Shopping for a good Heat Sink Fan.

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DV8Dangerzone

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Feb 16, 2014
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So I'm building my first custom gaming PC, and I'm going with the Asus Sabertooth Z87 motherboard and an i7-4770K CPU. My question is this: What would be more efficient, more affordable, easier to assemble, and overall just the better choice; a good heat sink fan, or a water cooling system for the CPU? Hope to hear a bit from each biased side so I can hear pro's and con's of each. Thanks!
 
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DV8Dangerzone

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Feb 16, 2014
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I don't plan on overclocking, but I'm planning on having this computer for quite a while, so I could end up wanting to overclock in the future. And my case is a Rosewill BLACKHAWK-ULTRA. (Keep in mind, deciding if a heatsink fan will cool it enough, I've also replaced the mesh side with a plexiglass window so there's just a bit less air flow than before.)
 
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DV8Dangerzone

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Well what exactly does overclocking entail? Is there somewhere I can read or watch videos about what overclocking is and how to do it and the benefits/setbacks of it?
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

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Apr 1, 2008
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Sure. There's an overclocking section of the forum that has stickies at the top with overclocking guides. A Google search on how to overclock your CPU or motherboard will return a ton of information. It's really not very hard, but it does take some time and an understanding of the different options in the BIOS and what they mean.
 
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DV8Dangerzone

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Feb 16, 2014
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So if I have any inkling of planning on overclocking in the future, would you suggest a liquid CPU cooler over a heat sink fan then?
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

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The cheap 120mm liquid coolers don't cool as well as a nice air cooler. You have to step up to the larger 240mm+ coolers for that. For a simple overclock an inexpensive air cooler will get you into the 4.2GHz - 4.4GHz range on your CPU. I'm using a Xigmatek Gaia with an extra fan in a push pull configuration. It keeps my overclocked i7-2600K (4.4GHz) running cool even with the fans set to silent mode through the motherboard BIOS. The i7-4770K runs hotter, but the Gaia will still work well with it.
 
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DV8Dangerzone

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Feb 16, 2014
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So let's just say for arguement's sake that I plan on overclocking my CPU eventually. The water cooler that someone else suggested me is here: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rln28l20pkr1

Would you say that this would work better than the Gaia? or would the gaia perform better still?

I would love to do a custom loop, but I really dont have the knowledge or money to this time around.
 
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DV8Dangerzone

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Feb 16, 2014
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Interesting, the guy who suggested that one to me said it was WHISPER quiet haha so how silent is the Gaia? is there a Db rating on it?
 
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b0w

b0w

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May 23, 2013
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In your case you won't have problems with any air cooler I think. Preferably a tower heatsink, since a downblower or a Genesis wouldn't like the closed window. Shortstuff is right, if you don't want to overclock, you wasted money for the "k" and the Z87 chipset. How much do you want to spend on the new cooler? It's better to know for a recommendation.
 
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