by Willen » Tue Jun 06, 2006 5:34 pm
IMO, there are only 2 reason you would use water/liquid cooling. 1) To get a quieter system. 2) Extreme overclocking.
If you aren't interested in either, I'd recommend against it. The installation is less of a hassle to do nowadays, but there are some maintenance issues with the cooling liquid you need to be aware of. Just like the cooling system of your car, eventually you may need to purge and clean the cooling system. And the hardware for the water tank and hoses do take up space in your computer case. Not to mention the cost. On the plus side, it does look cool.
As for ATI vs nVidia, that is just personal preference. Any top of the line graphics card will do. The only exception to that is if you are thinking of doing a dual card setup (SLI or Crossfire), I'd go for nVidia right now since their SLI solution is a bit more mature and elegant. This of course is strictly for games since other applications don't take advantage (yet) of dual GPU setups. And it also means having a SLI-capable motherboard.
Having trouble playing back videos? I recommend:
