Water Cooling or Air Cooling? (Intel i790k)

[JComp24]

I'm not sure if I should use air cooling or Water cooling for my build...

I might use the Notua nh-D15 or a comparable Water Cooler.

 

Please tell me what are the cons and pros of water Cooling and Air Cooling and

leave a suggestion for a goo water cooling as I am thinking of a high end air cooler.

 

Thanks..

 

 

[ANewFace]

I would upgrade first

[PudgyAstronaut]

PROS:

 

AIR Cooling: Typically cheaper for similar performance, quieter, can act as passive cooling if a fan breaks

 

AIO Water Cooling: Aesthetics, better performance for certain cases without good airflow, less stress on motherboard

 

 

CONS:

 

AIR Cooling: weight on motherboard can cause sagging, might obscure your motherboard/ ram if you want to see that, need to have a front to back air flow capability for best performance

 

AIO Water Cooling: pump can break causing computer to crash (this is a more expensive fix than fixing an air cooler), usually louder due to more restriction, more expensive

 

 

 

Depends on what you want, air coolers are simpler to deal with in theory but there are legitimate reasons to choose an AIO. The NH-D15 will play ball with the best 240mm and 280mm AIOs, so if you can't fit one of those I'd go with air. Another consideration, my NH-D14 makes the top slot on my mATX motherboard a tight fit, although still usable.

 

TL;DR: case compatibility is harder with AIOs, motherboard access is more restricted by Air coolers, air cooling can provide similar temperatures for a bit less money and noise levels than an AIO, but AIOs can be considered to look better by some.

[arronleeds]

get the cryorig r1 ultimate air cooler, enough said

[terrahertz]

If you want to know about liquid coolers, i just posted a topic ( http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/414436-best-aio-watercooling-solution-for-i7-4790k/#entry5576107 )...

[Br3tt96]

My d15 warped my board into the back of the motherboard tray...

[JComp24]

If you want to know about liquid coolers, i just posted a topic ( http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/414436-best-aio-watercooling-solution-for-i7-4790k/#entry5576107 )...

Thanks that was a great help.

[JComp24]

Thanks guy for all replies my decision is to go with water cooling as it does look much neater and no worries with stress on the motherboard.

[PudgyAstronaut]

My d15 warped my board into the back of the motherboard tray...

 

You make me glad I bought the armor kit for my motherboard haha. I am assuming it doesn't really affect anything besides looks though?

[apairofjames]

I'm not sure if I should use air cooling or Water cooling for my build...

I might use the Notua nh-D15 or a comparable Water Cooler.

Please tell me what are the cons and pros of water Cooling and Air Cooling and

leave a suggestion for a goo water cooling as I am thinking of a high end air cooler.

Thanks..

Water cooling is better for overclocking, and if you use a custom loop, then you have the opportunity to cool your GPU as well, for better performance. Also, water cooling also allows for a quieter pc, if you attach with anti-vibration mounts and Be Quiet! Silentwings fans.

Air cooling, on the other hand, serves as a choice if you don't want or need to overclock the CPU. Air cooling is also relatively cheaper, and is usually cheaper in the long run as well, as water cooling involves maintenance about every 6 months or so.

[Br3tt96]

You make me glad I bought the armor kit for my motherboard haha. I am assuming it doesn't really affect anything besides looks though?

Armor kit is mainly for looks

[Sumtinwon]

PROS:

AIR Cooling: Typically cheaper for similar performance, quieter, can act as passive cooling if a fan breaks

AIO Water Cooling: Aesthetics, better performance for certain cases without good airflow, less stress on motherboard

CONS:

AIR Cooling: weight on motherboard can cause sagging, might obscure your motherboard/ ram if you want to see that, need to have a front to back air flow capability for best performance

AIO Water Cooling: pump can break causing computer to crash (this is a more expensive fix than fixing an air cooler), usually louder due to more restriction, more expensive

Depends on what you want, air coolers are simpler to deal with in theory but there are legitimate reasons to choose an AIO. The NH-D15 will play ball with the best 240mm and 280mm AIOs, so if you can't fit one of those I'd go with air. Another consideration, my NH-D14 makes the top slot on my mATX motherboard a tight fit, although still usable.

TL;DR: case compatibility is harder with AIOs, motherboard access is more restricted by Air coolers, air cooling can provide similar temperatures for a bit less money and noise levels than an AIO, but AIOs can be considered to look better by some.

