Best Liquid CPU Cooler for Intel LGA 775 QX9650

saif magdob

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Oct 22, 2015
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hey everyone

i have core 2 extreme processor, i need best Liquid CPU Cooler for LGA 775.

waiting for your suggestion to get the best cooler

Thanks all!
 
Solution
I can't imagine a scenario where it would be worth putting a liquid cooler on such an old CPU. Anyways, a Be Quiet! Silent Loop 280 or Corsair H100 (not H100i) are good liquid coolers with LGA775 support.

I hope you do realize you can sell your QX9650 for $80 to $100 on eBay. Depending on the motherboard. You can likely get anywhere between $50 and $130 for your motherboard. Plus $10 to $20 for your RAM. Depending on how much you have.

If you add all that to the cost of a good 240+mm AIO liquid cooler. Let's say $120 to $150. You'll have a total budget of $260 to $400. In either instance you can get a modern CPU, motherboard and RAM. Which will dominate that QX9650. Even with a maximum overclock on the QX9650. A lowly Pentium...
depends on how you define best.
For some people it's the RGB and presence of the GAMING in the name.
Some others it's the raw performance regardless of the price.
And there are people that care about reliability.
And people caring about noise.
And people with performance/price ration preferences.

So for the price of a decent liquid cooler, you'd be able to buy a better performing system (CPU, MB and RAM).
 
I can't imagine a scenario where it would be worth putting a liquid cooler on such an old CPU. Anyways, a Be Quiet! Silent Loop 280 or Corsair H100 (not H100i) are good liquid coolers with LGA775 support.

I hope you do realize you can sell your QX9650 for $80 to $100 on eBay. Depending on the motherboard. You can likely get anywhere between $50 and $130 for your motherboard. Plus $10 to $20 for your RAM. Depending on how much you have.

If you add all that to the cost of a good 240+mm AIO liquid cooler. Let's say $120 to $150. You'll have a total budget of $260 to $400. In either instance you can get a modern CPU, motherboard and RAM. Which will dominate that QX9650. Even with a maximum overclock on the QX9650. A lowly Pentium G4560 will crush it on single core tasks and break even on multi-core.

If you wanted a new setup with liquid cooling. That budget could get you anywhere from a Pentium G4560 to a Ryzen 5 1400 (OC Capable). Either setup with 8GB RAM and a Corsair H60 liquid cooler. It's just a basic unit but they don't need anything like the QX9650 does. Comparing overclocks a Ryzen 5 1400 is up to 135% faster than the QX9650 in raw performance.

You also have to factor in the modern CPU will use a lot less power. The motherboards will support much newer standards (PCIe 3.0, USB 3/3.1, SATA III, M.2 NVMe, DDR4, Possibly USB 3.1 Gen2, UEFI). The CPU also support modern Instruction Set Extensions. Which will get far greater performance than the Core 2 on optimized software. Such as AES encryption.
 
Solution
What is your case?
A top liquid cooler needs to be mounted in a well ventilated case.
What is your objective?
Are you looking to overclock to the max?

Your QX9650 has 4 threads and a passmark rating of 4176 with a single thread rating of 1252.
A high end liquid cooler will be about $250.
For that, you can buy a 4 thread G4600 cpu with a rating of 5218 and a single thread rating of 2076.
Single thread performance is what games need most.
And... that $250 will include a lga1151 motherboard and 8gb of ddr4 ram.

I love antiques too. you are spoiling the antique value by not using a stock intel cooler.
 
The water loop can be moved forward to another system later, so can a PSU or GPU. It's your computer, do what you want with it. Now for my turn at the negative comments. Water cooling isn't "colder" than air cooling. They both are limited by ambient temperature. Water cooling can come closer to ambient by being larger and having more fans/ air flow. I would suggest a Scythe Ninja 4 air cooler if you have room for it, or one of the Thermalright Macho series air coolers. $40-$60 should do it. You probably won't get much beyond 4.2 GHz with that anyway. A big air cooler will do that. After that you're just raising Voltage and roasting the CPU for very little gain. Performance will be limited as much by the chipset, and RAM configuration as by the CPU. To improve on a big air cooler you will need at least a 240mm setup with good fans, and large tubing, not the bubble hoses.