So I’m gonna do a long needed new PC build with a 1700x, b350mobo, 2 sticks of ddr4 8gb at 2400mhz (can upgrade to 32g if needed), and for now a single rx480 but a crossfire with the 5 whatever that’s around $200 a card when they come out. Oh yeah, appropriate PSU and SSD as always
So, I can get another air cooler like the Evo I got for a firend or I can try water cooling on a closed loop. I have fairly new Arctic silver 5 (maybe 2 months old)
I’m trying to not go too much on cooling and if I go water cooling I want at least a dual fan, this full ATX case has plenty of room. I want to know if anyone has experience with closed loops and some pros and cons of them. I am new to liquid cooling so please shed some light.
Important! I doubt it but does anyone know of a manufacturer of water cooling loops that covers damage to components other than the raidiator in the event of an oh shit spill, cuz it has happened to a firend and I kinda don’t want to end up buying a new PC…
Thanks guys
The only thing I really know about water cooling is to always Test for Leaks!
Oh, and have some sort of airflow around the cpu socket (stock case fans may be ok for this)
Otherwise, air is just fine, and I don’t think thermal paste goes bad very quickly.
I have an AMD FX 8320 overclocked to 4.4Ghz on a 212 Evo, and I use that daily. You can get good silent fans if you was to keep the noise down as well.
1 Like
Hm, it depends. Usually a good air cooler isn’t that much off in terms of performance.
The major advantage of a closed loop water-cooling that I see is getting the heat directly out of the case instead of dissipating it inside, especially when you plan on running an air-cooled crossfire setup. (Also, make sure there’s as much space as possible between the two cards!)
I’m running an air cooled cpu and a single ~200W graphics card and even though I have 3 120mm case fans it’s a major heat trap.
2 Likes
I’m going to sound like an ass, so let me get it out of the way. Throw out that junk, go buy some real paste. AS-5 is a relic from 20 years ago, there are much better pastes with considerably higher thermal conductivity rates. Arctic MX-2 and MX-4 are excellent starting points in the world of better TIM.
CLC Pro/Con
Pro:
Easy to setup.
No Dram clearance issues.
Consistent performance.
Con:
Low Heat dissipation/capacity for your money spent.
Not expandable with out considerable thought, or additional pumps.
Hose length fits most applications
Normally a good air cooler beats out most CLC units.
Let me know what your budget is, and If you are willing to go custom or not.
I’ve done things over the years. I know stuff.
If you are going to run lots of thermal, I recomend using water for one of them, I often choose water for the GPUs
I’ve also modded CLCs for the GPUs in the past, it works surprisingly well!
6 Likes
I’ll spend a fair amount bit don’t want to go too crazy. (Computer alone let’s say $1100 of lower) I am going to put one GPU on the first slot and use a riser to place the future other 2 slots below
MX 4 looks good for me! I’ll finally switch (RIP Arctic silver 5 god knows when - 2017)
I got 5 120mm case fans on the case
For now in gonna keep the GPUs air cooled
2 Likes
I think I’ll go for an Evo, with mx4 it should be able to clock a fair amount up with that. The GPUs on closed loops looks like a nice upgrade eventually!
2 Likes
If you have space, you might as well go for something like a 612 v2. Haven’t had an Evo in my hands but it seems like kind of a budgety solution to me. (That is, as you’ve even considered water cooling before.)
1 Like
The Evo is a great cooler for the price but the 612 looks nice value wise too. I’m not gonna get any $100 Nautica shit though
I’m using the 612 (got it in a black friday sale) as a temporary solution on my Xeon build until I get the graphics cards and custom water loop.
Also for thermal paste, I’ve gone for the Arctic Ceramique 2 as it’s non-conductive (so a, I can’t fuck up and b, I can also use it for GPU’s and stuff). The MX-2 or MX-4 should give slightly better cooling if you take care.
1 Like
You like the 612? It looks like good for the money, what temps do you get with it?
I can’t remember what temperature it ran at (as I only did a test run a while ago, currently the system is missing parts) but it did handle the 120W TDP Xeon without a problem.
Edit: Actually, I think I have stuff around to get it to run. Getting some numbers now would be interesting for me too. Back in a while ^^
Edit 2: I can’t tell you a load temperature, all I found out for now was that the cpu is doing some weird shit with clock speeds under load. Gotta resolve that issue. It idles at 5-7°C over room temperature though.
1 Like
Well I’ll go 612 then, look around some more but that seems good
Hey Cole, this isn’t relevant to this discussion but it will certainly interest you. I was just playing around on pcspecialist.co.uk to see what price range a Ryzen build would fall into, and this was what came out of it:
Now mind, if you upgrade to the RX480 8gB version it still only costs £1087
(that PSU is pretty weak tho lol, plus stock AMD cooler)
cue hype
2 Likes
I have another budget build I am doing for a friend that may be of interest. It is made to be upgradeable. It’s $880 with no sales for a whole setup. Last time I checked it was $800ish
AMD ryzen 1300
Refurbished rx480 4gb
8gb DDR4 2400 (expendable to 16g)
Refurbished 400w EVGA PSU (80 bronze)
Diypc cuboid case red
Transcend 512gb SSD
Cooler Master destroyer keyboard mouse combo
E320 motherboard (b350 for $20 more, crossfire possible there)
$13 USB DVD RW
$5 300mbs USB wifi adapter
27in ViewSonic freesync 2ms 75hz gaming monitor
About $820 I would guess, haven’t checked in a few days
Oh, we get win10 for free so put about $50 more on that. Can buy a key off of eBay for that little
For your build you’ll fill up a 128gb quick. I would buy a 512gb and stick a 2+ TB later when needed
If you do a build too just do it yourself, you can save so much. If you were in the US I’d do the build for free but shipping would probably be too much 
I’ll give you my full build in planning later today, I’d recommend it over that but that’s me. It’s not bad but could be better for the money too
No the 128 would just be for the OS, and HDD for all the actual work. But all in all, the point I was trying to make was that even with a case and an expensive mobo plus labor costs it’s very good value.
1 Like
The thing with the HDD SSD combo is you want to run your games off of an SSD too so you’re bottlenecking with an HDD. I’d just spend the $50ish extra, it’ll be worth it, I did that same thing on my current PC and regrets…
Lol if u want to spend $91 for shipping I could make it for free labor lol
Idk y u would though, escape vat maybe?
I’d still have to pay customs. As I was saying, it’s just a build to see whether the Ryzen is as good value as promised, I won’t be buying or building a PC myself for another two years at the least.
Ok, it’s good value, I can vouch for that and I’m excited to get one. Not gonna preorder though or at least wait a bit until more motherboard info and coolers are out.
