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Need a new cooler for i5-4670k

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  • CPUs
  • Intel i5
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July 14, 2014 12:48:54 PM

Hello, I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
I bought an h60 CLC a few months ago and it worked great, but the pump broke. The stock cooler that came with my cpu is working fine for now, but its a taboo to use stock heatsinks on serious gaming rigs for obvious reasons. My budget is $80 max, hopefully won't be $80.
Also, sent Corsair a RMA request, I'll update the forum when they get back to me, but after experiencing how unreliable CLC's (atleast the h60) are I'm likely going with big air unless it's a really good quality and reliable CLC (don't want to do custom loop because I'm not planning to OC very high if at all). My case is a Thermaltake Armor Reve so just about anything will fit in it rad wise just as long it's not crazy big (almost everything I've seen would fit, but there are some that won't).
I've been looking for heatsinks both CLC and air for the last week and can't make my mind up. If Corsair sends me a new h60 I'll likely sell it, so that might up my budget, so feel free to suggest thing's a bit over $80, but nothing too serious because it's an h60, not going to go for much on ebay or wherever I sell it.
P.S. would you mind listing why your suggestion is good and it's flaws and all?


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks -wildi

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July 14, 2014 12:56:24 PM

wildernesshobo said:
Hello, I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
I bought an h60 CLC a few months ago and it worked great, but the pump broke. The stock cooler that came with my cpu is working fine for now, but its a taboo to use stock heatsinks on serious gaming rigs for obvious reasons. My budget is $80 max, hopefully won't be $80.
Also, sent Corsair a RMA request, I'll update the forum when they get back to me, but after experiencing how unreliable CLC's are I'm likely going with big air unless it's a really good quality and reliable CLC (don't want to do custom loop because I'm not planning to OC very high if at all). My case is a Thermaltake Armor Reve so just about anything will fit in it rad wise just as long it's not crazy big (almost everything I've seen would fit, but there are some that won't).
I've been looking for heatsinks both CLC and air for the last week and can't make my mind up. If Corsair sends me a new h60 I'll likely sell it, so that might up my budget, so feel free to suggest thing's a bit over $80, but nothing too serious because it's an h60, not going to go for much on ebay or wherever I sell it.
P.S. would you mind listing why your suggestion is good and it's flaws and all?


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks -wildi


Hey friend... Ive owned/used 3 CLCs in the past 5 years and havent had an issue with any of them. IMO, the best tower air coolers can never compete with CLC because of where the heat is dumped (inside the case). Add that to the space/dust concerns of large air coolers...I would look to replace your faulty H60 with another CLC.

If youre going air, nearly everyone insists on Noctua coolers.
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July 14, 2014 12:59:49 PM

I have built several rigs with CLCs - two with "stock" Intel CLCs, the PC I'm typing from with a Kraken (40?) and a Corsair (something or other) - the one I liked least was the Corsair. However, all of them are still working, and the oldest of them was done in 2011. No issues yet, and all are very quiet.

I don't see myself going back to blowing air over my CPUs.

I'm equally favorable o the Kraken and the Intel CLCs.

the case also looks a lot cleaner without the towering Heath Robinson-esque heatsink contraptions
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July 14, 2014 1:07:10 PM

Karsten75 said:
I have built several rigs with CLCs - two with "stock" Intel CLCs, the PC I'm typing from with a Kraken (40?) and a Corsair (something or other) - the one I liked least was the Corsair. However, all of them are still working, and the oldest of them was done in 2011. No issues yet, and all are very quiet.

I don't see myself going back to blowing air over my CPUs.

I'm equally favorable o the Kraken and the Intel CLCs.

the case also looks a lot cleaner without the towering Heath Robinson-esque heatsink contraptions


Fair point, thank you. Mind if I ask which Corsair you have installed?
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July 14, 2014 10:20:56 PM

So upon some further searching I've narrowed it down to four options, two air and two CLC.

