Ryzen 5 1600 OC - Is going to a 120mm AIO from Hyper 212 EVO worth it?

bigpman · Oct 1, 2017

Hey guys,

Recently I upgraded my rig to the Ryzen 5 1600, running on an Asus Strix B350-F Gaming and Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000Mhz (running at 2933Mhz).

So, far I have been able to get to 3.85Ghz using an Hyper 212 Evo. My idle temps are right around 40, however, with max temps in the high 60s when gaming. Ambient temps are about 24c.

I was thinking of pulling the 212 Evo out and replacing with an AIO, to hopefully get those temps a little lower. Would a 120mm AIO be worth anything to me or would it be a lateral change? Something live the MasterLiquid Lite 120mm is what I was thinking about.

Would like to push it to 3.9 or 3.95 ish, but I want to address heat first before I try.

Has anyone swapped out a 212 Evo with a 120mm? If so, any benefits and which one did you use?

InvalidError · Oct 1, 2017

Spending ~$100 extra hoping for a 2-5% higher overclock? Doesn't make much sense to me.

Roland Of Gilead · Oct 1, 2017

what are your stress temps at full load? Testing with Prime 95 or OCCT or something. Gaming temps are not something to base a further OC on. If your hitting 80c on Prime 95 small FFT's, then you don't have much room to manoeuvre. Then as InvalidError has said, do you want to spend all that extra dough on a 5% increase in OC'ing headroom. Not worth it IMO.

at idle you should be expecting 30-33, gaming 45-60, stress load 65-80. What voltage are you using, your temps seem a tad high. You should be using about 1.3-1.35v. To get higher, and up to 3.9ghz you may need to go between 1.35-1.4 with 1.4 being what AMD advise is the max for 24hr operation.

scout_03 · Oct 1, 2017

you could get a little more of it try not to get over 65 c on full load and do you have a good air flow in the case that will help .

ohiou_grad_2006 · Oct 1, 2017

Honestly I wouldn't bother. Just leave it at 3.85. I mean what are you talking about, maybe a couple of frames here and there? Just be happy with it imo.

bigpman · Oct 2, 2017

I took the time to run Prime95 and unfortunately the 3.85 caused hardware errors within a minute. I brought it down to 3.825, at 1.375 volts, and it ran for 20 minutes without any issues. It settled at 65 degrees in about a few minutes and stayed there the duration of the test.

I think that's acceptable for a stress test temps?

I'm just more concerned with the high idle temps. It sits around 38 to 41 degrees. Going to try and lower the voltage down some, a little later when I can let Prime95 run for a few hours, and see if I can get away with less voltage.

The case I have is a Phanteks P400, which I know is pretty horrible about the intakes it has. I do have it loaded with 3 120mm SP fans up front and 1 120mm exhaust. I am going to eventually cut in some lettering to the front bezel and cover them with mesh, to allow in some extra air into the case. Something similar to what this guy did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D03JveCbo_8

Either case, I believe the consensus here is that the investment in an AIO is not worth it in my scenario, outside of it looking nicer.

vapour · Oct 2, 2017

Not worth it. Prime95 has errors on 3.85 means your OC setting is not stable enough. How do you OC? manual BIOS or software/OC genie? If latter, switch to former and you should be able to stabilize at 3.85 with fine tuning. 20 minutes is not enough to tell stability, overnight is more convincing.

bigpman · Oct 2, 2017

@vapour, thanks for your reply. I see that you are also running a similar setup and opted to run 3.8, but a considerable less voltage. This path may just be the better one to take to keep temps down. Not sure how much of a real world performance impact going to 3.9 over 3.8 is truly going to be. Most likely not noticeable, right?

Currently, I have only messed with the voltage and also set my ram to run at the DOCP setting at 2933Mhz. I have not messed with anything else in the BIOS. I still have a lot to learn about overclocking, as this is my first PC that I have actually overclocked.

The main question that I was trying to answer, and more or less justify to myself, was should I buy an AIO. I love how they look, and with the tempered glass front I think it would look a lot better and provide more visibility for the MoBo. But, at the same time didn't want to toss money into an AIO just for looks only. It would need to gain me something in the long run.

vapour · Oct 2, 2017

No noticeable performance diff between 3.8 and 3.9. It all depends on you. Some people like to OC as high as possible and he enjoys the success, then he needs that extra cooler. For me, I don't bother and 3.8 is good enough for me. There is no right or wrong in this situation, follow your heart

ohiou_grad_2006 · Oct 2, 2017

One thing I will say about water cooling that I've heard, is that it's just a matter of time sometimes before the pump fails. At least with air cooling you seem to run less risk of damaging because you don't need to worry about leaks and things like that.

Me personally, I'll get whatever I can get out of my cpu within reason, but keep in mind if you spend all that money now, over the next couple of years AMD will be releasing new cpus, and the money you spend now might be better spent on a newer even more improved Ryzen 2 or Ryzen 3 in a year or 2 for example. Just something else to throw out there.

