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[BEGINNER] Air vs. Liquid cooling, Which coolers to get?

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  • Overclocking
  • Water Cooling
  • Cooling
  • Corsair
  • Cooler Master
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July 23, 2014 12:04:56 PM

I'm thinking about buying an i5-4690K. I am wanting to overclock this CPU, but this is my first unlocked CPU, so I'm new to overclocking. Should I stick with a basic air cooler or go for a liquid cooling option?

For air coolers, I was looking at these:
- CM Hyper 212 EVO
- Noctua NH-D14

For liquid cooling I was looking at these:
- Corsair H100i / CM Seidon 240M
- Corsair H80i / CM Nepton 140XL

More about : beginner air liquid cooling coolers

a c 87 K Overclocking
July 23, 2014 1:32:26 PM

The 212 EVO is about all you need for all but the most sophisticated high-end OC'ing. It takes more than most 120mm liq coolers to match it. And those 240mm liq coolers get pretty expensive and take up a lot of real estate. If you plan on a simple multiplier increase type of overclock with a tweak to the vcore when needed, you won't need liq cooling. I have the 212 EVO on the rig in my sig and another machine (PhIIX4 @ 4GHZ) and they both run extremely cool at load.
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a b K Overclocking
July 23, 2014 3:10:57 PM

The Hyper 212 is an excellent cooler and gotta be the best in the world dollar for dollar but its not the best in terms of performance. The Noctua D14 or the new D15 are much better choices if youre wanting the maximum cooling. If youre just wanting a few MHz over stock then a Hyper 212 Evo will certainly be fine but if youre wanting to push your chip and get as much as you can then the more cooling horsepower you buy the better.

The AIO coolers will perform better than a heat sink like the D14 but itll be louder too. Heatsinks offer almost as much cooling but at much quieter levels. But thats not to say AIO coolers are loud. My H100 is usually very quiet. I run it on the medium fan setting and my temps stay in the low 40's to mid 30's while gaming and the fans dont really spin up that much and thats with a pretty hot running FX 8350 doing 4.8 GHz! But still, HSF's will generally run quieter not to mention theyre usually a little cheaper.

AIO coolers are also much smaller and wont eat up near as much room inside your case, wont block half your RAM slots and some heatsinks like one from Phanteks actually block a PCIE slot! And if you move your PC around a lot there is also a concern of having a big chunk of metal hanging off your motherboard. I move mine a lot carrying it upstairs to tinker with it or clean it or whatever and so I dont like the thought of a heavy cooler being supported by my precious motherboard.

But bottom line is both high end AIO's and HSF's are excellent performers and each have a couple trade offs. Cant really go wrong with either IMO.

As to which one Id pick from your list, I have to go H100. Mine's been awesome and if it can handle my chip at its speed, itll handle just about anything this side of a $300 custom loop. If youre concerned about pump noise (mine has none but there are some that do) or just like the simplicity of a HSF, the Noctua D14 (or the better performing D15) would be my choice.
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July 23, 2014 3:34:20 PM

axe1592 said:
The Hyper 212 is an excellent cooler and gotta be the best in the world dollar for dollar but its not the best in terms of performance. The Noctua D14 or the new D15 are much better choices if youre wanting the maximum cooling. If youre just wanting a few MHz over stock then a Hyper 212 Evo will certainly be fine but if youre wanting to push your chip and get as much as you can then the more cooling horsepower you buy the better.

The AIO coolers will perform better than a heat sink like the D14 but itll be louder too. Heatsinks offer almost as much cooling but at much quieter levels. But thats not to say AIO coolers are loud. My H100 is usually very quiet. I run it on the medium fan setting and my temps stay in the low 40's to mid 30's while gaming and the fans dont really spin up that much and thats with a pretty hot running FX 8350 doing 4.8 GHz! But still, HSF's will generally run quieter not to mention theyre usually a little cheaper.

AIO coolers are also much smaller and wont eat up near as much room inside your case, wont block half your RAM slots and some heatsinks like one from Phanteks actually block a PCIE slot! And if you move your PC around a lot there is also a concern of having a big chunk of metal hanging off your motherboard. I move mine a lot carrying it upstairs to tinker with it or clean it or whatever and so I dont like the thought of a heavy cooler being supported by my precious motherboard.

But bottom line is both high end AIO's and HSF's are excellent performers and each have a couple trade offs. Cant really go wrong with either IMO.

