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[Pejo]

So I'm nearing the end of selecting out parts for my new PC build that, based on previous builds, should last me ~5 years at least. The last piece of the puzzle is the cooling system. I've only ever used fans/air cooling in previous builds because frankly I was (and still am) worried about fucking up the installation of a liquid pump/tubes/reservoir and causing all sorts of problems. I live in a desert-type location with hot summers, but I typically don't overclock my hardware, and I try to keep up on regular dusting and maintenance of filters/fans etc.

I've done a fair amount of research into liquid cooling systems, and it honestly seems like a lot of expense and work. On top of that, it seems recommended to completely flush out the system with distilled water and refill it 2-3 times a year at minimum. Just like how I used to want a fish tank until I saw the maintenance required to properly own one, it's been a concern of mine.

At any rate, I'm just looking for some advice or opinions from those of you that use liquid cooling, or have used it in the past, and your experiences with it. What do you guys think about it?

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I don't know a whole lot about it but I have a water cooled system and haven't changed the fluid for 2 years. Hasn't had any impact on performance or temps as far as I can see.

 

[TheStam]

I got my first AIO on my last build, but I kind of regret it. I don't see any benifit in cooling performance, it's expensive and there's an element of stress adding liquid to a build.

But I also don't care about internal looks, have a boring box and the computer on the floor out of sight.

I'd choose a big ass Noctua air cooler if I did it again.

 

[Mister Wolf]

No. Doubt you will see any significant performance gains.

 

[clarky]

Unless your overclocking or live near the sun i'd say air cooling is just fine.

 

[draliko]

for the last build i got an aio for the cpu, just for looks sincerely and because i got a pretty nice discount on it, otherwise i woudl have gone air as always. a gpu+cpu custom loop costs way too much and i only necessary if it's your fetish... otherwise no real world benefit if you're not chasing benchs scores online

 

[Pejo]

I got my first AIO on my last build, but I kind of regret it. I don't see any benifit in cooling performance, it's expensive and there's an element of stress adding liquid to a build.

But I also don't care about internal looks, have a boring box and the computer on the floor out of sight.

I'd choose a big ass Noctua air cooler if I did it again.

Thanks. That actually answers another question I had in the back of my mind - which CPU fan is recommended these days. I'll check out Noctua

for the last build i got an aio for the cpu, just for looks sincerely and because i got a pretty nice discount on it, otherwise i woudl have gone air as always. a gpu+cpu custom loop costs way too much and i only necessary if it's your fetish... otherwise no real world benefit if you're not chasing benchs scores online

Thanks for the insight. I'm not planning on even having a glass panel on my case and I want minimal RGB, so looks are irrelevant in my case. But yea I can't deny that in a "showoff" build, a properly routed and lit liquid system looks cool as fuck.

 

[draliko]

Thanks. That actually answers another question I had in the back of my mind - which CPU fan is recommended these days. I'll check out Noctua

Thanks for the insight. I'm not planning on even having a glass panel on my case and I want minimal RGB, so looks are irrelevant in my case. But yea I can't deny that in a "showoff" build, a properly routed and lit liquid system looks cool as fuck.

for air coolers no need to go with noctua anymore, PS120SE and ak620 are the budget kings now, similar spec to top noctua, way lower price (like 30% or 50% of noctua). ( or search any review)

 

[winjer]

Unless you are doing some heavy OC, but even then, there isn't much reasons to get a water cooler.
There are plenty of air towers that get good temperatures, but without all the hassle of installing and maintaining a WC system.

 

[Topher]

More hassle than it is worth, by a long run, in my experience. If you were one of these guys who are trying to break into the top 3DMark scores then sure, but otherwise nah.

 

[Loomy]

Get a noctua tower cooler and call it a day

 

[Gaiff]

You mean a custom loop? Absolutely not worth it these days. Most parts are already clocked almost as high as they can out of the box.

There’s a Matrix 4090, the one with a water block and even under water, it’s around 5-6% better than the regular 4090s. It’s also a golden chip so it’s specifically picked out for its overclocking potential, yet it’s pitiful.

It’s also way harder to resell a custom loop.

Don’t bother with it. 10 years ago when cards could be overclocked to 30% past their reference clocks, it was worth it. These days, it’s useless unless you want something quiet that looks cool.

