Corsair Obsidian 800D Your Thoughts? [Looking for Water Cooling Info]

Blue Hour · 28 Apr 2012

I'm sorry if this an appropriate forum or section. I'm building my first computer mostly for gaming and media. I'm a little vain and I need a case that looks good and I really like the Corsair Obsidian 800D. I've read that the 800D isn't the best case for air cooling it's best suited to water cooling.

I'd likely be using my computer 10 to 15 hours a day. Most for games, photoshop and music/movies. I've most of my components I just need to sort out the cooling system. I'm not wanting to spend over £200 could you suggest something please?

I have a Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 I'd like to add a second graphics card (I have a Nvidia GTX 570) and maybe a sound card and TV tuner if possible will I have space on my board?

pparks1 · 28 Apr 2012

Are you overclocking and really pushing your rig? If not, you won't have any trouble with air cooling in that case. Even moderate overclocks will be fine in that case.

Blue Hour · 28 Apr 2012

I'm "new" and haven't had any experience with overclocking yet. It would be something I would be interested in doing in the future. My main concern is the amount of time I'll be on the new setup I had a quick look and I like the look of the Corsair H100 from what I understand this is solely for CPU cooling? If I could get something simple like this to give me added cooling for the GPU and HDDs I'd be a less worried.

This is really just my first attempt at building a gaming rig. Over time when I'm more competent I'd consider adding higher end components, even custom cooling. I'm hoping these parts will last me until next year.

essenbe · 28 Apr 2012

I realize you can't buy from here, but you may want to look at the photos and user feedback on the 800D from Newegg and also the Manufacturers page and the FAQ there. As far as the board, I have the same board.. You would have space for 2 Graphics cards and the sound card. You may be able to squeeze a TV tuner card in too, but it would probably be a tight squeeze. But you should be able to get 3 out of the 4 in, at least.

pparks1 · 28 Apr 2012

Without a bunch of overclocking, the mere fact that you might spend 12 hours a day on the computer does not warrant a need for liquid cooloing. We have hundreds of small computers in offices, in small cases with very little airflow and they run 24x7 and are used 8+ hours a day for business and they run just fine. I have many gamer friends and none of them are running liquid cooled setups.

There seems to be an obsession among enthusiasts to shoot for extreme cooling and lower temps, but computer components are intended to run under a certain amount of heat and are just fine and within tolerances.

I say, save your money and only invest in more substantially cooling if you have a demonstrated need.