As to which one Id pick from your list, I have to go H100. Mine's been awesome and if it can handle my chip at its speed, itll handle just about anything this side of a $300 custom loop. If youre concerned about pump noise (mine has none but there are some that do) or just like the simplicity of a HSF, the Noctua D14 (or the better performing D15) would be my choice.


If I go with the H100i, should I switch out the fans for something like the Noctua NF-F12?
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a b K Overclocking
July 23, 2014 9:04:01 PM

You can but I wouldnt. The stock fans are actually a very good mix of performance and noise. Besides, if a H100 with stock fans is enough to cool my heat generating monster 8350 at 4.8 GHz, then itll be more than enough to handle your i3. ;) 
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a c 414 K Overclocking
July 23, 2014 9:52:52 PM

Noctua NH-D14
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July 23, 2014 10:39:04 PM

SR-71 Blackbird said:
Noctua NH-D14


i'm second this ... because i have 212evo and i don't like it when the cooler can move few degree on it axis ... thinking of changing cooler even those it doing great on temp .. 4790k OC 4.5 = 83 max
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a c 244 K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 2:00:03 AM

Electrolyzed said:
axe1592 said:
The Hyper 212 is an excellent cooler and gotta be the best in the world dollar for dollar but its not the best in terms of performance. The Noctua D14 or the new D15 are much better choices if youre wanting the maximum cooling. If youre just wanting a few MHz over stock then a Hyper 212 Evo will certainly be fine but if youre wanting to push your chip and get as much as you can then the more cooling horsepower you buy the better.

The AIO coolers will perform better than a heat sink like the D14 but itll be louder too. Heatsinks offer almost as much cooling but at much quieter levels. But thats not to say AIO coolers are loud. My H100 is usually very quiet. I run it on the medium fan setting and my temps stay in the low 40's to mid 30's while gaming and the fans dont really spin up that much and thats with a pretty hot running FX 8350 doing 4.8 GHz! But still, HSF's will generally run quieter not to mention theyre usually a little cheaper.

AIO coolers are also much smaller and wont eat up near as much room inside your case, wont block half your RAM slots and some heatsinks like one from Phanteks actually block a PCIE slot! And if you move your PC around a lot there is also a concern of having a big chunk of metal hanging off your motherboard. I move mine a lot carrying it upstairs to tinker with it or clean it or whatever and so I dont like the thought of a heavy cooler being supported by my precious motherboard.

But bottom line is both high end AIO's and HSF's are excellent performers and each have a couple trade offs. Cant really go wrong with either IMO.

As to which one Id pick from your list, I have to go H100. Mine's been awesome and if it can handle my chip at its speed, itll handle just about anything this side of a $300 custom loop. If youre concerned about pump noise (mine has none but there are some that do) or just like the simplicity of a HSF, the Noctua D14 (or the better performing D15) would be my choice.


If I go with the H100i, should I switch out the fans for something like the Noctua NF-F12?


http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2196038/air-cooling-water-cooling-things.html

Seeing as how you are new to an unlocked multiplier CPU and overclocking take the time to read this so you can get some cooling knowledge under your belt.

Being new to overclocking you really do not know yet how far you intend to push the i5-4690K, and how far you want to overclock has everything to do with the cooling you opt for.

Being new would normally put you way on the cautious side, but I've seen some that took to overclocking like a duck to water?

So until you step into that territory, learn what you need to know first, even regarding the cooling itself.



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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 3:04:00 AM

NH-D15 is the latest cooler by Noctua but quite expensive compared to the D14, the 212 EVO or if you like the 212X, that is all you really need.

The best extreme-end air cooler would be the Thermalright SilverArrow SB-E Extreme, but noise is of a much higher factor compared to the Noctua's. that said it only performs 1 degree cooler compared to the D15 on this review;

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2014/05/01/noc...

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a b K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 11:14:03 AM

the NH14 is only like 2c worst then the h100i so i would go air cooled you'll save a little bit also, unless neweggs or someone has a refurbished watercooler
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July 24, 2014 2:07:00 PM

zachparr2442 said:
the NH14 is only like 2c worst then the h100i so i would go air cooled you'll save a little bit also, unless neweggs or someone has a refurbished watercooler


just order NH D14 at newegg ... $75.24 in clude tax and free shipping ( special promocode ) and will get it tomorrow.
I guess I live close to their warerhouse ... :) 
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a c 414 K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 2:07:26 PM

