Water cooling worth it?

Posted by Academic_Rise_7670@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 8 comments

I was thinking about making a custom loop for my build are there any benefits of going water cooled. A lot of people complain about maintenance little performance gains.

Spec:

Rtx 5090 astral OC

Amd 9950X3D

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LowPomegranate225@reddit

Cooler temps. More OC potential with added maintenance periods.

I'm lazy so I just go air-cooled but I will admit a custom water cool loop or AIO does look sleek.

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If you want silent gaming with sustained 700-900W, watercooling can be a good solution, but the required radiator size for a silent system that sustained those gaming wattages will never fit in any case.

MO-RA IV 600 https://i.imgur.com/i2ZZ4Li.jpeg
low maintenance with EPDM and QDC's is typically not that popular either https://i.imgur.com/fG10Fon.jpeg
At this point you are also removing the 1000W space heater from your desk or gaming room.

This niche is well covered with the MO-RA ecosystem and similar solutions and you dont have to DIY anything if you dont enjoy it.

Obviously if water cooling is reduced to acryl + RGB galore, blocking intakes in allready airflow limited systems with distro plates and leaving the radiator size choice to aesthetics or to a challenge with compact case dimensions - it is understandable why "a lot of people complain" about any kind of gains from water cooling.

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ThunderKats351@reddit

For that CPU, yep AIO is worth it, just make sure to not go cheap and get water leek or something for doing so. Some YouTuber expert on server level of computer with even more core than that still prefer going with air coller, so is up to the user what's the best choice. One can brake and damage your component while the other won't and fan are mostly the only concern and those can be replace if they fail (cheap maintenance), just make sure the air or water cooling solution is design to keep that CPU under control and remember lower temps also mean the component life-span might be extended but not something a CPU cry about, those thing can last beyond user needs before the next upgrade.

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Serious-Map-1230@reddit

The only real performance gain you can get with custom loop is less noise and good looks.

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1rkella@reddit

There's no reason to go for a custom loop unless you want the aesthetic, or will enjoy building and maintaining it.

While it can be built for a higher cooling capacity, unless you're also tweaking and manually overclocking, it's unlikely you'll notice and performance difference over a high quality air cooler or good AIO.

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