What a shock i received today when I was taking some time to review my 'final' decision to move to a self-contained CPU cooler system for my i7-920 outfit. I pretty much finalized my decision to go with the Corsair H100, partly due to the experiences provided from OG, Forces and Snilly, as well as the numerous reviews i have found during my research this past month or so.

All of the reviews that I have found, up until today, 04Feb12, were strictly based upon the 'self-contained' water cooler systems. However, today, i decided to take a side-trip over to frozencpu.com and see what they were promoting for liquid cooling a system, to make sure I was making the best educated decision possible, for my money and for my time (related to maintenance and future problems).

When I make a major purchase, anything over $100 for my definition, I go over-board in making sure i am getting the best bang for my buck and this research was no different as I reviewed many self-contained and modular water-cooling systems to my utmost satisfaction.

There are sooo many sites touting to be THE knowledgeable resource for this type of information, but I found a wide variety of opinions about which type of system should be used and why. What kept coming to the surface were two types of water-cooling systems the enthusiasts system and the realistic system.

My research showed that a good quality modular enthusiast water-cooling system would run over $200 for the CPU cooling block, fittings, hose, radiator, fan(s), cooling liquid and maintenance (unknown cost over the life of the system). Add to the issue that many reviews caution about the use of certain fluids and the mixing of different metals in the modular cooling system, I determined this was not what I wanted to be bothered about.

While at frozencpu.com today, I priced out 2 different modular systems for my rig (I have an EVGA X58 3-way SLI MB and dual EVGA GTX-285 GPU cards that get quite warm when playing) after pricing just the cooling blocks for the whole system, without anything else, the cost came to $600! I realize that in the long run, this may be the way to preserve the life of all my components, CPU, RAM, north/south bridges etc, but at a horrible cost; I can buy a new EVGA 580 with some of that cash!

So i settled back and brought myself back to reality, focusing on water-cooling my CPU, where all of this started to begin with. For a small price of $103 (eBay new price) to $120 (NewEgg.com and free shipping) I could get the Corsair H100 to do the dirty work of cooling my CPU without issue.

The self-contained water-cooling systems I reviewed finalized their recommendations with either the Corsair H80 or H100 as the high-marks of quality, performance, maintenance-free and price points over all other similar type of systems. This was consistent with the sites I used for my research.

I am sure some of you may have varying opinions on this topic, but I think I will step into the water-cooling market and allow Corsair to earn my business with an H100 system in the very near future.

I will update this topic or start a new one, with some step-by-step data when I buy my H100 for all to enjoy.

Thanks for reading, differences in opinion and experiences are welcome and invited.

WeedWhackerDood

Well... uhh... thanx for confirming what we already knew... I spose.

I'm sure however, that in your research and reading all over the place, that you did gain some knowledge. And most likely saw some sick shiz along the way. Very Cool!