I’m not totally new to PCs, but I’m definitely a novice when it comes to water cooling. I’ve pushed my air cooling as far as it can go while transitioning from regular gaming to really intense, modded gaming sessions. My PC tends to run really hot, and I’m looking for a water cooling solution that won’t break the bank but is still decent enough not to ruin my rig. Specifically, I’m interested in what I need to effectively water cool my GeForce RTX 3090 FE and an Intel i9-10900F. My setup includes 4 x 16GB DDR4 3600MT/s RAM and a couple of fast M.2 SSDs. Any thoughts on budget-friendly options that would work well?
3 Answers
Honestly, if you’re looking for water cooling just for looks, it might not be worth it. Many people think it’s better than air cooling, but in reality, water cooling just relies on air cooling at the end of the day to get rid of heat. You might be better off investing in a higher-quality air cooler instead. They’re simpler and you can find good ones without spending a fortune.
Are you experiencing thermal throttling? If not, and you seem to be managing okay, you might want to hold off on water cooling for now. I’m just suggesting that if you start planning now, it could save you in the long run.
I’m not throttling at the moment but I just want to be proactive about it to avoid future issues.
If you’re considering water cooling just for performance gains, keep in mind that the improvement may not be substantial unless you have a high TDP CPU. Sure, it runs cooler and allows for more overclocking, but if the current performance is okay, maybe just consider hardware upgrades instead.
So, you’re saying I should skip the water cooling and just upgrade my air cooling setup? That could save me a lot of hassle with all the water cooling setup and maintenance.