Cheaper:

Cooler Master Seidon 240mm ($99.99). I've read that with some good fans it out performs the h100i and get's pretty close to the Kraken x60 but the pump is better than Corsairs pumps.
Panteks U-Type ($59.99) OR Thermaltake NiC C5 Untouchable ($49.99)

More Expensive:

Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme or Pro ($109.99/$94.99)
Noctua NH-D14 SE OR Noctua 6 Dual Heatpipe ($90.55/$95.12)

I'm still unsure which is better, as it's been said above not all CLC's are bad, but they're more expensive and if I'm not going to OC more than 4.0GHz then would I really see the extra money be put to use with a CLC? 3.4GHz on my i5 works for what I need it for, I'm comfortable playing all of my games at ultra with a good 60-100+ fps. However I may need to do some light OC'ing later on down the road when my chip starts to lag behind the newer generation games/chips. And as it's also been said (maybe not here, but in other places :3) that air coolers even high end air coolers lag behind CLC's when the cpu starts putting off some good heat. That may be so, but I don't usually play for more than a few hours and the most cpu intensive games I play right now are BF3 and Space Engineers, so really as I said above, would I actually see the extra money be put to use or would it just keep my idle temps down 5 or 6c?
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July 15, 2014 9:53:30 PM

Here's a good article for reference - it's a year and a half old, but still relevant:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h100i-elc240-seidon...

It's hard to beat the NH-D14 for performance or value, and Noctua's 6-year warranty and customer support are outstanding. Very, very few people have to RMA Noctua products, but when they do Noctua express ships replacements from Austria with no hassle, with delivery in about half the time it takes the Stateside manufacturers to cough up an RMA number.
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July 15, 2014 11:04:31 PM

volcanoscout said:
Here's a good article for reference - it's a year and a half old, but still relevant:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h100i-elc240-seidon...

It's hard to beat the NH-D14 for performance or value, and Noctua's 6-year warranty and customer support are outstanding. Very, very few people have to RMA Noctua products, but when they do Noctua express ships replacements from Austria with no hassle, with delivery in about half the time it takes the Stateside manufacturers to cough up an RMA number.


Thanks for the link, Noctua seems to be the way to go if you're looking to spend more than $60 on a air cooler hands down. Just how big is the actual NH-D14? I've seen pictures of it but they're all in monster cases and totally insane mobo's and it's just hard to tell how it would realistically look/fit in my case (Thermaltake Armor Reve). I have Gskill.Ripjaws RAM with the heatsinks on them, so they're tall but I read that someone had to take off the heatsinks because it wouldn't fit, and someone with the exact same RAM didn't have to because the heatsink cleared the RAM easily.

If I go air in the more expensive bracket I'll definitely go with the Noctua, but I don't know how it will fit, mind sharing your specs if you have the NH-D14? There's got to be someone using it with a practically sized case out there.
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July 16, 2014 5:34:43 AM

The D14 needs 160mm clearance. I've got one in a Fractal Define R4, which is specced for 170mm of cooler clearance without a side fan. Mine fit even with a side fan installed (140x140x25).

Yours is supposed to clear 175mm - I'm assuming that's without side fan, but looking at pictures, I'm guessing that the side fan sits low enough on the side panel that it wouldn't interfere with a 140mm. If you have a 200mm installed, it might not fit. Hopefully someone with the same setup will chime in.

As far as RAM clearance goes, I currently have Snipers which are taller than the Ripjaws. I had to unclip the 120mm push fan and slide it up the tower about a millimeter, but that's it.
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July 16, 2014 10:38:57 AM

volcanoscout said:
The D14 needs 160mm clearance. I've got one in a Fractal Define R4, which is specced for 170mm of cooler clearance without a side fan. Mine fit even with a side fan installed (140x140x25).

Yours is supposed to clear 175mm - I'm assuming that's without side fan, but looking at pictures, I'm guessing that the side fan sits low enough on the side panel that it wouldn't interfere with a 140mm. If you have a 200mm installed, it might not fit. Hopefully someone with the same setup will chime in.

As far as RAM clearance goes, I currently have Snipers which are taller than the Ripjaws. I had to unclip the 120mm push fan and slide it up the tower about a millimeter, but that's it.

Alright thanks man :)  I don't use a side fan because I've been taking off the side panel allot lately due to the h60 pump breaking and trouble shooting, so I figured it would be easiest not to use one, but I'll look into a good one if I go air to keep air movement in the case.

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July 16, 2014 11:34:51 AM

I doubt you'll need it - with decent intake in the front and exhaust in the back and/or top, the D14 helps the airflow nicely. I've got non-reference SLI 770s and haven't needed a side fan - even when benchmarking, the hotter card tops out at 68C. I took out the side fan and used it on another build.

Without a side fan, you should have plenty of clearance for a tower.
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July 17, 2014 7:18:40 PM

volcanoscout said:
I doubt you'll need it - with decent intake in the front and exhaust in the back and/or top, the D14 helps the airflow nicely. I've got non-reference SLI 770s and haven't needed a side fan - even when benchmarking, the hotter card tops out at 68C. I took out the side fan and used it on another build.

Without a side fan, you should have plenty of clearance for a tower.


Alright thanks :) 
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July 18, 2014 9:03:10 PM

volcanoscout said:
I doubt you'll need it - with decent intake in the front and exhaust in the back and/or top, the D14 helps the airflow nicely. I've got non-reference SLI 770s and haven't needed a side fan - even when benchmarking, the hotter card tops out at 68C. I took out the side fan and used it on another build.

Without a side fan, you should have plenty of clearance for a tower.


So I've been thinking hard about this, I've decided on the Thermaltake NiC c5 due to the fact that it's $40 cheaper than the Noctua and it keeps the CPU generally about the same temp. The heatsink isn't anywhere near the size of the Noctua so it's less likely to break my board if I bump the case (which I've seen people report this happening) and I have already some amazing 120's, I won't need to worry about space with RAM or side fan because it's considerably smaller.
Silence doesn't matter to me as long as it's not extremely loud. I live in Florida so I'm used to hearing fans all day.
Any opinion? Since you have the Noctua are there any points you can add or make as to why I should or should not go with the c5?
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July 18, 2014 9:52:43 PM

I haven't played with it, but it seems like a solid performer in most reviews, although they all seem to agree that to match coolers like the D14, it has to be on high and that it can be pretty noisy. It's nice that you don't have to worry about RAM clearance. I did find this review:

http://www.techspot.com/review/707-best-cpu-coolers/pag...
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July 18, 2014 10:44:09 PM

volcanoscout said:
I haven't played with it, but it seems like a solid performer in most reviews, although they all seem to agree that to match coolers like the D14, it has to be on high and that it can be pretty noisy. It's nice that you don't have to worry about RAM clearance. I did find this review:

http://www.techspot.com/review/707-best-cpu-coolers/pag...


Thanks, definitely changed my mind there, I'll keep thinking.

I'm thinking Noctua again. Kind of decided against CLC because all of the ones that I would feel comfortable with buying are no less than $120 where as NH-D14 is $90 when not on sale. More than I was looking at first to spend, but it looks like Noctua is going to be my new cooler. Maybe not the $90 one, but possibly if I get some more money to spend on coolers and such.
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July 18, 2014 11:44:17 PM

This might be a good source for considering alternatives: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6482/noctua-nh-d14-cp...

At the risk of sounding like a fan boy (pun intended), the only thing I would trade my D14 in for is a D15. Having read through umpteen million reviews, benchmarks, round-ups and head-to-head comparisons, my conclusion is that any high-end air cooler that can actually cool better than the D14 has some kind of glaring drawback that negates the 3C or 4C (if that) difference, and even those aren't much cheaper. The single exception, again in my opinion, is the D15. It's big, but so are most of it's credible competitors. It's expensive, but same deal. The worst thing you can say about it is that it's fans are beige and brown. (I happen to like the colors.)

