CPU Cooler Upgrade?

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M05K The Laden

M05K The Laden

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Hello! Ill buy an i7 7700k and the cooler I have is an hyper x evo from coolermaster. I pretend to do overclock, is it better to upgrade to a corsair h80i?
 
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synphul
For the 7700k and overclocking I'd personally go with a better cooler than a 212 evo. Prime 95 version 26.6 small fft's is an ok test to run, it does push the cpu a bit harder than 'typical' programs like games but that's sort of the point. You want to see that the cooling can keep up in a worst case scenario rather than worry when you go from light activities like web browsing to hours of video encoding that the cpu may overheat then.

Hard to recommend a cooler without knowing the budget and what's available. Cryorig makes some solid coolers with the h7 and h5 universal but they're not always available in all parts of the world. The scythe mugen 5 would be a good option, so would the cryorig r1 universal. Larger coolers require wider...
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geofelt

geofelt

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Try your cooler first.
The 7700K runs really well at stock, any oc you get will be a plus.
If your case has a good source of intake air, a simple air cooler will do the job.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Certainly.
If you overclock, it is the vcore that drives up the temperature.
For a stress test try to limit the temperature to 85c.
Use a stress other than prime95 which uses AVX instructions.
AVX for some reason increases the temperature unusually high.
 
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synphul

synphul

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For the 7700k and overclocking I'd personally go with a better cooler than a 212 evo. Prime 95 version 26.6 small fft's is an ok test to run, it does push the cpu a bit harder than 'typical' programs like games but that's sort of the point. You want to see that the cooling can keep up in a worst case scenario rather than worry when you go from light activities like web browsing to hours of video encoding that the cpu may overheat then.

Hard to recommend a cooler without knowing the budget and what's available. Cryorig makes some solid coolers with the h7 and h5 universal but they're not always available in all parts of the world. The scythe mugen 5 would be a good option, so would the cryorig r1 universal. Larger coolers require wider cases though, no guarantee that any cooler will fit an unknown case.

The 212 evo is fine for stock cooling most likely, for overclocking on a high clocked i7 as well as overclocking it? It depends how far you overclock. I've got a 4th gen i5 4690k that won't likely reach the overclocks I've got on it with a 212 evo, much less an i7. Hyper threading tends to cause higher temps, it keeps the cores busier than an i5 without ht.

The i5 I have with a 212 evo only has a mild overclock. It's an ok low budget cooler, does well for what it is. It only has a single fan and 4 heat pipes with a tdp rating suggesting 180w max of heat. Compared to a larger air cooler like a dark rock pro 3 that has more cooling fins, two fans, 7 heat pipes and a tdp rating of 250w. Big difference and much higher heat dissipation for higher overclocks.
 
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synphul

synphul

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I'd consider the 212 evo to be a bit on the smaller side for oc'ing an i7, not likely to get very far. Personally for any real overclocking gains I'd consider at least a medium to large sized air cooler with the following considerations -

1. Price and availability (if you're on a budget)

2. What size is your case, not all cases are wide enough to fit taller air coolers. Usually this can be found by searching the case name and cooler height, for example if you had a corsair 200r case try searching 'corsair 200r cpu cooler height' and it should return results listing specs from various review pages indicating 'max cpu cooler height for this case is up to 160mm'. Then if the cooler you're considering is 164mm tall you'll know it probably won't fit that case.

3. Ram clearance. Larger air coolers can have a tendency to extend over the ram slots, ram with tall heat spreaders or heat fins with led lights and such may be too tall for a particular cooler. As an example the noctua nh-d14 and d15, the dark rock pro 3 and others extend over the ram. Lower profile ram needs to be used.

Alternatively there are a few larger air coolers like the cryorig r1 universal which are designed so there's no ram interference at all. The cooling pipes and fins are all angled away from the memory slots. The same with the nh-d15s, the cooler was shifted away from the ram and video card and it uses a single fan so it doesn't interfere with ram.

Going by those things it will help sort out a cooler that fits your particular case and memory so you don't end up with a cooler that won't work for you.
 
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M05K The Laden

M05K The Laden

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My case is an Zalman Z11. I'll get a MSI Tomahawnk board and Gskill Trident Z LED RAM's, I'm thinking on getting cryorig one the H5 or H7, I saw theres no much difference on cooling perfomance between those two. Which one should I get if there's any difference in your opinion?


Thanks
 
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synphul

synphul

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The h5 cools slightly better by a few degrees and the noise levels are slightly less than the h7 by a decibel or two. If going with the h5 make sure to get the universal rather than ultimate. The universal is the version that uses the slim profile fan and that's what gives it the additional ram clearance for 0 compatibility problems. Trident Z led ram is fairly tall.
 
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