Question Cooling recommendations for i7 10700k

[jumanjistevensen]

Hey folks, I posted a few weeks ago in this forum detailing a overheating problem with my build of 3 years now utilizing a i7 10700k. My main uses are for creative work and gaming. I will link the previous post that I made on these forums here for details regarding the issue of overheating and pictures of my current rig. Essentially it has been narrowed down to a potential AIO cooler failure, which is to no surprise as I neglected to really take cooling into consideration as I am a novice when it came to building my rig 3 years ago.

My Specs:

CPU: i7 10700k
Motherboard: Rog Strix z490 F Gaming
GPU: RTX 2070 Super (gigabyte) 8gb
PSU: Corsair rm 750x
RAM: Gskillz DDR4-3603 / PC4-28800 DDR4 SDRAM
Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100x Extreme Performance Liquid / Water 240mm CPU Cooler
Case: Thermaltake VIEW 22

I have noticed thru some smoke tests that my case is definitely in a vacuum with more air being pushed out rather than in. I currently only have the one 240 mm AIO as well as a chassis fan that came with the case initially. Currently my system is idling at approximately 39-45c, and will shoot up to 60-65c when watching streams or doing anything slightly taxing. Gaming can bring my temps up instantly to the high 80s and even 90s.

Just wanted some legitimate advice on here before shelfing out money on fans that may not be efficient or worth it in the long run (or may risk compatibility with my current rig). I also wanted to ask this here as I am potentially thinking of upgrading my rig within the next few months, so ideally these fans purchased now will be usable for the next build. I have seen countless videos comparing the higher end air coolers and all in ones and am honestly having a tough time deciding which would be better for my use case.

Thank you once again to anybody that can help me out! Any input is appreciated!

 

[Lafong]

Please clarify, which is more accurate:

You currently have a Corsair Hydro Series H100x and intend to stay with it through any upcoming rebuild. Your questions are only about helping it out via case fans.

Or

You currently have a Corsair Hydro Series H100x and are perfectly willing to abandon it, either now or "in the next few months" when you upgrade the PC.

Or.....what exactly?

 

[jumanjistevensen]

Please clarify, which is more accurate:

You currently have a Corsair Hydro Series H100x and intend to stay with it through any upcoming rebuild. Your questions are only about helping it out via case fans.

Or

You currently have a Corsair Hydro Series H100x and are perfectly willing to abandon it, either now or "in the next few months" when you upgrade the PC.

Or.....what exactly?

I guess in a sense both? I am fully willing to replace my current AIO right now as my previous post had folks respond stating that my sudden overheating can be a result of my current AIO just simply failing. In addition to that I am asking for recommendations on additional case fans setups, and was hoping that the suggestions made for both AIO and case fans that I would be installing on my current rig can also ideally translate to a potential new build that I am thinking of building at the end of this year or the beginning of next year (I am still awaiting next gen Intel CPUs and upgraded 4000 series GPUs that have more VRAM - consequently prices may drop when this happens for existing options).

To note, this is my second build and I honestly completely neglected to care about my cooling peripherals as a novice and now I am noticing the consequences of this. I am trying to learn more about this topic in general as well.

I hope this answers the question. Thank you for taking time to respond.

 

[geofelt]

What is the problem you are trying to fix?
Your idle and load temperatures are fine.
Intel processors are happy to run up to their thermal limit of 100c.

Can you do better?? Certainly.
But is there any value in doing so?

In time, your aio will fail.
The mechanical pump will fail or collect debris.
Air will intrude through the tubes.
One might expect a 5(+ or-) year lifespan.

 

[jumanjistevensen]

What is the problem you are trying to fix?
Your idle and load temperatures are fine.
Intel processors are happy to run up to their thermal limit of 100c.

Can you do better?? Certainly.
But is there any value in doing so?

In time, your aio will fail.
The mechanical pump will fail or collect debris.
Air will intrude through the tubes.
One might expect a 5(+ or-) year lifespan.

The problem is that I never really monitored my temps up until recently when the CPU red light turned on on my motherboard. Ever since then I have noticed that the CPU light will turn on when my temps reach over 100c on the CPU (usually during playing games). I obviously want to prevent this issue going forward so I can squeeze out more use out of my current setup before I build a new rig in the next year.

As you stated I can do better in terms of cooling and I am asking for advice/direction for any fan types or brands of fans that I can take into account when replacing my current rigs cooling set up. (Also based off my ancient case that I have provided photos in the linked post)

To note, I never got the cpu red light on the motherboard until recently, running full turbo so all cores running at 5.1 ghz consistently.

It is preventing me from using applications on my current set up as I am afraid of frying my current components to the point where I can no longer use it.

Thank you once again!

 

[geofelt]

The processor will monitor it's own temperature and will slow down or even shut off to protect itself.
That point is 100c.

