Hey guys, I recently built a PC and I was wondering if I can upgrade to liquid cooling in the future.
The case I am using is the Cooler Master 690 II Advanced.
Can I upgrade to a H110 or I can just upgrade to H100i?
Thanks in advance.
I wouldn't get either of those; I'd just get a nice air cooler and call it a day.
^^^ Agreed. The Dark knight or something similar. The only watercooling worth doing is a full custom loop.
Yeah, well can you tell me why? Because big tech names, like Linus Sebastian thinks that these will outperform any air cooler.
Linus is an idiot if he thinks an H110 is worth it. Even in his tests, he showed that the Phanteks PH-TC14PE was on-par with or beat the H100i, was cheaper, and came in more options of colors. With nice fans, like Noctuas, it can cast the same as the H110, but it will kick its ass in silence and price/performance.
The only reason to get a pre-built water cooling system IMO is to have bragging rights without the effort of actually building a kickass custom one.
If you REALLY want a water cooler, get a Swiftech H220, as this is designed to be expanded (eg add another rad and GPU block).
If your not going custom though, get an air cooler.
You shouldn't be so easily sold on CLC coolers. More often than not, they are beaten at every price point, as Brennan has explained.
Crucially, these bigger CLC coolers, which (I acknowledge) can deliver a good thermal performance, are priced extremely close to the cheapest custom watercooling kits.
Custom watercooling has better thermal performance, better aesthetics.
In the end, there really is no reason to get a CLC. Maybe if you needed the smaller footprint on the CPU socket, but there are alternatives.
To answer your question: your chassis will only support a 240mm radiator. You can upgrade to the H100i, if you wish.
I understand now, guys. Thank you for explaining me the stuff about closed-loops. To be honest, I never thought you could explain me so well about this. I have a new question though. Can you recommend me a good air cooler other than the Phanteks PH-TC14PE because it is not available in my country?
Again, thanks in advance and you are simply the best tech community I have ever come accros.
The only reason why I bought the H100 I have now is because it was on sale for 90 dollars. If I had the money right now. I would replace it with a 200mm radiator on the outside of my HAF-XB and throw in a 240mm radiator inside for the GPU where the H100 radiator is mounted right now.