Question Custom loop - worth it?

[ZowieR]

I want to buy new PC and I dont know if this worth it and what is the benefits..
it was really cool and more beauty? much lower temps than D15 for example?

And what about upgrades in the future? when I want upgrade GPU or CPU.. only find new waterblock and connect?
some AIO costs maybe 300$ .. and this full custom loop costs 1000$
And I think if I have it I dont need to open the coolers and clean dust anymore.. because it was all waterblocks without fans for the cpu and gpu..

 

[John1780]

Well, I will encourage you to avoid feeling bad about your decision, and I will avoid the same misgivings about mine. Time flies! I bought my Skylake (now replaced with Kaby) in fall, 2016, but it had been available since December 2015. The Kaby was released around January 2017, and it's now 2021. This was a repair project for blown-out motherboard USB controller. So I stuck with what I had. If I were going to get a 10-gen processor and mobo, I told VirtualLarry that my approach is to take six months to choose the parts and plan the build.

Anyway, I can't get the overclock stable for the RAM I have above 4.7 without twisting up the IO and SA voltages into the 1.3+V range. It seems that all these processors going back to my Sky and Kaby generation are best left in the 1.25 to 1.3 range, and the lower the better. So I think I'm going to take what I can get for the AVX Offset, set the maximum clock to around 4.9, and call it a day.

On the plus side for you, you don't need to OC anything. You'd of course want to keep that thing as cool as possible, and I can see how it would run at a toasty level with those many cores. given the default turbo range for that thing, you could even consider setting up an "overclock profile" in BIOS that downclocks the processor when you want it to run cooler! You've still got all those cores, and on a warm day, you could probably run it at 4.5 Ghz for a lot of things! I'm going to file that away in my mind just for contemplating something with current technology in the next year or two.

Yeah, I'd get nervous running IO and SA above 1.3V. Turbo boost puts me at 4.8 out of the box, so my OC is mild.

I think the sweet spot is 6--8 cores for the recent-gen Intel proc line if/when you've looking to upgrade.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yeah, I'd get nervous running IO and SA above 1.3V. Turbo boost puts me at 4.8 out of the box, so my OC is mild.

I think the sweet spot is 6--8 cores for the recent-gen Intel proc line if/when you've looking to upgrade.

I'm probably repeating myself for all of my recent posts during the last month. I have this "perfect" Skylake system, and I borked the motherboard/USB-controller with a stupid static charge accident. Could've repaired it "as is" for the $88 Fed-Ex of the ASUS RMA, but I bought extra parts. One of our veteran members lightly chided me for not simply upgrading to gen-10. But I like to "plan" things; the accident wasn't planned; and it was important to just fix it.

Even so, I decided to review this year's landscape to see what was there. So -- yes -- I've concluded that any new project would use something like an i5-10600K hexa-core. But -- believe me! -- this Kaby-Lake refresh quad-core might serve my needs until I pass into the next life. I'm only missing out on PCIE v.4.0 and Samsung 980 spec speed. Probably one or two other things that I don't need to pay for.

I've been tweaking and testing here and there over the last week, and I can run it at 5.0 with an AVX-Offset of 2 for 4.8 Ghz. My puzzlement over the RAM, IO and SA settings was just for being slow in seeing that it needed more VCORE. So now, the voltage rises to 1.36V for turbo @ 4.8 -- with or without AVX stress. The VCCIO only needs 1.15V and the VCCSA only 1.22.

I even tuned the Uncore and bumped it up -- so far -- to 4.5. Wow! That raises the temperatures 5C over all the cores. But it still only heats up to 80C with AVX stress. I think I'm done fiddling with it. Fast enough!

 

[xNIKx]

I am very big into custom loops, have done three so far. I started because my gpu, at the time, was hitting around 85*C and with the fans at 100% the noise was driving me crazy. I put together my first custom loop and doubt I will ever go back to air cooling.

The three reasons I do it are for silent operation, cooler temperatures, and aesthetics. I will say that custom loops are a commitment and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are experiencing unacceptable temperatures or noise levels.