Monitor with HWmonitor.
It will record the minimum, current and max temperatures for each core.
Try a simple stress test. CPU-Z stress is easy.
If you see a core max temperature at 100c. it means that that core throttled a bit but kept on running. That is good.
If you are getting crashes when that happens, you need to investigate.

Since you are using a aio cooler that has some age on it, that could be one reason.
If you are contemplating changing cooler, noctua keeps a list of suitable coolers.
Here is the list for the 10700k:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFgswzTvyc

Your case supports air coolers up to 160mm.
The best that would fit would be the noctua NH-D15s

 

[Lafong]

I probably would not expect a change in case fans to make a significant difference, using the same case...as long current fans are "working", 120 mm or larger, and spinning at say 1000 rpm or above.

How likely is it that you will buy a new case during your rebuild?

Case airflow and CPU coolers have major effects on temps.

Offhand...I'd guess that your current problems are related to the AIO, more than the case.

Unless I had an over-riding attraction to liquid cooling, I'd replace it with air cooling now, using the current case and case fans. Exception: if you can determine that your current AIO is in good working order and something else is going on.

Re-evaluate at that time.

If unhappy, consider new case with better airflow during your rebuild. You'd have to ensure that any newly purchased air cooler would fit in that case.

Any new case will come with new case fans. Evaluate them at that time.

I suppose there is some chance that your work load, ambient temps, case, and case fans are so non-typical that an AIO replacement is near mandatory. That would be a small chance.

 

[jumanjistevensen]

The processor will monitor it's own temperature and will slow down or even shut off to protect itself.
That point is 100c.

Monitor with HWmonitor.
It will record the minimum, current and max temperatures for each core.
Try a simple stress test. CPU-Z stress is easy.
If you see a core max temperature at 100c. it means that that core throttled a bit but kept on running. That is good.
If you are getting crashes when that happens, you need to investigate.

Since you are using a aio cooler that has some age on it, that could be one reason.
If you are contemplating changing cooler, noctua keeps a list of suitable coolers.
Here is the list for the 10700k:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFgswzTvyc

Your case supports air coolers up to 160mm.
The best that would fit would be the noctua NH-D15s

Hi thank you for the reply.

I do use HWmonitor. Here is an additional hwinfo reading of my computer whilst using youtube on chrome (not showing thermal throttle) and while I am running a game (in this case CSGO and showing that I have reach TJmax). I have not ran games long enough while reaching 100c as shown in the image to the point where the system shuts down. I do still think that cooling here is the issue.

I am relatively set on an AIO as my case can house up to 1 radiator up to 360 mm (You can see on the manufacture website here). My question is would a 280 mm be sufficient or should I purchase a 360 and is there a preferred AIO brand now in 2023? (I ask this as I have read on forums that the cooling difference between 280 and 360 is potentially negligible for the price difference) I also was very interested in air coolers such as the noctua or deepcool as they do not fail or break as quickly as a AIO, but I have read that those can potentially cause pressure on the MB due to the heavy heat sinks that need to be directly connected to the CPU, and may not be as effective with cpus utilizing intel turbo.

For basic case fans, would noctua be the best bet in terms of brand? I am seeing that there are other competitors that are currently coming out with fan designs that are good as the noctua fans seem to be sold at a slight premium. While I certainly dont want to cheap out on the fans as I will hopefully be using them in the next build, I would like something within the balance of price to performance.

Thank you again!

 

[jumanjistevensen]

I probably would not expect a change in case fans to make a significant difference, using the same case...as long current fans are "working", 120 mm or larger, and spinning at say 1000 rpm or above.

How likely is it that you will buy a new case during your rebuild?

Case airflow and CPU coolers have major effects on temps.

Offhand...I'd guess that your current problems are related to the AIO, more than the case.

Unless I had an over-riding attraction to liquid cooling, I'd replace it with air cooling now, using the current case and case fans. Exception: if you can determine that your current AIO is in good working order and something else is going on.

Re-evaluate at that time.

If unhappy, consider new case with better airflow during your rebuild. You'd have to ensure that any newly purchased air cooler would fit in that case.

Any new case will come with new case fans. Evaluate them at that time.

I suppose there is some chance that your work load, ambient temps, case, and case fans are so non-typical that an AIO replacement is near mandatory. That would be a small chance.

Understood. I am also willing to purchase a new case as I feel like my current case is just way too awkwardly big. I would want something such as this as I have considered going smaller than a ATX and into potentially mATX or ITX cases. I understand this further complicates things but I was thinking that my current build is maybe reaching its life line as I am unable to run newer titles at the max fps I want and I wanted to utilize a GPU with more VRAM going forward and believed this would require me to replace my current CPU and consequently MB. Currently I am unable to run games without my CPU redlight on my MB turning on, which is caused by my CPU hitting over 100C in temps.

