Air Cooled vs Liquid Cooled

Hi, I made a post earlier this month on a future assassin build. In the same post, I was leaning towards Hailstorm's liquid cooling to ensure that temps wouldn't be a problem. Currently, I'm torn between Air and Liquid. My house temps are around the low 70s and ventilation is good. I also have a ceiling fan though I don't know if that's relevant. I'm planning to have the system on the floor due to the fact that my desk can only hold 120lbs. The floor is carpet so that is kind of a con when it comes to an air-cooled system. However, if I can, I would like to keep either GTX570 or GTX580 SLI pretty cool via air. I don't want to worry about GPU temps getting high when their pushed so that's a reason I'm leaning towards liquid-cooling.

1.) Any advice on what is better considering my environment? (I live in a wooded area. Dust accumulation is low so not really a problem. Room is spacious so warm air has enough room to cool as it rises (hope I'm making sense))

2.) I'll be gaming at 1920X1080 on a 23" monitor with 120Hz refresh rate (it's a monitor that DS offers). I know DST4ME highly recommended a 570sli set-up for that resolution but I'm kind of hoping to upgrade to 580 sli. Would love to hear more opinions on that. I've looked at tons of benchmarks between 570sli and 580sli and am still torn. I mainly play WoW, but also play BF2BC and CoD. I also want to start pushing my system and play games like Crysis, BF3, and Diablo 3.....and maybe skyrim. Any recommendations based on that info?

3.) I also was thinking about getting a 120GB SSD (Boot/WoW/Apps) and a 160GB SSD (Steam/Other Games) for my HDs. Any arguments for or against that? **I already have a WD Black HDD which I plan on sending to DS to install on my PC.

4.) After seeing that DS gets their Liquid cooling tubes from danger den, would it be possible to buy cooling tubes from danger den and ship them to DS so they can install those tubes?

I list the builds that I have for both the Assassin and the Hailstorm.
Thanks in advance for your help.

(Have to leave lab, so will post builds in a bit.)

Assassin = #597198
Hailstorm = #597199

**I picked the fan upgrade for aesthetics.

DD does not make quality parts.

ok I see you have both under lc but your case choice for that setup is not best.

haf 932 or haf x will do better.

the above is for the assasin build.

for the hailstorm build, its great, drop the fan upgrade as they are loud and not really needed, the hailstorm (my case too) uses 140mm fans and only 3 of them, the fan upgrade is six 120mm fans, find yourself some nice 140mm quiet led fans if you want a certain look.

as for the assassin build, do you really need lc on cpu? if not you can get air cooled pc for less same performance.

but if you want lc then thats different.

the a70 or nocuta coolers are the ones you want, both perform similar and are king, you will have good temps with them if your room temp is at 75f or lower.

haf x will endup with 4 x 200mm fans, the assassin has 3 x 180mm fans, haf x has more room, all of that makes haf x the better case for airflow and room and the fact that it cost less is just icing on the cake.

not sure what fan you are referring to.

Oh I see, hard to say when it comes to fans, what color you looking for?

you can order online and ship to DS, you can request DS to purchase and get it themselves (this will cost more).

I have xigmatek 140mm orange fans with white led on my system, they have since upgraded their fans they look different but here is the 140mm blue led from them. you need 3 of them to replace the 3 x 140mm fans of 800d.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 1:58am

Yes but they have uv tubes already and the tubes they use are good, and you don't want dyes they make the fluid last less time.

I find frozencpu's customer svc crappy, one time I got four 200 cfm fans from them, 3 of them were doa, I called them up and told them that, they acted like they could careless and told me to go and deal with the manufacturer, never used them again.

Edited by DST4ME - 16 Sep 2011 at 2:01am

Oh, and here's my build with the HAF X. 597251

Is ds able to replace that front red fan with another one? If possible i want to go with a blue color scheme.

Hello. So, I think I decided to go with this setup. Please let me know what you guys think. Is there anything I can tweak to get the best cooling? Thanks.

#600149

Do I have to use CM brand fans? I was actually thinking about getting the nvidia HAF X, but CM doesn't have 200mm green fans so was thinking about using xigmatek 200mm fans.

nvidia HAF X: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119236

Is maintenance of a liquid-cooled system difficult? If I get a LC system I'm willing to try to learn, but not sure how that affects the DS warranty or how big the risk is.

no. In case I decide to get a DS with LC, I was wondering if it was difficult to maintain it.

A good site I found  for any parts you need is Performance-PCS.com   They got everything.I recommend these people.

Originally posted by DST4ME You don't need lc

What cpu air cooler would give me the best performance? Along with the coolers available here, I've also been looking at the megahalem rev B. Do you have any other recommendations?

any preference between the a70 and noctua?

So, this is the set-up I decided on for air-cooling:

#602100

I want to replace the 230mm front fan with a blue led fan. I was thinking of either the CM 200mm megaflow or a bitfenix spectre 230mm. I also chose the blue led fan upgrade for aesthetics. Noise isn't an issue for me because I use a headset when gaming. Also, I just read about a new cpu cooler from zalman, the CNPX12X. It's not out yet, but I might wait to get that cpu cooler for my set-up. From what I've read, Zalman seems to make pretty good cpu coolers. Let me know what you think?