Liquid cooling or regular?

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snooby

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Jul 15, 2014
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So I'm picking a new system on cyber power pc and everything is liquid cooled, but I don't really know anything about liquid cooling and am wondering if I just go regular cooling would it be a big deal?

The one the have picked out by default is:
CybepowerPC Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler (All Venom OC Certified)

but the air coolings are like cooler masters and stuff. The cpu is Intel® Core™ Processor i7-7700K 4.20GHZ 8MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151 (Kaby Lake) (All Venom OC Certified)

EDIT: Air cooling - http://imgur.com/a/BgoRq
Liquid cooling - http://imgur.com/a/k4cTE
 
Solution
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Liquid coolers are popular in mail-order PCs because they effectively eliminate the risk of rough handling causing aftermarket HSFs to crack the motherboard or do some other damage. Performance-wise, 120mm radiators are usually worse than a decent HSF.

I wouldn't bother with liquid cooling in my PCs since it introduces many extra potential points of failure compared to a fin stack. With a regular HSF, the main thing that fails is the fan. You still have a large lump of copper and aluminum attached to the CPU and providing a decent amount of passive heat dissipation, possibly enough so that you won't notice that the fan has failed. With liquid cooling, a pump failure will cause the CPU to overheat within seconds, loss of coolant can...
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2 points of fail

1. CyberPowerPC

2. 120mm liquid cooler.
It sound flashy, but in truth, is no better that the good air coolers.
 
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Is there a different site I should use? ibuypower?
 
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iBuyPower is no better, and possibly the same company.
The problem is twofold.
1. Very often you get crappy parts. Typically the PSU, and that fancy 'liquid cooler'
2. Crappy construction. Many are the stories here about stuff that would have been caught by a semi-intelligent 12 year old...shipped out the door and left for you to fix.

The vast majority of people here will tell you to select a good parts list (with assistance from people here), and assemble it yourself.
It's not as difficult as it appears to be.
 
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Liquid coolers are popular in mail-order PCs because they effectively eliminate the risk of rough handling causing aftermarket HSFs to crack the motherboard or do some other damage. Performance-wise, 120mm radiators are usually worse than a decent HSF.

I wouldn't bother with liquid cooling in my PCs since it introduces many extra potential points of failure compared to a fin stack. With a regular HSF, the main thing that fails is the fan. You still have a large lump of copper and aluminum attached to the CPU and providing a decent amount of passive heat dissipation, possibly enough so that you won't notice that the fan has failed. With liquid cooling, a pump failure will cause the CPU to overheat within seconds, loss of coolant can create a huge mess, many AiO liquid coolers lose some coolant via micro-leaks or porous materials allowing moisture to wick out with no way of monitoring coolant level or topping it up, etc.
 
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Solution
My current system has one of the better AIO liquid coolers, the Cryorig A80.
Yes, it is a little bit cooler at idle and under load over the previous air cooler.
But it is also noisier. Pump and moving liquid.

I put it in mainly as an experiment.
My next system (a couple of years?), I probably won't bother with liquid, unless I just transfer this one over.
 
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1. Every 12mm to 2800mm CLC tytpe liquid cooler is outperformed by a cheaper air cooler. If you want water cooling, avoid CLC type coolers and settle only for OLCs with copper radiators and adequately sized water pumps (i.e Swiftech / EL Predator)

2. Shipping a PC that will be handled by FedEx ground gorillas is risky, more so with cooler installed.

3, mail order PCs are much like CLC type liquid coolers .... all about creating a package by noting a few things and going bargain basement on all the rest.

PC ... Intel something, Asus something ... and then all the rtest is bargain bin
CLCs... cheap inefficient aluminum rads, extreme speed pump and fans (noise from high rpm), less performance than air, up to 12 times as loud.

The PC I am typing from has a custom loop, everything OC'd "bawlz to the wall" ... 2 pumps, large pump reservoir, (10) radiator fans (6) case fans (on 4 speed control channels), 700mm of radiator. The one complaint I have is I have oft sat down at the KB in the morning after shutting it off the night before and "turned it on" only to find it was already turned on by someone else who had used it before I got in. Once the monitor goes black 9sleep), there is no indication that the system is on as the little LED does not face me when sitting at the desk return and the PC is dead silent.

My son's PC with a Swiftech OLC, SLI has (9) fans and the only sound that comes out of it is the PSU fan. He has had it replaced after it dies and the replacement is just as loud. He's planning his next build and will again be using the Swiftech cooler with a 770k and MSI Seahawk 1080 Ti EK X

4. My suggestion for you would be to create a parts list, of have someone here create one for you with your stated usages, budget, aesthetic choices, etc and take it to a local Mom and Pop PC store or local computer club and have them build it for you.
 
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Moving from a CoolerMaster 212 PLUS to the Cryorig A80 resulted in 12C lower temp under load.
Non-OC i5-3570k.

"Every" is quite an overstatement.
 
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