Looking to purchase a water cooled PC suitable for around 3k?
Looking to purchase a water cooled PC suitable for around 3k?
Hello everyone, I’ve been forced into a fresh Windows build while also getting Borderlands 4. My system is about 17 years old, with a GPU that’s roughly 10 years old. It can run BL4, but it does so poorly. I’m planning to upgrade to water cooling since I always wanted a custom build, and noise is a concern because it will be in the living room. I’ve chosen an AMD Ryzen 9 9950, an RTX 5080, an ASRock X870E Taichi motherboard, and a HYTE Y70 Touch Infinite. The tricky part is deciding on water cooling: I can use closed-loop options for CPU and GPU, but that would require two radiator blocks. I think building my own loop with hard tubing would be better and more enjoyable. For the RTX 5080, I’m considering either purchasing a card with its own block or buying a pre-built card with an existing one, though I can only find one of the latter. I’ll also need to look into a radiator and reservoir. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Additionally, the PC will be used for editing RAW images captured with a Canon R4 mk2 and possibly 4K video editing.
Welcome to the forums, newcomer! You can quickly reach peak performance with our own sticky; ***READ FIRST*** Tom's HW Watercooling Sticky v2.0 Introduction Hello, everyone! This is your entry point into watercooling. The aim here is to support those interested in starting or exploring watercooling as a cooling method and hobby. There’s a wealth of information online, so I’ll try to gather and organize it as best as possible. forums. + What budget are you planning for your watercooling setup? Just keep in mind that a custom loop can be costly and time-consuming. The sticky is designed to assist you during installation, priming, and ongoing maintenance. Regarding your system, please include details from this thread: *How to Ask for New Build or Upgrade Advice* First, acknowledge the proper channels – this adaptation builds on the original *How To Ask For New Build Advice* Sticky. I developed it after noticing many users seeking upgrade guidance here and on other CPU forums, and I believe...
Thanks, my memory isn't great, so I might have to update several times to gather all the details. I'll need a monitor, likely a 4k OLED. A new quiet mouse and keyboard are also required. I plan to install Windows 11, preferably having it ready before Christmas.
Hey there,
From what I've seen, ASRocks boards can damage some AMD 9 series chips, so I'd be cautious. The Tachi tier of moxie is great, but not for those chips. On the custom loop side, it seems like @Lutfij points out you might dive into a rabbit hole there. I’d probably go with the straightforward AIO option. Still, those tight loops do look impressive.
Edit: How much does the cost differ between a 9950x and the 9950X3d? If the gap isn’t huge, picking the latter offers similar multicore performance but better gaming performance.
Sorry for the mistake, I should have mentioned 9950X3d. Thanks to the water-cooling setup I’m saving a significant amount of money compared to the air-cooled version (around £750). I was planning to invest up to £650 in water cooling. I believed Asrock had solved that issue, but it seems another board series was needed.
I checked the watercooling page, but the link index links didn’t work for me.
I've been looking into the matter and it appears the corrections have been made, but I believe you're right—it's still too soon to fully rely on the Asrock boards, so I should conduct further research. Alternatively, I could switch to a Ryzen 7 and save some money.
You obviously have an unlimited budget.
However, I believe you're about to take on more than you can handle.
The suggested specs for BL4 are quite basic:
https://borderlands.2k.com/borderlands-4...-features/
Assume that investing heavily today won't protect you in the long run.
Everything you purchase now will become outdated within two years.
Pay attention to the sticky note on water cooling from Lutfij.
Keep it in mind.
The sound is caused by fans spinning at high speeds.
Big water coolers will require numerous fans to push air through the radiators.
Skip the two of them.
Water cooling remains a form of air cooling; the key difference lies in where the heat is exchanged.
For quieter operation, consider the Noctua RTX5080 variant:
https://www.asus.com/motherboards-compon...6g-noctua/
It should fit well in that space. Strong performance for gaming, though it's not as smooth in multi-tasking as the 9950x/x3d. The lower core count is noticeable. I wouldn't bother with Taichi either.
I don’t have an unlimited budget, but I can go up to 4k. I did the same 17 years ago for my current PC and it has worked well so far. I had to replace the GPU about a decade ago due to noise problems, but otherwise it’s been fine. I’m not really relying on water cooling, though I’d like to build one for the experience. Maybe when I retire in a few months I’ll do some custom builds for family and friends. I’ve already built a few PCs for people, but none of them generated profit.
I was reviewing an air cooled setup when I came across the Noctua 5080 and various Noctua case fans. However, the cost becomes quite high. For a 5080 graphics card with a water block already installed, it’s much more affordable compared to a Noctua graphics card. The radiator will likely use Noctua fans, but they tend to be larger and run slower than standard CPU coolers.
The recommended specs for BL4 don’t seem sufficient in my view. If you’ve played on a PC, you’ll know the problems it faces, and it might run much better later. I’m used to playing at maximum settings, lowering all adjustments to just the minimum, which isn’t something I’ve ever done before—it goes against my usual approach. Still, it crashes at least once during each session.