liquid cooling GPU's and CPU + overclocking = more performance?

[Donnyboy98]

I'm spending £3000 on my PC alone and need to decide on weather or not to get liquid cooled or not. Will liquid cooling and overclocking both my GPUs and CPU make it get more fps in games?

As this is my first ever build (gaming build). I don't know that much about actually putting these things together. Is it hard to get the tubing to correctly bend?

Thanks

[C0LL0SS0S]

Sorry but if you spending 3k on a gaming machine I think you should wait with watercooling it until you get more experience

[Majestic]

How does a 17 year old have $4600 to burn on a PC.. 

 

And yeah, if you spend such an exorbitant amount of money on your PC you probably expect it to shit gold. I'd wait with watercooling until you're more realistic (probably older).

[ZarosTenjin]

Holy shit what parts are you using that you pay that much

 

Anyway watercooling will give you a bigger thermal headroom to play with.

 

But please i wanna see that parts list, I can tell you already that you dont need that much of whatever you planned but i'm really curious

[Tim Drake]

AIOs would be the best way to go in my opinion.

 

Just go for X99, i7 5960X, good big case of your choice, NZXT G10 Krakens with H50/55 or something and a H110 or something.

 

That is probably the best route if you really care about starting watercooling.

 

P.S To answer the question, it won't literally give you more FPS but with Nvidia it will take advantage of the lower temps and boost higher and gives you better headroom for overclocking.

[Donnyboy98]

How does a 17 year old have $4600 to burn on a PC.. 

 

And yeah, if you spend such an exorbitant amount of money on your PC you probably expect it to shit gold. I'd wait with watercooling until you're more realistic (probably older).

I had a part time job and I have been saving up for 2 years also in them 2 years I have been researching stuff like this.

[Donnyboy98]

Holy shit what parts are you using that you pay that much

 

Anyway watercooling will give you a bigger thermal headroom to play with.

 

But please i wanna see that parts list, I can tell you already that you dont need that much of whatever you planned but i'm really curious

I'll be getting sli gtx 980 unless there is something better out at that time. Idk about the other components but all I know is that its going to be a beast!

[Majestic]

I had a part time job and I have been saving up for 2 years also in them 2 years I have been researching stuff like this.

 

And after two years of research you thought spending 3K was a good idea? I don't really know what to say.

 

Anyway, you gave no partlist so I can't tell you if watercooling it will provide you with a boost. For AMD cards it probably will. Since on air they're quite bottlenecked by temps.

[Trik'Stari]

I had a part time job and I have been saving up for 2 years also in them 2 years I have been researching stuff like this.

Get a 4790k and two 980's and call it a day. Don't need to watercool anything to game with a rig like that. Watercooling is mainly for looks or overclocking, which isn't really necessary.

 

Then again, I've got a 4690k and a AIO water cooler and I don't overclock it. I guess I'm waiting until I need to overclock to keep up with whatever game has come out. Which seems a long way off

 

 

Build a custom loop is a pain in my experience, but only because I bought a crappy kit, with a crappy pump/res combo, and could never get it to bleed the air out properly, etc. The flexible tubing was easy enough to do, you just gotta be weary of kinks etc.

 

But in the end, you're wasting money that could better be spend on better GPU's, SSD's, better case, etc.

[Donnyboy98]

I need to decide if I want liquid cooling before I I decide on CPU. Anyway by the time I build it there will be better 1s out.

[spwath]

Get a 4790k and two 980's and call it a day. Don't need to watercool anything to game with a rig like that. Watercooling is mainly for looks or overclocking, which isn't really necessary.

Then again, I've got a 4690k and a AIO water cooler and I don't overclock it. I guess I'm waiting until I need to overclock to keep up with whatever game has come out. Which seems a long way off

Build a custom loop is a pain in my experience, but only because I bought a crappy kit, with a crappy pump/res combo, and could never get it to bleed the air out properly, etc. The flexible tubing was easy enough to do, you just gotta be weary of kinks etc.

But in the end, you're wasting money that could better be spend on better GPU's, SSD's, better case, etc.

I watercooled, for fun.

As my system is not overclocked, and is not very good.

So IMO,I would water cool the build

[ZarosTenjin]

Why do you need to decide before getting the cpu? most watercoolers support all sockets that are out! If you want to go full enthusiast go with an X99 mashine with a decent i7 and dual 980s, but those will not come 3000 and the CPU will not bottleneck you in any near future i can promise.

 

For watercooling, it'll not give you straight out more performance but with a build that strong there will be no need to overclock anytime soon... especially when you are new to the whole thing you should prob not start OCing with such an expensive build.

 

I'd say start with decent air cooling, those work plenty fine even with enthusiast machines and when you have some experience (either with a less expensive system or you go for it (please in small steps) with your enthusiast system) think again about watercooling once you've hit the thermal limit of the air cooler you've gotten. Air cooling has really good options liek the noctua NH-D15.

[RazrLeaf]

@Donnyboy98 Water cooling is done for pure awesomeness and the experience nowadays. Maxwell runs so efficiently that it is no longer a requirement to put a flagship GPU under water (think Fermi and Hawaii).  It's not that difficult to assemble. It's not going to give you significantly more overclocking headroom than well done air cooling. If you've done 2 years of research, you should know that you shouldn't be spending £3000 on a gaming PC. If you're spending £3000 on a gaming PC for the experience/bragging rights/fun of it, then go for it, and definitely water cool it, not for the performance, but for the experience.

 

But you could probably build a monstrous liquid cooled gaming rig for £2000 that gives the same building/owning experience and spend the money you save on other awesome life experiences. Just do whatever you think will be most fulfilling with your 2 years of savings, do it with conviction, and don't leave yourself room for regret.

 

@ZarosTenjin I find that large dual tower air coolers are usually not worth it, especially not the NH-D15, for the reasons listed below.

1. Compatibility issues with cases and RAM
2. You have a giant cantilever pulling your motherboard.
3. The NH-D15 is one of the most expensive air coolers out there, and only barely outperforms heat sinks half it's price.

[GhostHitWall]

It's ur money, your call.  Ignore those tell you what to do... giving no evidence.
Watercooling will not deliver price/performance ratio.  You will not notice any difference if you plan on gaming.  The FPS boost from stock to high overclocking GPUs will result less than 15fps...  And this is assuming your overclocking is stable.

For the CPU part, on gaming... forget abt it. No game requires high-end cpu to run smooth or better fps.  Even highly cpu based games such as minecraft... don't utilize all 4 cores.  X99 with 6-8cores... pointless.  

At this moment, AMD does not offer any performance on their GPU/CPU.  What they have is price.   So speaking of high performance you should intel+nVidia.  Or maybe wait for AMD300series.

If you opt to go Intel+nVidia.  From my experience is that gtx980 SLI at TDP 165w*2.  Even you overclock it, watercooling is unnecessary.  You can take the heat to other location or direction depending on the radiator.  And also let it run quieter.  But speaking of performance, not so much of improvement if you want it stable.

If you take something like R9-295X2.  tdp at 500.  Watercooling makes much more sense, but less performance+spending more.  I really don't think there's a reason to choose this config.  Besides, it already come with AIO.

CPU overclocking is much more noticeable from my experience.  Especially when you unzip files, or even in basic modeling/rendering.  But I really doubt there's any reason to spend all that $$ "just" for the performance. 

Go for a silent build with a custom loop and nice looking tubing etc... I think that will suit you best

 

[Donnyboy98]

I would love to say and show that I have a liquid cooled PC but I don't think I could be bothered. The risk for a beginner and a 3k PC is too much of a risk!

Thanks guys

[Faceman]

@Donnyboy98

 

A fantastic alternative to custom loops are All-in-ones.  They cost a fraction of the price, are so much easier to set up, and perform almost as good as the custom loops.

 

Check out my How to Water Cool a CPU and Single GPU for Under $200 USD Guide.  Of course this can be done with dual GPUs, but it gets slightly more complicated, and you have to start planning ahead by going with bigger cases, and thinking about airflow.

 

I did it to my rig, and I couldn't be happier.  My temperatures are incredible, I don't exceed 50C on either CPU or GPU after long gaming sessions, and I paid less than $200.  It is also usable on future GPUs if I later decide to upgrade.