# Liquid Cooling



## Maqabyah (Dec 28, 2010)

I would like to know if its better to go with liquid cooling over air cooling for overclocking. What are the risks for using a liquid cool set up? do they last? are there any recomendations for which brand to choose? How much should I spend on either a quality Air system or liquid system?

I have i7 2600k stock cooler
asus p8p67
8 gigs of ddr3 
will be changing my nspire 750w psu for Corsair tx 750w
I also have ATI Sapphire 6870 gpu


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## ElCampesino (Feb 5, 2011)

Liquid cooling is definitely better than air cooling. The liquids used being denser than air and having a higher specific heat capacity allows them to absorb and transport heat much more efficiently from the CPU than air cooling can allow. As far as I know there are not any risks for using a liquid cooling system short of you cutting a liquid carrying tube and soaking your mobo, but this is highly unlikely. They certainly do last, well at least on par with average computer components which mostly do eventually fail. I am going to recommend the corsair H70 which is what cools the i5-2500k in my system . $100 is a pretty fair price for a nice, totally internal liquid cooling system. Not the quietest on the market, thats for sure, but it does a hell of a job cooling and looks pretty slick too. 2 year warranty from Corsair if you're worried about longevity of your investment. Thats my 2 cents.

Also, if I may add that you consider the Corsair HX750W over the TX750W PSU. For an extra $40 its more energy efficient and its completely modular which really helps keeping your case clutter free and organized.


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## Maqabyah (Dec 28, 2010)

Great reply, I just learned a whole lot there. I definately will go with the liquid cooling route. How easy is it to install?" Does'nt seem to difficult from a few pics i've seen. 
I am glad you mentioned modular because I cant stand a messy case. Hx750w will be my way to go.


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## MonsterMiata (Jan 5, 2010)

A proper liquid cooling setup will require a few hundred dollars. While the H50 and H70's are ok they are far from spectacular. 

Newegg.com - Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme Universal CPU Cooler 120mm Magnetic Fluid Dynamic LED Fan and Fan Controller/Heatsink Rev.1 with 1156 Brackets, free TX-3 Thermal Paste Included Inside

Newegg.com - Thermaltake Frio Overclocking-Ready Intel Core i7 (six-core ready) & i5 Compatible Five 8mm Heatpipes Dual 120mm Fans Intel & AMD Universal CPU Cooler CLP0564

Those 2 are just as good if not better than the H70 and at half the price. The H70 is neat but a waste of cash. If your going to liquid cool do it right. These sealed units are junk. The H50 is complete junk. 

Seems the H70 is alot better than its older brother but there are others out there that are just as good for half the price.


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## Maqabyah (Dec 28, 2010)

Those two links you sent me are great. my other question though is, if I was to go liquid cooling would I have to make modifactions to the case itself. My case is Antec Sonata Elite. I dont want to overclock untill I have all the right variables in place. And I dont want to do extreme overclocking, just raise my sandy bridge i7 to 4.0-4.5 GHz


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## MonsterMiata (Jan 5, 2010)

You might have to modify your case depending on how its set up. Just google different set ups and see what you like. Almost all of them require the water tubes to exit the case to where ever the radiator is at because it is most likely to big to fit in the case.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Air cooling is generally more than sufficient, certainly more cost effective and no concerns about leakage and damage to the other expensive hardware.


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## grimx133 (Jan 15, 2008)

If you do a proper loop, you're looking a lot more than a few hundred, more like a minimum of 6 or 700, but can easily go to a thousand. It's quite expensive. Better off sticking to air, unless you have the cash and time to invest in watercooling. 

Depending on your cpu, you should be able to run at 4Ghz.+ without any worries. Word has it that the 2600k is a very good OC'ing chip, though a lot depends on luck of the draw.


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## Maqabyah (Dec 28, 2010)

Well I decided to go water cooling. I purchased antec kuhler h20 620 Antec KUHLER H2O 620 Liquid Cooling System for Intel LGA 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, AMD AM2, AM3, AM2+, AM3+ CPU | Canada Computers

Eventhough it took me like 2hrs to install because I was extra careful and followed instructions step by step I have it running and it works great. Asus ai suit 2 records 45 degress celcius under full load and 29 on idle. Not bad for $70.00 CAD. I enjoyed the experience, thanks TSF for you advice


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