water cooling vs air cooling

[Eliomiller]

hi, I'm planning to build my first desktop(right now I only had laptops for gaming ) and i'm aiming very high for it(4930k, gtx 980 ti,4k screen rog asus).but I usually don't like the noise resulting from a high end desktop(for 4k its hard to stay quiet). so here my question, considering im using the corsair 750D case,is it worthy to use a water cooler ?(im scared about leak as I wont probably replace the damaged parts with the same quality) as im scared of a system that go too high in temperature(70-100C).Is theres a better case to use if i opt for any of them to limit the noise?(be quiet series,or corsair 900D).thanks

 

[datguy20]

A high quality air cooler has the potential to run quieter than an All-in-one water cooler. Example: The Noctua NH-D14/NH-D15 cools as good, if not better than most 240mm radiator coolers and comes with some very quiet Noctua fans.

If you aren't overclocking heavily there's not really any need for watercooling, as air coolers are usually good if you buy the right one.

 

[Ezo Legendz]

A high quality air cooler has the potential to run quieter than an All-in-one water cooler. Example: The Noctua NH-D14/NH-D15 cools as good, if not better than most 240mm radiator coolers and comes with some very quiet Noctua fans.

If you aren't overclocking heavily there's not really any need for watercooling, as air coolers are usually good if you buy the right one.

But an air cooler looks ugly if you have a windowed case the extra 30-40 dollars you can get a sexy AIO water cooler with great performance

 

[datguy20]

Looks are subjective, but yeah, generally the AIO will perform better than most cheap air coolers. Some people do like the hulking metal radiators look though.

No chance for leaks either, even if it's extremely rare.

 

[Eliomiller]

im not planning on overclocking now but if I choose air cooling won't it be too noisy?

 

[datguy20]

im not planning on overclocking now but if I choose air cooling won't it be too noisy?

Depending on the cooler you pick, it can be very quiet. You also have the option of putting your own quieter fans onto the heatsink, if it comes with fan brackets.

 

[Eliomiller]

one more question: is the corsair 750D a good case for noise and temp?or be quiet! ones are better?

 

[datguy20]

one more question: is the corsair 750D a good case for noise and temp?or be quiet! ones are better?

You won't see huge differences in temperatures from one case to another, assuming they all allow a decent amount of fans (like 3 or more).

That said, I'm guessing you're looking at the Silent Base 800? It seems to get good reviews, and technically it should be quieter than the 750D. Either case is good, but if you are obsessed with silence then I would go with the Be Quiet case for that little bit of extra silence.

I'd recommend watching some reviews of each case to make sure it's actually what you want though.

 

[Cynicmonster]

I know this is a bit late(!) but I thought I would throw my 2 cents in.

I recently built a gaming pc and one of the dilemmas I came across was around cpu cooling. My original plan was to go with an air cooled heatsink.

The one thing that changed my mind was the rate of cooling. I could have gone for a Noctua and had a couple of degrees up my sleeve, but (for me) it came down to how quick the cpu could be cooled after stress (constantly running my I5 @ 4.5 GHz, max temp. 65 C).

I went for an AIO cooler but the same holds for a custom setup. A liquid setup will always cool a cpu quicker than an air setup. It is fair to say that liquid added to a gpu will do the same. Of course, the risk comes down to leaks & failures, but the advances in AIO setups over the years has improved greatly. Custom loops comes down to the care of the person constructing it.

Having said that, I recently replaced my radiator fans with a set of EK Varder high statics because the bearings in the originals became dodgy. Maintenance is something to think about. The noise is not offensive given the location of my pc on my desk.

The other reason is that I made a portable system and the AIO offers more security/stability than the weight/stability of an air cooler being moved around...not an issue for a desktop.

Whenever building a pc, stop and think..."What do I want it to do?".