Is watercooling good for anything but wow factor on new hardware?

[Unclescar]

With how efficient and low running temp new hardware has become, what is the value in watercooling a modern rig aside from aesthetics? what else can you water cool than your GPU and CPU? (well, ram, and in some cases the mobo, but that is literally almost completely an aesthetic only thing.
Don't get me wrong, I think watercooling is sick and sexy and I've always dreamed of a full custom watercooling solution, but new hardware continues to run cooler and cooler, and often times you run into stability issues before you run into heat issues when overclocking. If air cooling is more than sufficient, and significantly less expensive, how can you justify spending a large amount of money adding pumps and tubes and stuff?

I'm not dissing on watercooling, I'm going to be building a new PC into a homemade desk in the next few months and I would absolutely love to have a sexy watercooling set up, but when I'm already pushing my (generous) budget getting some very high end hardware that doesn't NEED a custom water loop.. how can I convince my wife other than how good it'll look?

[vorticalbox]

water = cooler = move head room for overclocking. If you're not overclocking then water cooling will do nothing to increase performance but will lower temps and noise.

[QueenDemetria]

Watercooling has more advantages outside of cooling capacity, like consolidating the heat(outputting the heat out of one place instead of spread throughout the case) and it allows you to have more abstract designs(if you are designing something unconventional) without being constrained by heatsinks and their airflow.

[Ryoku]

11 minutes ago, Unclescar said:

With how efficient and low running temp new hardware has become, what is the value in watercooling a modern rig aside from aesthetics? what else can you water cool than your GPU and CPU? (well, ram, and in some cases the mobo, but that is literally almost completely an aesthetic only thing.
Don't get me wrong, I think watercooling is sick and sexy and I've always dreamed of a full custom watercooling solution, but new hardware continues to run cooler and cooler, and often times you run into stability issues before you run into heat issues when overclocking. If air cooling is more than sufficient, and significantly less expensive, how can you justify spending a large amount of money adding pumps and tubes and stuff?

I'm not dissing on watercooling, I'm going to be building a new PC into a homemade desk in the next few months and I would absolutely love to have a sexy watercooling set up, but when I'm already pushing my (generous) budget getting some very high end hardware that doesn't NEED a custom water loop.. how can I convince my wife other than how good it'll look?

main reason I watercooled my PC was sound, when overclocked my gpu fans ran really high and I could hear the fan noise with headphones on, it also lead to more consistent lower temps.  Beyond that it pretty subjective, what is worth 600 usd to me likely isn't worth 600 usd to other people.

[Unclescar]

10 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

 

not really, except sound

 

 

17 minutes ago, Ryoku said:

main reason I watercooled my PC was sound

Okay! Very excellent points. See my computer will be a DAW home recording studio, and having a silent PC is definitely a good goal to strive for. spreading the heat over a huge surface area with many very low RPM fans is much quieter than a few very fast fans. This would also be something to consider when finalizing the layout of the desk I'm building my next PC in.

[Daniel644]

NOISE!! Or more specifically the lack of it, I did an AIO on my build and without panels on the case I have to be within like 2 feet of it to even hear the pump and can't hear the fans at all, it's so freaking quite.

[yogeshnaidu]

Noise or sound are good points but it also depends on the watercooling stuff you invest on. To actually convince ur wife that is going to be totally silent the parts  u have to get have to be the best. Good rad, pump, fans will lead to actually a very silent build. There are no cutting corners because if u do u will introduce more problem. The problem u have now is to actually convince her that the cost can be justified by the silence. Ur doing a desk so obviously ur not going to use an aio. Custom watercooling is totally a different thing.

[atomicus]

The sound argument is a good one, but is it really worth it over air? You can get a VERY quiet air cooled system if you do it right... it is possible. Not as quiet as a custom loop granted, but given the cost of going custom, the question of value is certainly a valid one and hard to argue. By the same token however, you can end up with a noisy custom loop if you do it wrong, it's not fool proof. Ultimately it depends HOW quiet you want/need it to be. We're not talking wind turbine vs a mouse whispering noise levels here, but shaving off mid-double figure dB levels vs air is the most you'll get realistically... you'd probably be surprised how quiet you can get an air build these days. Temps however will always be better with custom, especially under load.

 

For me, it's an aesthetic above anything else, and I love how you can create a totally unique and stunning looking build that gives you pleasure just sitting there looking at it. This makes no real financial sense of course, but I don't think logic really comes in to the equation for most people who watercool. We're all a bit nuts.