Which is lower maintenence: Air cooled or water cooled

[LoBlo]

Anyone here have a water cooled system? I was wondering if its was higher or lower maintence than an air cooled system. With the water cooled system is dust build up inside the tower as much of a problem as with an air cooled system.

[FIREWALL]

Been LC for over 2yrs. Use Aquagate system. Dust free.

Top off liquid when level is low. Not that often.

I also have a highly filtered HUGE fans case. Cooler ACTI 840

btw it's a special liquid coolant. Not water.

There's alot more to this so there's not a simple answer.
1. do you smoke ?
2. do you leave windows open ?
3. is your room above 72oF ?
There's always going to be some kind of maintenance.

[LoBlo]

1. do you smoke ?
2. do you leave windows open ?
3. is your room above 72oF ?

Thanks for the reply. Nope, not a smoker and I rarely have an open window. I do however have my temperature above 72 (sometimes 75-80 degrees) often.... does that change the required maintenence?

[FIREWALL]

Thanks for the reply. Nope, not a smoker and I rarely have an open window. I do however have my temperature above 72 (sometimes 75-80 degrees) often.... does that change the required maintenence?

No. LC would keep your CPU and Vid card and Chipset cooler.

[CaptainHaplo]

Both require maintenance - air cooling its easy to forget to open things up and blow em out. So for the typical user - air is better because they don't think to do anything - at least until dust builds up and chokes things out and then everything overheats and becomes junk.

Watercooling systems almost all have an audible warning that your coolant is low, thereby saving your equipment. Since the water system is failyr well sealed - there is little loss over time.

Plus water works better.

[Zachstar]

Computers are dust magnets it is just a fact of life. Also the superiority of water cooling has been shattered as of late by highly effective copper air cooling solutions.

[Konovalov]

My personal preference is for air. Pretty easy to open the case and go to it with an air blower once every few months or when required. At the end of the day fans are still used in water cooled systems and I think it is pretty difficult to have a 100% complete dust free system. You can go air cooling over 4Ghz with ease and the cost is far less than a proper water cooled system. Also by proper water cooled I mean not one of these self contained water cooling setups such as the Corsair H50. At the end of the day go with what you feel comfortable with.

[Zachstar]

Some people have even gone 4ghz on stock cooling (Don't try this tho as the experiments were controlled and the ambient temp was lower than most homes.)

Also there is a point I forgot to bring up. Most if not all modern chipsets require airflow to remain cool. Exhasust air from the CPU cooler usually does this right. However some water cooling kits do not come with the ability to cool chipsets. Quite a few expensive motherboards were fried because of this.

[Webster]

one thing i could never get past was you still need to air cool the radiator so even liquid cooling uses air cooling that puts out a lot of heat into the room and requires cleaning so if your trying to avoid dust cleanup your radiator will be the dust collector and you will still need airflow for the hdd and ram cooling.

maybe i have it wrong but IMO liquid cooling is only for overclocking systems with a lot of heat to deal with and things like maint/cleaning issues shouldnt be a deciding factor but just a side note

[papa_smurf]

Im thinking of going air cooled when I next upgrade, as I'm constantly having to clean out all the dust every few weeks that builds up inside.

[CaptainHaplo]

Not all water cooling uses fans/air flow to cool. Some, like the Reserator - uses passive air cooling.

[WernherVonTrapp]

I'm an avid fan of air cooling. Not simply because I think it's more efficient but, water cooling requires more parts. That equates to more things that can break down or go wrong with the system. It's sometimes more easy to facilitate upgrades since there's less things in the way, or, that is, things that have to be moved out of the way first. But, that's just my opinion.

[Fish40]

My new rig came with the Asetec liquid cooling system already installed. It is a completly sealed unit. No need to add liquid. I also have several 120mm fans throughout the case, one of which blows air over the heat exchanger of the Asetec unit. The whole thing, fans and all is actually very quiet. See it here:http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oG76.wLmhMTmUBBdBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEza2ZkaTh oBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA0Y5NDVfMTE2/SIG=11ac0cg8l/EXP=1281982512/**http%3a//www.asetek.com/

[FIREWALL]

My new rig came with the Asetec liquid cooling system already installed. It is a completly sealed unit. No need to add liquid. I also have several 120mm fans throughout the case, one of which blows air over the heat exchanger of the Asetec unit. The whole thing, fans and all is actually very quiet. See it here:http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oG76.wLmhMTmUBBdBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEza2ZkaTh oBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA0Y5NDVfMTE2/SIG=11ac0cg8l/EXP=1281982512/**http%3a//www.asetek.com/

Nice rig Fish40 :up: I hope LoBlo does some more research away from this website.

To the rest ... Ignorance is bliss. :O:

[JU_88]

TBH the only real maintiance needed for and air cooled system is an $5 can of compressed air - use it to blast all the dust away every 3 months or so. (best done out doors for obvious reasons :)

Liquid cooling is nice if you need a silent rig or want to overclock a crazy amount (or both)