I would like to do a new build with a Noctua cooler.  I know their can be compatibility issues w/ ram and case, so this complicates the process of ordering parts.  So, if you don't a recent build and like your results please share your parts list:

• Motherboard
• Ram (16Gb x2)
• Case (I guess a mid tower is fine won't be much in it)
• Noctua cooler w/ best performance that works w/ the above parts

Thanks in advance!

Why air?

Water cooling has been "safe" for a long, long time now.  There has been over a decade track record of commercially-successful closed-loop liquid coolers that all include anti-leak mitigations into their designs, all of which include large monetary remuneration clauses in their warranties in the case of catastrophic failure.  

No worries about RAM clearance then.

This is what I use in my i9-9900K portable simming/gaming rig:

ASUS Maximus XI Hero

Crucial Ballistix 3600MHz CAS 16

Coolermaster HAF XB Evo "LAN box" case (mesh, with no top-mounted fan)

Noctua NH-D15 with forwardmost fan set offset up ~5mm

Thanks Bob it sounds like that is proven!  I've thought about water cooling but I just don't feel comfy with its potential for leaks which albeit small, isn't zero.   I've also had perfect luck w/ the former build using a Noctua air cooler.  And, from what I'm reading they keep up with the best AIO water coolers and do well with low noise levels.

Edited February 20, 20206 yr by Noel

Well, the NH-D15 keeps my 9900K running at 5.0 GHz on all 8 cores (no HT) with a P3D load and temps peaking in the low 70s.  It won't pass an extended run of AVX-enabled Prime95 at those settings without throttling, but that's not what I'm striving for.

I'm a big believer in water cooling, but on my portable rig, I didn't want to chance a leak with the box getting bounced around for hours between grandkid stops when on the road.  The NH-D15 performed surprisingly well...but make no mistake about it, the custom water loop in my main home rig performs considerably better.  So the tradeoff between "good enough" air cooling and better performance accompanied by any risks associated with leaks is an individual call.  But you can make it work acceptably well either way.

 

 

I don't have extreme cooling needs mainly because even at so so overclocks I will see a decent increase in total CPU performance, to the tune of around 40% +/-, which is great by today's standards.   I've been patient in keeping my 3930K system which has served me well.  I have to return back to California to deal with some post Camp Fire sequela and will be there maybe 6 months so I will take my current box with me and keep the new build here in Colorado.   Return to Cali won't be til August.

Yes I would certainly expect a custom water loop to be significantly better else why bother.  My old in-wall a/c system really worked great so I will park my old box by it again when I return to Cali but here in Colorado I don't have a good place to do that so have to live with lesser temp management.  And the reality again is, even if I could only do 4.4Ghz on a new 9900K this would still increase CPU related performance by 33% which is huge in itself and I'm certain will be sufficient to overcome the modest increase in headroom I really need even now w/ the old system.   I know we all tend to add eye candy until we start whining but truthfully living w/ a 6 y/o system trains one to learn to live within their processing budget and be happy doing it.  If I'm in KSFO HD in FTX NCA in the PMDG 777 I'll be looking at maybe 25-26 frames, and in my configuration ANYTHING below 30 gets bad performance, and that is by design.  An entire flight from KSFO HD say OTW to KSAN HD I'll be seeing less than solid smooth 30 for only a few minutes of the flight.  Now add 33% increase in CPU processing power and clearly we'll be better than good to go.  

I have the same 9900k with Noctua D15 which keeps it cool at 5ghz on 8 cores like Bob said.  I tried watercooling but the pump failed so never have went back.  I use the Deep Cool Assasin 3 air cooler for my 3900x  build and it works just as well as the Noctua.

Noel,

As you can see from my specs I have the AMD 3900x CPU on a x570 Mboard.

Whilst, I have yet to indulge in overclocking, I wanted to prepare to go that route and bought and installed a Deep Cool Assassin III fan cooler. This handles my CPU cooling with such ridiculous ease that I am going to get another one and use it to cool my Aorus GTX1080ti as well. I will then follow that up with some overclocking for the CPU and the GPU. I have other problems (GTN) at the moment which are keeping me totally preoccupied.

The Assassin III is highly recommended by me. Another one to consider, particularly if RAM height is problematic, is the new Corsair (I think A500) which has a very neat and innovative method of adjusting fan height. Performance is not quite up to the Noctua or Deep Cool air coolers, having only a 120mm Fan and being somewhat noisier, but it is certainly up there.

Regards

Tony

I have:

Seagate IronWolfPro 4TB 3.5'' 7200 SATA III (ST4000NE0025)
Pamięć G.Skill Trident Z, DDR4, 16 GB,3600MHz, CL15 (F4-3600C15D-16GTZ)
Asus PRIME Z390-A
Procesor Intel Intel Core i9-9900K, 3.6GHz, 16MB, OEM (CM8068403873914) @ 5GHz
Dysk SSD Samsung 970 PRO 512GB PCIe x4 NVMe (MZ-V7P512BW)
Noctua NH-U12A

MSI GF1080TI

 

I had water cooling but replaced with Noctua. Same cooling effect and safety. I'm electronics engineer. Expensive electronics and liquid is not good connection. Never!

