Need opinions on my computers cooling options!

[Barney6262]

hey guys,
im making this thread because I am very unsure what to do about my computers cooling options.

its the classic water cooling vs. air cooling...

So for watercooling I would be going with these parts:
Case: Fractal design ARC XL
Fans: 2x corsair AF140
3x corsair SP120
Cpu: i5-4670k
Gpu: MSI reference gtx 760 (Watercooled and planning to overclock highly)
mobo: MSI Z87 G45 gaming
RAM: corsair vengeance 8gb
storage: WD 1tb caviar blue
*Psu: corsair builder series CXM 750w*
Pump and res: XSPC X20 pump V4 with dual drive bay black
CPU block: EK supreme LTX CSQ Copper Plexi
GPU block: EK FC670 copper plexi
Rad: Alpha cool NexXxos XT45 (360 triple 45mm deep)
Liquid: Mayhems X1 clear and Mayhems UV green dye

Note:*the psu I am really not sure about, a friend suggested it to me. what do you guys think? will it be good enough?*

In total the cooling system on that is about £270 or $435 USD

removing this watercooling system, adding 2 more fans for the case ,including £60 for a good air-cooling heat sink and possibly 2-3 more fans depending on the heat sink the cost difference is around £150 or $241

This extra money I could spend on better Gpu, cpu, storage etc

so basically:
1) which option would offer the best price/performance ratio (assuming both cpu and gpu are overclocked)
2)What cold I spend the extra £150 on?
3) What do you personally think I should do? considering I have gone with the reference gtx760 I have a feeling I will be spending most of the extra money on making that better... or should I get a completely different card?

Currently im leaning towards the liquid cooling because im not too sure how much extra performance the £150 will give me in comparison...

I will be using my system for gaming such as BF4, Destiny, Ksp, Gmod, Arma3 etc...

Any suggestions for parts are very welcome, I want this build to be perfect 😛

Pretty much, my decision is to put the money into watercooling and upgrade the parts later, or put the money into the parts and upgrade to watercooling later...

I Really need the help on this one guys, thanks for any input!

 

[manofchalk]

1. Air cooling, custom water cant touch it if value is what your after. Its when your looking for outright performance that water-cooling shines.
2. An SSD.
3. If you haven't built this rig, don't get water, spend your cash to upgrade other parts of the rig. Theres no point water-cooling a mid-range card, the $100 for the block alone will get you the next card up, which will always outperform the card below it overclocked.

With the PSU, if you plan on Crossfire/SLI later on then its a good choice. Otherwise your fine to get a 550W.

 

[Barney6262]

For air cooling after buying extra fans and a thermalright silver arrow extreme I would have about £100 left to spend. That would mostly go into my gpu. ATM I am not interested in an ssd when I could spend the money on the gpu.
My options would be an msi gtx 760 hawk (£40 more)
Or
Some sort of gtx 770 (touching £100 more) ( suggestions for spesific makes welcome)

However after looking at the clock speeds the hawk is equal if not clocked higher than most non reference gtx 770s even though its half the price...
Leading me to wonder why...

As for water cooling, overclocking an msi reference design 760, would it wield clocks up to 1111mhz like the hawk? If so I wonder if it is worth spending the extra money now on a water cooling system and maybe consider upgrading to different parts later?

Either way thanks for an answer

 

[manofchalk]

ASUS or Gigabyte are the brands I would be going for, they make good coolers. MSI is another one, though typically their best when your buying premium stuff .

You can only compare clock speeds when its the same hardware, clock speed wont tell you relative performance between different cards. If your comparing two models of 760 then clock speed is a valid way of comparing them, but not 760 against a 770.

How high a card can clock depends on a couple of factors, not just temperature. You might be able too, you might not, I cant say for sure.
Getting water-cooling as a future-proofing measure, I can see that. Get a good CPU loop that's easily upgradable, when you get a new GPU down the line water-cool it.

 

[Barney6262]

Thanks for the rapid response.

So a sort of concluding question, Lets say I go with a reference gtx 770. air cooled not overclocked.
And then tried the watercooled reference 760 but overclocked it. which would be faster. pretty much the price difference between these two options is minimal so its more a choice of which performs better

Or, if I went with a water cooled gtx 760 reference compared to the hawk, would it be likely to get a clock of 1111mhz on the reference (roughy 130mhz more than the stock clock)

 

[Barney6262]

After a bit more thinking and research I have decided to drop the custom watercooling loop. for cpu cooling I will use a H100i and then get a decent aftermarket gpu cooler.

Thanks for the help anyway