Need advice ref new build. Aircooled or Watercooled?

Hi guys, Cowboy10uk here, I just lost my password hence the new username sorry.

 

I’m in the process of putting together specs for a new build to run my flightsims on. Primarily DCS, P3D and XP11. My aim is 4k at 60fps min while using global mesh, full ORBX scenery, full weather and A2A / PMDG aircraft and settings as high as possible. Basically I want as realistic looking and feeling simulation as I can get with a pc that’s fairly quiet so it doesn’t disturb rest of the family.

 

I have 2 builds specs currently which are pretty much identical, the only difference being the cooling system One is primarily aircooled with a closed system loop for the CPU, while the other is a full open water system for both CPU and GPU.

 

It’s been a good 6 years or so since my last build and I have only ever built aircooled systems before, and watercooling is a black art to me, so apart from knowing it looks blooming cool in the case and you can get better overclock speeds although the overclock for both systems is stated to be 4.8ghz. I’m still not certain if it’s worth the extra money. About an extra £300 on top of the aircooled system.

 

I was wondering if someone could please have a look at the specs and see which would be the best option. I’m planning on getting the system built for me by Scan, as im getting too old and grouchy to do the build myself this time. ;)

 

AIRCOOLED SYSTEM

 

Cases

Corsair Crystal Series 570X [black] - replace the stock case fans with LL120 RGB fans

 

Motherboards

ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING

 

Intel CPUs and Overclocking

Intel Core i7 8700K, Coffee Lake, 6-Core with Hyperthreading, 3.7GHz, 4.7GHz Turbo [Overclocked - CPU professionally overclocked up to 4.8GHz]

 

CPU Coolers

Corsair Hydro H150i PRO RGB with three ML120 fans replace fans with LL120 rgb

 

Memory

32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB 3200MHz [black]

 

Graphics Card

11GB EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3, 1569MHz GPU, 3584 Cores, 11000MHz GDDR5X - GeForce GTX VR Ready [single card]

 

GeForce Experience

NVIDIA GeForce Experience (requires NVIDIA graphics card)

£0.00 inc VAT

 

Graphics Card Overclocking

Your choice of graphics card professionally overclocked, Requires Windows to be purchased with the system & adds an additional days testing.

 

Power Supply Unit

1000W Corsair HX1000, Full Modular, 80PLUS Platinum, SLI/CrossFire, Single Rail, 83.3A, 135mm Fan, ATX PSU

 

Storage - Solid State Drives - PCIe (NAND)

1TB Samsung 970 EVO, 3400MB/s Read, 2500MB/s Write, 500K IOPS X 2 - 1 for OS and 1 as flight simulator drive

 

Storage - Hard Disk Drives

4TB Western Digital Black, 7200rpm, 256MB Cache X2 - 1 for flightsim addons and scenery and 1 for other games and downloads

 

Optical Drives

Asus Blu-ray Reader/Writer - External

 

Sound Cards

ASUS STRIX SOAR - For use with Jetseat and simshaker.

 

Aftermarket Fans

120mm Corsair LL120 RGB LED x 6

 

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 10 Home Advanced 64-bit

 

this is the look I’m after for the aircooled system and external look for the watercooled, obviously internals would look completely different.

 

 

 

WATERCOOLED SYSTEM

 

Cases

Corsair Crystal Series 570X [Red] - replace the stock case fans with LL120 RGB fans

 

Custom CPU & GPU Water Cooling

Stage 3 CPU & GPU Watercooling – Custom water cooled loop designed for cooling the CPU and a single GPU. Includes an EK DDC PWM pump, EK CPU block, EK GPU block, 360mm radiator, fittings, tubing and three high quality Corsair ML120 PRO fans - replace fans with LL120 RGB fans

 

Coolant

Blood Red

 

Motherboards

Asus ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING - Supreme FX audio, Aura Lighting, Intel LAN, WiFi

 

Intel CPUs and Overclocking

Intel Core i7 8700K, Coffee Lake, 6-Core with Hyperthreading, 3.7GHz, 4.7GHz Turbo [Overclocked - CPU professionally overclocked up to 4.8GHz]

 

Memory

32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB 3200MHz [black]

 

Graphics Cards

11GB EVGA GTX 1080 Ti GAMING, 1480MHz GPU, 3584 Cores, 11000MHz GDDR5X - GeForce GTX VR Ready [single card]

 

GeForce Experience

NVIDIA GeForce Experience (requires NVIDIA graphics card)

£0.00 inc VAT

 

Graphics Card Overclocking

Your choice of graphics card professionally overclocked, Requires Windows to be purchased with the system & adds an additional days testing.

 

Power Supply Unit

1000W Corsair HX1000, Full Modular, 80PLUS Platinum, SLI/CrossFire, Single Rail, 83.3A, 135mm Fan, ATX PSU

 

Storage - Solid State Drives - PCIe (NAND)

1TB Samsung 970 EVO, 3400MB/s Read, 2500MB/s Write, 500K IOPS x 2 - 1 for OS and 1 as flight simulator drive

 

Storage - Hard Disk Drives

4TB WD Black WD4005FZBX, 7200rpm, 256MB Cache x 2 - 1 for flightsim addons and scenery and 1 for other games and downloads

 

Optical Drives

Asus Blu-ray Reader/Writer - External

 

Sound Cards

Asus STRIX SOAR - For use with Jetseat and simshaker.

 

Aftermarket Fans

120mm Corsair LL120 RGB LED x 6

 

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 10 Home Advanced 64-bit

 

Cowboy10uk

You're not going to get 4K with FS. And you don't need 60 FPS as the eye can't see that high a FPS. In FS you want to set it to 25-30 and give breathing room for the CPU. To make matters worse, FS is largely CPU orientated and single threaded to boot. The 8700k will fair, but adding a boat load of add-ons and you will have to use modest settings in the Sim. XP11 on the other hand may be another story.

 

Air cooled, water cooled. They'd both be adequate. It's largely dependent on the hardware design. I use a Cooler Master Evo 212 air cooler and my CPU temps are pretty damn decent in large part due to the type of hardware and its design.

 

Personally, I wouldn't want water near my rig at all. But people think they need to water cool everything. Each their own I guess. Not my rig. But I've heard of people getting leaks.

Oh. You should contact this forum on resetting your password for the other account. Is that account's E-mail not working? I'm sure a Mod will see this and sort you out.

Oh. You should contact this forum on resetting your password for the other account. Is that account's E-mail not working? I'm sure a Mod will see this and sort you out.

 

Unfortunately it’s been a good few years since I’ve been here, and I’ve changed internet providers a few times since then so no longer have access to the email address it’s regestered to sadly which means I can’t reset password. But I’ll ask, I guess you never know.