Best Optimal cooling using 3x NZXT KRAKEN x61

Alex Dolbilin

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Jan 9, 2015
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I am building my biggest system to date and need some advice in regards to the cooling of my system.
I am running an i7 4790k at 4.6-4.7, msi z97 gaming 9 AC board, 2 way sli gtx 980s and am thinking in putting in either 3 NZXT KRAKEN x61s or one x61 and 2 x41s for the gpu. I have a NZXT Phantom 820 case. In my old case my gpu ( stock cooler was reaching 90c on the core and over 107c on the far end of the board!!! I had a very tight NZXT 440 case. I don't want the same issue to come again. I will be using the pivot fan to blow are onto the gpu. The question that I am wrestling with is the top radiator and the side panel fan. I am uncertain if I should have my top rad ( with probably 4x fans instead of the stock 2x ) pulling or pushing air in while the side panel does the opposite? I'm not sure if that thinking is correct because heat rises but then I feel like my top rad and the rear exhaust would not be able to handle all the pull. Any advice would really be appreciated.
 
1) For the CPU I'd recommend:
a) Running at default 4.4GHz (Turbo).
Overclocking to 4.7GHz won't be noticeable in the real world but raises the temperature quite a lot since you have to raise the voltage and otherwise break the carefully optimized INTEL power management.

b) A Noctua NH-U12S can keep the i7-4790K at 4.4GHz properly cooled while also being SILENT in idle mode and barely audible in full load. I tested this with the CPU fan being the only one spinning.

2) GPU cooling:
I personally would avoid this completely. Several of the cards already run very quiet even when overclocked quite high. LIQUID COOLING won't even benefit much since the POWER level is locked.

I saw this tested several times and I think they got maybe 5% better than liquid versus the best air-cooled card.

3) PUSH vs PULL
I've seen a lot of recommendations to PULL the air into the case for the CPU. This is bad advice for most people. What it does is cool the CPU better since you are sucking in cooler air through the radiator.

However, then you are dumping the hot air into the case which affects the graphics cards greatly. If they were ALSO liquid cooled it may not matter but then you end up with quite a bit of heat over the motherboard which the CASE FANS have to deal with.

*It's worth noting that it's almost certain the cards locked POWER level would max out before temperature was an issue anyway.

SUMMARY:
My recommendations are mainly:
a) use a Noctua NH-U12S cooler
b) run CPU at default 4.4GHz turbo
c) buy regular air-cooled GTX980's
 
Thanks but i prefer the Kraken cooling because its barely audible because of where my PC is located, its also better in terms of temps. As for the GPU cooling i have no choice but to liquid cool because of the temps SLi makes it go up to. I ran a test on my build while using one stock cooler and on Kraken x41 and the x41 kept it at 60c on max load while the stock cooler went up to 72, using a x61 would bring it down to about 57c. P.S GPUs benefit a lot more from being liquid cooled than CPU ( in terms of performance, im not talking about life expectancy ) so since i have the space i will be doing that. I was thinking of doing custom liquid cooling but i dont have the time or money to set it up anyway. OH and im not talking about a reference gtx 980 stock cooler, I have the MSI OC version.