The big question - Cooling for my 2500K

[deadjon]

Good Evening residents of tomshardware

I have been pondering over the last few weeks on my shiny new upgrades - 2500k - P8Z68 PRO - 8gb Corsair Vengance White LP.

I have an Antec 1200 case, not a V3, the original beast (When I got this case there were none who could best in terms of cooling)

I have heard from many sources that the Corsair H100 will not fit without some serious modding at the top, where as from some sources (And a Youtube video) I can clearly see it fits in the back where the 2 120mm fans are at the moment. If I can get this to work with 4 fans on the Rad with an SLI configuration inside the case with no serious modding Im going for it. HOWEVER.

The other options, and ones that will surely fit are as follows
Noctua C14
Thermalright Silver Arrow
Corsair H80

And any other Sub £100 offering you can make that you feel is best for a 2500k bound for 5ghz (Or highest clock at 1.5v)

One more thing - although I would be a first timer any Watercooling Kits around the £200 mark that perform better than any of these are a possibility, I get paid weekly so waiting a week with a stock 2500k for the cash to get a massive cooling boost would be possible.

Thanks in advance for your help guise,

Yours,

Deadjon.

 

[pckitty4427]

You don't need any water-cooling to get your 2500K to 5GHz.

The most popular cooler these days is the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. It's cheap and effective.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&Tpk=hyper%20212%20evo

You'll be able to get to 5GHz without any temperature worries.

 

[deadjon]

The Evo can't deal with 1.5v while keeping the CPU under 72 degrees.

This I am SURE of

 

[dharmenparikh]

The CM 212 cannot hit 5ghz because you need to go pas 1.35Vcore for that on most CPUs..and thats crossing the 70-75c threshold which is the safe 24/7 zone.

NZXT havik for $60 will let you get to 5ghz but of course..going past 1.38v is risky with any 2500k unless you're on real water cooling..not the fake h100 stuff.

The evercool and ultra quiet noctua NHD-14 will let you hit 5ghz too. this thing costs $80-85$

 

[chesteracorgi]

An alternative for you is the Antec H20 920 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209054&Tpk=Antec%20H20%20920 which will not require modding your case out. And despite dharmen the closed loop coolers perform as well as the top air coolers and they exhaust the heat directly outside the case rather than heating up your other components.

 

[davcon]

You do realize an oc over 4.5GHz yields absolutely no returns in gaming performance.

 

[deadjon]

I understand this perfectly davcon. Imagine me an Enthusiast on a budget - I cant afford Dual 580s or Quad GPU setups with watercooling, or Sandybridge E processors. However I am still an Enthusiast so I like my PC to benchmark ahead of as many others possible.
Ive managed to tweak my 460s enough to run Uengine 2.5 quicker than a reference 580 at 1680x1050 - I would like to do something similar with my CPU.

 

[rubix_1011]

However I am still an Enthusiast so I like my PC to benchmark ahead of as many others possible.

The internet- where people spend money that they don't have to buy things they don't need or know how to use in order to please people they don't know and don't like.

As it has been stated, you do not need watercooling to reach that goal. If you spend more than $100, you should be buying an entry level, real watercooling kit. If spending less than $100, you should only be buying a good air cooler.

Your money really shouldn't be spent on a closed loop cooler unless you want to say to your friends (who otherwise don't know any better) "look friends, I have watercooling!"...when you really, don't.

 

[dechy]

Noctua NH-D14.

Sure my computer is in my relatively cool basement, but it is pretty damn amazing what some air cooling solutions (especially this beast) can do now.

I myself have not tried 5GHz, but I've hit 4.8GHz with nothing but ratio + "slight" vCore tweaking... but after testing out BF3/Skyrim/Rage/etc... and seeing literally no difference, I thought I'd just save a few bucks a month on power consumption instead and leave it at 4.5GHz lol

I'm 99.9% sure I could hit 5GHz, and aside from benchmarks, nothing I do would benefit from it.

 

[rubix_1011]

No benefit for 4.5 - 5ghz...I guess if you want to tell people you did it, I suppose...but 24/7 isn't really feasible. I'm seeing more and more people that want to overclock hardware but have absolutely no idea how to do it, what to expect or what hardware to start with. Research should always be the first and most extensive step.