NH D13 ?
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July 24, 2014 2:09:04 PM

typo,, sorry .. fix already
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a b K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 2:13:56 PM

one thing you should have look at before you bought it is going to fit in your case its a pretty taller cooler thats why some people just use the h100s
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July 24, 2014 2:23:19 PM

i have antec 1200 case ... also the 212 evo fit no problem ... but i did check carefully because the NH-D14 is deeper ... 158mm compare to 80mm on 212 evo .. i also have low profile Ram
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a c 414 K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 2:25:14 PM

Noctua D-14 is 160mm with fan

212 EVO is 159mm
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July 24, 2014 2:33:10 PM

SR-71 Blackbird said:
Noctua D-14 is 160mm with fan

212 EVO is 159mm


no .. that the height.
the depth is 50mm with out.. and 80 with fan
and NH-D14 is 158 with fan ... so basically a square can fit going up or to the back the same :) 
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a b K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 2:35:38 PM

you'll be fine yo have a big ass case if anything leave the side panel off better cooling anyways
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July 24, 2014 2:40:49 PM

actually the way my set up is .... with the side on ... i have better cooling. and also have positive air ... little dust
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a c 414 K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 2:42:42 PM

Here's my BIG Air Setup.



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July 24, 2014 2:57:10 PM

nice ... very nice ... i was going with the NH-D15 ... but the height is 165mm and that would touch my side panel.
beside D14 is $25 cheaper and only 2-3 degree hotter than the new NH-D15
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a c 414 K Overclocking
July 24, 2014 2:58:15 PM

Thanks, I have D-14 also and a Phanteks PH-TC14PE
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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 25, 2014 3:37:46 AM

Heres my new big air setup; (Modded NH-D14 SE2011)

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July 25, 2014 4:00:36 AM

ic .. you push up and not to the back ... maybe i will add another fan to it.. thanks for the pict
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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 25, 2014 4:02:52 AM

hot air rises so i find taking air up instead of moving it sideways to the back is the best and more logical reasoning. Ask Noctua for the 3rd fan mounting kit and they'll send you the clips/plastic risers (to keep fan from touching heatsink) to you you free of charge.
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July 25, 2014 4:19:35 AM

i have the antec 1200 ... and right at the cooler i have a fan blow right on it. one of the cage for hard drive i use 2 fan 1 pull air from out side and the other one blow right at the Ram and cooler. have positive air flow in my case.. but every few month still have to blow the dirt out.
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a c 244 K Overclocking
July 25, 2014 4:22:01 AM

unknownofprob said:
hot air rises so i find taking air up instead of moving it sideways to the back is the best and more logical reasoning. Ask Noctua for the 3rd fan mounting kit and they'll send you the clips/plastic risers (to keep fan from touching heatsink) to you you free of charge.


The only problems I see with that mounting solution, is the graphics card is partially obstructing the fan intake, and the heat from the graphics card is being pulled into the CPU heat sink.

The front to rear is an advantage if you can clear an intake path directly in front of the CPU cooler, creating a tunnel air flow effect, and it's benefits also cool the system memory modules, and motherboard VRs, and exhaust the heat very efficiently out of the rear of the case.

I conducted many airflow experiments when I was air cooling and this setup getting fresh outside air directly ported to the heat sink intake was the best cooling performance vs the vertical setup.







A front to rear straight airflow path is the best cooling option, and then the blowholes on top exhaust what heat is left.

Those fans on the Noctua are 120mm 1900rpm Scythe 110cfm Slipstream fans, which cooled much better than the fans that came with the Noctua, and looked better as well, but that's totally my opinion on the fan looks, I just don't like the Tan colored Noctua fans.



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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 25, 2014 4:23:50 AM

Godto said:
i have the antec 1200 ... and right at the cooler i have a fan blow right on it. one of the cage for hard drive i use 2 fan 1 pull air from out side and the other one blow right at the Ram and cooler. have positive air flow in my case.. but every few month still have to blow the dirt out.


I have two megaflow 200mm's at the top sucking out a tremendous amount of air, and same sort of thing you have which pushes cool air right through the heatsink and a fan at back which sucks air out which helped temps even further. A simple way to get fans where there are no mounting spots is to just use cable ties.
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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 25, 2014 4:25:10 AM

4Ryan6 said:
unknownofprob said:
hot air rises so i find taking air up instead of moving it sideways to the back is the best and more logical reasoning. Ask Noctua for the 3rd fan mounting kit and they'll send you the clips/plastic risers (to keep fan from touching heatsink) to you you free of charge.