Pros
- Lower temperatures, see note below. During heavy gaming my cpu never passes 60*C and gpu never passes 50*C. I have an i9 10900k and 2080ti.
- Much quieter system, you can barely hear my system even at full load.
- Aesthetics, custom loops can really be an art and you almost become addicted to coming up with a unique looking loop.
- Possible better performance. My old card, mentioned above, throttled at 80C which I was surpassing. I can confirm that have I have noticed better performance in demanding titles.

Cons
- Maintenance, its only every 6 months to a year but it is very time consuming to drain a custom loop, disassemble it, clean it, and then redo everything.
- Risk of leaks, I don't consider a huge negative because as long as you are careful and do a proper leak test then there is no worry. However I will say, that I have fried a very expensive motherboard in the past during a leak test.
- Upgrading, swapping parts, or testing become significantly more difficult. For example you may have to remove your loop just to be able to access a m2 drive.
- Very expensive. As the op stated, my loop cost more than $1000. You also don't want to cheap out, and make sure you are buying quality parts.
- Not really a con, but you will have to do a lot of research prior to buying and assembling your loop. I recommend watching Jay's videos on youtube.

**Note regarding temperatures**
A custom loop is 100% not worth it for just the cpu. You will honestly not notice much of a difference in temperature on a custom loop versus an aio or high quality air cooler. At max load, I am getting maybe 5*C lower versus my nd h15. You will however notice a drastic decrease in gpu temperature.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I am very big into custom loops, have done three so far. I started because my gpu, at the time, was hitting around 85*C and with the fans at 100% the noise was driving me crazy. I put together my first custom loop and doubt I will ever go back to air cooling.

The three reasons I do it are for silent operation, cooler temperatures, and aesthetics. I will say that custom loops are a commitment and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are experiencing unacceptable temperatures or noise levels.

Pros
- Lower temperatures, see note below. During heavy gaming my cpu never passes 60*C and gpu never passes 50*C. I have an i9 10900k and 2080ti.
- Much quieter system, you can barely hear my system even at full load.
- Aesthetics, custom loops can really be an art and you almost become addicted to coming up with a unique looking loop.
- Possible better performance. My old card, mentioned above, throttled at 80C which I was surpassing. I can confirm that have I have noticed better performance in demanding titles.

Cons
- Maintenance, its only every 6 months to a year but it is very time consuming to drain a custom loop, disassemble it, clean it, and then redo everything.
- Risk of leaks, I don't consider a huge negative because as long as you are careful and do a proper leak test then there is no worry. However I will say, that I have fried a very expensive motherboard in the past during a leak test.
- Upgrading, swapping parts, or testing become significantly more difficult. For example you may have to remove your loop just to be able to access a m2 drive.
- Very expensive. As the op stated, my loop cost more than $1000. You also don't want to cheap out, and make sure you are buying quality parts.
- Not really a con, but you will have to do a lot of research prior to buying and assembling your loop. I recommend watching Jay's videos on youtube.

**Note regarding temperatures**
A custom loop is 100% not worth it for just the cpu. You will honestly not notice much of a difference in temperature on a custom loop versus an aio or high quality air cooler. At max load, I am getting maybe 5*C lower versus my nd h15. You will however notice a drastic decrease in gpu temperature.

You confirm my thoughts in the matter. I could've made a major project of a Rube-Goldberg evaporative or chilled water. But it came down to assessing my commitment to gaming, my investment in graphics cards, and what I'd learned about heatpipes. And the anticipated maintenance and unforeseen troubles.

I'll tell you right now the biggest thing on my mind is how to obtain ANY graphics card that fills my bill. I want something like an RTX-2070 Mini-OC like the Gigabyte model. HEre or there, they say "MOre on the way" and ask if you want to be notified. If I wanted to get another of my Gigabyte GTX 1070 Mini OC, I can't find it for less than $300 to $500 more than I paid for it four years ago!

Who and what is causing this, and where can I find them to beat up on them?

I suppose I can use the Intel integrated graphics. But I wanted a discrete card.