Question Coolers for a 3d rendering build

[Nocturnal Storm]

Hi,

I am from South Africa

Currently I haven't bought any hardware besides the case which is a P600S, I am going back and forth about which to go for, AMD or Intel. With many people saying the D15 is the best air cooler for high end processors and they also recommend AIOs, I am really struggling to find the best option for my pc needs

Currently I am looking the 12600K or 12700k if I go Intel, the motherboards I am looking at are the z690 tomahawk or carbon if I go Intel.

I am not going to be over clocking at all just rendering , I am waiting for the AM5 processors and motherboard to come out so I can compare prices between AMD and Intel however if I were to go with current AMD processors with ddr4 I would pick the x570 unify motherboard paired with the Ryzen 5700 or 5800x3d.

Whichever is the better option my gpu of choice would be Palit GeForce 3060-Ti but I understand the 4000 series is coming so I might do the 4060 Ti when it comes out. Lastly I have seen some good reviews on the the NH-U12A chromax.black. My big question is, is it worth it for the 12600K?

I appreciate all the advice and recommendations in advance.

 

[Cyberat_88]

3D Rendering and possible video rendering - AMD/AMD. Ryzen 5900x and RX-6900 if you can afford it. But professional video cards are not comparable to consumer/gaming.
Depending on how serious and what your budget is, a professional GPU is in the $5000 USD range all by itself.
The new 8 + X core design from intel (Gen 9 - 13) is not appealing at all, low stock speeds, they are so ashamed they put forth only the Turbo speed.

 

[Lafong]

I'd think air cooling would be fine up through the Intel i7 line. The D15 Noctua should give you maybe 5 degrees lower temps than the U12A. I'd be happy with either, but you may be hyper-anxious about temps?

 

[Cyberat_88]

Don't buy "quiet" fans and hyped up names, just a waste of money. Liquid cooling will keep your system alive for many years and fans' true rating is CFM (cubic feet of air per minute). The higher the better.

 

[Nocturnal Storm]

Don't buy "quiet" fans and hyped up names, just a waste of money. Liquid cooling will keep your system alive for many years and fans' true rating is CFM (cubic feet of air per minute). The higher the better.

Honestly I am not bothered by fan noise, I have been doing 3d rendering for years but with current high-end processors being so powerful I am fully aware of the need to keep them cool many people go on about how loud AIOs get, my main goal is to pursue 3D rendering as a career but I am trying to choose the right specs that will get the job done. I am also taking into account that AIOs need more maintenance especially if the pump fails and being in a wheelchair, I thought air cooling would be better.

I am currently looking at these fans to replace the phanteks case fans.

Corsair CO-9050045-WW ML140 Pro 140mm Magnetic Levitation Fan

My reasons for these fans are
1, 2000 rpm
2. No rgb
3.140 mm means better air cooling
4. As far as I know they have a 5 year warranty.

I am not looking for a Chinese new year light show setup. On the gpu side I have currently budgeted for the 3060 ti or amd equivalent so I doubt I will be able to go higher.

 

[Cyberat_88]

I have a liquid cooler with 2 fans on radiator, 2 upfront fans and one in the rear. With the front door closed I hear nothing at peak.
However, I did install a 15K RPM fan on the outside for exhaust, that one does sound like a jet at times, just letting me know CPU is past 55C.
If the pump fails you don't mess with it, replace the whole kit. This Corsair H100i lasted me through hours of daily gaming for 5yrs. and going.
If you're well enough to assemble the PC, you'll be ok replacing any 1 part. Worst case scenario doesn't always happen, it's extremely rare.

 

[KyaraM]

The Noctua NH-D15 is a great cooler amd the NH-U12A is a good option, too. You should try see if the BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 is cheaper, though, it is an excellent cooler as well and at least in my country significantly less expensive than Noctua. No need for an overly expensive water cooler for the 12700K if you want to go that route. Heck, got one of those to run under a Pure Rock 2... people are often ofterreacting. Also, the MSI Pro Z690-A is a great option together with the boards you listed, and likely the most affordable. You should also think about whether or not you want to go DDR4 or DDR5. Btw, Raptor Lake should release around the same time as AMD and might keep its current lead in performance. Something to consider as well if you want to wait and see what the next generation brings.

Don't go with the 5800X3D. Overrated and actually bad for almost everything not gaming. You will be happier with the i7 or something like a 5900X. Personally, I would go with the Intel and it looks like system builders dedicated to workstations agree:

AMD Ryzen 5800X3D vs 5800X for Content Creation

AMD has recently released the Ryzen 5800X3D, which is their first desktop processor using 3D-stacked L3 cache. This CPU has been very clearly marketed towards the gaming industry - and not content creation - but we wanted to see how well it holds up in content creation applications like...

www.pugetsystems.com

You will be much happier with the Intel chip than the 5800X3D. No matter if you pick the 12600k or 12700k.

