liquid series config & questions

C

CoSh

New member
Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER ATX CASE - WHITE
Custom Liquid Cooling Kit
Liquid Series® RGB High Kit - Corsair Hydro X - White
Tubing
Clear Hardline PETG Tubing (Bent/Metallic Fittings)
Graphics Card Cooling
GPU Water Block - For One Graphics Card!
Coolant Colour
Mayhems X1 UV Green
LED Lighting
2 x 35cm Corsair LS350 Aurora RGB Light Strips
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) KIT - WHITE
Graphics Card
16GB ASUS TUF GEFORCE RTX 4080 SUPER OC EDITION - 2 x HDMI, 3 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 990 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe 4.0 & 5.0 NVMe (up to 7250MB/R, 6300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
4TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Braided Power Supply Cables
CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro (40 Series) - White
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ASUS STRIX Soar 7.1 PCIe sound card


A fair few questions. I have built a high end gaming system previously (all air cooled) but it was many years ago (i5-2500K & GTX 970 OC).

1. for someone who previously built a system (as above) but has no experience with liquid cooling, can liquid replacement (every year?) be done with ease by the end user?

2. for hardcore gaming is a sound card necessary? it was back in the day but the choice of sound cards on the market in general look like pretty old tech and don't look like they have moved on significantly from my old ASUS Xonar D2X (a cracking card, not without it's issues though). How does the onboard sound (ROG SupremeFX 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC ALC4082) compare to a sound card? What are hardcore gamers using for sound these days? I am out of the loop somewhat. Should I just remove the D2X and put it in the new system (drivers were a nightmare for it back in the day - had to rely on a tech website that had re-written the drivers and fixed what they could, kind of like the Unofficial Skyrim patch, I imagine that be will even worse now we've progressed Windows 7 to Windows 11, likely old card just won't be supported at all by W11?). I have heard mention of external sound card/DAC/amp? Any advice would be appreciated


3. the M.2 notes for the motherboard state "If M.2_2 & M.2_3 are filled, PCIEX16_2 will be DISABLED". Out of these 2, if only M.2_2 is occupied and M.2_3 is empty, will PCIEX16_2 still be enabled?

4. where does a sound card (take the Strix in the config above) connect to the motherboard - my old system's board has a specific slot but I can no longer see this on modern motherboards, would it just go in the PCIEX16_2 and does it need an adapter or do these just plug in?

5. have some questions about number of fans and their config but those can wait and I can sort those out with y'all prior to ordering.

Ta for your help
C
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
1) Yes it can, but unless it's for serious overclocking (or pure aesthetics) why would you not simply go for simple RGB AIO cooler?

2) Add-on sound cards are not necessary for gaming/media consumption as the motherboards come with good sound processors; the only time you'd want one is if there's a really high-end one that does something very specific...and even then an external USB one is usually better

3) That motherboard has 5 m.2 slots, so you could just avoid using m2_2/m2_3 slots - unless you need to populate all 5? But if you only use one of those two conflicting slots then the PCIEX16_2 will run at reduced x4 speed instead of x8 speed (I don't think anything needs more than PCIe 5.0x4 at the moment, not even an upcoming RTX5090).

4) An add-on sound card will usually take up one of the PCIe slots (but not usually the PCIe4x16 slot though, just a PCIe 1 slot)

5) Okay, we'll wait!

6) DON'T order anything now, as new components (GPUs, CPUs, cases, etc.) will be announced at CES and released in Jan/Feb.
 
C

CoSh

New member
awesome - thanks for the help and advice!

Only went with the liquid series as my apartment is the dustiest place on earth. I have zero experience and virtually no knowledge of liquid cooling. Going to have a look at the RGB AIO coolers now

was eager to order but yes it makes sense if the 5080 is so close now, i thought it was further away, like 2-3 months. tbf I have a room I need to clear out & decorate for the new system so I guess I've got my next 2/3 weeks booked now. Will be keeping a close watch and will be in contact when ordering. thanks again
 
Ekans2011

Ekans2011

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
CoSh said:
Only went with the liquid series as my apartment is the dustiest place on earth. I have zero experience and virtually no knowledge of liquid cooling. Going to have a look at the RGB AIO coolers now
Click to expand...
Given this, I strongly advise against using a custom open loop, since it requires more than average knowledge to be handled properly.
Maintenance must be done every 6-12 months, which includes draining the system, cleaning the pipes, refilling the system, and checking for leaks. In short, I don't think that's the best option for beginners :)

AIOs, like aircoolers, do not require any maintenance beyond dust removal.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Ekans2011 said:
Given this, I strongly advise against using a custom open loop, since it requires more than average knowledge to be handled properly.
Maintenance must be done every 6-12 months, which includes draining the system, cleaning the pipes, refilling the system, and checking for leaks. In short, I don't think that's the best option for beginners :)

AIOs, like aircoolers, do not require any maintenance beyond dust removal.
Click to expand...
Further to this, it’s not like the old days, CPU and GPU efficiency is far superior to what it was, there’s zero benefit to a custom loop outside of heavy rendering where you’re doing 100% loads over a few days or something like that.

GPUs will generally have about a 20 degree delta under thermal limits under standard aircooling.

CPUs (AMD) will also have about a 20 degree delta under an AIO.

Custom cooler won’t offer any benefit whatsoever and costs a fortune as well as having to be maintained for which you need special fluids and tools, none of which is cheap!
 
C

CoSh

New member
with the impending release of Nvidia RTX 50xx cards would we would expect to see previous gen (40xx) prices drop and if so when is this likely to happen (has it happened already)? I'm looking at the 4080 Super and don't want to over pay for something that might drop in price, at the same time I can't wait forever. Am I just better waiting for the Jan 30 release and monitor the 40 series prices from there?

cheers
 
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TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
We just don’t know what will happen with prices, so waiting is the wiser option.

The 40-series prices have been increasing as the stocks dried up (due to Nvidia switching production to 50-series), so if they don’t decrease then I can’t see how they’d sell them ;)

But PCS don’t sell Nvidia Founder’s Edition (i.e. reference) cards, and the partner boards tend to be more expensive anyway.

First ‘leaks’ are suggesting the 50-series partner cards are going to be 20-30% more than the FE RRP.

My suggestion, and what I did with the 40-series 2 years ago, is to buy an FE version at RRP directly from SCAN in a week’s time…but I’d also warn that supplies may be limited and you’ll have to be quick...and I spent days refreshing the website…but there’s usually a Discord or Telegram alert service for when they com3 back in stock, and you may have only a few minutes to jump on it.
 
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