1 hour ago, klamal said:

So do you need to replace the paste that comes with it?  I was reading opinions that say you shouldn't have to initially.  But, they also recommended replacing after ~10mos.  This is something new to me to.  With water cooling, you need to re-apply thermal paste every xx months?  My current build, I haven't opened the case since I built it - other than to upgrade the video card once and upgrade memory once.  :)

Well if are purchasing the components separately and you are not used to assemble computers it's better to ask the store to do it, for example putting the cpu in the mobo as a specific position, its not hard, but if you got it wrong you can damage the pins and there goes the warranty, not to scare you but ill see it happen, also the water cooler assemblage can be a little bit challenge to put it right... as for the cpu it usually comes with a thermal paste with is stock air cooler, you can use that and see what's the results, i prefer to use others, i like the Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra Thermal for example, having great results with that one.

You dont need to reapply the thermal paste every xx months or even every xx years, if is well done and you getting good temps just let it stay :)

Just have a look at this link for instance

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-WINDOWS-10-PRO-32-64bit-DIGITAL-OEM-DOWNLOAD-KEY-TRUSTED-SELLER/132409667543?hash=item1ed43b2fd7:g:IpoAAOSwIJlZ9Qd3

I've used 30+ of these Win 7 & Win 10 licences with no issues whatsoever

2 minutes ago, dmarques69 said:

Well if are purchasing the components separately and you are not used to assemble computers it's better to ask the store to do it, for example putting the cpu in the mobo as a specific position, its not hard, but if you got it wrong you can damage the pins and there goes the warranty, not to scare you but ill see it happen, also the water cooler assemblage can be a little bit challenge to put it right... as for the cpu it usually comes with a thermal paste with is stock air cooler, you can use that and see what's the results, i prefer to use others, i like the Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra Thermal for example, having great results with that one.

You dont need to reapply the thermal paste every xx months or even every xx years, if is well done and you getting good temps just let it stay :)

Thanks.  I've built all my flight sim PCs since the mid 90's so I'm not at all afraid to do it.  I just don't like to do anything more than I absolutely have to.  So I will probably just try what comes with it and see before I try to re-apply new.

In my opinion, if your paste is working -- don't mess with it.

My Corsair H100 and it's Corsair-applied paste has been working perfectly for over 5 years on my present machine.

If the fans don't suit you, replace them.  Mine is only loud on bootup.

7 hours ago, klamal said:

No real reason here.  I just more or less picked it.  To be honest, I'm not sure about the water cooling thing.  I've never done it before so this would be a first go at it.  Is there a better option?  Even not water cooling?

A misunderstanding there lol.  The "why" wasn't aimed as a question to you, but a rhetorical one to myself, so I could answer the question.  Sorry for the misunderstanding;-)

As for Marques not finding any quiet fans.....  I can only assume you didn'y try the Noctua's?  Not only are they MUCH quieter at the same rpm as the Corsairs, but they NEVER need to run at anything close to that rpm in order to get the same amount of air movement.  They truly great fans!

The Vardars are also outstanding fans, but only as far as quality goes. They still dont some close to the noise levels of the Noctua's (or should i say lack of)  ;-)

Either way, the OP's choice is his, and a good overall one at that.  It'll be a damn fine system.  Good luck with it and let us know how it goes?

7 hours ago, Dougal said:

Not only are they MUCH quieter at the same rpm as the Corsairs, but they NEVER need to run at anything close to that rpm in order to get the same amount of air movement.

I'm always a little surprised when I see complaints about the noise of the default Corsair fans - perhaps they've changed the design. I have a Corsair H110i GT and set the ”quiet" profile in the Link software. My case sits under a desk and I don't hear the fans at all and I've never seen the temp rise above 70C, even under load.

Hi Folks,

Yep - when I replaced ALL my fans (not Corsair) with Noctua models - the overall noise level went from somewhat obnoxious to imperceptible - I'm a huge fan...

Regards,
Scott

53 minutes ago, vortex681 said:

I'm always a little surprised when I see complaints about the noise of the default Corsair fans - perhaps they've changed the design. I have a Corsair H110i GT and set the ”quiet" profile in the Link software. My case sits under a desk and I don't hear the fans at all and I've never seen the temp rise above 70C, even under load.

but whats your overclock?

Dont get me wrong, I'm not 'knocking' the Corsair fans, and most certainly NOT complaining;-)  They're outstanding quality, and they definitely get the job done.  Look at the numbers though....  The Corsair fans that ship with 115i (and other coolers) top out at a mahoooosive 2000rpm!  That's an awful lot of whirlygig thingies;-)  The Noctua replacements top out at 1500rpm and still move more air than the Corsair units.

In my system, when overclocked, the Corsair units were much noisier than the Noctua's, even when running at half the Noctua's speed.

2 hours ago, Dougal said:

but whats your overclock?

Currently just stock (4.2GHz) as I get good enough performance without overclocking.

2 hours ago, Dougal said:

Dont get me wrong, I'm not 'knocking' the Corsair fans, and most certainly NOT complaining;-)  They're outstanding quality, and they definitely get the job done.  Look at the numbers though....  The Corsair fans that ship with 115i (and other coolers) top out at a mahoooosive 2000rpm!  That's an awful lot of whirlygig thingies;-)  The Noctua replacements top out at 1500rpm and still move more air than the Corsair units.

In my system, when overclocked, the Corsair units were much noisier than the Noctua's, even when running at half the Noctua's speed.

Which specific Noctua model is best for the 115i?

2 hours ago, Dougal said:

The Corsair fans that ship with 115i (and other coolers) top out at a mahoooosive 2000rpm! 

That's true of mine as well (and they're noisy at that speed) but, with the quiet profile set, mine run silently at just over 900 RPM. Based on my personal experience, I'd say if you're buying new, try the cooler with the default fans with different Link profiles before buying different fans. The Noctua fans are almost certainly quieter at higher RPMs but you don't need the default fans to run fast to cool efficiently - it's a big rad!

That build should work very well.  I would opt. for Windows 10 1709, not that I'm a fan of Windows 10, I'm not as it's update process has caused several issues and one still not resolve (it will require a complete wipe and re-install of 1709).

But with that said, if you're building a new computer and want it to have some "future proofing", then Windows 10 1709 is your best option along with it's DX12 support.  Windows 10 is about 30% OS market share (and slowly increasing), Windows 7 is 46% (and slowly declining).

Cheers, Rob.

2 hours ago, klamal said:

Which specific Noctua model is best for the 115i?

 

It's a 280 rad, so I'd look at the NF-A15's. Thing is though, you would have to check that they fit. They have a round frame, so in effect they're 150 fans with 140 hole spacing.

If not the above, then  NF-A14's. 

Or if you prefer black fans, look at the Chromax range. You can get the NF-A15 and the NF-A14 as Chromax black fans. 

 

 

52 minutes ago, martin-w said:

you would have to check that they fit

Yeah, this is what I'm afraid of.  Is there any way to know this up front?  Anyone else that has done this replacement know for sure which model Noctua will work?