been researching water cooling for a while now and haven't seen an answer to this specific question, god bless. 

 

[Ivyk]

GPU and CPU blocks might not be compatible with future designs.

 

But you are kind of right about the initial investment.

[TheKDub]

Well the only thing about GPU/CPU waterblocks, if you ever upgrade and the socket or card is not supported by it, then you have to buy a new one.

[Archangel1994]

Blocks/Radiators can not be used for life at all since they will eventualy just gunk up too much and simply degenerate to the point where their effectiveness is reduced to the point of no better than leaving the stock air cooler on.

 

It's been said before and I'll say it again: Watercooling is only worth it on the top-of-the-line cards like the R9 290X and GTX 980 because the money spent on water cooling an R9 290/GTX 970 would be better spent on the better cards which will yield more tangible and guaranteed improvements in performance

[Sauron]

gpu and cpu blocks are only compatible with specific cards and sockets. If in 3 years you upgrade your gpu, or in 6 you upgrade your processor, the waterblocks will be useless. Cpu blocks can usually last across a couple socket iterations because intel tries to make their new platforms compatible with older coolers so the customers are more willing to upgrade, but if you chose to go x99 from a nehalem chip you'd have to throw away the block (or sell it if anyone wanted to buy a used block for an old socket).

[paprikman]

If you're doing it right (using non-dyed liquid, biocide and etc) your entire loop should last up to 7-9 years (later u'd want to upgrade cpu\gpu).

New alphacool's solution can help u avoid spending lot's of money when u're upgrading, also most of cpu waterblocks can be used for many different sockets (I mean intel LGA), so it's can also make a sense.

But I don't think, that u will stay at the same hardware more than 7 years... Techs' growing fast nowadays.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Blocks/Radiators can not be used for life at all since they will eventualy just gunk up too much and simply degenerate to the point where their effectiveness is reduced to the point of no better than leaving the stock air cooler on.

 

That's just not any kind of true. If the system is run with decent fluid (ie distilled water and a kill coil) there is absolutely nothing in the system that can't be easily cleaned and flushed out. The reason why CPU and GPU blocks tend to "not live long" is either because people run shit fluids (which with a little more work can still be cleaned out unless you're running sulfuric acid), or because they switch out components and their old blocks no longer fit.

[paprikman]

That's just not any kind of true. If the system is run with decent fluid (ie distilled water and a kill coil) there is absolutely nothing in the system that can't be easily cleaned and flushed out. The reason why CPU and GPU blocks tend to "not live long" is either because people run shit fluids (which with a little more work can still be cleaned out unless you're running sulfuric acid), or because they switch out components and their old blocks no longer fit.

True, with distilled water there cannot be any problems.

Even copper parts won't get darker.

[smg4life01]

I've actually just bought my first watercooling kit with a few extras and all i've thought really about is being different and having the experience to do it i like the fact that it can be reused over a long period of time all you gotta do is really like every 5-6 months clean out your watercooling loop that is really the only difference between custom and ready made kits.

[Chiobe]

It's been said before and I'll say it again: Watercooling is only worth it on the top-of-the-line cards like the R9 290X and GTX 980 because the money spent on water cooling an R9 290/GTX 970 would be better spent on the better cards which will yield more tangible and guaranteed improvements in performance

That is based on the assumption that you use water cooling as a means to overclock more.

[Archangel1994]

That is based on the assumption that you use water cooling as a means to overclock more.

There is absolutely no other reason to get it

[Chiobe]

There is absolutely no other reason to get it

Lower tempratures?

[Archangel1994]

Lower tempratures?

Spending $1000 on a high quality water cooling loop just for lower temps is a giant waste of money

[Chiobe]

Spending $1000 on a high quality water cooling loop just for lower temps is a giant waste of money

Maybe, but I have yet to see Air cooling managing to keep up with water cooling in terms of overall temprature (all parts and case).

So its worth it, if normal cooling is not enough.

[Archangel1994]

So its worth it, if normal cooling is not enough.

Normal cooling is ALWAYS enough if you do not OC

[Bosco]

There is absolutely no other reason to get it

 

Dat bling tho. 

[Spev]

If you buy a good pump it should last a long time. CPU block can last as long as it's compatible for. Most CPU blocks actually work with tons of different boards, even all the way back to LGA 1366. The one thing you WILL have to change is the GPU block. Those are very specific so unfortunately you gotta include that cost in all your graphics card upgrades. Personally I would buy new tubing (it's not very expensive) but I've seen people re-use tubing for multiple builds.

[specik]

Normal cooling is ALWAYS enough if you do not OC

 

Eh, I'm not so sure about that. I recently completed my first watercooling build (Intel 5820k, 2 x GTX 980s)... The primary reason I did it was because my old system's graphics card would get terribly loud under load, and my case fans always had to be at maximum to provide enough air to cool down the card (it was a GTX 670).  With my new build, my GPU and CPU temperatures never get above 40C even when playing a game like Far Cry 4 on ultra settings and it is whisper quiet since I have plenty of radiator space where I can run my fans at basically minimal RPM.

[paprikman]

Eh, I'm not so sure about that. I recently completed my first watercooling build (Intel 5820k, 2 x GTX 980s)... The primary reason I did it was because my old system's graphics card would get terribly loud under load, and my case fans always had to be at maximum to provide enough air to cool down the card (it was a GTX 670).  With my new build, my GPU and CPU temperatures never get above 40C even when playing a game like Far Cry 4 on ultra settings and it is whisper quiet since I have plenty of radiator space where I can run my fans at basically minimal RPM.

I also do not understand people, who say 'water cooling doesn't give any benefits, it's loud and loosing to air cooling'.

All of my build are dead silent and quite cool.

P.S. was reading this forum to achieve such results.