The only problems I see with that mounting solution, is the graphics card is partially obstructing the fan intake, and the heat from the graphics card is being pulled into the CPU heat sink.

The front to rear is an advantage if you can clear an intake path directly in front of the CPU cooler, creating a tunnel air flow effect, and it's benefits also cool the system memory modules, and motherboard VRs, and exhaust the heat very efficiently out of the rear of the case.



yeah, that is the one major drawback, so I added a megaflow 200 to the side to ease that. I am considering moving the graphics card down a few more slots.
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July 25, 2014 5:00:07 AM

damn those Slipstream fan are great .. but 2 of them cost more than my cooler ... hehehe $37 a piece at newegg.. cooler just cost me $75 include tax.

and my set up where your round tube ... i have 2 fan .. i in front and back of it .. but my is square

just a stock antec fan .. but when it for i can turn on high .. normal it on medium and very quiet
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a c 244 K Overclocking
July 25, 2014 5:17:34 AM

Godto said:
damn those Slipstream fan are great .. but 2 of them cost more than my cooler ... hehehe $37 a piece at newegg.. cooler just cost me $75 include tax.

and my set up where your round tube ... i have 2 fan .. i in front and back of it .. but my is square

just a stock antec fan .. but when it for i can turn on high .. normal it on medium and very quiet


The Scythe Slipstreams were $9.95 when I bought them but that was 3 years ago, and I'm not sure you can still get the 1900rpm 110cfm fans anymore?

The nice thing about the Slipstreams was the high cfm and the very tolerable noise level.

Many cases come with the square 3 drive carriages fitted for fans, and they are very convenient for an airflow tunnel setup.

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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 25, 2014 10:01:59 PM

I actually moved my R9 290X down to the 3rd slot, and the gap between the cooler and GPU is around 7cm, actually did a major improvement. Thanks for the hint 4Ryan6.

I have also considered more 'extreme' options, like adding another fan to the bottom which in theory would force even more air through the heatsink, making a sort of wind tunnel action. Only issue for me would be weight.
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a c 244 K Overclocking
July 26, 2014 1:19:51 AM

unknownofprob said:
I actually moved my R9 290X down to the 3rd slot, and the gap between the cooler and GPU is around 7cm, actually did a major improvement. Thanks for the hint 4Ryan6.

I have also considered more 'extreme' options, like adding another fan to the bottom which in theory would force even more air through the heatsink, making a sort of wind tunnel action. Only issue for me would be weight.


You already have 3 fans on it, another one won't make any difference.

Why don't you consider going to matched speed higher cfm 120mm fans?

110cfm Cooljag Everflow, nice quality cooling fan very powerful I have one myself.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5879/fan-294/Cooljag_Everflow_120mm_x_25mm_9-Blade_PWM_Fan_R121225BU.html?tl=g36c15s60

116.5cfm Scythe Gentle Typhoon, now it's getting serious!

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12364/fan-810/Scythe_...

Or just go for it and use just one of these in the center position 150cfm, you might have to bolt down the case though! :) 

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12944/fan-858/Sunon_120mm_x_25mm_Precision_Ball_Bearing_Fan_-1500_CFM_PMD1212PTB1-A.html?tl=g36c15s60

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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 26, 2014 1:26:40 AM

That's what I am considering down the track, though I saw some review a while ago with 5 fans on the noctua, with an even better improvement in temperature.

The user had the three similar to how i did it (not noctua Fans), but added another two to the front, resulting in an effect of more air being pushed through the heatsink.
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a c 244 K Overclocking
July 26, 2014 1:51:24 AM

I just added some fan considerations check them out?
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July 26, 2014 2:49:40 AM

have to consider the weight of the extra fan too ... also will need to setup some kind of support for it. if not it bee too much of a stress on MB because of balance too
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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 26, 2014 3:00:37 AM

4Ryan6 said:
I just added some fan considerations check them out?


great picking out of fans, I may get some of them. Thanks for the links.

4250RPM for a 120mmm fan, noise may be intolerant (44DBA).
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a c 244 K Overclocking
July 26, 2014 3:20:53 AM

Two of the Cooljags 110cfm would be just fine, and you will be surprised at the cooling performance difference.
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a c 133 K Overclocking
July 26, 2014 3:22:50 AM

4Ryan6 said:
Two of the Cooljags 110cfm would be just fine, and you will be surprised at the cooling performance difference.


same amount as airflow as my Megaflows from a 120mm fan!

I'll see what i can find over here in AUS.
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!