 

Mark

Thanks everybody!  Mark, do you have a case that works well with your parts?  I have a Coolermaster HAF-X case and love it but was hoping to go to a good mid tower.  

I'm using the i9900Kf and Noctua Cooler D-12 - no issues at 4.9Ghz

10 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

 

The Assassin III is highly recommended by me. Another one to consider, particularly if RAM height is problematic, is the new Corsair (I think A500) which has a very neat and innovative method of adjusting fan height. Performance is not quite up to the Noctua or Deep Cool air coolers, having only a 120mm Fan and being somewhat noisier, but it is certainly up there.

Regards

Tony

 

 

Assassin  is a good cooler. There's a new Zalman on the block too that competes well with the Noctua. As for the new Corsiar A500, I've seen reviews of it that weren't too good. Quite a few degrees warmer than the Assassin or Noctua. 

What I like about the Noctua, both the NH-D15 and my Favourite the NH-D15S, is that the centrally mounted fan overlaps the heat sink and blasts lots of air across the motherboard VRM's. The other coolers don't do that. 

17 hours ago, Noel said:

I would like to do a new build with a Noctua cooler.  I know their can be compatibility issues w/ ram and case, so this complicates the process of ordering parts.  So, if you don't a recent build and like your results please share your parts list:

• Motherboard
• Ram (16Gb x2)
• Case (I guess a mid tower is fine won't be much in it)
• Noctua cooler w/ best performance that works w/ the above parts

Thanks in advance!

 

 

I would suggest the NH-D15S Noel. It has one fan as opposed to two, but the loss of one fan only increases temp by two degrees. And of course you can add a second if you want to. Its offset so its further away from the uppermost PCIe slot and has better RAM clearance. The D15 is now available all black, don't thing the "S" variant is yet though. 

65 mm is the RAM clearance for the D15S. I don't have any issue with my GSkill Ripjaws V. 

 

For cases I would suggest Phanteks. Love their cases. I have the Evolv TG, but the newer, updated Evolv X is gorgeous with some great features. I wouldn't say it's the ultimate airflow case but certainly fine for air cooling.

The older TG that I have isn't set up for radiators, the front panel tends to stave the front rad. But the newer X design has much better intakes and better ventilation on top. So fine for air or water. 

Might be worth looking at the Phanteks range. 

Edited February 20, 20206 yr by martin-w

I completed my new build in November:

• ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel Z390 SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard
• G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 4000 (PC4 32000)
• Corsair Hydro Series, H115i PRO RGB, 280mm. Dual 140mm ML PWM Fans, Advanced RGB Lighting & Fan Control w/ Software. Liquid CPU Cooler. CW-9060032-WW. Support: Intel 2066, AMD AM4
• EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 SC Ultra GAMING, 06G-P4-2067-KR, 6GB GDDR6, Dual HDB Fans
• Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake 8-Core, 16-Thread, 3.6 GHz (5.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX80684I99900K Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630
• Cooler Master MasterCase H500M ATX Mid-Tower w/ 4x Side Tempered Glass Panels, Type-C I/O Panel, 2x Vertical GPU Card PCI Slots & 2x 200mm ARGB Fans w/ARGB Controller

The build was more time and labor consuming that what I had experienced in the past, but it was 9 years since my last build.

Overall, I am very pleased.  Using the AI Suite 3, I overclocked up to 4.8G and sometimes as high as 5.0G, but at 5.0 things become unstable and I had BBSD events. I restored the BIOS defaults and now overclock through the BIOS at comfortable 4.7G.  I'm not a savvy overclocker and don't have the time to become one, at least not now. 

The Corsair cooler does very well.  During normal MS Office and internet work, CPU temps are about 30 and in P3D with NGXu they are about 40-50C with some jumps to 60 with 4.7G.  When used the AI Suite and up to 5.0G, Did see some spikes above 600C/  It is also much quieter in my office with the water cooler. 

P3D frame rates are very good in stock scenery no weather, and with NGXu running 30-35 and with the sliders full right (except for AI traffic, air and ground) and running 8xSSAA.  Running Xtreame LJ25, I can get over 40 without any problems.  Add weather (Active Sky) or go to Oribx SoCal, and I have to pulling sliders back to their normal range and use 4xSSAA to get good frame rates.  I also have an IFR setting as well that reduces the autogen, which I don't see anyway.  

If I had to make the choice again, I would still with the Corsair water cooler.  Like many, I was concerned about leakage, but I think we're in good shape with the AIO coolers. 

Now if someone could show my how to tweak this thing! 🙂

Thanks!

Rich Boll

Wichita KS 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Rich & Martin good stuff!  I will check out the Phanteks thanks!