To beat it decisively in cooling, you have to go liquid (not the cheap kits, either) and then you're still dealing with fan and pump noise, plus additional wiring, control and power issues. In another thread, another guy was asking about my Prime95 numbers - I'll paste them below and you can look them over if you're interested. I just ran them a couple of hours ago at my current 4.2GHz.

"I did a couple of fresh runs of small FFT because I can't find my notes from previous tests. The first run I let the software run the fans which kept the CPU fans at 40% and case fans at 60%, ambient is @ 21C, voltage is 1.20V, mobo starting temp 28C, CPU package 30C:
Max temps at 10 minutes: Core 0: 65 / Core 1: 67 / Core 2: 64 / Core 3: 64 / Package: 67
Max temps at 20 minutes: Core 0: 68 / Core 1: 70 / Core 2: 66 / Core 3: 64 / Package: 70

After that, I gave a minute to cool and started a fresh run with CPU start temp 32C and all fans maxed:
Max temps at 10 minutes: Core 0: 59 / Core 1: 62 / Core 2: 59 / Core 3: 57 / Package: 62

If you want, I can do additional runs at higher clocks."
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July 20, 2014 1:42:02 PM

volcanoscout said:
This might be a good source for considering alternatives: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6482/noctua-nh-d14-cp...

At the risk of sounding like a fan boy (pun intended), the only thing I would trade my D14 in for is a D15. Having read through umpteen million reviews, benchmarks, round-ups and head-to-head comparisons, my conclusion is that any high-end air cooler that can actually cool better than the D14 has some kind of glaring drawback that negates the 3C or 4C (if that) difference, and even those aren't much cheaper. The single exception, again in my opinion, is the D15. It's big, but so are most of it's credible competitors. It's expensive, but same deal. The worst thing you can say about it is that it's fans are beige and brown. (I happen to like the colors.)

To beat it decisively in cooling, you have to go liquid (not the cheap kits, either) and then you're still dealing with fan and pump noise, plus additional wiring, control and power issues. In another thread, another guy was asking about my Prime95 numbers - I'll paste them below and you can look them over if you're interested. I just ran them a couple of hours ago at my current 4.2GHz.

"I did a couple of fresh runs of small FFT because I can't find my notes from previous tests. The first run I let the software run the fans which kept the CPU fans at 40% and case fans at 60%, ambient is @ 21C, voltage is 1.20V, mobo starting temp 28C, CPU package 30C:
Max temps at 10 minutes: Core 0: 65 / Core 1: 67 / Core 2: 64 / Core 3: 64 / Package: 67
Max temps at 20 minutes: Core 0: 68 / Core 1: 70 / Core 2: 66 / Core 3: 64 / Package: 70

After that, I gave a minute to cool and started a fresh run with CPU start temp 32C and all fans maxed:
Max temps at 10 minutes: Core 0: 59 / Core 1: 62 / Core 2: 59 / Core 3: 57 / Package: 62

If you want, I can do additional runs at higher clocks."


Thanks for the links and advice, it's all helped. Corsair has approved the RMA request so I'll send out my H60 any day now. I was looking again at some of my old choices, and the Noctua 6 Dual Heatpipe Heatsink came up again (http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-Heatpipe-Bearing-Cooler-NH...) I've looked on various different websites at the reviews, and people are comparing it to the D14 and saying that they're the same in performance but this is cheaper. I'm not really a heatsink guy, so I don't know much about how they work besides the obvious, would you mind telling me what you think of it and how it compares spec wise to the D14? (The reason I say D14 is because the D15 is $100, more than I would want to spend on an air cooler -but thank you still for telling me about it)
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July 20, 2014 2:20:22 PM

That's actually the same thing, they just mangled the product description - instead of calling it the "Noctua 6 Dual Heat Pipe...D14", they should have put "Noctua D14, dual 6 heatpipe radiator design".
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July 20, 2014 8:51:38 PM

volcanoscout said:
That's actually the same thing, they just mangled the product description - instead of calling it the "Noctua 6 Dual Heat Pipe...D14", they should have put "Noctua D14, dual 6 heatpipe radiator design".


