What cooler should I get? NZXT Kraken x31 or Corsair h80i v2.

klaudmjj

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Recently I found out I won the silicone lottery with my i5 7600k, I managed to oc to 4.9ghz @ 1.22v and reaching a max stress test temp of 75c. I achieved this with a be quiet pure rock slim.
My case only supports 120mm rads and I have either a choice of NZXT Kraken x31 or Corsair h80i v2, im also open to your suggestions if there is a better 120mm aio cooler than the ones mentioned
 
What is your case?
What is your graphics card?
What is your case cooling fan arrangement?
Is quiet operation important to you?

Why do you think you need a AIO cooler at all?

You still have thermal headroom with your BQ if you want to push your OC higher.
85c. for a stress test is reasonable.
You still have vcore headroom.

If you have 160mm height available and a decent case, look to a Noctua NH-D15s.
It will cool better than either of your choices, be quieter, more reliable, and will not leak.
 

klaudmjj

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I have a GTX 1050 ti
2 fans intake and 1 fan exhaust , only 1 front fan is effective as the other one is blocked by hard drive cage
Quiet operation isn't a must but it would be nice.
I have the corsair carbide spec 01 and it only supports up to 145mm height i believe.
 
A very nice case.
The 150mm cooler height limitation restricts your tower type cooler options.
But, the cryorig H7 is only 145mm tall and still uses a 120mm fan.
I do not think the H7 is significantly stronger than the BQ slim.
As popular as the H7 is, I would not bother to change it out.
If you are not using all of the 3.5" drive hardware, you can remove them.
If you are only using a SSD, which I recommend, you can mount the ssd in one of the upper 5.25" bays and remove the drive cage entirely.
A second fan mounted in front will draw in sufficient air for your GTX1050ti which is not a hot card.
The key for any cooling is to get sufficient air INTO the case. What comes in the front will exit SOMEWHERE, taking component heat with it.
Then, you have added options of using 140mm front intakes which move more air at a given rpm.

With restricted cooler height, you have one of the better arguments for a liquid cooler.
But, remember, liquid cooling is really air cooling.
What differs is the location of the heat exchanger.
In this case a 120mm radiator which will be no more efficient in heat transfer than an equal number of cooling fins on a tower type air cooler.

One advantage of your current arrangement is that all intake air comes from one source and can be filtered.
This keeps your parts cleaner.

If you mount a aio with intake from the top, you destroy that positive pressure benefit.
And, if you ever should update that GTX1050ti to a much stronger card, you need all the front intake you can get.
You do not want it to be getting hot radiator air.

OTOH, if you mount the aio radiator taking air in from the inside of the case, it will use preheated air and not be as effective.

Catch 22.

How much do you really NEED to up that multiplier from 49 to 50??
You can probably do that now.
How about 51?
You may run out of safe vcore before you run into thermal limits.

And... your BQ slim will be quieter and will not leak.





 

klaudmjj

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Here is the issue I have, the drive cages are removed however I have an old hard drive which isn't connected that sits on top of my current hard drive because my WD Blue is quite loud (Either is faulty or just loud) , but putting a hard drive on top of my current HDD removes the vibration. The hard drive is still the loudest part when it's idle. So the setup on my hard drives are my main drive at the very bottom and then a loose old HDD right on top to absorb the vibrations.

I have my 2 intake Corsair AF 120 fans turned off until the CPU reaches 42c, this is because, when they are on, I can't hear the fans but I can hear more of the "air" moving through the dust filter which is very loud and sounds like a jet.

When I take off the front panel, they are completely silent. The dust filter also restricts the airflow quite a bit, when it's on, and I have the side panel off, I can barely feel the air when the fans are on 50%, however as soon as I take off the front panel, I can feel the air pushing on my hand.

If I were to get an AIO, I would put the radiator at the rear of the case, with a pull configuration with the current exhaust fan at the top and the AIO exhausting air out the back or a push/pull config with both of the fans also at the rear.
My ambient room temp is around 23c, and the air inside the case would probably be +/- 2c so I don't think it would make a big difference having the AIO as exhaust.

I am thinking of upgrading to an SSD, and once I get that I could probably get the HDD checked out as it would be too much of a hassle currently.

The air that comes out of the 1 exhaust fan under load is warm but not hot.

I tried 5ghz at 1.35v and the temps were at 91c max.