Why don't you custom water-cool your PC?

[X71200]

Seconding the post above, custom loops get a whole lot more dustier, and the water or coolant or whatever you use, also creates algea / bacteria down the line. The flushing and re-filling procedure is awful.

Most AMD chips today can work perfectly with the stock cooler.

 

[SN2716057]

For me having a water cooled pc is a hobby, one I like to invest in.
I have one custom water cooled rig (sig) since 2014 (ish) and 3 rigs that are air cooled..
The main rig has 3x 360 rads and is a special project, it will never be done. It is also the only rig that has survived all my water cooling shenanigans.

As for maintenance it's something that just comes with the project, similar to having a car or a house. As for dust I use demciflex filters and clean my house regularly.
And algae isn't a thing if you flush all the components before usage and use the correct fluid.

 

[Hotobu]

I think this is one of those polls that should allow multiple answers.

I am afraid of leaks, it's too expensive for very little benefit, and takes way too much time. I don't have the skills, but if it were beneficial I'd definitely put the money/effort into it. i.e. if it boosted system performance by 10%, then sure, but for a like... 4C? Slap a DH15 on it and forget about it.

 

[Chrispy_]

Wow, more of us custom-loop than I expected.

I wouldn't have bothered unless I expected to keep this GPU for a while. With Brexit, GPU shortages, and cryptomining all happening at once I decided I'd be on this 2070S for long enough to justify buying a waterblock for it.

Realistically, with a waterblock being €100+ and normally being delayed after new hardware launch until the OEMs have had time to machine new blocks to fit the new cards, there's a reduced window of opportunity between waterblocks being available for a new product, and the next-gen hardware launching in its place.

Even assuming you have a custom CPU loop in place with radiator capacity to spare, simply waterblocking a GPU has been a borderline issue for me for years, from a cost/time/benefit analysis. If I were to keep a high-end GPU for longer than 18-ish months perhaps I'd feel differently about it, but I'm constantly rolling through upper-tier hardware (I've had two Navi cards and four RTX cards since they launched) and it's way too much effort to bother updating a waterblock and draining/refilling the system each time.

 

[olstyle]

Best hack for this is to use one gen old HighEnd instead of current gen Midrange. I payed no extra at all for the pre installed water-cooling on an 2080Ti compared to a new 3070.
Doesn't work if you want to have the current gen top model of course.

 

[kapone32]

Wow, more of us custom-loop than I expected.

I wouldn't have bothered unless I expected to keep this GPU for a while. With Brexit, GPU shortages, and cryptomining all happening at once I decided I'd be on this 2070S for long enough to justify buying a waterblock for it.

Realistically, with a waterblock being €100+ and normally being delayed after new hardware launch until the OEMs have had time to machine new blocks to fit the new cards, there's a reduced window of opportunity between waterblocks being available for a new product, and the next-gen hardware launching in its place.

Even assuming you have a custom CPU loop in place with radiator capacity to spare, simply waterblocking a GPU has been a borderline issue for me for years, from a cost/time/benefit analysis. If I were to keep a high-end GPU for longer than 18-ish months perhaps I'd feel differently about it, but I'm constantly rolling through upper-tier hardware (I've had two Navi cards and four RTX cards since they launched) and it's way too much effort to bother updating a waterblock and draining/refilling the system each time.

I guess I cheated a little in my GPU setup. I use Alphacool quick connect tubes. I have a small reservoir hiding in the back of the case. I don't have to drain the entire thing when replacing a card.

That has actually changed for this generation. Just about every new card has a water block available from Alphacool, EK or Byiski.

I have had Vega since 2017 and running on water since 2018. The benefits do outweigh the cons in my estimation. A boost clock of 1725 is pretty sweet for Vega and the memory and GPU sitting in the same space made water cooling almost academic. I am pretty sure I will get a block for my new card and use it for at least 2 to 3 years before whatever new comes out. It is interesting that AMD has quietly enabled crossfire support for the 6000 series cards. That would also mean a waterblock if not just for access to the rest of the MB.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah QDC's rule

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Adding more points of failure to get a modest improvement in cooling? I prefer longevity and reliability to mildly improved performance.

 

[dgianstefani]

Points of failure exist everywhere, except in properly designed systems with good quality parts that are fit for purpose (e.g. not using electroplated nickel in watercooling) these have MBTF in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of hours.

TLDR - if you properly assemble a waterloop, and know what you are doing, using the right components, you won't have reliability issues.

Potential points of failure I agree, watercooling is more complex than air, but this doesn't necessarily mean less reliable, it only means you have to take more care.

For example, only using copper parts, or using the same metal throughout your loop. Or taking care to ensure your fittings are nickel plated Pro-XE etc. Or ensuring the loop is properly flushed. The bottom line is, done properly it can be too much hassle for your average enthusiast, who prefers to just compromise and slap an AIO on every five years or so.

It's still the best (current) cooling solution (if properly done), and has no competition for cooling capacity in a given volume of space.

 

[DrCR]

I still my Iwaki pump from the Cathar G4 waterblock era, just 'cause. Doubt I'll ever use it again though. Any other ProCooling.com era watercoolers here?

Nowadays just slap a Thermalright e.g. Le Grand Macho RT or maybe a Scythe on it and call it a day.

 

[remixedcat]

for me i have terrible liquid physics. liquids have screwed me over many a time so...pass to LC....

 

[renz496]

Vote for price but i can easily say the other factor also valid for me. Though i have been using AIO for my CPU for several years now.

