intel I7700K liquid cooler or Air cooler

[Lbt564 60]

Hi guys!

I'm planning to buy a new PC soon but i'm still wondering if i should stick with air cooling or water cooling. I have bad experience with liquid cooling in my two former builds so i'm thinking about buying the Noctua NH-D15. How would the NH-D15 perform against the Corsair Hydro H115? Keep in my that i'm going to overclock the 7700k.

Best Regards

Mohamed K

[vortex681 806]

Which water coolers have you previously used? What were the problems?

[Lbt564 60]

i have the h80i on my current build, i have loud noise and high temperatures :)

[AoA 6]

Do you have a silent case or an high airflow case?  The nice thing about water coolers is that heat is directed to a radiator and then out of your case which better supports a silent case vs fans and a heat sink that will circulate the heat within the case.  If you go the later ideally you'll want to have a high airflow case.  The down side as it sounds like you're experiencing is you add a water pump to the list things that can fail.

I've been running an Antec water cooler now for about 5 years.. no issues.  With a heatsink/fan my system with 6 HDD and 2 SSD's in a High flow case was suffering from sound stutters on heavy load, the water cooler totally resolved that issue along with a reduction in noise even with push/pull on the radiator.   If it failed, I'd be buying another water cooler.

[Lbt564 60]

thanks for replying :) my future build will be on Corsair 750D airflow edition. Current build is on fractal define R4

[JamesIceland 14]

I'm currently building in a Corsair Air 740 (great airflow) and I'm going to be using the Corsair H115i to cool my overclocked 7700k for sure - I think for best results at higher overclocks (say 5Ghz) water cooling is the way to go.

The good thing with Corsair too is that if they fail, they're generally well known to replace any damaged components i.e. they stand by the reliability of their products. The only thing I am doing to reduce noise with this set up is to replace the stock 140mm Corsair fans with Noctua silent ones - totally unnecessary but I wanted the best silent performance I could get. 

Hope that helps.

[martin-w 3,234]

17 hours ago, Lbt564 said:

Hi guys!

I'm planning to buy a new PC soon but i'm still wondering if i should stick with air cooling or water cooling. I have bad experience with liquid cooling in my two former builds so i'm thinking about buying the Noctua NH-D15. How would the NH-D15 perform against the Corsair Hydro H115? Keep in my that i'm going to overclock the 7700k.

Best Regards

Mohamed K

 

 

I would recommend the NH-D15S, although it does of course depend on your overclocking expectations. The H115i is a few degrees cooler than D15, so if you were "on the edge" with your temps due to very high overclocks, you may decide you need those few degrees. 

The other variable is delidding. Drop 15-30 degrees by delidding and the D15 would be even more viable even at very high overclocks.

The "S" variant is Noctua's high compatibility version. It's an offset design, so that it has much more clearance between the cooler and uppermost PCIe slot. In addition, it has one fan instead of two. Not an issue though for a few reasons. Whether it's the D14, D15 or any cooler with two fans, the difference in CPU temp between one fan and two fans is minimal. And I mean really minimal! For the D15S, it's a mere two degrees warmer with one fan. In addition, you can add a second fan if you wish.

I have a 6700K overclocked to 4.6, however, it will run at 4.7 without issues and the temps are very low. In RealBench at 4.6 I see low 70's. It's also VERY quiet. Unlike most AIO's that like to cheat with high RPM noisy fans [as you've discovered in the past] the Noctua fans are lower RPM and quiet. As I type this, my rig is silent. Fans configured with Asus Fan Xpert. Under load, again, very quiet. Case fans and graphics card fans loader. All in all a very quiet overclocked rig.

You would need to translate the above to your 7700K of course. But to help you...

Against the Kraken X61 the D15 is 4 degrees warmer according to this review.

http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15-versus-closed-loop-liquid-coolers/2

Those on the forum that have opted for the 7700K and D15 combo report good temps except at very high overclocks. So how high do you intend to overclock? 

Couldn't find a comparison with the H115 but if I were going AIO it would indeed be the H115i!

Doubt I would, as even a small risk of leaks is pointless to me, given that the D15S does everything I need and does it quietly, with zero chance of leaks, pump failure or pump noise.

The H115i will indeed cool somewhat better, but not as much as you might think.

 

 

 

 

[martin-w 3,234]

7 hours ago, JamesHongKong said:

The only thing I am doing to reduce noise with this set up is to replace the stock 140mm Corsair fans with Noctua silent ones - totally unnecessary but I wanted the best silent performance I could get. 

Hope that helps.

 

But James... one of the reasons the H115i cools "somewhat" better than the Noctua, is that it utilises SP140L PWM 2000 rpm fans. By opting for lower RPM Noctua fans your CPU temp under load will be higher. Thus negating the reason you went for the H115i in the first place. If you want quieter Noctua fans then you may as well have gone for the D15 and zero chance of leaks. Unless of course you like the aesthetics of an AIO.

Worth remembering, that to determine the true capabilities of a cooler, we need to consider the fan variable. The best way to do that is to use the same fans on an AIO and air cooler and compare the results. This tells us the capabilities of the heat sink or rad/pump. Unfortunately reviews never do that, so certain manufacturers are free to proclaim how awesome their coolers are, while relying more on noisy high RPM fans that rad/pump efficiency.