 

[hinch7]

Custom loops are a pain to maintain for most people and pricey.. AiO's nowadays are very performant, easy to install and hard to mess up. So I'd go that route if max cooling and convenience is what you want. They only have a limited life span depending on how long until the pump gives up but that should last at least five years and are relatively easy to replace and cost isnt a lot.

If you want to set and forget its probably better to stick to air cooling. Though if you are thermal throttling of close to it and performance is being held back then going with a decent AiO may be the way to go. Something like an 280/360 Arctic Freezer III and you'll be good for some time. Its also on offer rn and can be had for a little more than a decent air cooler.

 

[scraz]

I'm old and value low maintenance and shit just working over being on the bleeding edge. Seen enough stories of AIOs gunking up and catastrophic failures of custom loops that I'm on my second build with a Noctua. As someone else said everything released these days is speced with little to no head room for overclocking so it's just not worth it.

 

[nemiroff]

I have a bit of liquid cooling.. But it's mostly for show. In practice it's not that useful except for some specific cases. Air cooling is normally the way most people should go.

But with that said, Air cooling isn't a sure thing, there's plenty of pitfalls. There's good air cooling and there's also definitely bad air cooling, so a tiny bit of research goes a long way.

 

[Jakk]

If you're talking about custom liquid cooling, then it's 100% not worth it unless you enjoy it as a hobby. As for AIOs, I would say the good ones make sense if you have a power hungry, hot CPU like the 14900K. However, if your main use case is gaming, there is no reason not to go with the 7800X3D, which does fine with good air coolers, so I see no reason to get an AIO in that case. Another instance when AIOs may be useful is when you have a really small case, which can't fit a good, big air cooler, but it might have enough space for an AIO.

 

[hinch7]

If you're talking about custom liquid cooling, then it's 100% not worth it unless you enjoy it as a hobby. As for AIOs, I would say the good ones make sense if you have a power hungry, hot CPU like the 14900K. However, if your main use case is gaming, there is no reason not to go with the 7800X3D, which does fine with good air coolers, so I see no reason to get an AIO in that case. Another instance when AIOs may be useful is when you have a really small case, which can't fit a good, big air cooler, but it might have enough space for an AIO.

Aio's also take up less space on the actual board itself. That makes it easier to configure your system and access to your motherboard and slots. Making troubleshooting and upgrading things like SSD's a bit less of a faff. A lot of air cooler block off access (partially or otherwise) ram slots. Plus its safer to transport since there's less weight hanging off the motherboard.

There are benefits of going aio for conveinience purposes.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

absolutely not worth it. The reason to go with a custom loop is for the fun of building it. It makes no sense from a cost/benefit perspective.

 

[RoboFu]

I've built many water cooled systems in the past but just stopped now. it's really just moving the fan somewhere else. If you are not doing massive overclocking ( which I do not see any real need for it anymore ) a decent fan will do the job.

 

[Schmendrick]

Unless you are into overclocking score hunting or are into it for the looks it's an absolute waste of money.

Water cooling doesn't perform any better than good air cooling in normal use cases.

 

[CGNoire]

I got my first AIO on my last build, but I kind of regret it. I don't see any benifit in cooling performance, it's expensive and there's an element of stress adding liquid to a build.

But I also don't care about internal looks, have a boring box and the computer on the floor out of sight.

I'd choose a big ass Noctua air cooler if I did it again.

Same. Ive just built a 13900k/4090 all just air cooled. Hovers around 75c when gaming. Seems ok. Didnt want to deal with dat stress.

 

[Lillie]

get a phantom spirit air cooler

 

[Astray]

for air coolers no need to go with noctua anymore, PS120SE and ak620 are the budget kings now, similar spec to top noctua, way lower price (like 30% or 50% of noctua). ( or search any review)

There's now the PS Evo, which is supposedly even better!

Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO Review: This isn’t a competition. This is a massacre.

As long as it will fit in your case, this is the air cooler you should probably buy.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Hohenheim]

I have never done any maintenance on the water cooling on my pc's. Never had any issues.

 

[Garibaldi]

Don't do it. Unless you really want to. I built a full custom loop system when the 30 rtx series released. It's a right mess on to maintain. I've got good loop maintenance options (drain plugs as good spots etc) but it's still not worth it. The amount of space your left with after adding radiators and hard tubing is a right piss on. I've basically got to drain the loop and remove a rad if I have any issues with a RAM DIMM. The O rings on the fittings need to be checked every so often for leaks, coolant refreshes.

