I am considering buying a gaming PC and then overclocking the CPU. Most of the gaming PC suppliers recommend liquid cooling systems for overclocked CPUs to ensure stable performance. I have no experience with a liquid cooling system and have some real concerns about safety, leakage and maintenance. Are my concerns justified or are the modern systems today safe and reliable? Most suppliers seem to praise Asetek and Corsair as the leaders in cooling systems. Anyone using their systems? Thanks for your help!Airbus

I am considering buying a gaming PC and then overclocking the CPU. Most of the gaming PC suppliers recommend liquid cooling systems for overclocked CPUs to ensure stable performance. I have no experience with a liquid cooling system and have some real concerns about safety, leakage and maintenance. Are my concerns justified or are the modern systems today safe and reliable? Most suppliers seem to praise Asetek and Corsair as the leaders in cooling systems. Anyone using their systems? Thanks for your help!Airbus

Unless you're really pushing something like an i7-920 beyond 4.2 GHz, the Corsair h70 is a great unit. Then again, I suppose only custom watercooling can handle an i7 above 4.2... Anyway, I have the h50 and love it. It's completely safe and requires NO maintenance. You really have nothing to be concerned about.Personally, I would recommend Corsair over Asetek. I have only heard of 1 confirmed leak on an h50 and Corsair replaced that guy's entire system. For the little extra money, get the h70 over the h50.

I've had a second system running a Thermaltake liquid cooling system for years with no issue.However, my newest system is a 980X clocked to 4.43ghz and I use an AIR cooler - Noctua DH14.It's not as quiet as a liquid system but it's not as noisy as the GTX480 card fan at 100%.If you NEED liquid cooling, just stay with the top brands but if you're only goig to go to 4ghz or so, you don't need it.Vic

I use the same air cooler as Vic and it easily cools a i7 920 @ 4Ghz it is very quiet too but I have my motherboard controlling all fans in the case including the CPU cooler fans, so when it's idling it is very quiet indeed. The noisiest fan in the case is the one on my GTX285, it's a pain in the &@($* to be honest, I bought the only GTX285 model on the planet you can't get a water cooling block for i.e. the ASUS ENGTX285. If I'd been able to get a block for it I would have built a custom water cooling setup.

I've had a second system running a Thermaltake liquid cooling system for years with no issue.However, my newest system is a 980X clocked to 4.43ghz and I use an AIR cooler - Noctua DH14.It's not as quiet as a liquid system but it's not as noisy as the GTX480 card fan at 100%.If you NEED liquid cooling, just stay with the top brands but if you're only goig to go to 4ghz or so, you don't need it.Vic

I have heard that Noctua DH14 is simply amazing. But man that thing is huge.

Yes you certainly need a big case to fit it in, it looks good in my Corsair 800D.

Yes you certainly need a big case to fit it in, it looks good in my Corsair 800D.

That's what I wanted to hear I love my 800D, think Im going to pick this cooler up in the near future.

The 800D is my dream case. I've heard it weighs 40+ lbs... can you guys comment when it's fully "loaded?"

I am considering buying a gaming PC and then overclocking the CPU. Most of the gaming PC suppliers recommend liquid cooling systems for overclocked CPUs to ensure stable performance. I have no experience with a liquid cooling system and have some real concerns about safety, leakage and maintenance. Are my concerns justified or are the modern systems today safe and reliable? Most suppliers seem to praise Asetek and Corsair as the leaders in cooling systems. Anyone using their systems? Thanks for your help!Airbus

I read somewhere those systems are no better than a really good air cooling (megahalems and co, I don't know the air-world really well). I'm using custom built watercooling - yes expensive, yes not-maintenance free, but yes the most awesome and the most silent cooling FOR ALL components I've ever had. If you have just a bit of a "geek" in you, then that's the way. Otherwise keep to simple solutions.

The h70 is at least on par with the D14. I think the majority of the reviews I've seen show the h70 beating the D14. The ones on the contrary are often open bench test systems (i.e. no computer case). The problem with that is that inside a computer case (as in the real world), the D14 dumps heat from the CPU into the computer case whereas the h70 exhausts the heat outside the case via the radiator. Open bench test-systems fail to catch this little caveat. If you go with something like the D14, case airflow is especially important otherwise the D14 will wallow in it's own heat output. Because the h70 actually exhausts heat outside the case, it may even drop your GPU temps by a couple degrees.No doubt, watercooling will put to shame either of the two options above. You can build a good CPU-only loop for about $200 and it's not as difficult as you might think. But the geek in me actually prefers the simplicity of the all-in-one units, the absence of 3 pounds of heatsink cantilevered off my motherboard, and the ability to see my motherboard.I'm actually skipping the current generation of chips largely because of the insane heat output. Hoping some of the Sandy Bridge (32nm instead of 45nm) will allow me to hit the overclocks they're capable of without being so limited by temperatures.

The thing you have to remember with the H70 is that it doesn't cool the Mosfets around the CPU as there is no airflow from it as the fan is in the exhaust port on the case itself. The D14 has a huge 140mm fan in the middle that protrudes out of the bottom of the block that is forcing the air to flow over the Caps in this area, you don't get that with the H70.If you have a custom water cooling setup you can buy water blocks for these surrounding Caps/Mosfets etc.

The 800D is my dream case. I've heard it weighs 40+ lbs... can you guys comment when it's fully "loaded?"

Ya mine is probably pushing 40lbs, this was my first full tower case so I was a bit surprised at how big it was when it arrived at my house, but its perfect for me with my big clumsy hands.

I thought most H50-70 users had it with the rad as an intake? As an intake it cools the cpu more or less like the nh-d14, (worse as an exhaust) but it keeps the hot air inside the case so the GPU, chipset, memory... run hotter.Also, no water loop is going to last forever. It's a timebomb if you think that it's a no-manteinance kit and just run it forever. Be it 5 years or 10, someday it will fall apart.On the other hand, they are more silent and there's also the size factor.A matter of personal taste anyway

The h70 is at least on par with the D14. I think the majority of the reviews I've seen show the h70 beating the D14. The ones on the contrary are often open bench test systems (i.e. no computer case). The problem with that is that inside a computer case (as in the real world), the D14 dumps heat from the CPU into the computer case whereas the h70 exhausts the heat outside the case via the radiator. Open bench test-systems fail to catch this little caveat. If you go with something like the D14, case airflow is especially important otherwise the D14 will wallow in it's own heat output. Because the h70 actually exhausts heat outside the case, it may even drop your GPU temps by a couple degrees.No doubt, watercooling will put to shame either of the two options above. You can build a good CPU-only loop for about $200 and it's not as difficult as you might think. But the geek in me actually prefers the simplicity of the all-in-one units, the absence of 3 pounds of heatsink cantilevered off my motherboard, and the ability to see my motherboard.I'm actually skipping the current generation of chips largely because of the insane heat output. Hoping some of the Sandy Bridge (32nm instead of 45nm) will allow me to hit the overclocks they're capable of without being so limited by temperatures.

I am no expert, though I will have to become one once I get a new system, but check this out for giggles:http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2010/07/20/hailea-hc-500a-water-chiller-review/1

I thought most H50-70 users had it with the rad as an intake?

Well, Corsair does recommend intake - I think it's terrible advice on their part. But the majority of h50-70 users I've talked to see the idiocy in that and are doing exhaust instead.