Water Cooling vs. Air Cooling - Need Advice!

[20832]

Hello Guys!

Since my system has moved to a new home (Corsair Carbide 500R), my temperatures have dropped around 7°C, which is good, but not great.

Especially my CPU temp are a little too high for my taste (allthough it's still far away from dangerous) and I want to invest in a new cooling solution to drop the temps even lower.

Of course, the question I have now is, if I should invest in a internal water cooling system (Such as H100i, H80i or the NZXT Kraken) or stick to a simpler, but yet VERY effective air cooler. I'm looking to invest quite some money into this, as this should be a long term solution and not something I want to change after a year or so.

I'm using an non - OCed Phenom II 1075T (6x 3GHz), and tbh I'm not looking into overclocking this thing anytime soon (as I'm not as experienced in Overclocking)

Now, I got some questions for you guys.
Is it really worth it upgrading to a compact water cooling solution, or (especially if OC is not planned) is it enough to get a great air cooling solution, while getting almost the same results?

What about reliability? Any known issues, especially with the water cooling solutions (pump, etc.)

Also, I leave you some information, so you guys can recommend some water/air cooling solutions to me.

- Socket: AM3
- Case: Corsair Carbide 500R; support Rads up to 280mm, Heat Sinks up to 200mm
- Max. Budget: 120€/159$/99£

Hope you can help me finding what's best for me! 👍

 

[David]

What kind of temps are you getting now?

I've installed a few of the Corsair all-in-one CPU water coolers for friends/family and nobody has had any reliability problems with them yet (all have had them at least a year at this point).

The single rad setups (H80) usually perform pretty similar to a quality aftermarket heat sink. You'll see the temps go down, certainly during load as it will cool more efficiently than the stock cooler. You'd probably want to go with a dual rad unit like the H100 though if you're expecting to see a bigger temp difference.

I think realistically something like the H80 is all you would need if you really want to go with water and aren't planning to overclock anyway.

 

[20832]

The temps aren't alarming in anyway. I'm currently getting 38°C @ 20°C ambient, and 43°C after gaming.

While gaming we won't go over 55°C, but still I think there's room to improve. Especially when I'm planning on getting a more beavier CPU etc.

 

[Camaroyenko]

You think that's bad, my computer's always at 200 F, even when I'm just on Facebook!

 

[David]

Those temps are pretty good for a stock cooler really.

I think with the H80 you'd probably get an idle closer to 30C, but your temp at load would probably still get into the 50-55C range.

With the H100 your idle would probably drop a bit closer to 20... maybe around 25, but your at load temp would probably stay in the 40-50C range.

Just my best guesses based on what I've seen and the reviews I've read.

 

[20832]

Well, it's not the stock cooler. It's definetely a little more efficient than the stock AMD one.

But again, I'm just looking for "insane" cooling performance, even when I'm planning on upgrading to a 3570 or 3770k for example. The H100i offers a wide compatibility with AMD, but also Intel CPU's

 

[David]

Then I think you would want a dual rad system like the H100. I don't think you would see a very big difference with the H80 over your current cooler, and the 100 will leave you with some extra wiggle room when you do (you will) decide to overclock the i7.

I haven't used many of the fancy aftermarket air cooled heat sinks, so maybe some others can weigh in on that option, but I don't think you could really go wrong with the H100.

 

[20832]

Alright. Thanks for the help!

It's much appreciated, David! 👍

 

[corporatesteve]

From my heavy research on it, it all depends on what your doing...

If your planning to overclock your computer, the internal corsair water coolers are better, however at full settings ( which is where it will be at ) has been said to be very loud...more so than most air coolers, there is also the possible risk of damaging components because the corsair coolers do have defective products from time to time.

If you don't plan to overclock than the air coolers are your best bet, not only are they future proof but they will hands down be cooler than any corsair internal cooler at normal settings ( see noctua and phanteks reviews ). In addition, they are super quiet and you will never have to worry about damaging components...


Overall I would pick an air cooler like the phanteks
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709004

they are around 1-3 degrees cooler than the noctua dh14's....

I would only recommend the corsair internal coolers if you were to overclock like mad crazy and you didnt have enough money for a DIY setup, and also if you didnt have enough room to fit everything, if you do pick it for any reason i would go with the h100 and mount it on the top shroud because your case was designed around that cooler.


Im using the phanteks and its a beast
see this page for my recent setup of it on a build
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=268595&page=2

 

[20832]

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the late response, Steve!

The problem, I think I could have are RAM Slots. As those beefy air coolers are not only tall but also wide, I'm a little worried, that I won't have enough space, as I even had to move my XMS3 Corsair's to the 2nd and 4th slot, so my small Freezer 64 fits properly.

As I'm also looking to upgrade my system soon, I'll probably go for either a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge (or whatever architecture it is, when I saved enough money) and probably for an i5 K - Processor. And then I want to do some basic overclocking (nothing crazy, but around 3.8 - 4GHz maybe?) and then it's important to me, that the cooler I've installed also fits and can provide enough cooling performance. I'm not a real silent freak (since I mostly listen to music while browsing, can't hear the fans anyways) so noise consumption isn't that much of an issue for me, especially when the fans are easily replaceable with a better/quieter fan.

 

[20832]

Just as a little update: I bought the Noctua NH-D14!
Exact/better performance than the H100i at lower noise level and costs!

I'm totally satisfied with this beast of a cooler. Idle Core Temp: 16°C; while playing 25°C
INSANE!