Would it be sane to upgrade to closed loop watercooling?

[Erick Aguilar]

Well, I currently have a CM N520 with my A10-5800K.
I tried to overclock it, but it seems my cooler was not able to bring down the temperatures going past 4.3GHZ. Getting incredibly close to 70C, and that's my limit.

I was able if a closed loop cooling kit such as Corsairs H70 or Antech Kuhler 920 would be a good investment in terms of cooling performance over my N520?

Thanks for your time and opinions.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Assuming that the N520 is mounted well and clean so it's running at it's best, the upgrade to a quality closed loop water will help and may not be drastic at idle temps but should drop temps nicely at full tilt gaming and or high CPU activities. Look at the H80i as a path as well and depending on the case many other new arrivals like NZXT line up using 140mm mounts.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

I would be limited to 120mm for my back exhaust as my Thermaltake MS-I would not be able to fit both the Radiator and Fans in the superior exhaust vents and clear the motherboard.

So I'm thinking H60/70.

And if I'm able to find one from a reputable seller in Mexico, then the H80. My store only carry the 60 and 70 series.
How good is the H80?

 

[bobkn]

I would be limited to 120mm for my back exhaust as my Thermaltake MS-I would not be able to fit both the Radiator and Fans in the superior exhaust vents and clear the motherboard.

So I'm thinking H60/70.

And if I'm able to find one from a reputable seller in Mexico, then the H80. My store only carry the 60 and 70 series.
How good is the H80?

Corsair Hydro H80 Review » Page 4 - Testing:Setup & Results - Overclockers Club

Looks like it's similar in performance to a large, expensive air cooler. The gains going from model 60 to 70 to 80 seem to be incremental. People sometimes replace the fans with quieter third-party ones. The main thing that I don't like about it is that in the recommended configuration, the fans exhaust into the case.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

I would be limited to 120mm for my back exhaust as my Thermaltake MS-I would not be able to fit both the Radiator and Fans in the superior exhaust vents and clear the motherboard.

So I'm thinking H60/70.

And if I'm able to find one from a reputable seller in Mexico, then the H80. My store only carry the 60 and 70 series.
How good is the H80?

Corsair Hydro H80 Review » Page 4 - Testing:Setup & Results - Overclockers Club

Looks like it's similar in performance to a large, expensive air cooler. The gains going from model 60 to 70 to 80 seem to be incremental. People sometimes replace the fans with quieter third-party ones. The main thing that I don't like about it is that in the recommended configuration, the fans exhaust into the case.

Yeah, it seems the infamous Noctua NH-D14 is cheaper than the H80.
Now I wonder if it would be better to purchase the D14 instead.. But it's size puts me down.
And superficially, I dislike the color of the fans, but they perform beautifully. Oh if they only had other colors.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

The Noctua cooling solution is an outstanding performer and the fans .......well once you use them the color becomes beautiful as silence is a beautiful thing. For air cooling solutions it doesn't get better.

 

[bobkn]

Yeah, it seems the infamous Noctua NH-D14 is cheaper than the H80.
Now I wonder if it would be better to purchase the D14 instead.. But it's size puts me down.
And superficially, I dislike the color of the fans, but they perform beautifully. Oh if they only had other colors.

The fans aren't difficult to replace on an NH-D14. I did it because the stock fans aren't PWM. (They are PWM on the LGA2011 version.)

The NH-D14 is huge. It doesn't require low profile RAM to clear, but I'd still have to remove it to get to the DIMMs.

 

[Erick Aguilar]

Yeah, it seems the infamous Noctua NH-D14 is cheaper than the H80.
Now I wonder if it would be better to purchase the D14 instead.. But it's size puts me down.
And superficially, I dislike the color of the fans, but they perform beautifully. Oh if they only had other colors.

The fans aren't difficult to replace on an NH-D14. I did it because the stock fans aren't PWM. (They are PWM on the LGA2011 version.)

The NH-D14 is huge. It doesn't require low profile RAM to clear, but I'd still have to remove it to get to the DIMMs.

I don't mind the color that much since the fans are great, and the speed can still be controlled with voltage, that's enough for me to be honest.

I could probably do some modifications, and paint the frame Black just to keep the combination with the rest of the computer. I know I shouldn't really worry -THAT- much, specially since the performance really is more important than looks, but oh well!

 

[AddRAM]

Since it will be my 1st, I`m going with this.

Corsair CWCH60 Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - Socket LGA775, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1366, Core i5, Core i7 at TigerDirect.com

 

[Erick Aguilar]

Since it will be my 1st, I`m going with this.

Corsair CWCH60 Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - Socket LGA775, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1366, Core i5, Core i7 at TigerDirect.com

And I like the fact my computer would be less cluttered inside with the closed loop kit than with the air cooler.

But I hear so many discrepancies between opinions, and for some reason i feel a lot safer buying air cooling. Not for leaking issues, but the investment for water cooling seems.. fiddly. There are a lot of double opinions, and I don't know if I'm ready to lay down the money for Corsair