Air or Water

[Vicente Gomez]

Hey guys,

 

I am building a pc and I am trying to decide whether or not to go with air or water cooling.

 

I have heard alot of cool things about "be quiet", I have also heard for overclocking and for the best silence, water cooling is best.

 

I am trying to decide whether to go with a be quiet Dark Rock 3 or Corsair h100i.

 

 

[squirrl]

Generally the silence corresponds to custom loops rather than the prebuilt kits.

Both the ones you mention are good, just get the one that fits into your PC, budget, desired looks etc..

[Vicente Gomez]

so the dark rock 3 or corsair h100i, which one would you recommend for overclocking and best cooling

@squirrl

[helping]

so the dark rock 3 or corsair h100i, which one would you recommend for overclocking and best cooling

@squirrl

Depends on what kind of overclocking you want to do.

 

The h100i will be noisier, but you'll probably be better off with an NHD15. 

[Tech_Dreamer]

Water cooler is good but, later on you need to do maintenance, Finstack coolers just need proper cleaning alone , but usually it's maintanence free for most part, i'd reccommend you check out temp comparison on various other review sites before commiting to buy one!

[Vicente Gomez]

isnt over clocking just one thing, making your computer run faster than it should

@helping

recommend any good ones?

@Tech_Dreamer

[D3LTA9]

isnt over clocking just one thing, making your computer run faster than it should

 

@helping

 

I think what helping is meaning is that how much of an OC you are after will determine your cooling. i.e. for a heavy OC you will likely need more than an air cooler or AIO water cooling and need a decent custom loop. 

 

recommend any good ones?

@Tech_Dreamer

 

In terms of air coolers the NHD15 that helping suggested is pretty much the top dog and will give you pretty similar performance to any decent AIO. 

 

Choosing between AIO watercooling and air cooling will largely come down to whether you have room for a radiator and aesthetics. Either way jump on anandtech, or techpowerup or any other decent review site and look at their reviews of different coolers for more piece of mind on what performs the best and what you can expect

[helping]

isnt over clocking just one thing, making your computer run faster than it should

 

@helping

Yes, but it increases heat output and power consumption. 

 

An air cooler will handle a mild overclock, an AIO, maybe ~200Mhz higher *under the assumption the chip can actually go higher* and watercooling gets the best of both in terms of acoustics and performance. 

[Vicente Gomez]

Water cooler is good but, later on you need to do maintenance, Finstack coolers just need proper cleaning alone , but usually it's maintanence free for most part, i'd reccommend you check out temp comparison on various other review sites before commiting to buy one!

Recommend any good ones?

[nosirrah123]

Fire nation ftw

 

Go air, it'll probably be cheaper, be less work, and perform about the same.

[Vicente Gomez]

Yes, but it increases heat output and power consumption. 

 

An air cooler will handle a mild overclock, an AIO, maybe ~200Mhz higher *under the assumption the chip can actually go higher* and watercooling gets the best of both in terms of acoustics and performance. 

recommend any good water coolers?

[Nickolas47]

Corsair h105

[helping]

recommend any good water coolers?

water cooling =/= AIO

 

water cooling is custom. AIO is lazy half assed cooler. 

[Vicente Gomez]

@nosirrah123

recommend any good air coolers that will perform the same as water cooling

I think what helping is meaning is that how much of an OC you are after will determine your cooling. i.e. for a heavy OC you will likely need more than an air cooler or AIO water cooling and need a decent custom loop.

In terms of air coolers the NHD15 that helping suggested is pretty much the top dog and will give you pretty similar performance to any decent AIO.

Choosing between AIO watercooling and air cooling will largely come down to whether you have room for a radiator and aesthetics. Either way jump on anandtech, or techpowerup or any other decent review site and look at their reviews of different coolers for more piece of mind on what performs the best and what you can expect

the case that I will be using corsair spec 02 atx mid tower, will a corsair h105 or any water cooler you recommend fit in this case

[D3LTA9]

the case that I will be using corsair spec 02 atx mid tower, will a corsair h105 or any water cooler you recommend fit in this case

 

Just had a quick look at the case on corsair's website. By the looks of things you could only get 1 120mm all in one water cooler (AIO) in there at the rear unless you remove the drive bays and mod the front a bit then you could maybe squeeze in a 240mm AIO but it does look it will require a bit of modding if it will work at all, sorry not familiar that particular case. So yeah without some custom mods of the case you will not bet able to use a h105 unfortunately. 

 

If you already have the case or just really want that case I probably would just go with a air cooler like the noctua NHD15 as it will perform better than a 120mm AIO. 

[Tech_Dreamer]

recommend any good water coolers?

Noctua NH14's are good a bit outdated tho since NH15's are out now & have pretty good design (you can fit the memory sticks with big ass heatsinks with this one , the older nh14's i think supported lower height version i think)

 

Reason for reccommending noctua is that it's dead quiet compared to some other finstack! (constant fan buzzing sound) Otherwise go for coolermaster evo 212's i think .. but noctua in the long run is better , So Final reccomendation from me is NH15's

 

BE WARNED!  (these are some of the bad sides of finstacks)

• Assembling the finstack cooler is somewhat tough & confusing compared to water cooler installation & you can cut yourself if you hadle the stack improperly while assembling. (linus did it once i believe )
• Make sure your case is big enough (width) , otherwise the side panel wont be able to close after fitting it.
• you cannot modify the finstack in anyway , shave off the top edge or even wash it under high pressure water to clean it, the force can bend the stack lightly & hinder the airflow.

