liquid cooling questions

[JDB4LFE]

I was recently look about on newegg and ran into a difficult decision. I read up on the 2 coolers I was looking at. It's between the Thermaltake Water 2.0 PRO or the CoolerMaster Seidon 120XL. They run pretty similar, but I've seen different people say that theirs have either done exceptionally well or fell short by quite some margin. I'm not sure which one to pick, so I figured I would see what the community had to say.

[DyGr00339]

My opinion is 

1 Is it better than stock?

2 Do I need it?

3 What is the noise?

4 How much?

 

If following this and it applies just get the better looking one in my opinion

[Gullerback]

I've only fooled around with a water 2.0 PRO, But it is an excellent cooler.   My buddy was getting anywhere from 21c to 36c idle (depending on ambient temps) on a 2600k (stock clocks at the time).   This was with the fans running 1200rpm

[JDB4LFE]

well noise isn't much of a factor for me. (i refer you to my computer specs).....I have an air cooler and 2 120mm (2500rpm/90'ish cfm) thermaltake fans on my air cooler(which i would be putting on the radiator). i've never used the stock cooler on my 8320. my idle temps drop down to like 9c when im not doing anything(motherboard drops cpu down to ~0.8v @ 1.4ghz). max temps i hit like 56c when running rendering/prime/etc (100% usage). gaming i never go over 46c'ish. my fx8320 runs 1.4v @ 4.5ghz, asrock 990fx extreme3. so, you see, im not really hurting for a water cooler, but it would have to perform better than my current setup for me to even consider it.

[JDB4LFE]

uhm...ok i waited a few days (6/7 lol). don't wanna start a new topic for the same thing. just wanted some community input before i make my decision....watched a bunch of videos and it shows the 2 AIO's to be pretty similar.

[airdeano]

uhm...ok i waited a few days (6/7 lol). don't wanna start a new topic for the same thing. just wanted some community input before i make my decision....watched a bunch of videos and it shows the 2 AIO's to be pretty similar.

 

looks-wise, they are similar, the Tt has a 120x 49 rad as the CM has a 120x 38 rad.

the Tt has crappy fans and big rad, the CM has a thinner rad and better fans. by the time

to purchase one and buy new fans you have invested a lot and have smallish returns in

thermal performance. could have had a high-end air cooler for same or less money

(Noctua NH-D14, Phanteks TC14PE, silver arrow) and same cooling temperatures.

 

another thing to watch is the case sometimes cannot accept thick rads (i/o issues,

roof fan issues, etc..) so be diligent in case options for these types of coolers.

 

airdeano

[JDB4LFE]

Well, as an update, I went with the Cooler Master Seidon 120XL. I replaced the stock fans with my thermaltake 2500rpm fans (the cooler master ones are horribly loud at max). TT fans vs CM fans I managed a good 3-4c on average cooler with the TT fans at a much lower noise. I never see above 51c on full load with Prime95, so I'm quite happy with the decision.