i did try water cooling for myself using a monsta 360 radiator, but for me it wasn't worth it. primarily because u have to purchase the replacement water block for the graphics card and sometimes even for the cpu cooler.

fan cooler is just simpler. My fractal torrent at the time was the best fan cooling case (was it for 2021?). Just works and less complication.

when i did a stress test my own pc desktop,  max 75.5C, with a min of 52c. I use a frzn A720 cpu cooler in addition to the fractal torrent case (not even using an exhaust fan. just the default fans from front and bottom).
here is for more budget conscious users


interesting 2025 roundup by gamers nexus (dont worry he mentioned some budget varieties)

for myself when i'm looking at a case, i want to also know how it compare to other cases for cooling. example, gamers nexus did a comparison for my case. also the noise comparisons between cases (usually with the stock cooler fans)

i replaced my cpu, cpu cooler, ram and motherboard. but i didnt replace my fractal torrent case cause in 2025 it's still brilliant 

500-1tb pricing not too bad. 2tb is somewhat ok. beyond that for m2 nvme e.g. 4tb is still premium  price.

for pricing, people either settle for gen3 or gen4 m2 nvme ssds. Gen4 run hotter than gen 3 fyi. And gen5 some reckon the speeds for these aren't really needed, so they drop back down to getting either a gen3 or gen4.

didnt search too hard but i saw this

ACER PREDATOR GM6 NVME M.2 PCIE 4.0 2tb listed for rm600
or alternatively the

ACER Predator GM7000 M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen 4x4 SSD with Heatsink (1TB/2TB/4TB/512GB) - 5 Years Warranty for RM669
doesnt seem to be on sale, so during a sale should be able to get it at even better prices.
for a typical pc, get a 2tb gen3 or gen4 m2 nvme ssd (ideally tlc) with a decent TBW.

then for storage get a HDD.

Done
pc game file sizes huge these days. so for boot drive and games i would recommend the 2tb.

for downloads use the cheaper hdd for bulk storage. ssd is for the OS, apps and games for latency and speed benefits for that application. Or if you have high speed broadband and you download a lot then ssd is a must.



in comparison, i saw this 8TB SSD

WESTERN DIGITAL WD BLACK SN850X 8TB NVMe INTERNAL SSD GAMING WITH HEATSINK - WDS800T2XHE

going for Rm 5.4k i DO NOT recommend buying it (unless you are rich then go ahead). too expensive, and it's a gen4 not gen5. not good value.
Dotatech is selling the 2tb version for this WD model for RM 919.00 which is a few hundred more than the Acer Predator GM6
when buying ssd pay attention to

- price
- capacity size (1-2tb though i recommend 2tb)
- gen (normally gen3 or gen4 is good enough. expected to pay more for gen5 but what do you get? nothing that would a big difference to you so why pay more for that)
- Sustained Write Performance and Cache Recovery (you can see how well it fares in sustained writes, whether it throttles or if there is some sort thermal issue during prolonged usage. This observation usually tells you if the ssd is any good or not).
- endurance TBW (this is how long your ssd will last. the bigger the TBW the better)
look for reviews that explain about the ssd u r lookin at, this one is good
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/acer-p...m7-ssd-review/2
i recommend this to get a rough idea of prices

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive
cheapest ssd by brand i saw was this

Silicon Power A60P34 (1TB/2TB) PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD Solid State Drives

RM467.50

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/silico...a60-m2-nvme-ssd

I'm not recommending this particular SP drive, because "Slow direct-to-TLC write speed " 

if you look around you may be able to find something that performs better with good tbw @ 2tb for rm500-600 i assume
for gen4 you can get between that and rm500-600. cheaper on sales (best time to buy)
SP i noticed pulled a bait and switch

it's not just SP, some other brands did it too, but the only reason i mentioned siliconpower since that one i know for sure. So even if the reviews say its good, you still need to search whether they pulled a bait and switch at some point, then the reviews becomes irrelevant.
dont bother with sata ssd they are already dated, especially when consider price, you can get a m2 nvme for similar or better. So UNLESS your machine is limited to saya, then dont get sata ssd. Last time for sata ssd i bought crucial MX500. Those were good ssds for that