So it's the same thing but it's $10-$20 cheaper on sale? Nice :)  Ima get that one. Thanks man.
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July 20, 2014 9:54:41 PM

Awesome - post a pic when you get it set up.
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July 21, 2014 7:27:51 PM

volcanoscout said:
Awesome - post a pic when you get it set up.


Will do :)  don't know when I'll order it, hopefully by the end of the month, but I'll upload a picture when it's in :) 
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July 26, 2014 10:41:35 PM

volcanoscout said:
Awesome - post a pic when you get it set up.


Been about a week, and I've been thinking hard about this (mainly because I haven't gotten around to buying the D14 yet) and I've come to the conclusion to look again. I've found that on various credible websites that the Phanteks PH-TC14PE performs aswell if not a tiny, tiny (3-4C) bit hotter than the NH. It is cheaper, it is smaller, and nothing has suggested that my RAM won't fit. The Phanteks should -by the looks of it- perform better, same two 140mm fans vs. one 140 + one 120. Same radiator (it looks like it atleast) and same materials i.e. copper pipes/silver plated aluminum fins. The phanteks looks better spec wise, but you know more about it than I, do if you don't mind can you help me out some more? :ange: 

Sorry to continue to drag this thread on, but I need a more qualified opinion than mine. Phanteks or Noctua?

Phanteks: http://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Heat-pipes-Premium-Paten...
Noctua: http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-Heatpipe-Bearing-Cooler-NH...

Keep in mind price/performance, and I don't by any means mind the extra 3-4C if it will save me some money AND the biggest part is the stress on the mobo.
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July 27, 2014 4:49:14 AM

Try googling "phanteks ph-tc14pe_bk vs noctua nh-d14". Of the first five entries that came up when I did it, four of them are reviews by KitGuru, XBitlabs, Techpowerup, and Hardcoreware. The general conclusions, with some variations are that:
1. The Phanteks is actually larger than the D14. (Height for the Ph is either 165mm or 168mm, depending on whose numbers you go by. I didn't check the other dimensions, but I think those are larger also. It may be slightly lighter, but again it depends on whose numbers you use.)
2. The D14 at full speed is about as loud as the Ph at low speed.
3. The Ph requires more assembly, is finicky to mount, and the mount is not as good as D14.
4. The Ph comes pretty much barebones, with only one ULN adapter, a splitter, and a PWM adapter, for a grand savings of $4 over the D14.
5. The quality and finish aren't quite as good as the Noctua.

The performance graphs have quite a bit of variation because of the differences in testing setups, but it looks to me like the stock Ph has the advantage at lower speeds due to the dual 140mm fan, but not so much at the higher speeds. I didn't spend any time looking at RAM clearance, but one review clearly stated that you shouldn't plan to use RAM with tall heat spreaders. Since it's a very close copy of the D14 and has the additional hurdle of having a 140mm push fan, as opposed to the smaller 120mm, I wouldn't guess that it has much, if any, advantage with RAM clearance over the D14. I could be wrong.

The one clear advantage that I could see is that you can choose multiple color themes to match a themed build.

Edit: I should add that the Phanteks' ULN was not recommended for use because of the large temperature penalty.

If the additional height isn't an issue, I would go for the D15. It's slightly better than the D14 in performance, comes with the NF-A15 140mm PWM, has much better RAM clearance. More expensive though.
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July 27, 2014 8:06:32 PM


Wow I was off, my bad, need to stop writing at 3 am. Looks like I mixed the numbers up. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for not going off on my ass. And the price savings would be around $20, but it's also a pound heavier, don't know what I was seeing. Sorry again.


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July 27, 2014 9:06:12 PM

wildernesshobo said:

Wow I was off, my bad, need to stop writing at 3 am. Looks like I mixed the numbers up. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for not going off on my ass. And the price savings would be around $20, but it's also a pound heavier, don't know what I was seeing. Sorry again.




LOL - actually, going by the two Amazon links you posted, it's only a dollar - the Phanteks for $75, the Noctua for $76.

No sweat - if it wasn't for people like us obsessing over every little detail, the whole gaming PC market would collapse. I'm not allowed to spend any more money on my rig for a while, so I compensate by obsessing over your rig.
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July 27, 2014 10:00:21 PM

volcanoscout said:
13817963,0,1430095 said:


LOL - actually, going by the two Amazon links you posted, it's only a dollar - the Phanteks for $75, the Noctua for $76.

No sweat - if it wasn't for people like us obsessing over every little detail, the whole gaming PC market would collapse. I'm not allowed to spend any more money on my rig for a while, so I compensate by obsessing over your rig.
said:


Damn can't upvote here, thanks man xD The budget has been keeping me from making a decision, but as you said the Noctua is 76, so I should get it before it goes back to 95 :3 it's on sale.
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July 28, 2014 7:10:40 PM



I ordered the D-14 today, it should be here sometime this week :)  I'll upload pics when it's installed.
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August 6, 2014 9:26:07 PM

It arrived earlier today, it's keeping my cpu about 20C cooler on all games :D  after an hour and a half of BF3 ultra settings on a full 64 player server my cpu peaked at 58C, but it was averaging at about 45-54 :)  So happy, here are some pictures and thanks again man.

http://
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August 6, 2014 9:46:12 PM

Those temps are awesome and the rig looks boss! One thing you might try is rotate the fans so the cables come out next to the mobo, then tuck the slack though one of the rubber grommet-covered cable management cut-outs. That will put most of the cable out of the way behind the mobo tray.

Something else that may improve your CPU temps a little, and your case temps more, is to add an exhaust fan in the rear mount and flip the NF-P12 to the front of the cooler as a push fan. That will basically drill the CPU heat right out the back of the case and will help the airflow in the rest of the case. As it sits now, without a flush-mounted exhaust fan to "grab" the D14 exhaust and pull it out of the case, some of the hot air coming from the cooler is going to deflect back into the case instead of going out the rear grill. Or you could try rigging a shroud, but I think an exhaust fan will be easier and more effective.

Glad it's working so well for you :) 
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August 6, 2014 11:22:56 PM

volcanoscout said:
Those temps are awesome and the rig looks boss! One thing you might try is rotate the fans so the cables come out next to the mobo, then tuck the slack though one of the rubber grommet-covered cable management cut-outs. That will put most of the cable out of the way behind the mobo tray.

Something else that may improve your CPU temps a little, and your case temps more, is to add an exhaust fan in the rear mount and flip the NF-P12 to the front of the cooler as a push fan. That will basically drill the CPU heat right out the back of the case and will help the airflow in the rest of the case. As it sits now, without a flush-mounted exhaust fan to "grab" the D14 exhaust and pull it out of the case, some of the hot air coming from the cooler is going to deflect back into the case instead of going out the rear grill. Or you could try rigging a shroud, but I think an exhaust fan will be easier and more effective.

Glad it's working so well for you :) 


Thanks for the advice, but I tried for about an hour today to mount it in the best way possible while still maintaining cable management and that was the only setup that would work, I would need an 8 pin extender to be able to switch it. It's running under the middle fan right now between the heatplate and the bottom of the fan in order to reach the mobo plug on the other side of the case.
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August 7, 2014 5:57:17 AM

wildernesshobo said:
volcanoscout said:
Those temps are awesome and the rig looks boss! One thing you might try is rotate the fans so the cables come out next to the mobo, then tuck the slack though one of the rubber grommet-covered cable management cut-outs. That will put most of the cable out of the way behind the mobo tray.

