Question Can I use my cooler from my i5 6400 to my i7 9700K?

[landonhoward98]

I just recently bought a new i7 9700K, and I have a new cooler delivered by Tuesday, but I wasn't sure if I could reuse my old cooler for now, until my H100i 240mm fan comes in Tuesday. Should I wait, or is it fine for 2 days?

 

[delaro]

The socket hasn't changed physically so yes your old cooler will work.

 

[Karadjgne]

No.
And yes.
Physically the pinouts are the same for any lga115x series, so any lga115x cooler will physically work in that respect.
No because you are moving from a 65w 4c/4t cpu to a 95w 6c/6t cpu and that's just TDP. Expect actual heat outputs to be quite different under gaming loads.

You can wait 2 days, it's not going to kill you, but there's no point pushing your luck.

Of course that means nothing if your current cooler is considerably better than the original stock cooler that came with the 6400, in which case even a budget cooler like a hyper212 is good for the 9700k, just don't try OC yet.

 

[mdd1963]

a tiny Intel factory cooler designed for a 65 watt CPU on top of a 9700K? It might fit, but,be prepared for constant throttling, i.e, running all cores at 3.5 GHz or so... oh, and 99C temps.. 🙁

 

[guanyu210379]

Mechanical connection (mounting, etc.): yes, things still are compatible.
TDP compatibility: Hell no! but if it is only for 2 days...perhaps...for light works