[SOLVED] Actually thinking about a mATX build....

[david_628]

I have pretty much selected all of my components for my next build. i9-9900k, Asus maximus xi, asus rtx 2080ti oc, etc etc. Lots of research, reviews, etc etc etc.

Now, I am sitting here thinking.... can I get what I want in mATX? Do I really need the big motherboard? There are some really great mATX boards and cases out there these days.

I do plan on getting the 9900k to 5ghz on all cores... but thats about it.

So, why shouldn't I go mATX?

 

[Supahos]

What do you plan on using as a cooler

 

[tennis2]

Cooler doesn't matter.

Please buy mATX. hardly anybody needs all the expansion slots of ATX these days. The only reason so many get sold is because manufactures focus their inventory on those larger boards. Then case makers focus on ATX, and the vicious cycle continues. Chicken and egg scenario.

The only way things are going to change are if consumers send a message with their purchases.

 

[Supahos]

Except he'll need a 360mm rad watercooler to have any shot at 5.0 all cores and most matx cases won't suffice

 

[geofelt]

ATX will have 7 expansion slots, M-ATX will have 4.
How many of them do you plan to use?
For most of us, the number is exactly ONE for the graphics card.

I had a need for a case with limited depth of 16".
There are not many around but I found the Silverstone TJ-08E which is working well and I think it should work for you.
It comes with a front 180mm fan that is supplying plenty of fresh air for my 8600K@5.0.
The intake is running half speed feeding a noctua NH-D15s cooler.

I have a GTX1080ti inside and have no heat issues.

 

[Supahos]

There's a mile of difference between a 8600k at 5.0 and and 9900k

 

[tennis2]

Or get basically the same surface area (90%) with a 280 mm radiator....a large number of modern mATX cases support that.

 

[geofelt]

There's a mile of difference between a 8600k at 5.0 and and 9900k

True, but that is what I have and my actual experience.
When I do a stress test with all 6 cores my temperatures are in the 65c range.
The cooler has twin radiator towers and a 140mm fan.
Really not so different from a 280 aio setup.
The difference is where the heat exchange takes place.
With a good case and adequate air intake, I think the need for liquid cooling is overblown.

Here is a review of the NH-D15s in a small case using a I7-8700K:
https://www.performance-computer.com/reviews/noctua-nh-d15s/

 

[Supahos]

It is a really good cooler but still hit 79° at full load on a much less hot of a chip. The aio wasn't that much better, meaning if you really want to go 5.0 on a 9900k a 360 rad is kind of a must

 

[david_628]

What do you plan on using as a cooler

Main use is flight sim. Prepar3d. Plus about 100 addons. And I like to run it at ultra+ settings. Second to that is other mainstream titles... COD, battlefield, etc.

I don't plan on SLI or anything like that. M.2 HDD and 1 RTX2080ti. 32GB ram (2x16).

 

[david_628]

Except he'll need a 360mm rad watercooler to have any shot at 5.0 all cores and most matx cases won't suffice

The case I would likely get is a corsair 280X RGB. it can fit an H115 cpu cooler.

 

[Supahos]

"We tapped Corsair's H115i v2 to test our Core i9-9900K sample in the U.S. lab. This liquid cooler afforded enough headroom to sustain a 5.0 GHz overclock with a 1.33V Vcore and a Load Line Calibration 4 setting. It kept the Chip at a steady 85°C during extended non-AVX stress tests. Folding in AVX instructions did, unfortunately, overwhelm the all-in-one. To reign in the thermal output, we set the AVX offset to -2, meaning the chip ran at 4.8 GHz during AVX-optimized workloads and 5.0 GHz in the absence of AVX instructions. We maintained a temperature of 95°C during three hours of Prime95 using those settings."


https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i9-9900k-9th-gen-cpu,5847-2.html

That leaves you very little room for any extra heat hiding in a case, or dust on things. In other words you kind of need a 360mm rad or give up on the 5.0 oc

 

[tennis2]

12cm x 36cm = 432cm2
14cm x 28cm = 392cm2
Do you really think an extra 10% surface area is going to make a world of difference on a hot chip like the 9900k?

Regardless, there are many mATX cases that support 360mm rads

 

[Supahos]

World of difference no, but it might be the difference between high 80s and low 80s or high 70s. I wouldn't consider the setup in the Tom's review something I would run 24/7 at those temps in the real world