Something else that may improve your CPU temps a little, and your case temps more, is to add an exhaust fan in the rear mount and flip the NF-P12 to the front of the cooler as a push fan. That will basically drill the CPU heat right out the back of the case and will help the airflow in the rest of the case. As it sits now, without a flush-mounted exhaust fan to "grab" the D14 exhaust and pull it out of the case, some of the hot air coming from the cooler is going to deflect back into the case instead of going out the rear grill. Or you could try rigging a shroud, but I think an exhaust fan will be easier and more effective.

Glad it's working so well for you :) 


Thanks for the advice, but I tried for about an hour today to mount it in the best way possible while still maintaining cable management and that was the only setup that would work, I would need an 8 pin extender to be able to switch it. It's running under the middle fan right now between the heatplate and the bottom of the fan in order to reach the mobo plug on the other side of the case.


I'm afraid you've lost me. Which headers are the fans plugged into?
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August 7, 2014 7:53:33 AM

Sean76 said:
Yeah all the all-in-one closed loop Corsair water coolers are GARBAGE.....The Hyper 212 Evo is the best air heatsink on the market currently. @4.6ghz on my Devils Canyon 4690k I have yet to see above 50C, on air cooling. Most people don't have a clue about air cooling solutions.....


Actually, the 212 usually won't make into the top 10 unless price or dbA are factored in. If your 50C is on AIDA64 or Prime95, then you've really scored in the silicon lottery as most people can't do that at stock clock settings.
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August 7, 2014 11:33:25 AM

Sean76 said:
The only type of cooling solution that will bring you into the top 10 would be Ln2


I'm not sure how we jumped from CLCs and HSFs to LN2. The Hyper 212 is a fine cooler and performs very well. In fact I have one sitting on my i5-4670K. It won't out-perform either a D14 or a D15 however, which is why my primary PC with a 4790K has a D14 on it.

There's nothing wrong with Corsairs' CLC performance when they're properly installed and in good working order. It's all of their other aspects (complexity, noise, build quality, etc.) that I don't like.
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August 7, 2014 4:31:28 PM

volcanoscout said:


I'm afraid you've lost me. Which headers are the fans plugged into?


My bad, one is in the top of the motherboard (right above the cpu), next to the heatsink and the rest are on various places on the board, but the round fan (not sure what model it is, the one in the middle) is hooked up right next to the heatsink, between the cpu and gpu. I have the 8-pin molex running under the fins of the D14.

I meant that I was trying to mount the D14 in the best way possible yesterday while still preserving cable management. I'd finally found a way I liked and was about to plug the 8-pin back in only to find out that the cable wasn't long enough to reach safely around the heatsink. I had it running over the pump on the H60 seeing as it was low profile, but it wouldn't reach around the video card and the D14 together, so I ran it around the gpu and through the cpu heatsink. Right under the middle fan. I know that's weird, but I don't need or want a new psu just because the 8-pin is a few inches too short.

Not entirely sure where I lost you, so hopefully that answered your questions :) 
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August 8, 2014 9:42:38 PM

Sean76 said:
I guarantee my air cooled solution will put 99% of the "all in one" closed loop liquid coolers to shame......like I said already, all CLC's are garbage for cooling.


Why post this here? Also, big air is as good as most of the high end clc's. Where the clc's really shine is with serious heat. What cooler do you use if it puts 99% of clc's to shame?
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August 9, 2014 6:10:00 AM

wildernesshobo said:
volcanoscout said:


I'm afraid you've lost me. Which headers are the fans plugged into?


My bad, one is in the top of the motherboard (right above the cpu), next to the heatsink and the rest are on various places on the board, but the round fan (not sure what model it is, the one in the middle) is hooked up right next to the heatsink, between the cpu and gpu. I have the 8-pin molex running under the fins of the D14.

I meant that I was trying to mount the D14 in the best way possible yesterday while still preserving cable management. I'd finally found a way I liked and was about to plug the 8-pin back in only to find out that the cable wasn't long enough to reach safely around the heatsink. I had it running over the pump on the H60 seeing as it was low profile, but it wouldn't reach around the video card and the D14 together, so I ran it around the gpu and through the cpu heatsink. Right under the middle fan. I know that's weird, but I don't need or want a new psu just because the 8-pin is a few inches too short.

