Is Water Going The Way Of The Dodo Bird

[rjbarker]

You nailed it ^^^^^^ I have toyed with idea of WC for the last few yrs, but considering the amount of $$$ to spend, the fact that I regularly change out various components in my Rig, Air Cooling is absolutely adequate (even with a 980X @ 4.3 Ghz), new GPU (580's) running arond the same Temps as the old GTX 280 (even 8800GTX), the need simply isn't thier imo.....sure, if you want 4.6 - 4.8 Ghz OC on the CPU, then absolutely, but no guarantees, spend the $$$ on your WC cooling loop and find out your chip simply cannot get stable at those clocks...so what do you really gain?

Noise....?.....ah...up to a bunch of 120mm or a few 140mm fans the noise is simply a hum...no biggie really.

Likely stick to my Air.....unless I wind up in the Tropics of course ;)

[Slaughter]

I know myself, the main reason to watercool was to gain max performance. However, after completing my setup, it has become more of an addiction. I enjoy tearing it apart and starting over. That may be my personality though as I enjoy doing the same with computers in general. I enjoy building computers from the ground up and have a constant itch to do so.

Since I put my loop together in the spring, I have rebuilt it three times and have also setup full loops on two other systems just because I was bored. :P Yes it's expensive, but all the hobbies I chose are whether it be watercooling/computers, car audio or paintballing. Each hobby has put me well above the $2-3000 mark.

Will I continue watercooling? Yes. Every chance I get. I tried a couple different AIO solutions and I didn't get that same tingle while putting it together and seeing the end result. The only thing that slows me down is money. :S

[Shadowmeph]

I only currently have my CPU watercooled with custom v8 stinger and I constantly am changing MBs around, I actually find it allot easier to change with the watercpu water block then with air . with that said I want to add in two waterblocks for my vid cards but the thing is that I Know that this is going to turn into a total hassle because in a while I might upgrade to the Bulldozer which won't be the issue but what will be the issue is I most likely will upgrade my gtx 285 vid cards which I am very sure will cause a hassle lol
the only reason why I have water cooled is because it is allot cooler and quieter the air . before I water cooled my room would get hot but since I have through on the water block my room only gets pretty hot lol.

[BMAN69]

I completely agree Slaughter.

I could have stayed with air...but no challenge, no satisfaction from the (ongoing) build/ rebuild

I find now that putting together a computer is as simple as building with LEGO; do some research, connect the pieces...done. But with watercooling; even though I may not get the temps I always want, I get some more satisfaction in knowing that I'm always learning something new about this "very addicting, very expensive" hobby.

[ipaine]

I have the H50 and am getting the H100 in a week or so, but that said I have thought about doing a real full WC loop. Part of this is because I have two 580's and would love to have it all water cooled.

But cost is really what holds me back (yes I know that is ironic considering I do have two 580s). I might get into it, but I would most likely have to move up to a larger case and I would want it all done so really I'm looking at after case and all probably close to a grand. So that is a lot to swallow for just cooling.

[BMAN69]

@ipaine

Keep looking at the sales for cases that will house a good watercooling setup; that's what I did in my initial planning, and I got really lucky in finding the 700D for only $150.00 at ncix.com in the early spring.

The sales are out there (as are the cases too), you just have to know what you want and what your budget is for a new case.

[Slaughter]

And I had picked up the 800D for $199. :)

[brewer265@]

Water cooling is as expensive or cheap as you make it. You can build a decent cpu loop for under $300.

[BMAN69]

Originally Posted by matari

Desktop or whatever you want to call them are going the way of the Dino.

here's one link that says otherwise PCs Dead? No, But Desktops Are Looking Old | Tech Goes Strong ; as I'm sure that all that watercool their computers will tell you, we're not doing it just to have something pretty sitting in our offices.

" So, is the PC dead? No. Rather than the PC dying, it seems to me that other devices are trying to become more like the PC—take Motorola's Atrix phone, with its PC-like processing power. "

[Keywork]

With closed loop, maintenance free systems coming out like the H100 (and CoolIt C240....and even stuff like the swiftech Edge series, but whatever..), I can see the appeal of custom loops to drop. Sure I love my loop, but for less cost, hassle, etc, options like the H100 have never looked more appealing, at least for a CPU only loop.