So I’ve been looking into all of the amazing builds on here and PCPP among other sites and I’m trying to understand the reasoning behind custom loop water cooling. First off I in no way want to start a flame war, I’m just trying to get a better understanding for the motivation, benefits and so forth.
I mean I get it to a degree, it looks really cool, pun intended and it’s a bit like sleeving your own cables it’s a step in the hobby to see if you can do it or give yourself a greater sense of accomplishment. I’ve watched videos of sleeving cables and I have a great appreciation for those that do it but that is not something for me, I’ll buy them.
From a performance/value perspective I don’t see the reasoning. Granted you have a niche of computer or gaming enthusiasts that will buy a $1200 Caselabs case and put 4 top of the line GPUs in it and push the limit of OCing to see what is attainable but that is very small amount of the CLWC builds I’ve seen.
You could say the cooler temperatures prolong longer life of the components but who are we kidding, if you are pushing the envelope this much you are not going to be satisfied with a last gen card. Then it’s the next gen card new water block, etc, etc so component life is not a concern.
So for your average custom lop person (is there such a thing?) what is your motivation? Why did you say hey this is something I want to do (you can easily spend a grand or more on cooling so adding another GPU or saving that for next year’s parts is the better value proposition).
I mean I get it to a degree, it looks really cool, pun intended and it’s a bit like sleeving your own cables it’s a step in the hobby to see if you can do it or give yourself a greater sense of accomplishment. I’ve watched videos of sleeving cables and I have a great appreciation for those that do it but that is not something for me, I’ll buy them.
From a performance/value perspective I don’t see the reasoning. Granted you have a niche of computer or gaming enthusiasts that will buy a $1200 Caselabs case and put 4 top of the line GPUs in it and push the limit of OCing to see what is attainable but that is very small amount of the CLWC builds I’ve seen.
You could say the cooler temperatures prolong longer life of the components but who are we kidding, if you are pushing the envelope this much you are not going to be satisfied with a last gen card. Then it’s the next gen card new water block, etc, etc so component life is not a concern.
So for your average custom lop person (is there such a thing?) what is your motivation? Why did you say hey this is something I want to do (you can easily spend a grand or more on cooling so adding another GPU or saving that for next year’s parts is the better value proposition).