water cooling or upgrade?

[mr_greenguy]

So I'm doing a casemod and my plan is/was to just put my old pc in it. However I have a massive aircooler (scythe muger 2 rev B) that's too high for the new case.

So my options are to either watercool my pc with all the benefits of that or get an aircooler with a lower profile and use the spare money to save for a bigger upgrade later on.

 

An AIO watercooler is not an option since the tubes won't be long enough so it would have to be a custom loop.

 

Current Specs:

cpu: i5 2500K @ 3.2GHz but stable overclock possible in the 4-5 GHz range 

Motherboard: Asrock P67 Extreme4 Gen3

RAM: 8GB @1600

GPU: Club3D HD 7950 royalKing not overclocked but overclockable to get similar performance to a 7970

SSD: Samsung 830 SSD 128GB

HDD: 2TB seagate HDD

PSU: XFX ProSeries 750W XXX

Screen: dell u2312hm 

 

 

[Darkr]

CPU is great (I have it^_^)

The GPU is ok for high (not ultra) 1080p gaming with x2/4 aa. If you want improvment, get the r9 290/x

You'd need more ram imo, (8GB more) since when I run high end games I use at least 10GB ram.

PSU is a bit overkill, but futureproof (I can hear the screams of Linus )

It's always better to upgrade rather than overclocking.

 

I'd buy a low profile air cooler if your budget it tight. If not, go water. Think outside the box.

[mr_greenguy]

CPU is great (I have it^_^)

The GPU is ok for high (not ultra) 1080p gaming with x2/4 aa. If you want improvment, get the r9 290/x

You'd need more ram imo, (8GB more) since when I run high end games I use at least 10GB ram.

PSU is a bit overkill, but futureproof (I can hear the screams of Linus )

It's always better to upgrade rather than overclocking.

 

I'd buy a low profile air cooler if your budget it tight. If not, go water. Think outside the box.

 

 

Yeah the components are not that outdated so I'd have to spend some serious money to get more than a marginal improvement and if I watercool I could keep the loop when I upgrade. So I'm leaning towards water cooling + overclock.

[Darkr]

Yeah the components are not that outdated so I'd have to spend some serious money to get more than a marginal improvement and if I watercool I could keep the loop when I upgrade. So I'm leaning towards water cooling + overclock.

A custom WC loop costs more than 200 euro. For me it costs about 350, without coolant/fittings.

[mr_greenguy]

A custom WC loop costs more than 200 euro. For me it costs about 350, without coolant/fittings.

I would be going for the EK l240 or Alphacool NexXxoS Cool Answer 240 DDC/XT kits which are around 200 euro

[Darkr]

I would be going for the EK l240 or Alphacool NexXxoS Cool Answer 240 DDC/XT kits which are around 200 euro

if you're going for a custom loop, I recommend watercooling the GPU as well. In which you would require at least a 360mm rad for med-high load temps. I went for 480mm, no problems, 290x 68 degrees under load.

[mr_greenguy]

if you're going for a custom loop, I recommend watercooling the GPU as well. In which you would require at least a 360mm rad for med-high load temps. I went for 480mm, no problems, 290x 68 degrees under load.

 

The budget right now is 200-250 so I was thinking to do a basic loop now and later add more rads as I added a gpu to the loop.

[Darkr]

The budget right now is 200-250 so I was thinking to do a basic loop now and later add more rads as I added a gpu to the loop.

Good thinking.

[mr_greenguy]

Mmmm I could also go for a refurbished HD7950 with 12month warranty + low profile cooler but I don't know if that would be a smart decision...