What makes one Water cooling system better than another?

[Evil Genius Jr.]

So say I have system A and System B. System B continually has 10C lower temps under load with the same CPU. Assuming the same pump/fluid/fans/tubing. What could cause this?
This is all pure speculation, basically I'm trying to figure out within a certain budget is it better to go with a Higher end radiator and a low end waterblock, etc.
Any way way to phrase it would be "What component has the highest effect on temperatures?"
Thanks!

[Lpfan4ever]

Fan/rad combo is what I would consider the most important factor in temperatures. You have to pick the fans that suit the radiator. For example, sticking 3k RPM fans on a low FPI radiator is useless. You will most likely get better results with a radiator with higher FPI if you have high speed fans.

[SugarJ]

What's your end goal?

Maximum sustainable overclock or lower fan noise?

What you're asking is hard to find out unless someone has done testing with the exact 2 combinations you are contemplating. However, I'd say that if you are looking at a block that's a difference of 1-2 degrees from "best" then it's your radiator that will have the most effect on your loop. If it's 5-6 degrees then it's the block that will govern temps more than radiator.

You should post what combinations you are thinking about and let the forum give you some pros and cons.

[Evil Genius Jr.]

Originally Posted by SugarJ

What's your end goal?

Maximum sustainable overclock or lower fan noise?

What you're asking is hard to find out unless someone has done testing with the exact 2 combinations you are contemplating. However, I'd say that if you are looking at a block that's a difference of 1-2 degrees from "best" then it's your radiator that will have the most effect on your loop. If it's 5-6 degrees then it's the block that will govern temps more than radiator.

You should post what combinations you are thinking about and let the forum give you some pros and cons.

I'd like to hit 10Ghz with no noise lol...... Realistically a low amount of noise with a mildish overclock (Think 4.4GHz on an i5-3570k).

I Didn't really have any specific parts yet but I'll try and find some and post some links. Thanks for the help!

[SugarJ]

Pretty much any custom loop should do that. And some larger rad All-in-ones. It's all a tradeoff, and some rads do better with low-speed fans than others.

A budget of what you're looking to spend might be appropriate, too.

[Evil Genius Jr.]

Originally Posted by SugarJ

Pretty much any custom loop should do that. And some larger rad All-in-ones. It's all a tradeoff, and some rads do better with low-speed fans than others.

A budget of what you're looking to spend might be appropriate, too.

Okay cool thanks! I'm currently running a Kuhler 620 so I'm not entirely sure if it's even worth the upgrade. But I do think custom water cooling would be a great project.

As for budget I don't really have one. I'd like to go as cheap as possible but if an $100 Radiator is twice as good as a $50 radiator I will consider the more expensive part. No $1000 dollar setup though, just something within reason.

[SugarJ]

Seeing as you're in the US rather than Canada, take a look at the kits here: PC Liquid Cooling Kits from Swiftech, XSPC, Corsair and Asetek

Ranges from $160 up to $280.

[Evil Genius Jr.]

So I assuming this kit:
**NEW** XSPC Raystorm 750 RS240 WaterCooling Kit - Supports all CPU sockets
Would offer lower temps than this one due to the larger radiator?
XSPC Rasa 450 RS120 WaterCooling Kit

Thanks!

[gingerbee]

hell for overclock a air cooler can handle that just pointing it out

[Feanor]

For your cpu/goal/budget, a 240mm with high fpi, on which 3 high performance fans (1800-2000+ rpm) would be fitted, a rasa cpu waterblock (i own an ek supreme HF and a rasa, and they're really in the same ballpark) and a mcp 35x pump/res combo would do just fine. Choose your tubing and fittings color, fill your loop with distillated water and add a silver kill coil.

The whole setup should be under 200$, be easily customized to almost any case, and allow for your cpu to be pushed in the voltage red zone. At least that's what happened to me with the above on a i7 970. Now voltage is the limiting factor in my overclock. No way i'm gonna run 1,5 vcore 24/7!