I am considering two different purchases for cooling.
A water cooling system using top of the line danger den/swiftech parts that will run me around 300 to 400 dollars (CPU, GPU, NB, Mosfet).
The second option is a top of the line air cooling: Cooler Master GeminII in conjunction with Delta 140CFM fans which will in total cost around 100 to 150 dollars.

The dilemma comes because this is for summer cooling in about 30C environment with no AC. The air cooling would cool the RAM, Chipset, CPU, and Mosfet. The water cooling would not cool the RAM. Is it even worth paying a couple hundred more for water cooling? Like, does the ambient temperature play as large an affect on water cooling as it does on water cooling such that I'd probably end up with the same temperatures? Also, can anyone recommend any good air cooling for a G80 8800GTS (I don't mind noise).

Edit: I have a quad core and 8GB of RAM.

Normally I'd recommend air-cooling over any WC, so this time around it won't be any different. Are you OCing? If you are, you should invest in the best air-cooling available to the OCer enthusiast, the Thermalright Ultra120 Extreme (TRUE).

I myself own the GeminII, and with two 60cfm fans on top of it, I can barely have respectable temps for a 3GHz Q6600. I highly discourage the GeminII if you're considering OCing. Instead, just grab a TRUE, get 2 Scythe Ultra Kaze, and put them in a push-pull config. This is pretty much as good as it gets, the Ultra Kaze can do 130CFM for only $9.

I think it affects both the same, but water-cooling is a little more efficient than air-cooling. I believe the same rise in ambient temp would affect both the same, but water cooling will be a little cooler on your CPU and whatnot.

Cooling with either will not allow any part get at or below ambient temperatures. Water will bring it closer though and yea it's harder to add water cooling to RAM and voltage regulators than air, but it's a lot quieter than air. What you need are benchmarks with your system in the same environment. That's pretty much the only way to really determinie if it's going to be enough especially at those temps. I would think that if you're not doing anything too demanding, you'll be fine with air especially if you're using really good fans with high CFM. My computer has a CPU and exhaust 109CFM 120mm fan. The CPU fan blows through the heatsink down on to the board and you can feel a good ammount going through the RAM and regulator areas, and those have gotten noticeably cooler too since the fan upgrade. I reckon my house is at times around 23-25C and my CPU stays at around 50C fully loaded and overclocked. My video card doesn't go anywhere above 70C at stock fan speeds (9800GTX) and drops to 55C at 100% fan.

My fan setup is:
2x120mm 80CFM intake fans
1x120mm 109CFM exhaust fan
1x120mm 109CFM CPU fan
1x80mm 60CFM exhaust fan
(optional) 1x80mm 60CFM exhaust fan (on top)
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 (also an exhaust fan)
EVGA 9800GTX (exhaust)

LOUD AS HELL but cool

TT Armor (early model, no side fans, all fans have been upgraded)
Ambient temp - 25C
CPU - 48-50C fully loaded (E6600 @ 3GHz)
System - 45C fully loaded CPU
Video - 70C fully loaded @ stock fan speed
HDD - 25-30C

Concerning o'clocking, do you plan on doing any. If so, what components? Also, do you plan on being aggressive in this area? This would have the greatest influence on air versus watercooling.

What are u using ur system for??

Ive got an OC'd Q6600 on water (120mm rad)
The other components are cooled fine by air, gfx card runs a thermalright sink.

Id suggest only putting 2 items on ur loop (cpu and gfx)

I've overclocked it to 8x333. I can't do much higher since the board just can't handle it (ga-p35-ds3p). So 8x333 is the max I can hit. I currently have a Zalman 9500A on it, but it just isn't enough especially since it doesn't include putting air onto the memory and northbridge. I think I'll probably just end up doing air cooling. I was looking at the thermalright extreme something or other, but I really wanted something blowing down onto the board. I've though about getting a NB cooler, but then that'd leave my mosfets exposed. I was looking at the Kaze's, but I'll still need a Delta fan for high CFM 120x25mm for the case fan.

They are -not- nor have ever been the -top of the line- for air cooling.

Themalright has -always- been the best air coolers in the world bar none.
Silverstone FM-121 fans @ 110 QFPM are the best fans and come with free veri-speed controlers.

A correct Case/HS/Fan combo can give the same cooling as a non-chilled H20 sytem withen 1C and for alot less cost.
Best case is still the older Coolermaster Stacker TO-1 with optional CrossFlow Fan.
No other case sold cools as well as it does...but good luck finding one theses days.

The 7 systems in my profile that are my game LAN are OC'd 50% both on all stock volts (MB/CPU/RAM/Chipsets) and air cooled with 4-6C over room air @ 100% load.

If your thinking of H2O then go look at http://www.koolance.com/default.php

Buy three 3-or-4 slot 120mm fan heat exchangers and put them into home made wooden box for 2100-3000 watts of heat transfer for $300 USD + other parts.
Buying other H20 cooler parts is as foolish as buying other than Thermalright for air cooling...or a good case/PSU.

Removing the case's exit fan grill will boost airflow 80% or more.

I'll tell you what, if you can find a something to cool a quad core, 8GB of RAM, NB, and mosfet without buying a new case, or exceeding a 150 dollar limit, I'll listen. I have a GA-P35-DS3P board so the NB heatsink can't be replaced since it has a heatpipe fixed to the mosfet heatsink. I'll also need a fan coving my RAM since 4 sticks generates a lot of heat.

The CM GeminII is the only heatsink I have seen where you can seat 120MM fans such that it covers all of these spots I need. My NB is currently running at 52C. I already know Thermalright is the best, but it just doesn't fit my needs.

Tested for 3 years, cost 0 maybe some nails or whatever

hi,
i'm also with this dilemma.
my room gets to 40C or even more in the summer.
but it's only for a month or so, the average in round 28-32C.
but my options are- Armor LCS vs P182 + TR 120EX + a good fan.
the pros of the LCS is that when Intel Switch the Socket with the Nehalm i could only switch the block & when getting a new VGA Card i'll get him a block.
for now, the VGA card is 8800gts with stock cooler.
the cpu will be Q9xxx or Q6600 or E8400 OC'd.

but currently i built a custom case with 12 regular 8cm fans. it's pretty noise but not like my friends 3x12cm fans at max speed.

i tought about LCS coz of the less noise, but the p182 built for quite systems so it's a good deal.

what do you think?

Armor LCS + VGA block vs p182 with TR 120 extreem + TR05 for the 88gts is the same money. but the aircooling system will worth nothing for the future Nehalem, oppose to the LCS.


thanks!

D.

Where do you live?
Why can't you have air conditioning?
A new 5000 BTU window air conditioner will cool a room up to 160 square feet. The AC unit can be bought for less than $100. It will consume $25 of electricity for the season.

Oh whoops, I did the temp conversion wrong. It gets to around 35C, usually never above 100F. I live in LA so that gives you a general idea of how warm it gets esp with the santa ana winds. I can't have air conditioning because I live what is essentially like a dorm room, so the power draw of an air conditioner would overload the circuit. It's an older building so they did the circuit layout pretty weird. I have three outlets in my room, two are on the same circuit, one is on it's own. This big thing though, is that the circuits are shared over 2-3 rooms. So if you get like 2 computers on one circuit, then turn on an AC, it's too much for the circuit. (BTW, for anyone who cares, it's a 20A circuit).

What is the ambient temp of your computers environment?
Air will get you to about 8 to 10 degrees above ambient.
Water, if your lucky, close to 6 degrees above.
The only thing that will cool lower that ambient, is chill water and phase change cooling.