How reliable are water coolers?

[Lathais]

Don't forget, even tho you go with water cooling, you'll still have fans doing the cooling, so it wouldn't really be that much less noise, the product that usually make the most noise in the pc, is the graphic card.
I use Noctua NH-D14, and it does more then well enough, and for less money aswell.
I've overclocked my CPU (i5-3579k) to 4,5 Ghz.. and the temp is around 55-60 degress.

I second this. I have an i5-4690k OC to 4.4, any higher gets unstable. While working on the OC I had it up to 4.6 and during stress test, before crash due to instability, my temps went to around 70, but thats during stress test. Now that I have it at 4.4 during normal use it's 55-60.

My point with this is why do I need something that cools any better than that? Air gets the job done, well, and I don;t have to ever worry about water in my system, pumps going out, radiator leaks....nothing. Put it on, it works, no additional maintenance, ever, and it works well. That's why I never recommend water coolers anyway.

[Master Guns]

I myself run the H80i in two rigs and they are flawlessly keeping me cool and hassle free, so yes I can vouch especially for Corsair water coolers.

But to me honest, I am unhappy with the noise associated with the H80i. It has two fans on the rad, and it's noisy as ballshit. Especially when I play a CPU intense game like Far Cry 3, it shoots to 100% RPM and sounds like a fucking freight train.

[Remilia]

Last I remember H80i doesn't have a PWM fan, so it's technically at 100% all of the time. Of the ones in production, only the H105 has it.

[glo]

Last I remember H80i doesn't have a PWM fan, so it's technically at 100% all of the time. Of the ones in production, only the H105 has it.

I think they're referring to the two fans that come with it, not the pump. I have the same cooler, and the fans are indeed loud as hell, even with a moderate curve in the BIOS.

[Master Guns]

My fans aren't at 100% all of the time. You can control %'s and RPMs through the corsair link profile on the H80i. Trust me, it definitely kicks in more when you do more intense things on your CPU. At least mine does. And yeah I'm not talking about the pump, I'm referring to the 2 fans on the rad.

You pretty much require noise cancelling headphones for any type of hardcore gaming with the H80i. But it does do what its supposed to, which is cool the CPU.

[glo]

My fans aren't at 100% all of the time. You can control %'s and RPMs through the corsair link profile on the H80i. Trust me, it definitely kicks in more when you do more intense things on your CPU. At least mine does.

Out of curiosity, did you do the washer fix for your cooler? H100i and H80i don't make proper contact with the CPU on a lot of Z87 boards, ASRock and ASUS specifically.

[Master Guns]

I have the ASRock Fatality Killer mobo and it makes perfect contact as far as I am aware. It cools it just fine. Under full load it doesn't exceed 60 C, which is pretty good at 4.5GHz. But no, I've never actually heard of that issue myself.

It really just depends on what I'm doing and the game I'm playing, but the most demanding title I have is FC3 (which, due to being atrociously optimized, utilizes like 85-90% of your CPU), which pushes temps to around 57-60 degrees C. Idle is around 29-31 degrees C. Skyrim and WoW both keep temps fairly low, usually like 39-45 degrees C. All of this of coarse on full Ultra @1080p.

[Lathais]

Under full load it doesn't exceed 60 C

When you say Full Load do you mean like running AIDA64 or just a demanding game running? Just curious.

[Master Guns]

A full load test on Aida64.

[glo]

A full load test on Aida64.

That's good, I wonder if the board makers ended up changing the PCB thickness or something.

[Master Guns]

The 4690k is a great little chip ^_^

[HordeSchmorde]

I wish Gigabyte let us control the fans on their GPUs or at least make them stop on idle. 3 fans always spinning at a minimum of 1600 RPM even when they card is sitting at 30C. I did a BIOS change with nvflash and made it drop to 1100 RPM which is inaudible, but for some reason on reboot it reverts to 1600, which makes no sense to ne at all.

[BicycleMafioso]

I wish Gigabyte let us control the fans on their GPUs or at least make them stop on idle. 3 fans always spinning at a minimum of 1600 RPM even when they card is sitting at 30C. I did a BIOS change with nvflash and made it drop to 1100 RPM which is inaudible, but for some reason on reboot it reverts to 1600, which makes no sense to ne at all.

They said they would never allow this.
However. They are slowly coming around on this.
Both the "Gigabyte Geforce GTX 960 Windforce 2X" and the "Gigabyte Geforce GTX 960 G1 Gaming" can have their fans stop at <45°C.
Earlier Gigabyte cards can not.

[HordeSchmorde]

That's idiotic why would they ever make that statement.

I have the GeForce 970 G1 Gaming why the hell does the 960 stop its fans but this one does't. Its heatsink alone could keep the card <45C in desktop mode, it's bigger than my ...