 

[OneWhoKnocks53 51]

I can't speak for the Noctua cooler, but my delidded 7700k is just fine on an H115 corsair, max temp @ 4.9 ghz is 65c during stress test and 100% stable while gaming/sim.  And that is with quiet Noctua fans.  I would recommend if your case can accommodate.

[vortex681 806]

20 hours ago, Lbt564 said:

my future build will be on Corsair 750D airflow edition.

Before you buy, it's definitely worth taking a look at the Phanteks Enthoo Pro case - see https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cBhmn21ylkc for a review. I also originally planned to use the Corsair 750D on my current build but opted for the Enthoo Pro instead after seeing the reviews. Far and away the easiest to build in and the most flexible (my previous two were Lian Li) with so many cooling options. Much less expensive than the Corsair but definitely not cheaply made. I have a Corsair H110i cooler and would highly recommend it. My i7-6700k rarely gets above 60C when gaming and is very quiet as the fans stay at low RPM at this temp.

 

[martin-w 3,234]

18 hours ago, vortex681 said:

Before you buy, it's definitely worth taking a look at the Phanteks Enthoo Pro case - see https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cBhmn21ylkc for a review. I also originally planned to use the Corsair 750D on my current build but opted for the Enthoo Pro instead after seeing the reviews. Far and away the easiest to build in and the most flexible (my previous two were Lian Li) with so many cooling options. Much less expensive than the Corsair but definitely not cheaply made. I have a Corsair H110i cooler and would highly recommend it. My i7-6700k rarely gets above 60C when gaming and is very quiet as the fans stay at low RPM at this temp.

 

 

What a nice case.

Would have been nice to have front rad compatibility though, as latest tests have revealed that with modern open shroud graphics cards it's the best place for a rad, lower GPU temps.

 

Might be something the OP should consider if he decides to go AIO.

 

 

 

 

[vortex681 806]

5 hours ago, martin-w said:

Would have been nice to have front rad compatibility though

It can also take a 240mm rad in the front - see http://www.phanteks.com/Enthoo-Pro.html. The hard drive bays just unscrew and lift out in two pieces. The beauty of the case is that it's almost all screwed together rather than rivetted so you can customise virtually any part of it.

[martin-w 3,234]

17 hours ago, vortex681 said:

It can also take a 240mm rad in the front - see http://www.phanteks.com/Enthoo-Pro.html. The hard drive bays just unscrew and lift out in two pieces. The beauty of the case is that it's almost all screwed together rather than rivetted so you can customise virtually any part of it.

 

Oh right. I love that you can unscrew, dismantle it. Wish more manufacturers would do that. With My Lian Li X510 I had to drill out rivets to mod.

For a 280 rad I guess it might be possible to mod the Enthoo in that respect. I would imagine there are also other Phanteks cases similarly as capable that do have front 280 support.

That would be my advice to the OP if he wishes to go AIO, namely a case that supports a 280 rad at the front. Something like the Enthoo Pro M witch I believe will accommodate a 240 rad at the front.

[Ted Striker 338]

On 3/21/2017 at 7:01 AM, martin-w said:

Would have been nice to have front rad compatibility though, as latest tests have revealed that with modern open shroud graphics cards it's the best place for a rad, lower GPU temps.

The video you referenced brings up so very good points Martin. On my last build (3770k in 2013) I specifically got a blow through 780 GTX so all the GPU heat would be exhausted out the back of my case and would not be heating the cooling air to my Noctua CPU air cooler and the other components in the case. One point that is not mentioned in the video is that the CPU is not the only other component in the case that needs cooling besides the GPU. Increasing the case air temperature from a case air intake mounted radiator and an open ventilation design GPU also increases the operating temperatures of the RAM and the other chips on the motherboard.

Ted

 

[martin-w 3,234]

Yep, true enough Ted, although RAM and chipset have quite a high tolerance so not usually a huge issue. VRM's of course need to be considered if overclocking highly.

Personally, my recent graphics cards have all been EVGA, so ACX 2.0 coolers. Some of the air is blown out of the back but much of it vents inside the case. I have to say it hasn't been an issue, CPU temp has always been low for me. I think for the OP, such things as rad placement, blowing rad air in or out, or top mounted or front mounted should be considered, because  it makes sense to do so with a new build, optimal is always best, but there's rarely a huge issue regardless. Graphics cards are usually quite happy running a bit warm.

I have a Lian Li X510 case. Three Noctua 120 fans blowing in and two 120's at the rear exhausting. EVGA GTX 980 Ti Classified with ACX 2.0 cooler. And of course 6700K cooled by the D15S. Graphics card runs cool enough and CPU is very cool at 4.6 GHz. So the fact that the ACX 2.0 dumps most of it's heat into the case isn't in practice an issue. VRM temps are quite low, well within the norm. PCH and MB sensors all read well within the specs.

I reckon although the graphics card is dumping heat into the case, if you have fans at the front directing cool air to the D15, and you are exhausting warm air efficiently it's not a problem. And of course the nice thing about the D15 is that the centrally mounted 150 fan blows loads of air across the VRM's, as it overlaps the heat sink purposely.