heatsink fan vs. watercooled

[Kenoi]

question, today I was going out for computer parts, I was thinking about getting a video card, but it made me think, running med-high performance, wouldn't that overheat the processor? so I was thinking if I should switch out my stock heatsink fan for the watercooled one, that H60 Corsair one. I'm not good with names, but thats what I saw off the box at this computer shop 30 min away from my house. haha


anyway, can someone help me out which is a good one? I mean, I plan on running games and doing video editing on my pc. and the CPU is a AM3 Phenom II. I don't know whats a good card too, so I decided to go with a high end one.. I gotta know my power supply too... dang.-- this will probably be on another thread.

thanks in advance!

[LiNuX]

If you want to skip out on spending money, just keep an eye on the CPU temp when you're stressing it, you might not need any upgrades on the cooling.

Other than that, I'm no expert on watercooling so I can't really recommend anything.

And don't go with a high end card just because you can, you should make sure it will run with everything else like the motherboard and PSU.

[Synge]

I won't be much help here either, but I don't think you really need watercooling. I run my Phenom II with the stock cooler and it does just fine.

[Kenoi]

yeah I was talking to a few friends who are experts on custom built PC's... my friend told me to closely monitor 'task manager' and thats about it. its a FREE cheap alternative than buying new equipment just to cool one part of the motherboard -- the CPU. and they said if i'm running over 2 monitors, it would help, and if i'm doing more than just ONE PC game, if I was, then it would be recommended to go watercooling.

thanks for your answers though! appreciate it greatly.

*request to close thread!

[LiNuX]

What would monitoring task manager do? Speedfan would be the better thing to look at if you're worried about temperature.

Also don't understand your friend's logic on the rest of the post. I'd recommend water cooling if you were doing stuff that's crazy resource intensive, like running a script every 2 seconds, brute force, or experimenting with particle collisions.

[TheGateKeeper]

I have a high end computer and have never used watercooling. You can buy one of those aftermarket air coolers that work good. Watercooling requires knowledge to install property or you can damage your system, and it also requires constant maintenance. Unless you live in a really hot place or have a really hot computer, you don't need watercooing.