z31maniac

Is liquid cooling worth it on a CPU you won't overclock? With a good motherboard, 4Ghz+ processor, etc.......is OC'ing even going to be necessary?

Is a liquid CPU cooler going to be more efficient as such it will be quieter because it won't need a fan murdering the RPMs to keep it cool?

Erat

iTrader: (5)

You want an AIO for the CPU, yes. It will keep case temperatures way down, this will help your GPU. it will increase case flow. It will also help your overall room temperatures.
I wouldn't bother overclocking. Modern CPU's boost well, my 1800x hits 4.1 pretty regularly on it's own. Even when i was using the little h50 before i built my custom loop.

z31maniac

I guess one thing that I'm worried about in regards to the case and liquid coolers, is the lines being long enough or interfering with power cables and getting it all clean and together so they don't block airflow of physically don't fit.

I know my current mid-tower ATX case, I had to take a pair of tin snips to the hard drive cage so that monster Sapphire card would fit in the case. If I go with a full tower case, are the lines on the AIO cooler going to be long enough, stuff like that.

Is one of the liquid cooled Video Cars worth it as well?

DaWaN

Personally I find the choices better with FreeSync compared to Gsync.
You can buy 3x Samsung C27FG70's for 400 dollar a piece at NewEgg.
Those monitors have a nice VA panel, 144Hz, FreeSync
Have you ever tried it? The 144Hz monitors with *sync are fine when you hit 144 fps consistently. However, the experience all changes when your FPS ends up below 144. I have seen it side by side. I tried my brothers GSync monitor for one day and could not live without. Ordered a C24FG70 (FreeSync because I have a RX470) the next day and have not regretted it.

A good aftermarket air cooler will be quiet too. The CPU only dissipates a little over 100W, that is just half of what your graphics card dissipates. If you want a quiet system, focus on cooling for your graphics card.
A good flowing case is also a bonus for a quiet system. If your case flows well and you are not overclocking, I see very little value in water cooling the CPU.

Wrong: the amount of power dissipated by the CPU will stay the same. The difference in CPU temperature does not change the TDP.

If you decide to buy FreeSync monitors, you have to use an AMD GPU. In your case that would be a AMD RX Vega 64.
If you go with GSync monitors, you have to use a nVidia GPU. In your case that would be a nVidia GeForce GTX1080 Ti.

As for the CPU: the Intel CPUs usually do well in CPU limited games.
Assetto Corsa and Project Cars are not really CPU limited as far as I know: so you can also go with an AMD Ryzen CPU if you want.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

I am right. You always hit power limit before thermal limit on a GPU. Not bathing a GPU in hot air by the CPU means that the GPU is going to run cooler. You also get to reduce the noise level. Less fans in the case overall and the GPU fans spin less.

Having seen gsync monitors in use, i would still stay away from them.
I think you are also confused about the frequency and FPS and how they correlate. If you get low FPS it doesn't matter what frequency your monitor is. If you're getting more than 144FPS then you need a higher frequency monitor to see those extra frames. gsync is just a gimmick, since your monitor at 144htz will display up to that many frames anyway. I've been gaming for years now and screen tearing and input stutter is hardly noticeable even at super wide resolutions in driving games. When it is noticeable it's not at the focal point. You usually always focus on the middle monitor on a very small group of pixels somewhere towards the center not out at the edges. In fact, i'd even say that a normal 60htz monitor would work just fine. I guess the Freesync monitors are much better on price than G-sync, but i'm not really up on the AMD video cards other than Vega, and that doesn't look like a good purchase for this situation.

DaWaN

Heat in the room is all determined by power, not temperature. It does not matter if the GPU runs at 50*C or 80*C and whether the air coming out of your case is 40*C or 55*C. Temperatures only tell you how efficient the cooling system works. With an efficient cooling system the components can hit their power limit consistently, so you put more heat into the room. I see why water cooling the CPU makes sense if you like to run the least amount of fans, but I would run as much fans as possible. Many fans does not equal noise, many quiet fans can cool as good as a little number of loud ones.
I personally have a Fractal Design Define R4 and a Scythe Mugen CPU cooler. Together with the dual fan Gigabyte Radeon RX470 it is a really quiet gaming PC, even at full load.
If you put a more power hungry GPU in that case it would also get noisy, but you can mitigate the noise a little bit by adding extra case fans if you have a good case.
With the GPU consuming almost twice the amount of power of the CPU, I would say water cooling the GPU makes more sense than water cooling the CPU.

