Are Watercoolers Just Bling?

[pp111]

The reason I say this, is it seems to me that watercoolers have a pretty limited life, are more disastrous when they fail, and are over complicated, not to mention they are often more expensive and often louder too.
So really it puzzles me why people buy them. I am guilty too, I often find myself drawn to the most flashy watercooler, and I suddenly realised it wasn't for performance, it's cus they are more blingy.

 

[mickyflinn]

Custom loops are expensive and in terms of value for money not worth it. They are more enthusiast market who want superier cooling, added bling then an aio/air solution.

They can also be very quiet.

Some Aio coolers have similar performance or slightly better than the top air coolers costing the same.

It's all about choice which yours could be diffrent to the next man.

 

[Joe Jones]

There are many people who build it to look flashy because that's what they want and when done right is almost a work of art.

I'm at the other end, built to function. I don't do colours or lights...just a black box under the desk.

My black box however uses kit that is 10+yrs old...has seen some massive overclocks over various CPU changes and I've kept the cost down by making new or customising mounting blocks to make the CPU block see through the generations. The worst bit of watercooling is the change of GPU blocks as you need a new one for each card model.

I guess in 15 years I've spent close to £500 on my watercooling which has been 15 years of fairly high performance almost near silence computing.

 

[MikeTimbers]

value is subjective. agree that the cost is high but just like a good PSU will last thru multiple builds, good radiators, good pumps, good cpu blocks, good fittings, will last thru many builds. The only parts that require upgrading are GPU blocks.

and no, it's not just bling. good cooling - and watercooling is more effective than air - improve the lifespan of the cooled components. if you are a heavy user, watercooling keeps noise down and temperatures low.

 

[Chris Beard]

I do it for silence; my loop looks ugly and is in a case burred under a desk. It's quieter as a whole system than the graphics card was alone. I bought everything second hand, and whilst it's far more expensive than second-hand air-cooling (especially for the CPU), once you factor in the GPU it doesn't work out too badly.

It also gives me more things to tinker with; I'm the kind of person who spends more time with the PC in parts on my desk than actually running software - so there is this too!

 

[im4gine3]

i do it for silence and bling to be honest. I used to overclock a lot back in the days of the Athlons etc but now given the minor gains, i don't see the point.. unless i don't wanna spend more dosh on a newer CPU/GPU... so watercooling performance isn't a requirement of mine anymore, and well, custom loops are expensive but each to their own. I've spent close to £1k on my current loop and thats to cool an aging 4770K and GTX1080.. bearing in mind majority of that cost are due to expensive fittings

 

[flea.rider]

ive got the rads and the pumps so a block here and there suits me .. same as high cost air..
if i didn't i wouldn't

 

[clone]

Before I blocked up my 2080 super I could not keep my finger on the backplate as it was dam hot after gaming,installed the bock and it's luke warm to touch.

 

[LePhuronn]

The reason I say this, is it seems to me that watercoolers have a pretty limited life, are more disastrous when they fail, and are over complicated, not to mention they are often more expensive and often louder too.
So really it puzzles me why people buy them. I am guilty too, I often find myself drawn to the most flashy watercooler, and I suddenly realised it wasn't for performance, it's cus they are more blingy.

Are you talking about AIOs? Because what you're saying doesn't apply to custom loops (other than the expense, of course).

 

[Slinky69]

It's a whole sub-hobby in itself, really.