Never again. Yeah my GPU runs at like 48c even when cooking but the rest is such a mess on. Plus it costs a bloody fortune. It easily added a grand onto my build once I'd bought all the tools to build it on top of the actual components and consumables.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Not really worth it for the most part. The actual temp difference isn't that great compared to a good quality air cooler, and Overclocking on modern chips isn't very exciting and doesn't yield proportional results. Generally not worth it.

The caveat here is that I'm talking about full size desktops with decent airflow. When we're talking about smaller form factor PCs, liquid cooling might be a better option.

 

[MikeM]

Team air cooler all fuckin day. The fear of any water leaks would give me perma-stress.

What is this build? Is there going to be any real benefit?

 

[Rickyiez]

Air cooler is quite a looker nowadays if you're worried about the aesthetic

 

[Yerd]

I started doing custom loop on my last 3 builds. For me, it was something I had always wanted to do, and finally had the money to do it. I wanted to do it for the sake of doing it.

My last build involved an external radiator with the pump and reservoir attached. Any new system can be used with it. I attach it with quick disconnect fittings all around. Now, thinking of my next build, when Nvidia 5x is released, I'm not sure I'm going to keep watercooling.

Aside from all the pump/res/fittings you have to add the cost of the blocks on top of new hardware. It's excessive costs. Know that if you still want to continue. Now that we have $1500 gpus, it's not such a comfortable prospect.


Flushing the system is only necessary for colored liquid. If you use basic liquids, most times, it will last quite a while. If you properly prepare the equipment you shouldn't need it. It's also needed when you get contaminants or some type of organics growing.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Absolutely not, unless you want a silent system, but that means also changing the gpu to liquid; radiator still makes noise though.
I've used a scythe mugen pcgh for several builds now and it's awesome, will keep using it for new builds as long as possible.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

*Edit* exactly what the person above me mentions.

I will talk to you about them...and the reason we can talk at a normal volume in this room is because my pc doesn't have a fan sitting on top of a CPU spinning at 100000000000000000000 rpms.

I don't really care about the performance, but the reduced noise is appreciated esp in an office full of PC's.

If you don't want to go the route of getting an apprenticeship in plumbing you could also buy an AIO. Still get the noise reduction without having all the overhead/sweat equity.

 

[Celcius]

I’ve been using air coolers my whole life and don’t plan to change that soon. I like the reliability and easy of use.

Noctua is my choice for air coolers and I’ve had this nh-d14 cooler for like 13 years now. Other companies may be cheaper but when a new socket comes out and you want to carry over your Noctua cooler then the company will mail you new brackets and mounting hardware for free. They have excellent customer service and their stuff lasts a loooooong time.

 

[Dorfdad]

So I have built multiple pc’s with and without liquid coolers and my conclusion is that when I can I use AIR coolers. Harder to do that with intel cpus as they run hotter.

 

[SF Kosmo]

*Edit* exactly what the person above me mentions.

I will talk to you about them...and the reason we can talk at a normal volume in this room is because my pc doesn't have a fan sitting on top of a CPU spinning at 100000000000000000000 rpms.

I don't really care about the performance, but the reduced noise is appreciated esp in an office full of PC's.

If you don't want to go the route of getting an apprenticeship in plumbing you could also buy an AIO. Still get the noise reduction without having all the overhead/sweat equity.

I have to say, I did a new build less than a year ago, air cooled, and with good quality fans I am amazed how quiet it is. I don't think it's appreciably louder than a water cooled system, except maybe at very heavy workloads like AI rendering.

 

[MikeM]

Air cooler is quite a looker nowadays if you're worried about the aesthetic

Deepcool 620? I have the non-screen version and its damn cool.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

I bought mine with an Rog Ryuo 240 and Im actually surprised by the omission of noise and how fast my CPU drops temps after heavy load.

Idle temps of 25-27 degrees and under stress sometimes in the high 50s, low 60s. Dont know how a grade A coolerblock would do though.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I've been watching several videos with AIO vs these big two tower air coolers, and the AIO no longer seem worth the hassle, or noise.
Even the big gun GPU's like the 4090 do just fine with Air cooling.
edit-but I kind of want to get an AIO just because it looks better.

