Water cooled vs. Air cooled

[erayser]

That's the bottom line for me.
With air cooling, its basically fire and forget. With water cooling, there's more up front costs, complexity is higher, and the risk faster is higher. Yet the coolness factor is much higher, no question. I do love the look of it. I'll probably not go the water cooling route, but I am intrigued

It's highly recommended to water test your loop for leaks 24 hours or a couple days, and also... to bleed the air out of the system. You would disconnect the 24pin connector from your mobo, and short the 4th and 5th pin so none of your components will have power going through them. The only thing powered should be your pump(s) during water testing... as you test and bleed the system, you will need to top off the reservoir as the air bleeds out. If it doesn't leak for 24 hours or more, 99% of the time... it shouldn't leak. The only time I had leak failure in my system, is if I was lazy and didn't replace my orings on my fittings during maintenance... and that was only one fitting out of maybe 20 fittings total.

 

[maflynn]

didn't replace my orings on my fittings during maintenance

I guess that's where I start resisting against water cool - maintenance. All I have to do is pull out my filter and clean it off. I don't even have to shut the computer down if I don't want too. Where as water cooled, require more indepth maintenance.

Personal preference to be sure and I'm not saying one options is superior to the other, but rather I guess I'm wired in such a way, that I'd rather not keep taking draining, cleaning, replacing and filling up over and over. I'm sure its not as bad as I stated, but the air cool for me allows me to obsess on other things 😉

 

[erayser]

I guess that's where I start resisting against water cool - maintenance. All I have to do is pull out my filter and clean it off. I don't even have to shut the computer down if I don't want too. Where as water cooled, require more indepth maintenance.

Personal preference to be sure and I'm not saying one options is superior to the other, but rather I guess I'm wired in such a way, that I'd rather not keep taking draining, cleaning, replacing and filling up over and over. I'm sure its not as bad as I stated, but the air cool for me allows me to obsess on other things 😉

I should have mentioned... maintenance of my fittings going into a new build. I mentioned in a previous post, that I mainly top off my reservoir if levels lower from evaporation. I don't drain my loop if my temps are fine. I've never had premix go bad in my loops to where I have to change it out.

If you want a good reason not to get into custom watercooling... and this is what I tell my friends asking about getting into custom watercooling... I say, "Custom watercooling is very expensive and addicting. You can do a another build from watercooling parts alone." Once you've tried it, you will want it in your next build.

However, I still think it's still a good idea to liquid cool. I was set on just a CPU AIO on my current build, but my 3090 ran too hot on air for me to be comfortable... so I bought the AIO shroud for my GPU. Heat will shorten the life of a GPU. One more thing, I used to run fraps and be obsessed with seeing my fps on screen during gaming... I'm not obsessed about that anymore... but I bet I was hitting thermal throttle with temps I was getting on air.... which is a good reason to go liquid cooling to maintain stock boost clock speeds if you aren't into OCing.

 

[diamond.g]

I should have mentioned... maintenance of my fittings going into a new build. I mentioned in a previous post, that I mainly top off my reservoir if levels lower from evaporation. I don't drain my loop if my temps are fine. I've never had premix go bad in my loops to where I have to change it out.

If you want a good reason not to get into custom watercooling... and this is what I tell my friends asking about getting into custom watercooling... I say, "Custom watercooling is very expensive and addicting. You can do a another build from watercooling parts alone." Once you've tried it, you will want it in your next build.

However, I still think it's still a good idea to liquid cool. I was set on just a CPU AIO on my current build, but my 3090 ran too hot on air for me to be comfortable... so I bought the AIO shroud for my GPU. Heat will shorten the life of a GPU. One more thing, I used to run fraps and be obsessed with seeing my fps on screen during gaming... I'm not obsessed about that anymore... but I bet I was hitting thermal throttle with temps I was getting on air.... which is a good reason to go liquid cooling to maintain stock boost clock speeds if you aren't into OCing.

My co-worker says that 3090's memory is very temp sensitive. After putting water block on my 6900XT (which doesn't have memory on both sides of the PCB like the 3090) and seeing major temp improvements I can believe it.

 

[erayser]

My co-worker says that 3090's memory is very temp sensitive. After putting water block on my 6900XT (which doesn't have memory on both sides of the PCB like the 3090) and seeing major temp improvements I can believe it.

Junction memory temps is where I feel uncomfortable. When gaming it's always in the the 90's. Water boils at 100C's. NVidia says it's normal and okay. I've read that miners run their cards all day with junction mem temps over 100C's. It hasn't gone over 100C so I feel a little better. Other than that, temps are fine with the AIO shroud.

