Liquid Cooling - Thoughts, Opinions, Advice, CPU, GPU..

Bungusbeefcake

Hi All,

As I'm prepping for the launch of the new Nvidia cards, I'm going through my design for a new PC and contemplating Liquid Cooling for it. I wouldn't be against doing it myself and not buying an AIO, however as most of us are aware cost is the huge difference.

So I'm looking for peoples experience with both AIO cooling for CPUs, is there AIO for GPUs or is GPU liquid cooling only generally on Founders edition cards (as I see they're the most widely available dies) and all DIY.

Has anyone gone the GPU liquid cooling route and how did you find it?

Or alternatively, is it all really about the look of it and there's no difference between air cooling and liquid cooling. Would really like to know everyone's opinions and advice! Especially if you have some advice on systems (DIY or AIO) to go for or aviod.

Thanks!

Aodhan5000

I've heard of two Chinese brands growing popular in the liquid cooling community: Barrow and Byski. They sell on AliExpress. Byski has it's own US site too but to get value you'd be ordering form AliExpress. I've had 0 experience with them but I'm considering them for my next build as it would be possible to get a loop going for 250/300 quid with them. From what I know, Barrow was/is an OEM company for someone (can't remember who). Obviously those would be more value options. EK is rock solid but you'll pay for it

K.O.Kiki

I used an NZXT Kraken G12 on a GTX 980 Ti before, very good results - even with a lowly 120mm AIO it was 20C+ cooler than with the mammoth 2.75 slot cooler it came with.

On my current RTX 2070 Super I'm however using the heatsink from an Arctic Accelero II Twin-Turbo with Aerocool Astro 24 fans.
It doesn't get as cool (seeing core peak at 76C) but it's still well below throttling point, so performance isn't affected.

So AIO is maybe worth it IF the card is throttling - but good air coolers are already well below that, so it's really unnecessary.
The main draw is that you can use larger fans (120/140mm) and thus reduce noise.

Samuel T. Cogley

The problem with liquid cooling is it can cost as much as going for the next tier of product. Are you better off with a liquid cooled 3600 or an aircooled 3700x as an example. Thankfully nVidia are solving this problem with their pricing model :pac:

It's all about looks, and to some degree acoustics. Which is perfectly fine of course.

Last issue is a custom loop needs to be maintained.

Serephucus

I've done a few custom loops, though not for a few years now.

Generally, it will perform better than an AIO, is far more easy to upgrade and change, will likely be quieter to boot, and (I found) is generally fun to do as well.

That said, it is not cost effective. As Samuel mentioned, the cost of it is basically the same as jumping to the next tier of CPU/CPU (sometimes both). Or at least, it was in the day of €500 flagship cards. Who knows these days.

All that said... I'm going custom loop again for my next build.

bennyx_o

My current rig (i7-7700k & 1080ti) is watercooled, and as others have said, its not cheap. From memory ot was just over €900 for the rads, tubing, fans, pump/res etc. Mines in a Mini ITX case so temps could be a little better. Considering a new build at the moment and would like to watercool it again as even after a decent gaming session its still fairly quiet, but not sure its worth the cost involved

BloodBath

It definitely is not worth. Almost no gains to be made from overclocking with it. Almost no gains from a noise perspective, you still need rad fans and a pump. It's often noisier than air cooled. It's almost entirely cosmetic with large risk and cost involved.

Metric Tensor

I love the look of a custom loop system but the risk, cost, maintenance, etc just don't really add up. When I win the lotto and money is no object I'll build one as a project.

I have an AIO on my processor. It's a Coolermaster one with dual fans. (I can't remember the exact model.) I mainly got it for the clean look in my windowed case. From reading up at the time "big air" would be almost as efficient and might have better longevity but the clean look just spoke to me. I've a decent overclock dialled in and the AIO handles it well. It's over 4 years running now and I think the thermal paste needs to be replaced because there seems to be a bit of slippage in temps.

Bungusbeefcake

Thanks for the feedback guys. Thats much appreciated.

My real dilemma here is that I like the look and idea of a watercooled system, but couldn't really justify it if it didn't really give any gains. I'm building at the moment and would have like to increase CPU and GPU cooling. I'll be looking for possibly I7-10700k, I9-10850k or Ryzen 3950x with an 3080 (depending on price or options when they come out tomorrow).
My main cooling would be for the GPU as this would be used most. I don't know if I'd be overclocking the CPU or not.....so thats why I would be mainly looking at the GPU.

I was looking at either an AIO as in the Cooler Master ML240R or a custom - the Barrow, Byksky or EK look good, but prices of the EK are a bit of a stretch to include the GPU.

So from what I'm hearing here, it's potentially not worth the money. I think I could get the custom set up for 250ish, as against the 110/120 for the ML240R which only does the CPU.

Any suggestions for standalone GPU cooling increase??

Why do you want to cool the GPU separately out of interest?

K.O.Kiki

I mean, it MIGHT be worth the money if you can get a Kraken G12 to fit on RTX 3080/3090 - they're 320W/350W TDP respectively & thus I could potentially see the benefits of watercooling them (assuming they're monolithic dies).