 

[Reckheim]

Air Cooling is fine.

If anything maybe just get an AIO as it creates more space for air to move around in your enclosure and keeps your CPU nice and chill. Also its pretty easy to install.

 

[TMONSTER]

A custom loop It's not worth it anymore. I ran a custom cooling loop for five years, and it was great for both SLI and a CPU with a 20-30 percent overclock. But now, with SLI obsolete and GPUs and CPUs barely able to reach a 10 percent overclock, it just doesn't seem worth it. I've suffered multiple leaks with equipment worth over $5k, and the constant worry just isn't worth the near heart attack any longer.

 

[GreenAlien]

I use an aio liquid cpu cooler and it's perfect. Easy to install, safe, top cooling.

 

[SF Kosmo]

A custom loop It's not worth it anymore. I ran a custom cooling loop for five years, and it was great for both SLI and a CPU with a 20-30 percent overclock. But now, with SLI obsolete and GPUs and CPUs barely able to reach a 10 percent overclock, it just doesn't seem worth it. I've suffered multiple leaks with equipment worth over $5k, and the constant worry just isn't worth the near heart attack any longer.

It's not even just that CPUs can only overclock 10%, it's that they don't actually get anywhere close to a 10% uplift when you. So you're pushing your system into the red for margins that just don't matter.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

*Edit* exactly what the person above me mentions.

I will talk to you about them...and the reason we can talk at a normal volume in this room is because my pc doesn't have a fan sitting on top of a CPU spinning at 100000000000000000000 rpms.

I don't really care about the performance, but the reduced noise is appreciated esp in an office full of PC's.

If you don't want to go the route of getting an apprenticeship in plumbing you could also buy an AIO. Still get the noise reduction without having all the overhead/sweat equity.

There are some great air coolers that are very near silent, especially with an efficient CPU like 7800X3D. And if you want to go overkill for a system that’s whisper quiet, you can get a Liquid Freezer 3 420 for just over $100 and run it at very low speed.

 

[Fredrik]

I’ve always wanted a custom water cooler but never had the guts to do it.

AIOs are my thing though. Love the look and the consistent noise characteristic or lack of it.
But my first one, a small Corsair H80i, eventually fried my mb. Was time to upgrade anyway so no big worries. Went with an air cooler for a couple years after that though…

Today I’m a fan of Arctic Liquid Freezer, have a 320mm radiator in the gaming PC, not completely silent but close. Would love a water cooled graphics card as well. Maybe in the next build.

 

[SHA]

It's like drinking oiled water, some people know this stuff, some don't.

 

[SHA]

It will make your room hotter, cause it'll pull all the heat from your system, leaks are be all and end all topic, if you like this stuff you'd avoid this topic, other than that, it's pretty cool doing crazy things with your rig.

 

[Tommi84]

Inatead of water cooling, go with air cooling with LIQUID METAL inatead of a paste

 

[TheUsual]

I tried out an AIO for a while before switching to the Peerless Assassin when I upgraded to the 5800X3D.

The particular AIO was too damn noisy when the fans ramped up. Sounded like a PS4 Pro at its worst. Did some tuning but just couldn't take it anymore.

The Peerless Assassin is a very, very good cooler and is performing better than my AIO.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

It will make your room hotter, cause it'll pull all the heat from your system, leaks are be all and end all topic, if you like this stuff you'd avoid this topic, other than that, it's pretty cool doing crazy things with your rig.

It won’t make your room hotter. If your PC uses 500w of power then it’s releasing 500w of heat into your room regardless what kind of cooling setup you have.

 

[SHA]

It won’t make your room hotter. If your PC uses 500w of power then it’s releasing 500w of heat into your room regardless what kind of cooling setup you have.

Watch j2c, he made a fair point, water cooling a 500w rig? that's like spending on cosmetics.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Haven't used an air cooler in years myself, pretty much just stick with Corsair AIO these days. Use a 240mm on a 5800X3D now, but the 120mm I used for several years before (up until I upgraded from 3700X) is now sitting atop my nephews R5 2600 for the past year or so - still going good and cooling great Use air coolers for other builds outside of my own, have nothing against them, recent Ryzen build for my other nephew has a surprisingly good Zalman tower cooler on it