PC Noob scared of water cooling!

[JimJamJimJam]

Hello!

I'm building a new PC, I'll be using it for the odd bit of gaming, hopefully VR in the not too distant future, but primarily handling and rendering swathes of 3D tomographic data for my PhD. These are the main specs I've got so far, if you think I've messed up here, please shout!

Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-9700K (3.6GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 UD: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

However, my main concern is how to cool it. I tend to move around quite a lot, and as the PC would be transported up and down the country a couple times a year, I'm very hesitant to use water cooling. I'm sure it is perfectly safe, but I've heard some horror stories from friends who's computers have fried themselves.

So, from looking at the options, the Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler stands out to me as a good alternative, but I'm probably wrong!

What's your advice? Risk a water cooler around the same price range? Stick with the regular fans for a little peace of mind? Or, is water cooling necessary for the specs I have chosen?

Thank you!

 

[Scott]

I would probably recommend an AMD spec over the Intel. You can get more bang for your buck in regards to processing grunt.

Depending on the budget etc will determine the CPU, if it was a 3800X or above then a liquid cooler would be recommended.

Are you certain that your friends stories are truthful and actually regarding their own experience and not something they have read on the internet? My reason for asking is that all modern water coolers use inert liquid in them. De-ionised water paired with glycol for the most part. Now, this sort of liquid will conduct electricity, but you are talking megaohms of resistance so it wouldn't short out a PC system.

Even if it was the most conductive liquid on earth it's very unlikely to leak, especially when you go with a known good cooler. There have been cases over the years where certain coolers have leaked and had design flaws etc, but these are few and far between and often make themselves obvious right from the get-go. From searching around, none of the coolers provided by PCS have such flaws or issues so you should have no problems whatsoever.

What is your budget and what monitor are you pairing the build with? Do you need anything else along with the rig or have any other requirements not mentioned above? What software are you using for the 3D rendering?

 

[SpyderTracks]

There’s a big difference between “watercooling” which tends to refer to custom kits, and closed loop coolers which are sealed water coolers.

A closed loop is pretty bullet proof. It would arguably be safer for transporting as there’s significantly less weight hanging off the CPU.

 

[JimJamJimJam]

I would probably recommend an AMD spec over the Intel. You can get more bang for your buck in regards to processing grunt.

Depending on the budget etc will determine the CPU, if it was a 3800X or above then a liquid cooler would be recommended.

Are you certain that your friends stories are truthful and actually regarding their own experience and not something they have read on the internet? My reason for asking is that all modern water coolers use inert liquid in them. De-ionised water paired with glycol for the most part. Now, this sort of liquid will conduct electricity, but you are talking megaohms of resistance so it wouldn't short out a PC system.

Even if it was the most conductive liquid on earth it's very unlikely to leak, especially when you go with a known good cooler. There have been cases over the years where certain coolers have leaked and had design flaws etc, but these are few and far between and often make themselves obvious right from the get-go. From searching around, none of the coolers provided by PCS have such flaws or issues so you should have no problems whatsoever.

What is your budget and what monitor are you pairing the build with? Do you need anything else along with the rig or have any other requirements not mentioned above? What software are you using for the 3D rendering?

Thank you very much for explaining the difference in water cooler designs, I am a lot less worried about it now!

Can you clarify the benefit of an AMD processor? I only went for Intel as it looks like they are the only option on this site.

I have a big 1080p monitor right now but will be updating to a higher resolution monitor soon.

The software I will using includes Avizo, Mimics, Blender, usual stuff. The computer is overboard for those programs, I just want them to run insanely smoothly!

 

[DeletedUser]

The benefit of an AMD over Intel is that they are superior to Intel when it comes to multi-core operations such as your 3-D work...they are also much more secure (Intel seem to find a new security flaw on a regular basis). There are plenty of AMD options...AMD and Intel have their own separate configurators on the site so you'd need to select the AMD one to get AMD chips.

One thing you didn't mention is your maximum budget? Helps us to know what we have to work with

 

[Scott]

Thank you very much for explaining the difference in water cooler designs, I am a lot less worried about it now!

Can you clarify the benefit of an AMD processor? I only went for Intel as it looks like they are the only option on this site.

I have a big 1080p monitor right now but will be updating to a higher resolution monitor soon.

The software I will using includes Avizo, Mimics, Blender, usual stuff. The computer is overboard for those programs, I just want them to run insanely smoothly!

As above, need to know the budget to work with.

 

[JimJamJimJam]

The benefit of an AMD over Intel is that they are superior to Intel when it comes to multi-core operations such as your 3-D work...they are also much more secure (Intel seem to find a new security flaw on a regular basis). There are plenty of AMD options...AMD and Intel have their own separate configurators on the site so you'd need to select the AMD one to get AMD chips.

One thing you didn't mention is your maximum budget? Helps us to know what we have to work with

Original budget was about £1,500 but it has admittedly crept up to £1,600, so somewhere around that area.

