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There are different ways to go about cooling, each one has it own pros and cons. Watercooling is relatively expensive, at least at first sight, furthermore, it carries with it an increased weight of the setup. With 40 lbs including the coolant, the Q Power setup is not exactly the heaviest player in the field but it is certainly not something to carry around to LAN parties all the same. The strength of the setup is twofold:

First, it provides an incredibly stable environment for even the most powerful CPU with the highest possible heat dissipation. This also includes the fact that the setup is relatively insensitive towards fluctuations in ambient temperature.

Second, where other, high-power air cooling systems are exceeding the noise level of windtunnels and approaching the sound effects of a circular saw, the overall sound level of the entire setup is with approximately 34 dBA extremely low. This does not even take into account the low hum of the noise, meaning that instead of a screaming high pitch, the background noise is something that falls into the frequency range translated relatively poorly into actual hearing by the human ear.

All in all, US$ 399 for the complete setup appears a hefty investment at first, however, considering that a case of similar dimension and equipment already runs close to $200 and even a high quality air cooler will set you back about $50-80, the delta of $150 is not as bad as one might think first. In the long run, the low noise will more than likely compensate for the price delta and for the overclocker, the extra MHz will be an additional incentive.

It is hard to make a recommendation here, personally I love this setup and would recommend it to anyone who wants optimal performance and low noise. Moreover, aside from a NIC, there is no other component blessed with the longevity of a good case and over an estimated live span of 5-10 years, the price overhead comes down to pennies / month.

Still, there is the initial cash layout and that is somewhat hefty. But then again, this is not a short term investment but a solid piece of equipment suited to even house an enterprise server and it won't depreciate over time either. To complete the picture, I do know quite a few people trying to achieve better cooling and higher oc results almost on a monthly basis. If you sum up the amount of money spent on new coolers and the loss of the handed down equipment, it appears reasonable to assume that, within one year, a water-cooled setup will have amortized itself.

To conclude, if you have extra cash and think about upgrading your system to a high performance setup and if you are further living in a geographical location blessed with elevated temperatures during the warm months of the year, the Q Power may be just what you are looking for. If you are further limited in space and don't want a screaming fan in your one-bedroom apartment, you might feel compelled even stronger to look at this setup. Again, personally, I love the Q Power but like with all good things, anyone who does not appreciate quality craftmanship and goes for the flash and dance only might want to look somewhere else.

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