I am not at all confused about frequency and FPS.
First of all I completely agree that GSync/FreeSync does not add a damn if your FPS match your refresh rate. So 144FPS and 144Hz = brilliant on every monitor.
However, things change when your frame rate drops below your refresh rate. You will get tearing and judder, or if you run Vsync you end up at half the frame rate.
I am super sensitive to frame rate, judder and tearing. I can tell you even with my FreeSync monitor when Assetto Corsa drops below 100 FPS.
When your frame rate hovers around 100 fps with FreeSync / GSync it plays virtually as nice as 144 fps on a fixed 144Hz monitor.
But here is the catch: which graphics card allows you to hit 144FPS consistently in Battlefield 1 on ultra?
I can tell you a GTX 1080Ti cannot even do that, so that is where GSync / FreeSync shines because you have no tearing and judder in that case!
With my RX470 I can play on high at roughly 80-100 FPS and it plays very nicely. I also started playing PUBG lately and what I hate most about that game is the terrible frame rate, as it averages only around 70 fps on my system.

If you want to see the difference, go and see the FreeSync demo with the wind mills in person. This visualizes the problem very well and if you do not see the difference there you are probably the same person that experiences 40 fps as "smooth gaming".

I agree with the fact that the GTX1080Ti is better than the RX Vega, but they are not in the same price range. If you have a monitor with Gsync / Freesync chasing the last 10fps also becomes less relevant.
Ultimately it is your own choice, but I would rather give up a few FPS to get Gsync / FreeSync.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

I'm really happy with this i7-7700K.

z31maniac

Any input on the cooler lines being long enough for a full size ATX tower? My mid-tower case resulted in cutting the drive bay cage to get it to physically fit, the previous big video card that is.

DaWaN

Depends on the tower and the location of your radiators. Most recent towers from decent brands (Fractal Design, Cooler Master, Corsair, etc.) have the ability to remove drive bays.
Buying a case without 5,25" drive spaces is also a bonus for better cooling. I am personally quite fond of the Fractal Design Define S: Fractal Design
Cable management is supported by most decent cases today. The higher end power supplies usually come with longer cables, decent brands specify the cable lengths.

z31maniac

Hmmm, I was afraid that would be the answer. I really don't care to mess with doing my own DIY cooling setup.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

It will fit on the top, you may have trouble fitting it at the front.

z31maniac

What if I went AIO on the CPU and GPU?

Or just do one or the other and prioritize good airflow through the case?

z31maniac

I'm going to put together a hypothetical build later and you guys can give me some critiques. What I'm reading on logicalincrements is that the Intel equivalent i7 is slightly better at gaming than the Ryzen's, but the Ryzen's are better at everything else, sound fair?

Girz0r

iTrader: (1)

IMO, place an AIO on cpu and call it a day. Most GPU's have beefy enough air coolers to keep temps at bay.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

And cheaper.

You can do whatever you want with an AIO, you can also use the back fan spot to mount a single rad on. I think fractal design has a "modular" or "expandable" AIO system, so you can put multiple things in the loop.

z31maniac

Noted. I don't need multiple VM capability, video/photo editing (unless I get another track car in a year or two, really will just use it for gaming and internet browsing.

I only need VMs for work, and I use my laptop and our VMs are setup on a big bank of servers on the west coast at HQ. So I don't have to do it locally.

z31maniac

Stepped away from this for a bit after a nasty surprise from my old apartment.

Suggestions on a motherboard with enough inputs to allow two monster graphic cards (to upgrade later on if I want) AND have room to fit an NVMe for the boot drive?