Switching to liquid cooling

[MattMayhem]

The other day I was rendering a video on my PC, and my temps got up to about 70°C. I live in the desert and summer hasn't even hit yet, so I'm worried that gaming in the summer here (where it reaches over 100°F outside, and like 75-80°F inside)

I was thinking about making the switch to water cooling, with a closed-loop system but I have my questions & concerns because I have never used water cooling before.

I want to get a Corsair H80i

Should I be worried about leaks with this type of cooler? As a noob to water cooling, I am scared of leaks because it would ruin my system, and I'm a pretty poor dude, so I wouldn't have the money to replace water-damaged components.

Also, Is a system like this quiet? Compared to the stock heatsink fan? Right now my CPU fan is really loud & annoying when it gets above a few thousand RPM, and I just want something more quiet.

Any answers to these questions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. the reason I chose the H80i is because I have several friends who use Corsair coolers, and swear by them. Though none of them have the H80i.

 

[getochkn]

The all-in-one coolers are about as efficent as a good heatsink/air cooler. The Noctura heatsink or even the evo hyper 212 are very good aftermarket air coolers. The all-in-water coolers are nice to get the heatsink out of the way, and to give that cool-i-have-water-cooling factor.

As for noise, its the fans that make a noise and both air and water coolers still need fans. Get quiet fans, good thermal paste and either cooler will cool about the same +/- a few degrees.

The one disadvantage I found from the AIO water coolers, at least in my case with overclocking, is without the heatsink/fan near the cpu, it's not cooling the rest of the motherboard. Yes it's great that water cooler pulls the cpu heat away and then cools it, but it doesn't cool the motherboard. trying to overclock, my cpu was cool but my vrm's were super heating so I had to add fans to my motherboard to compensate.

ARe they neat ideas, and do they cool well, yes, for sure. Can you get the same thing with an Evo 212, some decent fan's, yup.

I have an AIO system, so I'm speaking from experience, and now, looking back, I don't overclock that high anymore, and wish I spend the difference between the Seidon 240 I bought and the Evo 212 and bought a better video card instead, or a bigger SSD or something.

 

[MattMayhem]

The all-in-one coolers are about as efficent as a good heatsink/air cooler. The Noctura heatsink or even the evo hyper 212 are very good aftermarket air coolers. The all-in-water coolers are nice to get the heatsink out of the way, and to give that cool-i-have-water-cooling factor.

As for noise, its the fans that make a noise and both air and water coolers still need fans. Get quiet fans, good thermal paste and either cooler will cool about the same +/- a few degrees.

The one disadvantage I found from the AIO water coolers, at least in my case with overclocking, is without the heatsink/fan near the cpu, it's not cooling the rest of the motherboard. Yes it's great that water cooler pulls the cpu heat away and then cools it, but it doesn't cool the motherboard. trying to overclock, my cpu was cool but my vrm's were super heating so I had to add fans to my motherboard to compensate.

ARe they neat ideas, and do they cool well, yes, for sure. Can you get the same thing with an Evo 212, some decent fan's, yup.

I have an AIO system, so I'm speaking from experience, and now, looking back, I don't overclock that high anymore, and wish I spend the difference between the Seidon 240 I bought and the Evo 212 and bought a better video card instead, or a bigger SSD or something.

Thank you so much, that is all very, very valid.

I'm very on the fence now. My only point towards water cooling is: Since I live where it gets very hot, and my ambient temps get very high in the summer, wouldn't a water cooler be more effective?

With air cooling, my fans would be blowing 80+°F into my case, which I think would impede my cooling. So wouldn't I get lower temps with liquid cooling since my ambient temps get so high? Or does it not really make a difference?

My case does offer up like 7 or 8 slots for fans, so I could go the route of having a Hyper 212 and some more case fans, I mean dang I'd save a lot. What's the point of spending $80 on an AIO cooler when I can spend $30 on a Hyper 212 and get roughly the same, if not better cooling because the case fans would cool the whole rig rather than just the CPU.

I have a noise question or two: Is the hyper 212 quieter than the stock 8320 cooler? I cannot stand the way this Stock cooler whines when it spins up. If the Hyper 212 is at least a few decibels lower than it, I'd be happy

Also, what case fans would you recommend for an efficient, but quiet rig? I know nothing about case fans, especially as far as noise/performance goes.

 

[getochkn]

AMD stock coolers are loud. I didn't know at first because I built my rig with my AIO from the start, but then I built a 6350 for my GF, and wow, what a difference. The Evo 212 fan is pretty quiet. Throw 2 Noctura fan's on there and you wouldn't hear it much at all.

As for the heat or temp, the water cooling won't offer a huge advantage because either way the system has warm air to work with. If the water is warm in the loop because of the ambient temps, it's not going to be as efficent at cooling, and warm water, getting hotter, goes through the rad's, blown out by the fans, and you're still blowing hot air into your room and from your room, with any cooling setup unless you go peltier plate, ice cooling, LN, or other below ambient cooling, otherwise, all AIO, heatsink/fan, or even open looped water coolers are going to be above amibent.

 

[MattMayhem]

AMD stock coolers are loud. I didn't know at first because I built my rig with my AIO from the start, but then I built a 6350 for my GF, and wow, what a difference. The Evo 212 fan is pretty quiet. Throw 2 Noctura fan's on there and you wouldn't hear it much at all.

As for the heat or temp, the water cooling won't offer a huge advantage because either way the system has warm air to work with. If the water is warm in the loop because of the ambient temps, it's not going to be as efficent at cooling, and warm water, getting hotter, goes through the rad's, blown out by the fans, and you're still blowing hot air into your room and from your room, with any cooling setup unless you go peltier plate, ice cooling, LN, or other below ambient cooling, otherwise, all AIO, heatsink/fan, or even open looped water coolers are going to be above amibent.

Yeah man those stock AMD coolers are LOUD, once this thing gets up passed 4000RPM(which is often with the games I play), it's ear piercing, I can't stand it. It's the ONLY fan in my whole system that is loud at all.

Thank you for all the good input, I never thought of the cooling that way, that makes a lot of sense, I guess I will go the Air-cooling route since it's so much cheaper and easier to do, not to mention I don't have to worry about leaks or my MoBo being much hotter than my CPU. Not to mention that with the money I save on cooling, I can throw in an SSD or some other upgrade

Thanks for all the tips, I think I might definitely go for the 212 with some Noctura fans based on your suggestions.