 

[deadjon]

I don't understand you Rubix, you seem to be treating folk (me) as a leyman, when I am far from it. I have Overclocked many CPUs, from Athlon 64s to Core i7s - and not once have I failed to acheive my goal (Apart from 3.6ghz stable on this Q6600...the Vdroop on this board is IMPOSSIBLE to manage) I want 5ghz for epeenz, and Im positive I can do it (Chip willing). I remember when I took one look at my my housemates PC and Its i7 920 pre overclocked to 3.5ghz and watercooled and said - screw that, im getting it to 4ghz. 10 mins later it was stable at 4ghz. (And the moral of the story is - Overclocking is fun kids).
On another note, Ive selected the NH-D14 (YAY, Thats 2 Bandwagons ive jumped on in the past week)
Thanks guise

 

[rubix_1011]

You yourself stated that you are not familiar with watercooling- this would classify you as the layman addressing watercooling in this particular instance. I think you are taking my replies personally when the vast majority of things I'm stating take place are simple observations from threads being posted from many different forum users. There is a lot of very misguided information when it comes to watercooling and the use of a closed loop cooler and the expectations of both on these threads. Corsair, CoolIt and Asetek coolers are not what we consider real watercooling, but the average user on a hardware forum will try to sell it to another average user that it is. I felt it was necessary to try and help clear the fog on the information being presented on this subject.

I understand that overclocking is basically a reason for bragging rights, but the realistic approach here is that 24/7 @ 5ghz is very likely not going to be the case unless you are extremely lucky. From all the guys on the WC forum that are running 2500k's, they can hit 5ghz for a while, but the voltages and temps start to force them to run lower clocks for the majority of their needs. If I am incorrect with these statements, please tell me where I am wrong.

I also am running a Q6600, but on a 790i board- from what I've seen, the 680i boards are difficult to maintain high, stable OC's on, but this is just from faded memory, so I may be incorrect.

 

[deadjon]

You are lucky to have missed the 680i's - I fell victim to a marketing campaign and got the 'LT' Version or the 'Lite' version of an already flawed Chipset. It had 2 x16 PCI-E Slots yes, but its such a dire board in all other aspects, the Vdroop is terrible and the stability wanes with every day over 3ghz -_-

I tend to fall victim to these campaigns, the most recent being the GTX460 SE campaign - I wasnt stupid enough to buy 2 of them knowing they were 460 SEs, the box Said Green on it, and they were from Ebay...Thank god I've managed to get ones with inatley low Vcore cause ive overclocked the hell out of them both and now they run quicker than a 570 @ 1680x1050 - Not bad for a £175 puchase 1 year ago eh?

I do apologise for snapping, I obviously misjudged your intentions rubix. Thanks for the input.

I am aware that the closed loop solutions are terrible in comparison to proper watercooling kits such as the Rasa and/or offerings from Swiftech and such - Im annoyed at myself for buying an antec 1200 - Whilst it is still a top offering in terms of Cooling Performance with an Air cooling system, it leaves much to be desired in terms of functionality. Ive decided to make the jump to watercooling after I make the jump to the 7970 in Febuary/March time - at which point Ill grab myself a HAF X and get the Rasa 360 kit (more than likley) and mount it on the top for a single loop CPU/GPU solution. The Rasa 360 kit should be able to handle it with a healthy overclock on both the CPU and the Card. Ill then look at chucking 240 rad somewhere else in the case to cool the Chipset and a second card - or maybe another 360
Although I have heard that the low pressure from the big fans at the top of the HAF X might give less than satisfactory performance when It comes to a push pull config.

I have begun to babble now on a dead thread xD

 

[rubix_1011]

No, you are fine- and you have some good background knowledge with watercooling, which gives you a good head start on what you might want. Planning and preparation are the biggest keys in watercooling, so make sure you get everything figured out before placing an order. Hit up the WC forum for anything you have questions or to just drop us a line.

I skipped the 680/690 and went with the Intel chipset offerings during that generation- stability and OC weren't bright spots for nVidia during that gen of chipset...It's no wonder why the 680i's weren't out long before the 690i's took precedence and into the 780/790i's.

And no- it's your thread...if you think it's dead, we can close it. Just let me know. And no worries- I know sometimes it's difficult to detect tone and inflection in a forum- no harm done.

 

[deadjon]

Aye, close the Thread Cubix - I have my answers and I know what must be done.

Soon I will have a wonderfull new Sandy Bridge system and my Q6600 will be placed in a picture frame and put up on my wall (and my 680iLT set on fire).

 

[rubix_1011]

This topic has been closed by Rubix_1011