As an aside, I'm able to run my 1600 at 3.8 with the voltage set at 1.2875 in the bios. I haven't really tested but I think I'm going to test it at 1.25 to see if it will take it to drop temps a little more. I'm running the cooler master vortex plus myself, but another commenter in a thread I made suggested the wraith spire may do better. My temps were max of 73 celsius in intel burn test when I messed with it last night.

Anyway, you might try to drop your voltage as much as you can to get stable at say 3.8 and then inch your way back upwards and see how far you can get.

Karadjgne · Oct 2, 2017

The Corsair h55/h60 120mm aios are basically the exact same performance as a hyper212. Idle about the same, TDP about the same, so no, it's definitely not worth the money to switch to a standard 120mm aio. Something like the h80i v2, double thick, dual fan 120mm is different, it'll pull almost the same TDP as a h100i 240mm aio, so definitely an upgrade in top end load heat dissipation ability, but you can get roughly the same performance from a cryorig h5 or any of the other mid-range air coolers. Which is about all you'll need for OC on a 65w cpu. You'll reach voltage/instability limits before reaching temp limits.

bigpman · Oct 4, 2017

Thanks all. You have convinced me to keep the 212 Evo, as it seems like a lateral move with no benefit.

I'll spend the weekend messing with voltages instead, like @ohiou_grad_2006 and a few others have mentioned. If I can get the voltage down, I'm sure my idle temps will also fall.

I do love this CPU so far, it was a MAJOR upgrade from my i7 920 running stock speeds

Now it's time to start saving for a new graphics card...if the pricing would just normalize again, that would be nice, as I'm not keen on paying over MSRP for anything.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Oct 4, 2017

What card do you have? I'm not sure when volta comes out, but it may be worth seeing what that's about. That said, a GTX 1060 6gb would pair up nicely. I was able to get a good deal on an RX 480 8gb card and can pretty much max anything at 1080p 60hz.

bigpman · Oct 5, 2017

@ohiou_grad_2006, I own a PNY GTX 770 4GB OC, which does fairly decent in the games that I am currently playing. I stayed out of gaming for many years, which in a way was nice as it has now given me a ton of game choices for really dirt cheap prices. i.e. Just bought Mad Max for $5 USD and I am on the second Batman game, which each one costed me about $6 each. My card is playing these games without any hiccups. But, as soon as I run out of the older titles and want to get into newer games, I know I will need an upgrade.

Just to be future proof, a little, I am considering a GTX 1070 or the new upcoming 1070ti (as long as it is not much more than the 1070). I'lll need to wait on some reviews to come out on the 1070ti. Anoth option to keep my eyes out for an open box 1080. I was really excited over Vega, but it seems they are very power hungry and do well in mining, so are impossible to come by as well. Same with the 580. I figure I still have another 3 to 6 months until I run out of older titles to play, though, so not in a huge rush. Plus it gives me a few more paychecks to save up with

ohiou_grad_2006 · Oct 5, 2017

My 480 does great but I'm waiting to see what Nvidia volta looks like. I wonder if it will be a huge jump.

bigpman · Oct 5, 2017

Yes, excited to see what Volta is all about as well. Maybe not so excited over what the pricing for it is going to be. Maybe it will drive the price of the 1080 down some and make that card affordable....or maybe Volta will make me say "shut up and take my money!" Lol

Karadjgne · Oct 5, 2017

Because of crypto-mining, many times you can actually find a 1080 cheaper than most 1070's, so there is always that option, although for a standard 1080p/60Hz monitor to get max settings in most games all you really need is a 1060/6 or Rx 480/580

ohiou_grad_2006 · Oct 5, 2017

Microcenter does have a nice 27 inch 144hz Acer monitor lol.

bigpman · Oct 5, 2017

@ohiou_grad_2006, I'd be hard pressed to give up my 3 x Acer 24 inch 1080p, low latency, monitors for a single 27 inch. Meaning, I would need to get 3 of them bad boys and that bill would be a nice chunk of change...lol. I'd also need a new mount, since the one I have cannot hold anything larger than the 24 inchers.

I'll keep my monitors for now. What I'd like to eventually do is get an even larger single monitor, just for gaming, at 1440p or 4K and keep these 3 for work. This would need me to also upgrade my desk, to an L shape, so that it could support all 4 monitors.

P.S. I just got back from Micro Center. I ended up upgrading the 1600 to a 1700x. The price difference was minor ($70) (even between the 1700 and the 1700x, only $10. $260 vs $270). I may need to eventually look into a 240mm or 280mm rad

This PC bug is one expensive bug to have!!

Ryzen 5 1600 OC - Is going to a 120mm AIO from Hyper 212 EVO worth it?

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