I'm looking into parts for a self build computer and sort of like the idea of water cooling the machine, the less fans the better. Does anyone have experience on how reliable these things are, not only at keeping the pc cool but what about the pipes can they split easy.

Thanks

Water cooling is really only useful if you're interested in overclocking your CPU. And even then, you need case fans, and the water cooler radiator itself has fans. And I've heard than some models have louder pumps than others. The lines shouldn't break unless for some reason you let the machine freeze

I would recommend a case and a CPU heatsink with large fans (140mm - 210mm). They are virtually silent. If you clean out the fans every 6 months or so, it'll remain that way. The only time I hear my i7 3930 machine is when the Quadro fan spins up after tumbling some rather massive models for a while.

I would not bother with it either. It can be fun to look into it all and get the best gear for your rig, but it becomes annoying when you move around/travel across continents. And I generally found that if I'm simming stuff that requires that much power, I should either do it on a farm or optimize my setups more.

Go with the above suggestion: big cooler and big fan and this will save you time, money and frustration - that way your time is spent on houdini rather than tweaking hardware. If you are into hardware and see this as a hobby, then that's your choice, but I would not recommend if your professional focus is on houdini.

twod
Water cooling is really only useful if you're interested in overclocking your CPU.

Sounds like fun but it's too expensive a hobby for me.

twod
I would recommend a case and a CPU heatsink with large fans (140mm - 210mm). They are virtually silent. If you clean out the fans every 6 months or so, it'll remain that way.

This is the setup that I have for my current box, it does a good job.

Thank you both for the input.

I also only use an air cooler but I have a bunch of friends that bought either H60 or H80 from the Corsair Hydro series and are very happy with them.

On the overclocking being a too expensive hobby you should reconsider. At least if you buy the i7 ****K series you can get a lot of extra performance. It's no problem running a 2600K at 4.4 GHz where the stock is only 3.4GHz.

Thanks for the tips