When to water cool?

[Felix0411]

Hello

 

I was recently looking at some APUs and CPUs for a PC build and noticed default clock speeds of up to 4.0GHz. That particular APU (AMD A6-Series A6-6420K (Black Edition)) was a dual core, using 65W of power. My current CPU is hardly anything crazy (Intel i3-3217U @ 1.80GHz) so I was wondering at what point a processor gets so powerful it needs to be water cooled?

 

Thanks

[XTankSlayerX]

As far as I know its mostly just for looks and sound.

[Felix0411]

As far as I know its mostly just for looks and sound.

 

But surely when you enter the realm of 4.5GHz+ you'll need something beefier than a 120mm fan?

[i0am0zero]

Well you should begin water cooling whenever you want to, its not just for looks or sound since you would still need a fan and fans make noise.

[JebKerman]

Well you should begin water cooling whenever you want to, its not just for looks or sound since you would still need a fan and fans make noise.

but the fan(s) won't have to spin as fast, producing much less noise

[Felix0411]

but the fan(s) won't have to spin as fast, producing much less noise

 

I really don't mind too much about fan noise.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Hello

 

I was recently looking at some APUs and CPUs for a PC build and noticed default clock speeds of up to 4.0GHz. That particular APU (AMD A6-Series A6-6420K (Black Edition)) was a dual core, using 65W of power. My current CPU is hardly anything crazy (Intel i3-3217U @ 1.80GHz) so I was wondering at what point a processor gets so powerful it needs to be water cooled?

 

Thanks

 

When you have components worth water cooling, time and money to burn and are disappointed with the temperatures and noise of your build even after having thoroughly tried air cooling.

 

Water cooling have become more of a novelty nowadays because even strong CPU's like the 5960X and 300W GPU's like the 290X can be effectively air cooled. 

So emphasis on the when you have time and money to burn.

[Pomfinator]

Water cooling is a "because I can" type of thing.  Pretty much any system is absolutely fine running crazy overclocks on air, since OCing is not just dependent on temperature but stability of the voltage as well.  

 

It's also far harder to maintain, takes a long time to set-up, costs significantly more money, and has a very high probability of messing up.

[Felix0411]

Thanks

[harrynowl]

but the fan(s) won't have to spin as fast, producing much less noise

No instead you have to deal with the pump which is louder than most fans are

[Tim Drake]

Low-End/Mid Range, Air coolers win everytime in pure performance

 

But once you get in to the 240mm/280mm/360mm, then the water coolers seem to win.

 

I would say mostly for looks and sound and a lower range.

[Opcode]

Water cooling is primarily for overclocking enthusiasts. Air doesn't have the cooling capacity as that of liquid. Tho today with AIO systems flooding the market (get it? "flooding" lel) people tend to chose them over air coolers simply because they perform much better at the same price point and are much more ascetically pleasing rather than having a big brick of aluminum in your side window.