Air or liquid cooling

[Magnarider]

I have a i7 4790k , MSI Z97A Gaming 7 MOBO 850 watt PSU GTX 960 I use this for gaming lately I have been hitting temps of 88 Cel. with a stock Intel cooler so I need to upgrade my cooling system. I have a Mid tower and limited room and dont want to spend alot Any ideas on what I should buy Liquid opr water?

Thanks

 

[Archgaull]

What is your budget, and what is your case?

 

[gamer1357]

I prefer Air. Quieter and cheaper with similar performance to more expensive closed loop coolers.
These are my favorite
$40: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/scythe-cpu-cooler-scktt1000
$70: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk019
$90: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd15

Also check out phanteks and Cryorig coolers. Also make sure they fit in you case.

 

[McFee]

I second the Air. I think the AIO are over rated overall except for 1 or 2. Air is less complicated and quiet. I oc'd my 5820k with my noctua. Its dead silent and cool.

 

[Outlander_04]

Another vote for air .

The heat pipes in air coolers are filled with water anyway so all an AIO does is add complication and cost

 

[Magnarider]

I have a Zalman Z9 U3 Mid Tower case and I would like to spend between 50 and 100. Sounds like everyone is voting for air coolers. I also like the thought of not having to worry about leaks or things like that. What does everyone suggest as a good quality but not to expensive air cooler?

 

[synphul]

It's really not a big difference either way, air coolers have improved with the use of heatpipes and water coolers dropped the performance they were associated with when they went to compact aio's bringing them pretty even. That and the fact that modern cpu's don't put out the heat they once did. The only way to get better cooling on older overclocked cpu's with lesser performing air coolers (aka a hunk of metal and a fan) was to go water cooling. Current air coolers are very efficient and many use high quality fans capable of cooling at lower sound levels than most aio's. The fact they have less moving parts (just a fan or two) and no water to potentially leak makes them pretty reliable and safe in comparison.

Anymore water cooling is more done for the 'cool factor' or as a hobby, not a necessity. Some will argue that aio's don't usually leak which is true. The fact remains that air coolers can't leak, period. Even if an aio were able to provide me with 3-5c better cooling, I personally don't find it worth the risk of the entire system.

 

[Magnarider]

Can you suggest a good quality air cooler?

 

[synphul]

It depends on your case in terms of how much clearance it has. Each case is different, some like the corsair spec-01/02/03 are a bit narrow and won't accept coolers over 150mm tall. Many tower style coolers like the 212 evo, phanteks tc14pe, noctua nh-d14 and others are 160mm tall. It depends on your budget and where you're from (product pricing and availability).

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd14
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk019
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h7
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc14pe
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dxbk
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk013
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/scythe-cpu-cooler-scktt1000
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF1W87430

Any of these are good options, obviously the larger and slightly more expensive coolers will usually have a higher cooling capacity and be more suited toward max overclocking.