Not entirely sure where I lost you, so hopefully that answered your questions :) 


You gotta do what you gotta do with the CPU power cable - I was just referring to the two HSF fan leads. I can't tell for sure what board you have (H87 Fatal1ty Performance?) but you should have one 4pin chassis fan header at the bottom of the board, two 3pin chassis fan headers at mid-board between your CPU and GPU, a 4pin and 3pin CPU fan header at the top of the board, and a PWR_FAN1 somewhere else. The PWR header doesn't usually get used, as it will report RPM but you can't control it - it runs 12V non-PWM full-time. The CPU fan headers are slaved together, so whatever settings you apply to CPU_FAN1 will be mirrored by CPU_FAN2.

The two CPU fans (the round 140mm is an NF-P14, small one NF-P12) should be plugged into the two CPU fan headers at the top of the board, either one to each header or both in CPU_FAN1 using the included splitter cable. They both have very low power draws, so doubling them up on the header is okay. They're both non-pwm so if your board doesn't auto-detect that, you may need to set the header for voltage control in you BIOS. Their max RPMs are 1200/1300, so even though you'll only get an RPM report from one of them using a splitter, they're close enough as to not matter.

With the fans themselves, they've got long leads that can get in the way. If you unclip the P14 and rotate it 180deg, the lead will come off the fan next to the mobo (as you're looking into the side of the case, that would be the top/back corner, or top/right if you're looking at from the front of the case), which means it will only need a couple of inches to reach the header. You can then tuck the slack through the nearest grommet on the mobo tray so it's out of the way. I can't tell where the lead is coming of the P12, but you'll want to set it up the same way. That may require shifting the mounting clips on the fan 90deg.

If you use the splitter to connect them to CPU_FAN1, set both fans the same way as I described above, but run both leads through the nearest grommet to the cable-management area on the back-side of the mobo tray. Connect them to the splitter, then run the splitter connector to the front-side of the mobo through the grommet nearest CPU-FAN1 and plug it in. There's more cable involved, but almost all of it is tucked out of sight and out of the way behind the mobo tray.

Both of the fans are designed for static-pressure, so using the P12 as a pull-fan on the back of the HSF isn't maximising it's capabilities. It may also be causing a slight buzz because there's no spacer to give it stand-off from the cooling fins. A better option is to mount it on the front of the HSF to push air through, rather than pulling from the backside. You may have to clip it higher on the tower to clear your RAM, but that's why they use a 120mm there instead of a 140mm. Then, if you can add a 140mm high airflow (or even one of the stock case fans) to the rear case fan mount, that will "grab" all the hot air being pushed through the HSF and exhaust it out the rear of the case.

All of this will get you better cable management, proper CPU fan control, and should gain at least a few C improvement for your CPU and for the case as a whole. If you've got a top/rear case fan mount, putting an exhaust fan there will help too.


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August 9, 2014 10:18:15 AM

Wow thanks for that.
The P12 is on the plastic spacers, the setup I've got is the only one I could fit it in unfortunately. Because you're right, the fan would be better pulling than pushing, but it's all I can do atm unless I think of something to fix it/reposition it.

The board I have is the Z87 Killer Fatal1ty (it says gaming on it, not performance) and the cpu fan headers are up top of the mobo by the dual 240 mount on the top of the case.
Turning the P14 wouldn't be an option because there's not much room in the grommet next to it to manage the cables, and the windows is currently facing a wall, so it's out of my sight i.e. don't care that I can see the cables too much.
I know, a contradiction, however I simply mean that that specific fan cable is wrapped around the fan so it fits perfectly in the header with very little slack in the cable while still allowing air flow. The rest of the cables are managed to the best of my ability allowing superb airflow. :) 
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