Should i do air cooling or water cooling for my upcoming build

Hardware Hub Cooling
1

I am going to building a new pc in around 2 months,and i am trying to decide if i want to go air cooling or water cooling.

I plan to have the i7 4790k,i do plan to overclock,despite my last 3 tries(on 3 different pc's)have all failed lol,the case i will be getting is a Phanteks Enthoo Pro,and i plan to run 2x 970 in SLI.

Here are the coolers i am looking at.

AIR:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd15

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd14

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermalright-cpu-cooler-silverarrowibeextreme

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc14pe

WATER:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rln28l20pkr1

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermaltake-cpu-cooler-clw0224b

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-cpu-cooler-h110

 

Which should i get? Or which would you get?

2

 If your only overclocking to a point of diminishing returns, Air would be silent and cheaper. Extreme overclocking? By all means, use water. :)

3

With over clocking idk just how much i will overclock.

But i i could only get my 8150 stable at 3.9ghz base clock on a hyper 212+,i also could not get an x2 5600+(stock cooling) stable at any over clock on an abit kn9 sli board,and last i was unable to get my q9450 stable at any overclock,on a xfx 680i lt board,using a coolit domino ALC.

 

But it could be i lost the silicone lottery with all 3 chips lol.

4

The hyper 212 is a decent cooler but if you want to over clock a lot I'd get something better.

Also I am not a fan of most AIOs since eventually there isn't enough water to properly cool everything and you can't refill it

5

i say air cooling. massive heatsinks, heatpipes, looks dope.

6

air cool also take a look at cryorig im very impressed with the quality of their coolers vey similar to noctua in performance as well.

7

sexy as all hell

8

Depends how far you are wanting to push your system, if you are only going for a mild overclock then get a high end air cooler or AIO water cooler. But if you want to do extreme overclocking then you should be thinking about a custom loop instead of an AIO or at least look into Swiftech's AIOs (like the h220-x) since those are a pre-built/pre-filled custom loop (custom loops will demolish an AIO in heat dissipation). 

9

+1

I own one and I love it. Coming from an ex-Thermalright SB-E Extreme P/P/P owner, it is warmer by 2C but it is a lot quieter.

10

Depends if you plan on OCing and if you plan on moving your system. I used to move my system a bit, but now with water cooling, I would dredge moving it from room to room or god forbid moving to a new house.

The only good thing about water cooling is you don't need to downclock in the summer and your system can be as loud or quiet as you want. With air you're down to either bequiet or noctua fans.

 

11

Well i was thinking of overclocking it to 4.5ghz to 4.7ghz if i can.

12

i don't plan on moving the system much,and i would like to try and get 4.5ghz to 4.7ghz on a 4790k.

13

clocks you get will depend on how lucky you were with your CPU. The nhd14 and 15 from noctua perform very similar to 240 mm AIO rads. Unless you you do it for aesthetics, there is no reason to go water in my opinion.

A custom loop will of course bring more performance, but at costs that are a lot higher.

14

I like air cooling personally, since water cooling can make your PC really heavy, and I like to move my tower around since I change my station setup every once in a while, and the damn thing is heavy enough as it is.

15

depends on your budget. If you don't want to spend at least 300$+ for water cooling alone then stick with air cooling.

16

Coolermaster Nepton 280L is in my opinnion a very decent choice. Logan did a review on it recently.

Other then that, the Phanteks or the Noctua NH-D15 are also good.

17

If you want top performing air coolers go search for Thermalright Extreme or Prolimatech Megahalems in combination with good TIM like Gelid GC Extreme, Indigo Extreme or Prolimatech PK-1. That combination generally out perform even good closed loop systems.