I had one liquid cooled system. It was kind of a PITA because the case had to be partially disassembled to access the coolant reservoir. Also, it is necessary to have coolant on hand for refills. However, if expensive components can pushed harder and run cooler it may be worth the added trouble and expense. The fan cooled systems I've used more recently are simple and easy to maintain.

If you don't want any trouble at all buy an enclosed cooler, are you talking CPU or GPU cooling or just in general?

I can recommend the Corsair CPU coolers personally, I have a H100i which is substantially cooler than the best air cooler and is absolutely hassle-free. It can run the i7 CPUs close to the 5GHz mark without temps being a concern.

I'm looking at CPU cooling. I'll be using it for an i7 CPU. Wow! Your last sentence piqued my interest in liquid cooling.

I used to have an i7 2600K which I overclocked to 4.8GHz, it could easily go further but I stopped there because I didn't want to start increasing the voltage. At those speeds the temps still remain low (idle about 30C, under max load depending on the game it would go up to about 65-70 maximum).

I now have an i7 6700K and have only increased to 4.6GHz. Again, could go a fair bit higher but I now have a GTX1080 so there is no real need to try and get every ounce of performance out of the CPU at the moment. Again, very low temps.

My new build will have the same CPU and GPU that you are using there.

My experience is that high end water cooling is effective and quiet. But, that's with high end water cooling -- that costs money.

I have an AMD FX9590 w/Swiftech Water Cooling. The FX9590 normally runs hot and needs water. Works great -- nearly $300. That $300 says its NOT cost effective for a small increase in CPU speed -- just buy a better CPU with that extra cash. I put it together "just for fun" -- and don't recommend it as cost effective.

Two other systems (of the 8 around the house) have "self contained" water cooling that I bought "on sale" for under $50 each -- normally around $100 at the time (Antec Kuhler H20). They're primarily there because they are "quiet". But, they are not super effective coolers. Again, they met the goal of "quiet" at a lower price -- so were worth it.

My other systems use box-stock small air coolers to "enthusiast" air coolers. The enthusiast models do well at under $50 -- but take up space in the case and the fans can be very audible.

All in all, if going water, I'd be sure I was getting a water cooler that met my needs -- cooler and/or quieter (not all meet one or both) -- and was cost effective. But, heck, this is an enthusiast site. So, if its fun, the money is worth it.

When I was doing my research last December, I still ended up with air coolers for a couple of reasons:

1. Money - even an AIO water-cooler will be more expensive than an air cooler and although it MIGHT be able to take off a degree or two of heat, it won't justify the price jump.
2. Ease-of-use - never worry about leaks! While AIOs can be reliable, well, suffice to say you won't have liquids inside your case if your air cooler breaks.
3. Quiet - this has more to do with the fan rather than the radiator/heatsink itself.

I would advise you to take a look at reviews. I went with a Noctua NH-D15 Dual Radiator heatsink for my 6600K and was so impressed with the Noctua fans that I bought a few more and used it for my case.

If you want to push your system to the limit, if you don't mind how much ££££ it costs to shave off another degree or two of heat from your setup, if you find prepping your water-cooling setup a zen-like experience, then go ahead. However, since you're asking this questions, I guess the above is not the case for you.

I went with custom water-cooling for three reasons:

-I wanted to push my 4770K as far as it could go without worrying about temps. Turns out that I'm still thermally limited pretty hard because I haven't delidded yet. Worked wonders on my Q6600, though; I wouldn't be able to hit 3.6 GHz without it.

-You can get some good deals on graphics cards that have aftermarket full-cover waterblocks fitted instead of the usual HSF, but you obviously need an existing loop setup to make use of them.

-Large HSFs are a pain to install and work around, often blocking off nearby DIMM slots as well.

Whether it's worth the up-front expense is another matter. If you're lucky, you might be able to nab one of those XSPC kits with a D5 or even a twin D5 pump/res for just $150-175, but in most cases, you're spending $300+ for all the required components brand new.

The only good news there is that once you've got it all together, you can carry it all over to later systems without much fuss, maybe a replacement mounting bracket or water block here and there as mounting specifications change.

Note that I don't have much faith in closed-loop AIO setups since they're unexpandable, often do stupid things like mixing an aluminum rad with a copper CPU block/pump setup (hello, galvanic corrosion!), and are generally too closely priced to a real custom loop setup to be worth it.

A few stats for you then: (I have a Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 Motherboard and a Corsair H100i watercooler - GPU is not overclocked)

At idle

Clocked at 4.6GHz (46x multiplier)

CPU temp - 23C
CPU fan speed on radiator - 1300rpm (totally silent)

GTX 1080 - 39C
GTX fan speed - 900rpm (totally silent)

Chassis fan - 600rpm (totally silent)



Running stress test/benchmarking

CPU temp - 59C (reporting 96% load on stress test)
CPU temp - 28C (running Firestrike GPU benchmark)
CPU fan speed on radiator - 1600rpm (inaudible)

GTX 1080 - 72C
GTX fan speed - 2100rpm (inaudible)

Chassis fan - 600rpm (totally silent)


....and you can look forward to performance like this

I've been overclocking a i5-2500k@4.5Ghz for 5 years on air cooling with low temps (Noctua NH-D14).

Liquid cooling always sounded cool to me, but with a good air cooler and case (HAF-932) I just haven't actually needed it and I like to think that it lets me spend the money I would spend on pumps and waterblocks instead on better and more frequent GPU upgrades.

The D14 is an awesome air cooler and often beats liquid coolers......one of the reasons I went for a liquid cooler originally was because the larger air coolers with push/pull fans were stopping me from adding additional RAM (I also have the HAF932 case) as it overlapped slot A1 on my motherboard

A liquid coler enabled be to clear some space up around the cpu socket and populate all 4 RAM slots.

Ah yeah I can definitely see where liquid cooling (especially an enclosed system one) would give you options for more room around the CPU, that's what I would probably consider if I needed to go that direction too

If you pick a RAM kit that doesn't have excessive heat spreaders, an air cooler should be good. The NH-D15 has some space under it and you can even move the fan for additional clearance if needed. I will say an air cooler with a good performance will most likely block the view of your motherboard so if you like your fancy motherboard lights and showing off your hardware via a clear side panel, then you may consider an AIO or custom watercooling solution.

I'm using a Kingston 16GB HyperX® FURY DDR4 XMP at 2400MHz RAM kit. This PC will be used primarily for gaming. I don't do much with CAD or video editing any more. I thought about 32GB of RAM, but from what I've read that is a waste of money for gaming. I like to future proof as much as possible because I don't upgrade every year. I have decided to use liquid cooling for this system.