Ah, I had no idea that the site worked like that, I will have to give it another look, thank you!

 

[JimJamJimJam]

As above, need to know the budget to work with.

Okay, to be clear I put this together extremely quickly, so I am likely to have missed something obvious, but I'm already happy to find that the lower cost of the new processor allowed me to double the RAM!

So yeah, any suggestions, any advice, is extremely welcome.

Reminder: Budget somewhere around £1,600.

Processor (CPU)	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570 GAMING X: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 1, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive	6TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE

Power Supply

CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY

Processor Cooling

Corsair H60 2018 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

 

[Scott]

The Inferno review spec is seriously worth considering. You could call up and ask if PCS will increase the RAM to 32GB, paying for it of course, and you would be good to go...

PCSPECIALIST - Custom Computers and Laptops Built to Order

PCSpecialist is a manufacturer of high quality custom computers and laptops. Configure your ideal computer in just a few simple steps with a broad range available.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[Scott]

Otherwise you would be looking around this.... which just shows you the value of the L2 Inferno.

Case
CORSAIR 275R AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 15 to 18 working days
Price: £1,599.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/KZDehKeYmz/

 

[JimJamJimJam]

Hi,

Of the following components, is there anything here that is relatively underpowered compared to the rest of the machine, that it would actually weaken the performance of the other components? Is that even a legitimate concern?

Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

Motherboard: ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!

Memory (RAM): 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 16GB)

Graphics Card: 8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

 

[Scott]

Was there something wrong with the suggestions already made? It gets a little tiresome taking time to post help only for it to be completely blanked and then followed up by a similar spec with lowered aspects.

To answer your points:

3700X isn't good value right now, compared to the 3800X
The STRIX B450 is over-priced, you would want the B550 or the X570 now
32GB of RAM is overkill, choosing slow RAM is not a good plan.
The STRIX cards are over-priced.

No idea what you have for the rest of the build but you will want a decent cooler.

At the end of the day the advice still stands. I still don't see any changes that I would suggest from my original suggestion.

 

[JimJamJimJam]

Was there something wrong with the suggestions already made? It gets a little tiresome taking time to post help only for it to be completely blanked and then followed up by a similar spec with lowered aspects.

To answer your points:

3700X isn't good value right now, compared to the 3800X
The STRIX B450 is over-priced, you would want the B550 or the X570 now
32GB of RAM is overkill, choosing slow RAM is not a good plan.
The STRIX cards are over-priced.

No idea what you have for the rest of the build but you will want a decent cooler.

At the end of the day the advice still stands. I still don't see any changes that I would suggest from my original suggestion.

Hi, I’m so sorry, I thought I was making a new thread, I didn’t realise it would post as a reply to this thread. This was someone else’s suggestion that I was really uncertain about, your advice was fantastic and really appreciated!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi, I’m so sorry, I thought I was making a new thread, I didn’t realise it would post as a reply to this thread. This was someone else’s suggestion that I was really uncertain about, your advice was fantastic and really appreciated!

It was merged, you should always stick to one thread to people can see the previous advice.

 

[Scott]

Hi, I’m so sorry, I thought I was making a new thread, I didn’t realise it would post as a reply to this thread. This was someone else’s suggestion that I was really uncertain about, your advice was fantastic and really appreciated!

With your edit:

The ROG is over-priced. It's good if you want it, but just be aware that it's not required.
You still have the slow RAM selected. You want 3200Mhz. 16GB is still more than enough but if you want 32GB it's your call. I would highly recommend switching it up to 3200mhz though (2x16GB).

 

[JimJamJimJam]

Thank you so much, I totally misunderstood your comment about slow RAM. That has now been fixed.
With your adjustments, which again I really cannot stress how much I appreciate your help and apologies again for my dumb post earlier, the PC came in much cheaper. So, probably my last spec list, any final thoughts on this?

Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

 

[keithbeaks]

Thank you so much, I totally misunderstood your comment about slow RAM. That has now been fixed.
With your adjustments, which again I really cannot stress how much I appreciate your help and apologies again for my dumb post earlier, the PC came in much cheaper. So, probably my last spec list, any final thoughts on this?

Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

You need an M2 drive

 

[JimJamJimJam]

You need an M2 drive

When you say ‘need’, do you mean ”need in addition to” or “need instead of”? Either way, an SSD exceeds well beyond my budget, so just how essential are they?

 

[SpyderTracks]

When you say ‘need’, do you mean ”need in addition to” or “need instead of”? Either way, an SSD exceeds well beyond my budget, so just how essential are they?

Essential today, but you wouldn't have a 2Tb SSD, that's unecessary, you just have a 500Gb as the main drive and then a standard HDD as the data drive.

 

[Scott]

I would switch up the PSU to the TXm. That and the storage would be my only areas of note but the storage is up to you