Time for a PC Upgrade

[Drarok]

This review would suggest that it is only slightly slower on write speeds and faster on everything else. https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews ... ce-value/2

That review is the 4.0 (SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-1TB) which is a lot better. You linked the original (SB-ROCKET-1TB) in your purchase post.
Compare the two here.

tldr: normal people won't notice a bit of a difference.

And what exactly is a "normal" person?

[Alan]

Not you

[DjchunKfunK]

I didn't link the SSD. But yeah different product.

[Drarok]

I didn't link the SSD. But yeah different product.

D'oh, assumed you were the buyer, when it was @Lee. My bad!

[Raid]

So I'm preparing to put down the money for a 3080, but because of the heat issues that we discussed earlier in the thread (and the fact that there'll be at least some heat being redistributed into the case environment which my current one doesn't do), I clearly need to get some more airflow. Firstly, as someone to whom fan noise is a concern, are there any particular case fans you could recommend? I'm going to be on something of a budget, so I can't just buy six 140mm fancy schmancy magnetic bearing fans.

Secondly; airflow. I have an NZXT H440 case, which has space for 3 fans on the front, 1 on the rear, and 3 on the top. There is no airflow from the bottom of the case as that's an enclosed PSU section. At the moment I have two fans on the front blowing in, one on the rear blowing out, and the AIO for my GPU exhausts out of the top. I have AMD's Ryzen Wraith Prism CPU cooler mounted so that airflow passes through the fins from front to rear. I believe the cooler fan blows air towards the CPU. I will be hoping to buy NVidia's own RTX3080 card that has two coolers; one that exhausts out of the rear panel and another that will blow air upwards, which will exhaust right next to the CPU cooler, and then with the current layout this hot air would pass through the CPU cooler.

What's going to be the best layout for airflow? I suspect I have the optimum direction for airflow, as there's only space for one fan on the rear plate which would be directly above the GPU exhaust anyway. Am I better off adding exhaust fans along the top of the case, or is that just going to take airflow away from the CPU cooler?

[DjchunKfunK]

These are some of the best around.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KF7R49S? ... onelink-21

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00650P2ZC?tag=ukpcgb-21

As for air flow, in the front and out the back is generally the best way to maximise cooling. Are you sure the 3080 will expel air towards the CPU? Usually GPU fans point down towards the bottom of the case.

[Mantis]

I've always used the top fans facing outwards too. If you can get a case with underside fan slots then it just feels more balanced to have air flow in front/underside and out back/top.

[Hatredsheart]

These are some of the best around.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KF7R49S? ... onelink-21

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00650P2ZC?tag=ukpcgb-21

As for air flow, in the front and out the back is generally the best way to maximise cooling. Are you sure the 3080 will expel air towards the CPU? Usually GPU fans point down towards the bottom of the case.

On the founders edition one fan blows air out the back, the other blows it straight up where it could be caught by the cpu cooler.
https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/a- ... 1600199108

[Raid]

So by the airflow diagram in that link, perhaps it would be a good idea to stick a pair of fans on the top of the case exhausting outwards; one in the top-middle and another in the top-rear. I think I need to stick an extra fan in the front too, as at the moment I think the airflow from one of my two front fans will be consumed entirely by the GPU AIO, meaning I only have one other fan supplying fresh air into the case.

The plan was always to aim to get an AIO water cooler for the CPU, I just couldn't afford it at the time I bought the processor. This would solve the problem, but it's not going to be something I can afford at the same time. That would solve the issue of the GPU exhausting upwards as the CPU heat source is effectively moved to the top-front slot and exhausted immediately.

[Rossell]

What is water cooling like these days? I've always been put off it because of the early days and stories about stuff getting fried. But the custom pc builders I look at seem to be bumming it big time.

[Hatredsheart]

What is water cooling like these days? I've always been put off it because of the early days and stories about stuff getting fried. But the custom pc builders I look at seem to be bumming it big time.

The custom boys are all hard and soft tubing and custom loops.Most worry-free way seems to be to just get an aio water cooler from a reputable brand.
I've been tempted but I've always been put off by the old adage that water and electricity don't mix, and given that the only big advantage over my big air cooler would be aesthetics (and the big price difference) I've never succumbed.

[DjchunKfunK]

Leaks wise it is fine but you obviously have an extra point of failure because of the pump. Performance wise there isn't a massive amount in it if you are using a good air cooler, same goes for the noise. As Hatredsheart said the major benefit of them for people is that you don't have a giant fan sitting in your case so things look less cluttered.

[Drarok]

I'm surprised by the noise comments – when I moved to an AIO I definitely noticed it was quieter, but that was on my previous build many years back, so perhaps air coolers have gotten so massive now they can use the same slow-turning huge fans?

I'm on my second AIO-cooled build now and not had a single issue in either. Many many years ago I ran a custom watercooled setup which failed (burst a tube), and the PC powered down (I assume due to heat). Dried it out, replaced the burst tube and it carried on working again for years. The trick is to never fill them with conductive stuff! Distilled water with a little additive to kill anything trying to grow in it was the recommendation back then, but I have no idea what's inside these AIO jobbies.

[DjchunKfunK]

I'm surprised by the noise comments – when I moved to an AIO I definitely noticed it was quieter, but that was on my previous build many years back, so perhaps air coolers have gotten so massive now they can use the same slow-turning huge fans?

I'm on my second AIO-cooled build now and not had a single issue in either. Many many years ago I ran a custom watercooled setup which failed (burst a tube), and the PC powered down (I assume due to heat). Dried it out, replaced the burst tube and it carried on working again for years. The trick is to never fill them with conductive stuff! Distilled water with a little additive to kill anything trying to grow in it was the recommendation back then, but I have no idea what's inside these AIO jobbies.

It is a surprise but I think fans on air coolers have just got a lot better.

[Raid]

I've never had a single issue with my Fury X AIO, nor the one I had on my old Intel CPU. Both of them were/are 5 years old by this point. That being said, having moved from a CPU AIO to a standard heatsink/fan arrangement, I can't say the noise increase has been hugely noticeable.

The 3080 release has been a shitshow of no stock. I'm only really interested in Nvidia's own founders edition card as it's fairly obvious that third parties are just sticking on the same coolers they used for the 20 series cards. Either Nvidia had barely any stock produced, or bots immediately bought the lot. I never even got to see a "Buy Now" button and I was waiting at the 2pm release time. Everyone on Reddit seemingly had the same issue, and not just in the UK. Cards are already selling for £900 on ebay.