 

[Nater]

I've always wanted to, but I don't see the point unless you're doing it to top-end hardware. People buying say, an RTX 2070 and putting a waterblock on it..is just stupid. Go broke or go home, and I got a home to pay for first.

 

[springs113]

I've got several watercooled pcs and 2 air cooled. Of course having both, let's me enjoy the benefits and disadvantages of both. I prefer water though.

 

[Tomgang]

There are actually severel reasons for why i am not going the water cooling route. No dout about that a proper custom loop can look really nice and do a better job on cooling a higly overclock CPU or GPU.

But despite that, i am not going water cooling for my next systems 2 systems in 1 case).
Reasons:
1. Price for at custom loop is significantly higher than a good aircooler and a top high end aircooler is on pair with at least a 240/280 MM aio and maybe even some 360 MM AIO.
2. There are more maintinance with water cooling.
3. Not only to begin with is it more exspensive, later on there will be more to get again. As pump stops working, CPU/GPU cooling head/plate clugs up and needs to be replaced. This is a real problem as i keep my systems for many years (my X58 is now all most 12 years old)
4. There are more parts that can go wrong. leaks, pump failure, clugged cooling system (well mostly because of bad maintinence) and so on.
5. Aio seems to be ready to replace after about 3-5 years as cooling head clug up, water wapers away and cant keep pump lubricated and all this lead to bad cooling or aio failure.

With air cooling you pretty much just clean it for dust, repaste and mount cooler again once a while and replace fans when worn out. Else you can keep using an aircooler the whole systems life span. Air cooling is just cheaper, more reliable and dosent needs so must maintinance.

 

[Ja.KooLit]

did it 3 yrs ago, never again Price, maintence are my top reason not anymore. Especially a good AIO is only few degrees compares to custom 1...

 

[olstyle]

What kind of maintenance have you guys been doing all the time that it became a burden?
Change the coolant maybe every 2 years and you are fine.

 

[8BitZ80]

Lots of reasons. High cost, too many additional failure points, more maintenance, heaps of time wasted.

But more importantly is that custom water cooling is very confused in it's purpose. It can't be extra performance because a Pascal GTX 1080 running on the stock air cooler could easily destroy a Maxwell GTX 980 massively overclocked on water cooling. The cooling solution just doesn't make much of a difference in long-term ownership since the new generation of parts the next year will smash it anyway.

 

[blobster21]

Why don't you custom water-cool your PC?

Because it's neither a house or a car : it doesn't need plumbery nor a radiator with fancy fluids to cool it.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

Watercooling is not expensive in the long run. However if you buy expensive fittings, tubing, water additives it can get up there in price. I built most of my loop from HomeDepot. The only thing I spent good money on was the CPU/GPU blocks, Pump, Radiators. Having an external case to house all the rads/res/pump makes working on the system very easy. Upgrades are also easy. I have been basically using the same water cooling system since 2007 and upgrading when needed/wanted. Plus with a thermostat it is nearly silent when not gaming and when gaming it is comparable to AIO but cools much better, especially the GPU.

People get too hung up on stuff that really has no impact other than Aesthetics. Which if that floats your boat, great! But it's not needed for a functional and efficient loop and often I think people see these dang near works of art and think I can't afford that, or build that, and get swayed towards water cooling isn't for me.

 

[junglist724]

CPUs are too heat dense so it's difficult to get temperatures down no matter how good your cooling is. However AMD's Precision Boost will raise clocks slightly as temperature goes down so there is a small benefit to watercooling, though definitely not enough to warrant building a CPU only loop. GPUs on the other hand benefit greatly from watercooling and in my experience a ~400W GPU will run at 6-14C above coolant temp depending on the waterblock and flow rate so even with a small loop you can get GPU temps under 50C. My main PC can keep coolant temps at 8C above ambient so with AC on my 3090 FTW3 Ultra can run as low as 34C. With the original air cooler it used to run at 78C.

 

[ObiFrost]

The same reason I still haven't switched from air cooler to AIO - diminishing returns. Many risks involved, even if they're rare, still nothing beats a cheap $30 air cooler other than $80-90 Noctua cooler price/performance wise. My rig is dark and under a table, the way it should be displayed, instead of that obtuse manchild attidude of treating electronics like they're barbie all over the place. Besides that, CPUs nowadays have little OC headroom so it makes very little sense for casual enthusiasts to push it's boundaries with limited cooling. If I was fully dedicated for hardcore OC'ing with deep wallets then surely custom loop is the way, otherwise it's practically useless for vast majority.

 

[ThrashZone]

What kind of maintenance have you guys been doing all the time that it became a burden?
Change the coolant maybe every 2 years and you are fine.

Hi,
Most maintenance revolves around hardware upgrading
Getting better water blocks or completely different gpu.. with water block.
Otherwise none really beside maintaining ph7 or cleaning dust out of radiators

 

[windwhirl]

In my case, reasons why I don't do watercooling:

Price: those parts aren't exactly cheap, and I'd rather save the money for something else.
Lack of skills: kinda. I imagine that I could pull it off with a manual or user guide, though.
Leaks: I'm a klutz sometimes. Last thing I need is me forgetting something or leaving some screw loose and having to replace the whole rig because of a blasted leak. That's a lot of money that I can't spare, much less when I actually need the rig for work stuff and I can't replace it with something else.
Case size: Yes.
Benefits not worth it: I won't get even a 50% perf boost out of it and with all the downsides mentioned, it's just not worth it.

 

[Hyderz]

its a combination of price, tedious to build, water leaks and also maintenance.
after a while have to drain and change the liquid and also cleaning the tubes plates etc etc.
quite a lot of hassle from my view.