[Cathar]

This is an opinion that I read in a local paper magazine here in Australia.

Basically the supposition is that the mass-marketing of water-cooling amongst the well-known budget companies is actually doing more harm than good for the state of the water-cooling market.

With the availability of pre-packaged kits priced in the US$150-200 range that offer marginal, if any, performance or noise gains with respect to top-end air-cooling, the article argues that as the "masses" pick up this sort of stuff, they're left totally non-plussed and unconvinced about the whole water-cooling thing, and many are being disillusioned and telling their friends not to even bother.

When I look over at FutureMark or OC.com forums, I do see an increasing number of threads arguing that water-cooling simply isn't worth it, more often than not, citing the mediocre performance of various budget kits that some user has had an experience with, and from then on its basically a lost cause.

That air-cooling solutions have gotten better in the last two years there can be no doubt, but so has water-cooling. However, with the abandonment of the more basic water-cooling setups of two years ago, this has caused the budget water-cooling makers to step in and attempt to sell what are now uncompetitive solutions in comparison to air, driving the masses away.

Too often, so the article argues, we've seen pre-packaged or budget solutions that use too-weak low-quality low-lifetime pumps, budget tubing that ages badly, too-small or inefficient radiators that require screaming fans to offer any form of adequate cooling, with waterblock technology from the relative stone-ages of water-cooling, all mixed together and packaged nicely, but ultimately doing little better than what can be achieved with a heat-pipe heatsink and a medium-speed fan (and usually less noise for the HSF solution).

So what are your thoughts? Much like when buying tools, clothes, or various other items, there's "moderately priced and quality" which people overlook because of the higher price-tag, and then there's "cheap and nasty" but packaged nicely, which is what more people end up buying and experiencing. Has water-cooling's sales pitch towards the wider mass-market been poorly handled and represented by the budget kits? Given these difficulties, can water-cooling ever be cheap and quality?