7700k with Cooler Master N520?

Charlie28

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Oct 13, 2014
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I am being stubborn and don't want to upgrade my CPU cooler. I was hoping to OC to 4.8 ghz but would settle for less.

I am constructing a build that will ideally hold up through the years rather well.

I7 7700k
4x8gb Corsair Vengeance 3200 mhz
MSI M5 z270 gaming moboard
EVGA 750w G3 (I know it's overkill)
Samsung 850 evo SSD 250 gb
Cooler Master HAF X case

Planning to transfer HDDS and cpu fan. Final step is graphics card and I am hoping to get a gtx 1080 ti. Any thoughts and help are much appreciated.

 
Solution
no problem. for a 7700k id recommend either a large air cooler such as the cryroig r1 or noctua d15 or a quality 280mm aio such as the h115i or kraken x62. but just a heads up, even with improved cooling dont get your hopes up. 7700k temps can suck in general.

toxin9

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Apr 16, 2015
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from the looks of it it's a great cooler. the 7700k usually overclocks to about 5Ghz, so i imagine overcloking it on this cooler to 4.8 should be no problem. about installing it, make sure it's compatible with the socket. also, you can't lose anything by trying. if at any point you feel like it's too hot then turn the oc off or buy a liquid cooler. but IMO it's going to be completely fine. as for the case, i don't think you should get a full tower case especially at that price range. buying something like this https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139085 or fractal define s is more than enough.
also, about the RAM. are you sure you need 32Gb? for gaming the performance gap between 16gb and 32gb is really small.
 

Charlie28

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According to the Cooler Master website, it does fit even though it's about five years old. I really don't think I need 32 gigs of RAM or a 1080 ti but I am trying to build to never upgrade this machine. Regarding the case, I thought full towers were more efficient at cooling? Thank you for the response.
 

toxin9

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i don't really think full towers are more efficient at cooling. I'd go with a mid tower case like the fractal define s, that has plenty of space and many great features that you'll even be able to do custom liquid cooling if you want. also, i know you don't want to upgrade that pc for a long time. for that, the 1080ti is a great choice. but i don't really see people needing 32gb of ram even 10 years from now. and if they do, it's no problem to upgrade it at that time.
 

Charlie28

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Oct 13, 2014
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Update:

It seems that cooler is not a good idea for the 7700k. Idle temps are okay low-mid 30s. Under full load playing project cars, the temp shot up to 91. In Prime95 temps reached 93 Celsius after a few minutes of benchmarking before I pulled the plug. The mobo has the vcore set to 1.52 with no overclock which I think seems fine.

I think I'm going to order one of those Noctua air coolers that is constantly receiving high praise because I know I mounted the CPU fan correctly.
 

mrobscura

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first off, 1.52v is WAY too high, even people really pushing the cpu with no concern for longevity will only go to 1.5. and for everyday use, and still little concern for longevity, 1.4 is tops. 1.35 if you really want the cpu to last.

and that cooler is not a good idea with a 7700k. but with that said if at that ridiculous voltage and temps while high, not immediately resulting in throttling, you might have a really good chip. get a better cooler and see what kind of clocks you can get at much lower voltage.
 

Charlie28

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Thanks for the response.

in the MSI command center under advanced>voltage

CPU Core voltage - Auto 0.6000 There are + and - to adjust.

To the right of that it says Auto 1.5200 with and adjustable write in so I really don't know. I haven't changed anything.

 

mrobscura

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what stress test did you run? either way those volts/ temps are about what to expect with that cooler. youre not going to be able to oc with that cooler. well you could possibly activate multi core enhancement and get 4.5ghz on all cores, especially if you undervolt to get better thermals. most 7700ks can run a 4.5ghz at around 1.2-1.22v.
 

mrobscura

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no problem. for a 7700k id recommend either a large air cooler such as the cryroig r1 or noctua d15 or a quality 280mm aio such as the h115i or kraken x62. but just a heads up, even with improved cooling dont get your hopes up. 7700k temps can suck in general.
 
Solution

Charlie28

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Oct 13, 2014
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Well... sadly, you were right. After installing the Noctua NH-D15, I am still seeing temperatures over 80 within minutes of running prime95 blend test with no overclock. I'm not exceeding 90 anymore but still disappointed even though you told me not to get my hopes up.

My motherboard has an easy overclock to 4.8 option but when I tried to enable it, cpu-z shows that it is still maxing out at 4.5. Is it possible this is a bad chip or mobo? My gpu is an absolute beast and I couldn't be happier with its performance and cooling. The RAM has tested with no problems. This processor has kind of bummed me out though. I am not comfortable with these temps even without the overclock that I can't get to work anyway.

I'm mostly upset because I read the chipset is going to change upon next release and I will not be able to upgrade from my Kaby Lake processor.
 

mrobscura

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is it the most recent version of prime? because if so 80s aint that bad. i recently upgraded to a z270 board and a third 7700k hoping for better voltage/temps and with a h115i they still arent great.

though i can do 4.8ghz at 1.28v occt avx stable, much less voltage for non avx or less stressful tests, but temps can still spike to 90 under that load. ive just decided to stop stressing about it, it is what it is. its still a good cpu and its not like the occasional spike into the 80s, or even 90s, under heavy load is going to reduce the lifespan of the chip. it could probably run at 100% load 90 degrees non stop for years before dying.
 

Charlie28

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Oct 13, 2014
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It is the most recent version of prime and after working out some other issues I was having by doing a complete reinstall of Win 10, I am now seeing a max of 81 while testing. I am pretty happy because while gaming it isn't exceeding 70.

I don't think I will bother with an overclock. The turbo boost to 4.5 is good enough. I did get it to properly overclock to 4.8 but I had to disable XMP to make it work and the mobo forces cpu fan to 100% while in oc mode which I don't care to listen to. I agree with you about the temps. The cpu has a three year warranty and if it exceeds that, it probably will be stable for many more years.