Best Cooler for Overclocking i7-4770k

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Lionheart360

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Sep 26, 2013
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When my build is complete, I would like to overclock my i7-4770k to somewhere around 4.5ghz. To do this safely, I know I need to have a pretty good CPU cooler. Any suggestions on which cpu cooler I should get? Also, I would like to keep the price around $50.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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good luck. as i'm sure dozens of others will tell you, overclocking is not a guarantee, it's a lottery. some cpus overclock well, others do not. When talking about haswell cpus, the average overclock seems to be right around 4.3ghz (and yes, there are some that won't even get past the haswell turbo speed of 4.0ghz). So while an expensive cpu cooler may help you reach your goal of 4.5ghz, understand it will largely be up to the luck of the draw.

as to your question, THG reviewed haswell cooling solutions under overclock situations. it turned out that high end solutions are almost a requirement as most midranged cooling solutions proved inadequate. That leaves you with the NH-D14, as the best air cooling option, while the corsair h80i or h100i are your top of the line water cooling options.
 
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Lionheart360

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Is it very loud though? Also if I was going to get another cooler, what would the minimum fan speed need to be for overclocking to 4.5ghz?
 
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mr1hm

mr1hm

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to do any overclocking for 24/7 use safely, it's the voltage (amount of current) you'll need to watch out for, that's IF you haven't exceeded the maximum temperatures already.

with that said, i do not recommend closed loop AIO water cooling kits, especially the ones that run around $50... you can get one of the best air coolers around the $75-$80 range which will give you cooling performance that's on par with a H100i if not better at times.

if you really want to cool the extremely hot Haswell, you need to invest into a custom water loop; you could've gotten a excellent quality chip that doesn't get too hot and overclocks very well but, while a 4.5GHz overclock is generally expected from the average Haswell chip, some chips will not make it either due to temps or more rarely, the chip will just not hit that frequency.

going above 4.5GHz is a whole different story, where only a percentage (probably around 45%-50%) of Haswell chips will make it. for 4.7GHz+, only a few percentage of chips will hit 4.7GHz.
 
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Lionheart360

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Sep 26, 2013
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Thanks for the suggestions. I might end up going with the NH-D14. This is just a broad question, but is overclocking really worth it for modern games and programs? I want the CPU to last for a long time so I'll eventually overclock it anyway, but I'm just wondering if its worth it right now.

 
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Som3one

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It would give you some performance benefits in some tools (video editing etc.) and of course benchmarks. In games not that much though. Mostly, because most (not all) games rely more on a fast GPU than a fast CPU.

So, my suggestions:
When you have everything set up try to figure out where you did land in the silicon lottery. Just for the sake of it.
Then decide wether you need overclocked performance for your games/programs and day to day use. If you don´t need it, just stay at stock settings (or maybe even try undervolting). If you happen to need it some time in the future, you still can do so.



As for your original question:
The most recommended air cooler on here would be the Hyper Evo 212 which would save you some bucks compared to the high end coolers.

If you want to stay on air, the Noctua suggested above is one of the best air coolers out there together with the Phanteks PH-TC14PE and the BQ Dark Rock 2 Pro and one more...which I still can´t remember. :-/

The next step would be AiO liquid cooling with the NZXT Kraken x60, Swiftech H320, Swiftech H220 and the Corsair H100i being the top performers.
The are also the "single rad" AiO liquid coolers which are also an option to some people. But personally I wouldn´t choose them.

And then the royal art of cooling (as suggested): Go custom.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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once upon a time you could overclock bargain cpus up to elite cpu performance, back in the day most everything was cpu restricted. cpus are so fast right now you probably won't be able to tell the difference between an overclocked one and a stock one in most of your day to day activities. the only way you'll be able to tell is in single threaded games or in games that just melt computers like crysis 3 and even then you'll only be able to tell if your monitor is very good and your gpu isn't bottlenecking you.

people who play mmos like WoW or guild wars 2 will certainly notice the improvement in performance from overclocking as will people who play single threaded titles like rome 2, ARMA 2 or 3 and so on. people who use AMD cpus might be able to notice an improvement, mostly cause their cpus are slower, so they stand to benefit more (because by being slower they're closer to being the bottleneck in their system then an intel is), people who have old cpus might see the benifit as well, as they definately have older and slower hardware so they will be more cpu limited then someone with a fancy new haswell. not many others will.

 
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