Processors based on Intel's Haswell architecture can be much more difficult to cool than Ivy Bridge-E. Meanwhile, the Haswell design need less absolute cooling capacity than Ivy Bridge-E. Those two apparently-conflicting statements can be justified by the observation that the lower-power Haswell-based chips respond poorly to increased cooling capacity.
CPU Cooling: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme
Given the above observations, it appears that anything larger than a 120 mm single-fan cooling tower wastes money. On the other hand, choosing anything smaller than the cooler from my previous build would open me up to criticism if today's setup didn't overclock well. I wanted to play this one safe.

Read Customer Reviews of Thermaltake's Water 2.0 Extreme
Overclocked Haswell cores are so temperamental that a mere 3 °C drop in temperature can add 100 MHz to a stable configuration. Because of the CPU’s heat transfer problems, that’s about all I expect from Thermaltake’s huge, award-winning Water 2.0 Extreme.
Motherboard Cooling: Antec SpotCool 80
Anyone who thinks that $95 is too much to spend to cool a heat-soaked CPU will be incensed to hear that the expense doesn’t end there. Most motherboards are designed to cool the CPU voltage regulator using exhaust from the CPU cooler, and the fans on a liquid cooler's radiator don’t point in that direction.

Read Customer Reviews of Antec's SpotCool 80
Designed to cool nearly any component, Antec’s SpotCool is the perfect add-on voltage regulator fan for motherboards that weren’t designed to accept a fan. I always keep one of these on-hand for liquid-cooling predicaments, but decided to actually include it in my order this time.
The need for a voltage regulator fan emerges at moderately increased CPU voltage. If the CPU isn’t able to support moderate voltage increases before crossing its own thermal threshold, then I’ve wasted money.
- Our High-End Build Evolves
- Graphics, CPU, And Memory
- Motherboard, Case, And Power
- CPU And Motherboard Cooling
- An Alphabet Soup Of Storage: SSD, HDD, And ODD
- Hardware Installation
- Overclocking
- Test Hardware And Benchmark Settings
- Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Results: Battlefield 4 And Far Cry 3
- Results: Grid 2 And Arma 3
- Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: File Compression
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- A Gaming Build That Works Hard
1.) Start the system, wait for all processes to load, take a measurement (Active, but idle)
2.) Load the CPU using eight thread of AVX-optimized Prime95, take a reading (CPU Load).
3.) Load GPUs with 3DMark 11 Test 1 in loop, take max reading as it heats up (GPU Load).
4.) Load both applications (CPU+GPU Load).
The "math problem" is that any program used to fully load the GPU also partly loads the CPU. So when test 4 is Prime95+3DMark, Prime95 can only use whatever CPU resources are left with 3DMark running.
So the most accurate system power reading is with "CPU+GPU Load" applied. The system measurement for "CPU Load" still includes the power of an idle GPU. And the system power measurement for "GPU Load" still includes the amount of CPU energy it takes to run the GPU's test application.
Power supplies of greater capacity and similar reliability at this price tend to be lower-efficiency units. And we like efficiency too.
1.) Start the system, wait for all processes to load, take a measurement (Active, but idle)
2.) Load the CPU using eight thread of AVX-optimized Prime95, take a reading (CPU Load).
3.) Load GPUs with 3DMark 11 Test 1 in loop, take max reading as it heats up (GPU Load).
4.) Load both applications (CPU+GPU Load).
The "math problem" is that any program used to fully load the GPU also partly loads the CPU. So when test 4 is Prime95+3DMark, Prime95 can only use whatever CPU resources are left with 3DMark running.
So the most accurate system power reading is with "CPU+GPU Load" applied. The system measurement for "CPU Load" still includes the power of an idle GPU. And the system power measurement for "GPU Load" still includes the amount of CPU energy it takes to run the GPU's test application.
The "math problem" is that any program used to fully load the GPU also partly loads the CPU. So when test 3 is Prime95+3DMark, Prime95 can only use whatever CPU resources are left with 3DMark running.
So the most accurate system power reading is with "CPU+GPU Load" applied. The system measurement for "CPU Load" still includes the reading of an idle GPU. And the system power measurement for "GPU Load" still includes the amount of CPU power it takes to run the GPU.
Very much appreciated and satisfying answer.
Thanks Crashman
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3fuGw
Wondering how much of a difference would non-reference cards make. Obviously, CPU cooler and RAM could be different, BR drive optional, storage drive as well.
Shouldn't that be DDR3-1866?
my fix is get a 700gb ssd, 780ti no sli problems, and a i5 4670, this is a much better gaming pc, and can go quiet build.