 

[Harthag]

I used to be a liquid / AIO user, including hybrid GPUs. Have had bad luck, all have developed pump issues after 2 years or so. No time or desire for custom loop. Have since downsized to mini-ITX and all air. Set it and forget it. Appreciate the silence when idling and doing office work.

 

[maflynn]

Have since downsized to mini-ITX and all air. Set it and forget it. Appreciate the silence when idling and doing office work.

Same here, and fact it looks very similar to my build 🙂

 

[Harthag]

Same here, and fact it looks very similar to my build 🙂

View attachment 1820793

Really funny. Almost identical, right down to the Be Quiet fan! Is that the NH-D14 or 15 / 15-S? I found the D15 to be too big and a pain. Went with the NH-U12A, temps are maybe 1-2 degrees warmer.

 

[maflynn]

Is that the NH-D14 or 15

Its a D15, I actually had a BeQuiet Dark Rock but that didn't fit.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the case, though the cable management was really hard particularly as I worked through the top tray.

 

[mmomega]

I was jsut looking through the thread and reminiscing, looked back through some old photos and found one of my first watercool builds, 2008'ish I believe. E8400 Core2Duo, I forget which GPU it was.
I used a heater-core from a car as the radiator up top and a dvd-drive sized resorvoir, that pump was something.... oh and back when nvidia made chipsets for motherboards (nForce) and XFX all in that Cooler Master Cosmos case.

 

[kamikazeeMC]

Approaching mid spring here in Australia, stating to get a bit toasty and loud. Out of curiosity, started putting together a parts list for a custom loop build in the NR200 case I have. Will possibly commit end of next month or so. Will fine tune the parts until I pull the trigger, researching other builds.

EK-Quantum Velocity D-RGB AMD - Full Nickel
EK-Quantum Vector N+ RX 6800XT/6900XT D-RGB - Nickel + Acetal
EK-Quantum Vector N+ RX 6800XT/6900XT Backplate – Black
2x XSPC TX240 Ultrathin Radiator
Corsair Hydro X Series XD3 RGB Pump/Reservoir Combo
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme Thermal Grease - 2g
2x Corsair Hydro X Series XL8 Performance Coolant 1L – Clear
EK DuraClear 9.5/12.7mm Clear Tubing - 3M
12x EK STC Classic 10/13 - Nickel Fitting
10x EK Quantum Torque Plug – Nickel
EK AF Ball Valve G1/4 Nickel
4x Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM Chromax Fan
Corsair Commander Pro Link System

 

[diamond.g]

You probably won't need 2L of coolant. I filled my 280 + 240 rads (and blocks and lines) with a little less than 1L. Also make sure your GPU block is for your GPU since that AIB layout tends to be different than the Reference boards.

 

[icanhazmac]

@Harthag and @maflynn what cases do you have? How are your gpu temps?

My watch has ended and I got a Gigabyte Aorus 3080ti from a Newegg shuffle, with an intel mobo grrrr, but that is for another post.

I want to stay itx but my old Corsair 250d won't hold the 3080ti so I am in the market for another case. Was looking to AIO the cpu but not married to the idea just wanting to ensure that the new case can hold at least a 240mm rad.

 

[maflynn]

@Harthag and @maflynn what cases do you have? How are your gpu temps?

I have a low end GPU - a 2060 Super, but my temps are in the mid 40s for normal stuff and if I fire up Cyberpunk 2077 I see temps encroaching into the 70c range. I don't see it getting too far into the 70s - mostly low 70c

I'm into the small builds so I have a Lian-Li TU150 and its a nice small case. I'm happy with the cooling even if its not the most air-flowy type case ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[GrumpyCoder]

My watch has ended and I got a Gigabyte Aorus 3080ti from a Newegg shuffle, with an intel mobo grrrr, but that is for another post.

 

[icanhazmac]

Why did I get it at all? Because it was part of a Newegg shuffle bundle and as 3080s are few and far between I got it anyway. Best case scenario I can sell it, worst case scenario I use it or just eat the loss. The shuffle system usually forces combos on you. I was planning on building an AMD this time around.

 

[diamond.g]

Well at least they stopped "giving out" the Gigabyte PSU's...

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Why did I get it at all? Because it was part of a bundle and as 3080s are few and far between I got it anyway. Best case scenario I can sell it, worst case scenario I use it. The shuffle system usually forces combos on you.

Wait, on second thought I think I misunderstood. You got a mainboard for Intel CPU... I thought you actually got a server mainboard manufactured by Intel. My bad, nothing wrong with Intel CPUs, just a bit more power hungry.

 

[Harthag]

@Harthag and @maflynn what cases do you have? How are your gpu temps?