 

[geofelt]

On cooling, Noctua keeps a suitability table of their coolers for different processors.
Here is the chart for the I7-12700k:
https://ncc.noctua.at/cpus/model/Intel-Core-i7-12700K-1579

There is also a chart for motherboards that I would check.
Some Asus boards have vrm cooler shrouds that can cause incompatibilit with air coolers.
https://ncc.noctua.at/motherboards
Your case is a good one for air cooling, you can mount any cooler you want.

One extra caveat is to check the height of your ram.
Low profile like Corsair LPX will be ok with anything.
But if you are using ram with tall heat spreaders, you should opt for the NH-D15s

The NH-D15/s has about the same cooling capability as a 280 aio.
If you need stronger, then you are looking at a 360 sized aio.
Ultimately, the capability of any cooler is determined by the volume of the radiator involved.
The NH-U12a looks to be almost as good as the nh-D15.

On graphics, 4000 series is speculation today.
The list price performance will be better.(otherwise, why introduce a new card?
But early adopters and speculators will drive prices past msrp to begin with.

If your rendering app can use cuda cores to assist, the number of cuda cores will be more important than their performance.

 

[Nocturnal Storm]

On cooling, Noctua keeps a suitability table of their coolers for different processors.
Here is the chart for the I7-12700k:
https://ncc.noctua.at/cpus/model/Intel-Core-i7-12700K-1579

There is also a chart for motherboards that I would check.
Some Asus boards have vrm cooler shrouds that can cause incompatibilit with air coolers.
https://ncc.noctua.at/motherboards
Your case is a good one for air cooling, you can mount any cooler you want.

One extra caveat is to check the height of your ram.
Low profile like Corsair LPX will be ok with anything.
But if you are using ram with tall heat spreaders, you should opt for the NH-D15s

The NH-D15/s has about the same cooling capability as a 280 aio.
If you need stronger, then you are looking at a 360 sized aio.
Ultimately, the capability of any cooler is determined by the volume of the radiator involved.
The NH-U12a looks to be almost as good as the nh-D15.

On graphics, 4000 series is speculation today.
The list price performance will be better.(otherwise, why introduce a new card?
But early adopters and speculators will drive prices past msrp to begin with.

If your rendering app can use cuda cores to assist, the number of cuda cores will be more important than their performance.

HI geofelt,

I am currently using Daz Studio with the iray render engine so cuda core count is important, I think anyway.

I am considering one of the Corsair 360 coolers but still keeping an open mind about air cooling and if my budget allows it, 128 gig ram and if I can at least 4060 TI but if push comes to shove 3070 or 80 depending on price.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[Nocturnal Storm]

The Noctua NH-D15 is a great cooler amd the NH-U12A is a good option, too. You should try see if the BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 is cheaper, though, it is an excellent cooler as well and at least in my country significantly less expensive than Noctua. No need for an overly expensive water cooler for the 12700K if you want to go that route. Heck, got one of those to run under a Pure Rock 2... people are often ofterreacting. Also, the MSI Pro Z690-A is a great option together with the boards you listed, and likely the most affordable. You should also think about whether or not you want to go DDR4 or DDR5. Btw, Raptor Lake should release around the same time as AMD and might keep its current lead in performance. Something to consider as well if you want to wait and see what the next generation brings.

Don't go with the 5800X3D. Overrated and actually bad for almost everything not gaming. You will be happier with the i7 or something like a 5900X. Personally, I would go with the Intel and it looks like system builders dedicated to workstations agree:

AMD Ryzen 5800X3D vs 5800X for Content Creation

AMD has recently released the Ryzen 5800X3D, which is their first desktop processor using 3D-stacked L3 cache. This CPU has been very clearly marketed towards the gaming industry - and not content creation - but we wanted to see how well it holds up in content creation applications like...

www.pugetsystems.com

You will be much happier with the Intel chip than the 5800X3D. No matter if you pick the 12600k or 12700k.

HI KyaraM

If I go the amd route, I won't go anything under 5900X as I need reasonable rendering times, not hours but hopefully less than 1 hour.

I am definitely going the DDR5 route even though it is more expensive.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Nocturnal Storm]

I have a liquid cooler with 2 fans on radiator, 2 upfront fans and one in the rear. With the front door closed I hear nothing at peak.
However, I did install a 15K RPM fan on the outside for exhaust, that one does sound like a jet at times, just letting me know CPU is past 55C.
If the pump fails you don't mess with it, replace the whole kit. This Corsair H100i lasted me through hours of daily gaming for 5yrs. and going.
If you're well enough to assemble the PC, you'll be ok replacing any 1 part. Worst case scenario doesn't always happen, it's extremely rare.

HI Cyberat

I am looking at the Corsair CW-9060060-WW iCUE H150i RGB ELITE 360mm Liquid CPU Cooler with 3 intake fans in front and one at the rear but also air cooling into consideration. It just depends on my budget.

Thanks for your feedback.