Custom PC - Liquid Edition?

Hey everyone, so almost 5 years ago I got PCS to build a custom desktop PC. Now it's time to build another one.
Since my last build there has been new releases on components, in particular the CPUs.

I really need some help/advise for my 2nd build.

I'm a part time video editor using various software's; After Effects, Sony Vegas, Capturing devices
Also, play games/watch movies in 4K

I having been looking at "Liquid" series and have searched on the web for custom built and they look awesome. But the thing is, I've never had a "Liquid" cooling system before and would be my very first time.
I do have some knowledge when it comes to PCs but "Liquid" cooling well that is a "No, No".

When it comes to "Liquid" systems are there any negatives I need to take into account? How often would the liquid require re-filling? Also does it need to be taken into any PC shop or can I do it myself?
Also, intel i9 CPU have been released, would you recommend it?

Peace

Steve

When it comes to "Liquid" systems are there any negatives I need to take into account?

Click to expand...

They're extraordinarily expensive and require periodic maintenance, i.e. draining, flushing and refilling the loop. PCS can do this for you I believe but it does mean sending the PC to them and a fee (about £140, recommended every 2 years last I saw).

It depends on your budget and the kind of system you're looking at, but in terms of value they may not be the best solution.

That said for extreme rendering rigs with very beefy, overclocked CPUs and multiple GPUs, the cooling can come in handy. And there's the aesthetic, and depending how you tune things, the acoustic, side of things too.

What's your budget for the system?

What monitor do you currently use?

@Oussebon, Thanks for reply bro!
Tbh £140 every 2 years isn't expensive. I take it as when the liquid is almost empty that is a sign of refilling required or is there a GUI software that checks it bro?

At the moment I have around £2500-£3000 but if I can get it on finance then can push it to maybe £4000

I also checked about the "Upgrade" scheme so if I can't add certain components now then in the future it can be added.

I'm into RGB and would like everything to be synced with Asus Aura Sync and let's not forget tempered glass case

I currently have Asus PB287Q ( https://www.asus.com/Monitors/PB287Q/ or https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-PB287Q-3840x2160-monitor-Flicker/dp/B00KJGY3TO ) interested on the new ultra wide 4k monitors though.

I take it as when the liquid is almost empty that is a sign of refilling required or is there a GUI software that checks it bro?

Click to expand...

Heh, if the liquid's nearly empty, your system will already be fried! It will lose a little fluid, but not much. If it loses a lot of fluid, it's because it leaked. And at the very least would mean there was no liquid to transfer the heat from the CPU/GPUs to the radiators.

The expense I was referring to wasn't the periodic maintenance - it's the capital cost. The tubing, waterblocks, etc. It's hundreds of £ more.

A 4k gaming/video editing PC with an all-in-one liquid cooler might be this:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/CSTWVQSQMR/ (£2,234). (£2951 if you buy dual GPU, which for your budget and uses you probably should)

Same system, 1 GPU liquid cooled:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-liquid/U4zCAhkqvZ/ (£2716)
2 GPUs liquid cooled: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-liquid/Cw3upsUK!B/ (£3716).
And that's if you go for the cheaper, flexible tubing. If you want the hardline stuff that's another £150 or so.

So it's getting on for £1000 more for a dual GPU liquid cooled system. Plus the £140 or however much every 2 years.

When I said "extraordinarily expensive", that's what I was getting at

As a side note, many cases with RGB fans have separate controllers for the fans - and the fans can't be controlled by Aurasync or the Gigabyte equivalent.

The COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500P, which is a relatively new addition to the PCS range, does have fans compatible with Aurasync etc. But PCS don't sell it with dual GPU liquid cooling, presumably because it doesn't fit. In fact, none of their cases for dual GPU liquid series have RGB LED fans... though you could always fit your own in principle.

Tbh, if your max ideal budget is £3000 I'd suggest going for an AIO liquid cooler for the CPU, tempered glass RGB fan case with extra RGB LEDs, and leave the GPUs air-cooled.

AIO liquid coolers are sealed units and require no maintenance above what a PC does anyway (e.g. dusting).

e.g.


Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500P GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Six Core (3.7GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - GTX VR Ready!
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - GTX VR Ready!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1900MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i V2 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price £3,122.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-overclocked/nr6h9Yk35E/

Any new monitor you buy in this kind of price range you will want to make sure has gsync.

@Oussebon, Thanks very much for your support I really appreciate it.
Ah looks like Liquid cooling won't be ideal.

OK, if I was to say you had £3500 to build a 2GPU PC with Air Cooling taking into consideration the build must have; tempered glass for case, RGB lights, Asus Sync.
What would you build bro?

Probably something like what I posted.

Very few cases' RGB LED fans support Aura Sync or LED Fusion (the gigabyte equivalent). Most have their own controllers like the Corsair 460x / 570x do. You can still have LED strips controlled by Aura Sync / Fusion, you just need to control the case RGB LEDs differently.

If you want the case LEDs to be controllable by Fusion/ Aura Sync afaik the H500P in black or white are your only options from PCS's stock. The side panel is tempered glass, the top and front covers are plastic. Which is how many tempered glass cases do it.

If you're happy to have Aura Sync / Fusion LED light strips and to control the RGB LED fans differently, the Corsair Crystal 570x has tempered glass all around I believe.

If you prefer Aura Sync to LED Fusion (and honestly I couldn't tell you what the differences are, if any) then the Asus Z370E motherboard would be the one I'd suggest. It also has wifi and Bluetooth 4.2.

Is that any help?

Depending on your storage needs you could up the SSD to a 1TB PM961.

steve.r said:

@Oussebon, Thanks very much for your support I really appreciate it.
Ah looks like Liquid cooling won't be ideal.

OK, if I was to say you had £3500 to build a 2GPU PC with Air Cooling taking into consideration the build must have; tempered glass for case, RGB lights, Asus Sync.
What would you build bro?

Click to expand...

While a liquid cooled system may need maintenance it is pretty silent and for me preferable than air cooled GPUs is you game without a headset. I will need to send it back for maintenance and £140 is on the expensive side but it is every 2 years.

If considering paying for a liquid series system for water cooled GPUs it's worth considering GPUs with AIO water coolers like the EVGA Hybrid, MSI Seahawk, etc. Despite the high price premium for these cards, they'd still be cheaper than a liquid series by some way, assuming you're happy to install them yourself. Just to throw yet another option into the mix

@Oussebon, I was looking at the following case:
BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE

Would I be able to add LED strips onto the case? If it requires to control it separately I'm cool with it. I take it as anything from the following link would work: https://www.asus.com/campaign/aura/us/Partners-and-promotions.html >>> LED Strips
Also, I would also change Fan, Ram to have RGB

@keynes. Hey bro thanks for reply. I think when it comes to Liquid Cooling I should let it go, I'm worried about the pipe becoming loose and damaging other components?

I wanted to ask you both. When it comes to CPU, any point on purchasing i9?

You should be able to control the LED strips with aurasync as far as I know.

PCS sell RGB RAM (look in the configurator, it's just between the regular 3000MHz RAM and the 3200MHz RAM).

In terms of fans, fans off that list should work with aura sync.

An i9 could be useful for video editing.


For gaming it would be no better than an i7 8700k (in fact marginally less good than an 8700k, if looking at benchmarks). Whether the performance increase for video editing is worth the extra cost is of course for you to judge

If going for an i9 7900x or similar, get the best cooling solution available (H110i cooler, if possible) as these are powerful and hot CPUs.