water or air?

dany man

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2019
Messages
193
Ok so I'm building a sleeper PC out of a old Packard bell legend 130cd supreme case. But my cooling setup is certainly up in the air.

I have most of the parts all ready so I'm not realty spending any money. I don't have the 1050it or 1650gtx.
I do not want to cut up the case any more then I have to to fit an AXT board in it.

Setup one, Air cooled.
I3 8350k
gtx titan (kepler, I have one setting unused)
scythe big shuriken 3 with better fan.

The titan will be rotated 90 degrees and on top on the motherboard with a 92mm intake fan right next to it. The psu's 120mm fan and the GPU will act as exhaust.

Water cooled setup.
I modded the case with a modular ATX/PCI slot back plane, it can take 3 full length cards on top of the motherboard wit ha riser cable or 4 low profile cards.

I3 8350k
1050ti gtx LP or 1650gtxlp if I wait a wile
I3 8350k or 9350kf
HWlabs 184mm rad (have a few and believe it or not they work grate despite being really small)
DDC pump.
old scool gold koolance gpu block.
old scool koolance gold cpu block.
No rez, but a t-line.

Both setups will have the GPU at stockspeeds with a mild OC on the CPU.
I have all the water cooling parts and I know that the CPU block can handle a over clocked Pentium Extreme Edition 965 and the GPU block can handle a over over clocked fx5950 ultra.


What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are that both setups are flawed in there own way. The water cooled setup would have higher temps all around but would not be so loud. The air cooled setup would have better CPU temps but with very high GPU temps.

Now I could can the titan all together and use the system air cooled with a 1650 LP, but I don't know. seems like a wast of money as the titan is about the same performance and Id only be making the system quieter with it.
 
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Theres not much point going water unless you need just that bit more performance or want to drastically lower how loud it is.
I went water on my CPU and put an Accelero III air cooler on my gfx card to kill the noise.
It got me +200MHz (+4%) on my CPU, approx +3% on my gfx card and a very quiet system.
I cant say I notice the performance difference.
 
Given your components, air cool. It makes zero sense to watercool an I3 and a low/medium grade video card. Those components dissipate so little wattage that a practically silent air cooled setup is already possible if you're smart with airflow.

Don't use the Kepler Titan. Makes zero sense for an otherwise very modern, low-power build.
 
Given your components, air cool. It makes zero sense to watercool an I3 and a low/medium grade video card. Those components dissipate so little wattage that a practically silent air cooled setup is already possible if you're smart with airflow.

Don't use the Kepler Titan. Makes zero sense for an otherwise very modern, low-power build.
All ready have the parts, and the case I have is from the early 90s as stated in the OP if you read it all.
I put the system together with the titan, the GPU was at topping out at 92c with max fan speed and the i3 at stock was pushing 80c so I will have to go water.
 
All ready have the parts, and the case I have is from the early 90s as stated in the OP if you read it all.
I put the system together with the titan, the GPU was at topping out at 92c with max fan speed and the i3 at stock was pushing 80c so I will have to go water.
I read your post. I know you have the components. If you're hitting those temps on air, you'll still hit those temps on water, it'll just take longer to saturate your coolant with heat.

Your case is starving your components for airflow, and it will still starve them on water - watercooled systems still need airflow to dissipate heat.

If you're set on water, consider an external radiator setup. That's the only situation where water would give you any kind of cooling advantage.
 
I read your post. I know you have the components. If you're hitting those temps on air, you'll still hit those temps on water, it'll just take longer to saturate your coolant with heat.

Your case is starving your components for airflow, and it will still starve them on water - watercooled systems still need airflow to dissipate heat.

If you're set on water, consider an external radiator setup. That's the only situation where water would give you any kind of cooling advantage.
I just tried water. It did not get any ware that hot. way way lower. after 1hr of fur mark and Prime95. and that was with a dual 92mm rad.
 
I just tried water. It did not get any ware that hot. way way lower. after 1hr of fur mark and Prime95. and that was with a dual 92mm rad.
Okay then. Why did you post this thread? Seems like you made up your mind before asking.

I do get it tho - watercooling components lying around makes my fingers itch to build something too.
 
Yup, a lot of people forget, or don't know that this.. computers, pc hardware, overclocking.. is a hobby, like any other. You can have a basic setup that does things most others can. How far you want to take things has always depended on your creativity, ingenuity, and of course your wallet.
 
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