[BEGINNER] Air vs. Liquid cooling, Which coolers to get?

[Electrolyzed]

I'm thinking about buying an i5-4690K. I am wanting to overclock this CPU, but this is my first unlocked CPU, so I'm new to overclocking. Should I stick with a basic air cooler or go for a liquid cooling option?

For air coolers, I was looking at these:
- CM Hyper 212 EVO
- Noctua NH-D14

For liquid cooling I was looking at these:
- Corsair H100i / CM Seidon 240M
- Corsair H80i / CM Nepton 140XL

 

[Godto]

i have the antec 1200 ... and right at the cooler i have a fan blow right on it. one of the cage for hard drive i use 2 fan 1 pull air from out side and the other one blow right at the Ram and cooler. have positive air flow in my case.. but every few month still have to blow the dirt out.

 

[4Ryan6]

hot air rises so i find taking air up instead of moving it sideways to the back is the best and more logical reasoning. Ask Noctua for the 3rd fan mounting kit and they'll send you the clips/plastic risers (to keep fan from touching heatsink) to you you free of charge.

The only problems I see with that mounting solution, is the graphics card is partially obstructing the fan intake, and the heat from the graphics card is being pulled into the CPU heat sink.

The front to rear is an advantage if you can clear an intake path directly in front of the CPU cooler, creating a tunnel air flow effect, and it's benefits also cool the system memory modules, and motherboard VRs, and exhaust the heat very efficiently out of the rear of the case.

I conducted many airflow experiments when I was air cooling and this setup getting fresh outside air directly ported to the heat sink intake was the best cooling performance vs the vertical setup.







A front to rear straight airflow path is the best cooling option, and then the blowholes on top exhaust what heat is left.

Those fans on the Noctua are 120mm 1900rpm Scythe 110cfm Slipstream fans, which cooled much better than the fans that came with the Noctua, and looked better as well, but that's totally my opinion on the fan looks, I just don't like the Tan colored Noctua fans.

 

[unknownofprob]

i have the antec 1200 ... and right at the cooler i have a fan blow right on it. one of the cage for hard drive i use 2 fan 1 pull air from out side and the other one blow right at the Ram and cooler. have positive air flow in my case.. but every few month still have to blow the dirt out.

I have two megaflow 200mm's at the top sucking out a tremendous amount of air, and same sort of thing you have which pushes cool air right through the heatsink and a fan at back which sucks air out which helped temps even further. A simple way to get fans where there are no mounting spots is to just use cable ties.

 

[unknownofprob]

hot air rises so i find taking air up instead of moving it sideways to the back is the best and more logical reasoning. Ask Noctua for the 3rd fan mounting kit and they'll send you the clips/plastic risers (to keep fan from touching heatsink) to you you free of charge.

The only problems I see with that mounting solution, is the graphics card is partially obstructing the fan intake, and the heat from the graphics card is being pulled into the CPU heat sink.

The front to rear is an advantage if you can clear an intake path directly in front of the CPU cooler, creating a tunnel air flow effect, and it's benefits also cool the system memory modules, and motherboard VRs, and exhaust the heat very efficiently out of the rear of the case.

yeah, that is the one major drawback, so I added a megaflow 200 to the side to ease that. I am considering moving the graphics card down a few more slots.

 

[Godto]

damn those Slipstream fan are great .. but 2 of them cost more than my cooler ... hehehe $37 a piece at newegg.. cooler just cost me $75 include tax.

and my set up where your round tube ... i have 2 fan .. i in front and back of it .. but my is square

just a stock antec fan .. but when it for i can turn on high .. normal it on medium and very quiet

 

[4Ryan6]

damn those Slipstream fan are great .. but 2 of them cost more than my cooler ... hehehe $37 a piece at newegg.. cooler just cost me $75 include tax.

and my set up where your round tube ... i have 2 fan .. i in front and back of it .. but my is square

just a stock antec fan .. but when it for i can turn on high .. normal it on medium and very quiet

The Scythe Slipstreams were $9.95 when I bought them but that was 3 years ago, and I'm not sure you can still get the 1900rpm 110cfm fans anymore?

The nice thing about the Slipstreams was the high cfm and the very tolerable noise level.

Many cases come with the square 3 drive carriages fitted for fans, and they are very convenient for an airflow tunnel setup.

 

[unknownofprob]

I actually moved my R9 290X down to the 3rd slot, and the gap between the cooler and GPU is around 7cm, actually did a major improvement. Thanks for the hint 4Ryan6.

I have also considered more 'extreme' options, like adding another fan to the bottom which in theory would force even more air through the heatsink, making a sort of wind tunnel action. Only issue for me would be weight.

 

[4Ryan6]

I actually moved my R9 290X down to the 3rd slot, and the gap between the cooler and GPU is around 7cm, actually did a major improvement. Thanks for the hint 4Ryan6.

I have also considered more 'extreme' options, like adding another fan to the bottom which in theory would force even more air through the heatsink, making a sort of wind tunnel action. Only issue for me would be weight.

You already have 3 fans on it, another one won't make any difference.

Why don't you consider going to matched speed higher cfm 120mm fans?

110cfm Cooljag Everflow, nice quality cooling fan very powerful I have one myself.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5...m_9-Blade_PWM_Fan_R121225BU.html?tl=g36c15s60

116.5cfm Scythe Gentle Typhoon, now it's getting serious!

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12364/fan-810/Scythe_Gentle_Typhoon_120mm_x_25mm_Fan_-_4250_RPM_D1225C12B9AP-30.html?tl=g36c15s60

Or just go for it and use just one of these in the center position 150cfm, you might have to bolt down the case though!

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...Fan_-1500_CFM_PMD1212PTB1-A.html?tl=g36c15s60

 

[unknownofprob]

That's what I am considering down the track, though I saw some review a while ago with 5 fans on the noctua, with an even better improvement in temperature.

The user had the three similar to how i did it (not noctua Fans), but added another two to the front, resulting in an effect of more air being pushed through the heatsink.

 

[4Ryan6]

I just added some fan considerations check them out?

 

[Godto]

have to consider the weight of the extra fan too ... also will need to setup some kind of support for it. if not it bee too much of a stress on MB because of balance too

 

[unknownofprob]

I just added some fan considerations check them out?

great picking out of fans, I may get some of them. Thanks for the links.

4250RPM for a 120mmm fan, noise may be intolerant (44DBA).

 

[4Ryan6]

Two of the Cooljags 110cfm would be just fine, and you will be surprised at the cooling performance difference.

 

[unknownofprob]

Two of the Cooljags 110cfm would be just fine, and you will be surprised at the cooling performance difference.

same amount as airflow as my Megaflows from a 120mm fan!

I'll see what i can find over here in AUS.