Is Water Cooling Worth It?

[militant83]

Is water cooling worth it for a productivity machine that will not see any sort of gaming and would only get a mild overclock on a 6800k processor? Compared to running something like a Noctua D15S?

[Christopher_]

I would go with the noctua. 

Less points of failure.

less noice (than the low end aio coolers)

 

[suchamoneypit]

With a mild overclock and purely a productivity machine? Nope.

[Mira Yurizaki]

No, since you aren't going to be pushing the clock speeds hard there's no benefit water cooling will get you.

[NTDaws]

IF your not pushing your clock speeds then no don't bother.

[pwn_intended]

It is totally worth it if you have the time, money and DESIRE to make an awesome watercooled PC.

It is not worth it if you are not interested in doing so and don't have plans of overclocking it (much).

 

EDIT: totally forgot about AIO water cooler kits. These can be very effective, but as someone above me said, water cooling adds more points of failure. A good air cooler like the noctua can keep up with a cheaper water cooler, and if the fan dies, your cpu wont instantly overheat.

[CookieMaster]

Not sure how expensive air coolers are but you can get a good water cooler for $50 usd

Pre-built. 

[corrado33]

2 minutes ago, CookieMaster said:

Not sure how expensive air coolers are but you can get a good water cooler for $50 usd

Pre-built. 

Sure, but air coolers are MUCH more simple. Nothing invisible can break. Sure, the fan can break, but usually the mobo will throw up a warning for that. In a water cooling setup, you have the fans on the rad, the pump, and all the plumbing to worry about. Is the plumbing clogged up? Should you take it off and check? Not to mention that if you do manage to spring a leak you can quite possibly ruin components on your board.

 

Air cooling all the way, especially for the OPs purpose. 

 

That WOULD make an interesting video though. What's a better value... lower end CPU with large overclock and watercooling, or higher end CPU to start with?

[PigWithAMustache]

For your needs, the only reason you would want a water cooler is because they look cool. So no, don't waste your money on one. Get an air cooler and you're set.

[m0k]

sure

[Doc.Tor]

I have a low-end AIO water-cooler in my system now, but I am considering a standard air-cooler (CM 212evo) for my AMD FX 8350 since i run at out-of-the-box settings, the pump sound has increased steadily since i bought it despite regular cleaning, so if it fits your budget i would go for extra case fans and a reliable air-cooler.    

[THFourteen]

I think its worth it - every time i look up and see my build and think of all the time i spent planning and building it, it makes me happy.

 

But do i get any extra performance out of it - no not really, but that's not why i did it.

[paddy-stone]

Nope, not needed at all. I would settle for a quieter heatsink/fan combo like the NH-D15 as you said... but only if you don't forsee the need to change RAM. They are huge! - I would probably just go with a slimmer model in this usage case, maybe the NH U9s https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/FcfmP6/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhu9s

[xentropa]

I don't know about AIOs but custom water cooling isnt worth it.  the performance gain per price is already past diminishing returns.

 

<-  custom loop owner

[Xerial1]

You could get an all-in-one CPU watercooler; good ones are almost the same as a high quality air cooler. They are very reliable nowadays and heck of a lot easier to clean out. 

[atomicus]

On 02/11/2016 at 2:29 PM, xentropa said:

I don't know about AIOs but custom water cooling isnt worth it.  the performance gain per price is already past diminishing returns.

 

<-  custom loop owner

 

I agree, but the COOLNESS gain per price is potentially huge, and I don't mean temps!

[Ithanul]

If its a daily driver and you not pushing the overclock or abusing it with a full load 24/7 then no point in going water cooled.

 

 

[OddsCrazyStuff]

For a work station so can water cooling be worth it, if you need silence (for sound work and so on).

Its harder to get air silent, without having high temps (big rads means slower fan speed).

[militant83]

If I ever did liquid cooling it would be an AIO system..but even then my biggest worry is dumping all of this money into a system and it would only take one leak to ruin it all. And then I'm out however much gets ruined in the process. And they do look cool lol.

[OddsCrazyStuff]

22 minutes ago, militant83 said:

If I ever did liquid cooling it would be an AIO system..but even then my biggest worry is dumping all of this money into a system and it would only take one leak to ruin it all. And then I'm out however much gets ruined in the process. And they do look cool lol.

Air coolers can ruin your PC as well, but its usually do to the weight of them (biggest problem during transport). Air cooling can also raise the overall system temperature, depending on overall air flow in the case.

 

AIO's are normally as safe as air cooling, as they dont leak without a reason (they dont deteriorate enough to leak or damage them self).

So I would not use that as an argument against it.