 

 

Check Out this indepth review from OC3D before making sure to buying one.. Do note that you may want to check those with higher efficiency, but we're talking a few degrees here . so NH15's are enough,

 

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/noctua_nh-d15_review/1

 

 

[nosirrah123]

@nosirrah123

recommend any good air coolers that will perform the same as water cooling

I meant AIOs

[ColourShift]

It honestly depends on how you'll be using your PC.

 

However, water cooling takes away the heat from your CPU to the radiator quicker versus air cooling.

 

You also need to know if you're going with Air Cooling, and your RAM slots are close to it, you need low profile RAM sticks as it might get in the way with your heatsink on the CPU as you're building.

 

Just go with water cooling.

[Unhelpful]

water cooling =/= AIO

 

water cooling is custom. AIO is lazy half assed cooler. 

I wouldn't call it lazy or half assed.

Just hundreds of dollars cheaper.

[Vicente Gomez]

Just had a quick look at the case on corsair's website. By the looks of things you could only get 1 120mm all in one water cooler (AIO) in there at the rear unless you remove the drive bays and mod the front a bit then you could maybe squeeze in a 240mm AIO but it does look it will require a bit of modding if it will work at all, sorry not familiar that particular case. So yeah without some custom mods of the case you will not bet able to use a h105 unfortunately. 

 

If you already have the case or just really want that case I probably would just go with a air cooler like the noctua NHD15 as it will perform better than a 120mm AIO. 

My friend recommended it to me since it is a gaming case. Please, you recommend a case that will fit a really good water cooler, don't hesitate to let me know

[Shaqo_Wyn]

 

Hey guys,

 

I am building a pc and I am trying to decide whether or not to go with air or water cooling.

 

I have heard alot of cool things about "be quiet", I have also heard for overclocking and for the best silence, water cooling is best.

 

I am trying to decide whether to go with a be quiet Dark Rock 3 or Corsair h100i.

 

 

 

Air is fine as long as you don't mind the huge heatsinks: save up for a high quality silent one from Noctua

AIO: I recommend the NZXT X60 if you have room in your case and budget for a 280mm radioator

[rjbarker]

water cooling =/= AIO

 

water cooling is custom. AIO is lazy half assed cooler. 

 

Great advice there from what appears to be a longstanding member....nice....good and constructive!

 

OP....either the 100i or the Swiftech H220 arebothverygood AIO Liquid solutions and both will provide slightly better performance cooling than any ir Cooler, more so if you replacwe the stock Fans that come with hem with btter quality Fans or have the room to set up a push / pull config.

The AIO will take up far less space on your Mobo so no concern using high profile RAM.

I started out with massive Air Coolers...then migrated to AIO Liquid Coolers before going to Custom Loop!!

 

There certainly is nothing "lazy or half assed" about using an AIO Cooler for your CPU, as a matter of fact I think its Overkill having an elaborate Custom Loop just to cool a CPU....

[skline00]

In the short time I've been fooling with true custom water cooling I've learned it's not cheap and really shines with high heat output. Moreover, a custom loop really is nice when cooling BOTH the cpu and gpu/gpus.  If you are only going to cool the cpu, even if OCing use a high end air cooler such as Noctua or a high end AIO such as Kraken  X60 or now Corsair H105.

 

I love tinkering with custom water cooling but it gets expensive real quick ( I love my MO RA3-420 but it's an example of expensive).

 

If you know someone local who has a custom water cooled system go over and talk to them and see it first before you dive into it.

[helping]

 

helping's opinions

-words in lieu of misplaced opposing opinion-

If you can't bear mine, please make use of the ignore function we have built into the IPB system. 

Click on the top right drop down menu, then click on Manage Ignore Prefs. I'm sure you can figure out the rest from there.

 

At least learn to quote properly if you're going to call me out. 

 

 

To OP if he bothers to read this thread anymore, an NHD15, PHTC14PE, NHD14, Dark rock Pro 3 will all serve you better for your usage IMO. If you need an explanation on that please tag me and ask.

[D3LTA9]

My friend recommended it to me since it is a gaming case. Please, you recommend a case that will fit a really good water cooler, don't hesitate to let me know

 

Yeah there is nothing wrong with it, it is just really not designed for water cooling whether it be an AIO unit or a custom loop due to the lack of radiator mounting options. Personally I really like the NZXT H440 but you would have to be happy with no 5.25" drive bays if you went with it and from what I read this seems to be quite a polarizing feature/or lack of.

 

If you want/need 5.25" bays then maybe look at a corsair 730T?

 

or you if you want to get really extreme a corsair 900d but that case would be a waste unless you were going with a full custom water cooling loop. 

 

Cases are such a subjective thing though so you really need to just look for one that is aesthetically pleasing to you and has the features you want. Most case mfg's now state radiator support in their specs so just look for one that has at least support for a 240mm rad.