My watch has ended and I got a Gigabyte Aorus 3080ti from a Newegg shuffle, with an intel mobo grrrr, but that is for another post.

I want to stay itx but my old Corsair 250d won't hold the 3080ti so I am in the market for another case. Was looking to AIO the cpu but not married to the idea just wanting to ensure that the new case can hold at least a 240mm rad.

I switched from a Lian Li TU150 mini-ITX case to a Lian Li 205M micro-ATX case. I have a 3080 Ti and temps got to upper 80s, there was just not enough heat dissipation. The new case give me temps in the 70s to mid 80s now, with proper air flow and cooling. The 3080 Ti just runs insanely hot.

 

[icanhazmac]

Wait, on second thought I think I misunderstood. You got a mainboard for Intel CPU... I thought you actually got a server mainboard manufactured by Intel. My bad, nothing wrong with Intel CPUs, just a bit more power hungry.

Yes, sorry if I wasn't clear, the bundle was an Aorus Master Intel Z590 mobo and an Aorus Extreme 3080ti. I also agree that Intel isn't bad so if I end up building with that board I won't be overly upset but I planned to build a 5800x or 5900x this time around.

 

[icanhazmac]

Considering the Lian Li 011 Dynamic Mini with an ITX and using the vertical gpu mount. Intake fans on the bottom and and a 240mm AIO for the processor on the side (intake) and 3 top fans exhausting, similar to this without
all the hideous bling.

 

[maflynn]

Considering the Lian Li 011 Dynamic Mini with an ITX and using the vertical gpu mount. Intake fans on the bottom and and a 240mm AIO for the processor on the side (intake) and 3 top fans exhausting, similar to this without
all the hideous bling.

I love the form factor, of the O11 D Mini, Just a heads up Lian-Li just released a O11 Air Mini, however, I do not recommend that.

Basically they swapped out the glass front panel for a mesh front panel and moved the brackets from the back side where fans could be mounted to the front. The issue is they made the mesh holes too small - they did this because they did away with the filters. The holes as shown by this video below, it actually impedes air flow and its no better then the O11 D Mini.

As for the O11 D Mini, the vertical mount bracket is not included if that's your thing, and be sure you get a gen 4 if you're using the latest and greatest components. If you have a gen 3 riser cable and your GPU, motherboard, CPU are set for Gen 4, it won't boot, unless you turn gen 4 off in the bios which you can't do if you get no video.

Overall this is one of the favorite cases for many builders and you can take a look at other builds over at PCPartPicker Even with the glass sides and front, I think this is a nice case for air cooling solutions.

 

[kamikazeeMC]

Shelving the idea of a custom loop for now. Decided to play around with the CPU clock settings, rather than running on stock which seems to over volt (up to v1.481) a lot causing my high temps and noise.

A Brief play with the Precision Boost Overdrive settings, had it somewhat at a nice spot. Limiting the CPU package power to 115w, during Cinebench I could all core boost 4.48-4.51Ghz (pass 10min run), but during single core at 4.81Ghz it crashed. Tried relaxing the curve optimiser but got a lower all core boost and high temps and voltages. If I took the time to iron it out I'm sure I could get it good, need to do some research on it.

For now settled on a manual clock @4.5GHz all core @v1.2. Pretty happy with the temps and noise now. Will take the single core hit. When gaming my temps were ~80-88C, now ~68-71C and the fan doesn't have to go as hard (using the same fan curve I originally had, didn't change after either).

Spent the money else where ahah..

 

[maflynn]

Limiting the CPU package power to 115w, during

On intel CPUs I tended to undervolt as a nice method to keep temps down - most people do that so they can then over-clock other settings but I like quiet pc so that helped in that endeavor. Most of the CPUs I've done this too, seem like an undervolt of .135volts but my 11700k seems a bit more sensitive. it was crashing at .125, I'm now trying .120

On the intel side, it seems that there's really less headroom to make changes, Intel has done a good job at squeezing out every last cpu cycle, so that's probably why the voltage offset change isn't doing much

 

[kamikazeeMC]

but my 11700k seems a bit more sensitive.

Not as lucky on the silicon lottery this time round 🙂 I might try finding the lowest voltage for my current clock, though pretty happy as is. Will stay at this for a bit and see if there is any instability.

Haven't had a SFF build since my 2004 build in a Shuttle XPC SN95G5 rocking a Athlon 64 3500+ and X800 XT PE. That thing had a 92mm Delta fan screaming away, was like a jet..

Just saw a post of someone running theirs at 4.6GHz v1.025, golden chip ha. I did try 4.6 v1.25, but no go.