I tottaly Agree

[Sumtinwon]

Noctua beats aoi water cooling tbh ..... On stress with 7*c diffrence

[PudgyAstronaut]

Armor kit is mainly for looks

 

True, but that steel backplate may help just a little

[Br3tt96]

Noctua beats aoi water cooling tbh ..... On stress with 7*c diffrence

Not really. I just got my h80i gt and it preforms better than my D15.

 

True, but that steel backplate may help just a little

Maybe, but probably not much

[JComp24]

Water cooling is better for overclocking, and if you use a custom loop, then you have the opportunity to cool your GPU as well, for better performance. Also, water cooling also allows for a quieter pc, if you attach with anti-vibration mounts and Be Quiet! Silentwings fans.

Air cooling, on the other hand, serves as a choice if you don't want or need to overclock the CPU. Air cooling is also relatively cheaper, and is usually cheaper in the long run as well, as water cooling involves maintenance about every 6 months or so.

Okay thanks I will go with water cooling for all those points and I've heard the Noctua nh-D15 putting a lot stress on motherboards.

[apairofjames]

Okay thanks I will go with water cooling for all those points and I've heard the Noctua nh-D15 putting a lot stress on motherboards.

Your welcome. Anything to help.

[Damir]

Well when I sat and was deciding last year in August 2014, AIO H110 cooler from corsair, or Noctua's NH-D15 (twin fan version). I went with NH-D15, because of noise and redundancy.

 

Reasons for picking up NH-D15:

 

Matches a lot of AIO coolers peformance, at MAX load CPU stress in dual FAN mode

Less noise than most AIO

It has cutouts on both sides of the cooler fins and does not interfere with RAMS heatsinks on both side like x99 motherboards, so compatibility is not a problem now in future,

If a fan fails, you can still pretty much cool the cpu passively with the NH D15, actually my Asus fan profile shuts it of when it is at 45C or below, but apparently you can 100% passively cool a stock 4790K with it. While if a pump fails on AIO cooler, pretty much your system will shut down, not saying that the pump would fail, but it is a possibility. There is a dual pump AIO from Antec I think when I was shopping around, so one could add some redundancy with that for cooling CPUs.

 

Those are personal reasons for me going air cooling, not saying water cooling is worse, easier to install at times in compare to the massive NH D15. I have been building PCs for about 15 years, and over time learned, that most annoying aspect of anything that fails, is how long will it take me to repair it, RMA take week at a minimum. I found out if a pump fails in water cooling, a lot of times you cannot fix it yourself the same day, so buy a whole new unit or wait days to have it replaced. Some custom ones you can fix today as long as there are parts for it in the local store, but expensive.

 

My goal was as less downtime as possible when I was building my system, lol even running Raid 1 over 0 

[Damir]

Okay thanks I will go with water cooling for all those points and I've heard the Noctua nh-D15 putting a lot stress on motherboards.

 

Man, I wouldn't worry about that, unless you frequently carry your setup around to LANs and stuff and tend to be rough when handling the case, even then you would have to try,

 

Most large Air HS come with a back plate support than are intended to spread the stress it exerts on the PCB, also bear in mind, that motherboard PCB are very tough as well. Also, most people don't seem to think how much the GPUs like 290/390s and 980/980Ti weigh with those custom cooler, some are reported to be sagging, but really does not impair functionality at ll.

[tomas710]

I'm not sure if I should use air cooling or Water cooling for my build...

I might use the Notua nh-D15 or a comparable Water Cooler.

 

Please tell me what are the cons and pros of water Cooling and Air Cooling and

leave a suggestion for a goo water cooling as I am thinking of a high end air cooler.

 

Thanks..

Good AIOs

Corsair H110i GT

Corsair H105

Enermax Liqtech 240

Cooler master nepton 240M or 280L

NZXT Kraken X61

 

If silence is a goal, with the exception of the Nepton 240M, i would get aftermarket fans, Noctua NF-F12, NF-A14, Silverstone AP123, AP121, 141 (for focused airflow, not THE best option for performance) Phanteks PH-F120MP, PH-F140MP, Gentle typhoons (1450 to 1850 RPMs versions), BitFenix Spectre Pro (Some people love them, other people think they are not very good, Linus has used them in builds so i trust his judgement)

 

PS, This are just recomendations, it's not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination and always do your own research when buying a product, this is just a guideline to some products i think are good quality and realiable.