Is water cooling worth it?

[ekkelekkekt]

I am making a computer (around $2,000). It will be used for gaming and productivity. The build will feature a i7 8700k and most likely gtx1080. Is it worth paying the extra price and use the extra energy to watercool it, or should I just buy for instance the gtx 1080ti instead?

 

ps. The visual is not that important.

[WereCat]

Rather the 1080 ti

[3 Lions]

What 'water cooling' solution were you thinking about (AIO or custom loop)? 

[knightslugger]

watercool what, exactly... The CPU, GPU, or both? what kind of gaming? what kind of productivity?

 

for silence, liquid is a go to. For maximum Pascal overclock and stability, liquid cool is a must.

[IKnight]

2 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

watercool what, exactly... The CPU, GPU, or both? what kind of gaming? what kind of productivity?

 

for silence, liquid is a go to. For maximum Pascal overclock and stability, liquid cool is a must.

Please, Pascal is one of the most power efficient Nvidia platforms so far. Why go to the effort of overclocking and cooling it when you can get a 1080ti?

[ekkelekkekt]

Just now, knightslugger said:

watercool what, exactly... The CPU, GPU, or both? what kind of gaming? what kind of productivity?

 

for silence, liquid is a go to. For maximum Pascal overclock and stability, liquid cool is a must.

2

Games: Like PUGB, Fortnite, Overwatch and Doom

Productivity: coding, watching videos, email, web-browsing and other non-intensive tasks

 

Just now, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

What 'water cooling' solution were you thinking about (AIO or custom loop)? 

That is what I am trying to find out

[ekkelekkekt]

Also: give suggestions both for only water cooling one thing (like only gpu) and complete system

[knightslugger]

1 minute ago, IKnight said:

Please, Pascal is one of the most power efficient Nvidia platforms so far. Why go to the effort of overclocking and cooling it when you can get a 1080ti?

because the gains are there to be had across the entire GP10x line. Clocks are much more stable AND HIGH when the Pascal GPU core is cool (sub 40*C).

[3 Lions]

Just now, ekkelekkekt said:

That is what I am trying to find out

You need to make that decision yourself, until you tell us what you want your build to be we can only give our opinions on what you should do. 

[Santo22]

I would say it depends on how much effort and time you are willing to devote to the system. If you want to get it together in a set and forget it kind of way, air cooling is the best option. If you are like me and others on this forum and actually enjoy building, tearing down and rebuilding, then water cooling will keep your components cooler, allow for higher clocks and overall lengthen the life of your products. That all comes at the effort of draining and cleaning and making sure everything is working properly with no leaks and what not. If you're somewhere in the middle, then an AIO for the CPU and the 1080ti will be just fine. It all comes down to you and what you want out of the system. 

[ekkelekkekt]

Just now, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

  3 minutes ago, ekkelekkekt said:

That is what I am trying to find out 

You need to make that decision yourself, until you tell us what you want your build to be we can only give our opinions on what you should do. 

1

I don't know anything about water cooling (any option), but if people there mean that I should use money on that, instead of buying even better stuff, I will do that instead

[knightslugger]

4 minutes ago, ekkelekkekt said:

Games: Like PUGB, Fortnite, Overwatch and Doom

Productivity: coding, watching videos, email, web-browsing and other non-intensive tasks

high refresh rate a requirement? You may want a custom loop here... You'll find partner card manufacturers generally have decent supply of 1080ti's with their water blocks ready to go at reasonable prices, and to be honest that's the way i'd go if i was looking for a high power gaming rig.

 

The just hit EKWB up for a CPU block, and a think 360mm rad and a D5 pump and reservoir kit and you're in business.

[ekkelekkekt]

2 minutes ago, Santo22 said:

I would say it depends on how much effort and time you are willing to devote to the system. If you want to get it together in a set and forget it kind of way, air cooling is the best option. If you are like me and others on this forum and actually enjoy building, tearing down and rebuilding, then water cooling will keep your components cooler, allow for higher clocks and overall lengthen the life of your products. That all comes at the effort of draining and cleaning and making sure everything is working properly with no leaks and what not. If you're somewhere in the middle, then an AIO for the CPU and the 1080ti will be just fine. It all comes down to you and what you want out of the system. 

So if I buy get water cooling I will have to use more effort on maintenance? 

[3 Lions]

Just now, ekkelekkekt said:

So if I buy get water cooling I will have to use more effort on maintenance? 

Depends on which water cooling solution you go for.

[knightslugger]

Just now, ekkelekkekt said:

So if I buy get water cooling I will have to use more effort on maintenance? 

once a year ain't so bad. beats the three times a year on cleaning DUST.

[Santo22]

if you do a custom loop, yes. it will need to be drained and water changed at some point. and of course, there's always the chance of leaks or components failing like the pump. I mean, the possibility of failed components can be had with anything, but adding a water loop you are adding more points of failure. An AIO could fail as well, but less likely. 

[ekkelekkekt]

Just now, knightslugger said:

high refresh rate a requirement?

 

I am considering a 144 hz monitor, most likely 1440p, 21:9 or 16:9. High fps is not a life or death-kind of situation, but 60 fps is pretty important (of course)

[ekkelekkekt]

3 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

once a year ain't so bad. beats the three times a year on cleaning DUST.

Only once a year is totally ok! I thought like maybe multiple times a month

[knightslugger]

Just now, ekkelekkekt said:

I am considering a 144 hz monitor, most likely 1440p, 21:9 or 16:9. High fps is not a life or death-kind of situation, but 60 fps is pretty important (of course)

You're gonna want a 1080ti for 144hz 1440p. aircooled might be an option, but you'd be far better served (though more expense) to get it liquid cooled.

[ekkelekkekt]

So if I understand correctly: 

Water cooling will

1. make my system run quieter
2. be better for the pc (components will not break so fast, unless the water cooling starts leaking)
3. give better performance

[billstelling]

11 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

high refresh rate a requirement? You may want a custom loop here... You'll find partner card manufacturers generally have decent supply of 1080ti's with their water blocks ready to go at reasonable prices, and to be honest that's the way i'd go if i was looking for a high power gaming rig.

 

The just hit EKWB up for a CPU block, and a think 360mm rad and a D5 pump and reservoir kit and you're in business.

Agreed.. Not to mention, the water cooled variants are much cheaper due to the fact that the miners tend to stay away from them. In fact, they seem to be holding at their suggested prices and tend to be easier to find and buy at a reasonable price.. You could pretty much pay for the water parts just from the savings. Yeah, weird.. isn't it. But it's a side effect of the times..

[Jrasero]

I would say depends on your case and form factor and if you plan to overclock.  If your building a SFF PC I highly recommend going at least AIO.  If you plan to overclock liquid cooling without a doubt helps.  

 

1080 Ti is the most future proof gaming card at the moment since it can do 4K 60Hz Ultra at 60 FPS in most games, but if you don't play at those specs a good 1080, 1070 Ti, or even 1070 in SLI would be nice as well

 

 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1080 Ti. Watercooling is often beat out by something like a Dark Rock Pro 3/R1 Universal anyways

[Mick Naughty]

Its always worth it. Especially with the horrid 10 series. Id prefer to not hear much from my pc if possible, even more so if I'm not gaming.

[For Science!]

@ekkelekkekt My opinion:

 

For performance? - Not worth the investment (especially in your case if getting a 1080Ti is the alternative)

For looks - Yes, I think it looks great

For silence - Yes, and this is in my opinion the principle gain in custom water cooling

For longevity - Maybe, but you will likely replace the components before you get to the point of noticing differences in degradation.