Any particular air cooler that you recommend based off my build currently?

I could potentially switch my current set up to a new case with a new AIO if this can also help me lower my temps.

Thank you once again for responding and keeping up with this jumbled thread.

 

[Lafong]

There are likely other case fans that are as "good" as Noctuas if you have little concern for noise and simply want a lot of airflow.

A poorly designed case is not likely to be "saved" by the distinction between case fans.

I use only Noctuas, but I don't like noise. None of my fans spin above 800 ever.

Any fan, Noctuas included, are going to become quite audible at 3 or 4 feet as they get up near 1500 rpm. You might not care about that.

Yeah, Noctua gets away with a premium price and reputation. Not a major deal, but their coolers include good thermal paste and accessories.

I can't recall the last time I heard of a heavy air cooler causing motherboard issues, but I'd guess it's a possibility. Obviously, when transporting a case, keep it in an orientation that avoids that...which would be with motherboard side down and horizontal and the cooler fully upright.

There are a lot of adamant opinions on liquid versus air, much like Intel versus AMD. Few minds change, as if the topic were religion.

 

[jumanjistevensen]

There are likely other case fans that are as "good" as Noctuas if you have little concern for noise and simply want a lot of airflow.

A poorly designed case is not likely to be "saved" by the distinction between case fans.

I use only Noctuas, but I don't like noise. None of my fans spin above 800 ever.

Any fan, Noctuas included, are going to become quite audible at 3 or 4 feet as they get up near 1500 rpm. You might not care about that.

Yeah, Noctua gets away with a premium price and reputation. Not a major deal, but their coolers include good thermal paste and accessories.

I can't recall the last time I heard of a heavy air cooler causing motherboard issues, but I'd guess it's a possibility. Obviously, when transporting a case, keep it in an orientation that avoids that...which would be with motherboard side down and horizontal and the cooler fully upright.

There are a lot of adamant opinions on liquid versus air, much like Intel versus AMD. Few minds change, as if the topic were religion.

Thank you once again for the prompt reply. I guess that would make sense considering the differences even in comparison videos seem to be going back and forth.

Regarding my case - would it be optimal to change now with and reseat my current rig into the ASUS case I linked above, or simply purchase fans and an AIO for my current case/rig and wait on buying a case until I would build another rig.

If a different case (since my current case is almost 6 years old) would help in lowering temps and allowing me to utilize this rig for longer, I think it would potentially be worth the investment now.

 

[Lafong]

I like that AP201 case myself, but....................it has a major peculiarity.

The power supply mounts right behind the front panel, at any of 3 heights.

You have to pull off a side panel to get at the power supply rocker switch.

You have to use an interior extension cord thingy to connect the power supply to your external source.

Worse yet, CERTAIN power supply connection sockets are oriented in such a way that connection them at all is all but impossible due to the cramped mounting location.

So...if you INSIST on that case, be prepared to jump through major hoops to confirm your power supply is in fact usable.

You can find reviews online with the gory detail. I did.

There's nothing inherently wrong with mATX motherboards, but beware "mATX" cases. Most of them are nearly the same size as a random mid-tower. At least 17 inches in at least 1 dimension.

Look at the dimensions of the AP201. Not "smallish".

You can go with mATX "cube style" cases, but that involves a lot of compromises. So does ITX. Purely a personal decision on that. I thought about it long and hard and said no.

Your current case is apparently limited to 160 mm coolers. That would allow most, but I think there are a few up to 165 mm that would not fit.

Other upper level air: Thermalright Peerless Assassin; one or two from DeepCool. A few Noctuas.

 

[Lafong]

First thing I'd do:

Determine once and for all if your current AIO is in fact on the way out and can't be "fixed".

Yes or no. Come to a conclusion on that.

I have no idea and can't help on that diagnosis. Maybe you already got such a diagnosis? Maybe you got speculation?

 

[jumanjistevensen]

First thing I'd do:

Determine once and for all if your current AIO is in fact on the way out and can't be "fixed".

Yes or no. Come to a conclusion on that.

I have no idea and can't help on that diagnosis. Maybe you already got such a diagnosis? Maybe you got speculation?

Hi it actually states on the website of view 22 that my case is in fact compatible with AIO's up to 360 mm as seen in the schematic on the product page here.

Additionally I have trouble shooted most things such as cleaning out the case, reseating CPU/ repasting thermal paste and lowering the core clock to 4.9 ghz (disabling ASUS enforced core boost in BIOS) and despite all of this effort my temps still hit 100c on basic gaming workloads and triggers the cpu red light on my mobo. This has caused significant performance drops as my rig was able to run CSGO at 400 fps stable in the first year, but now will fluctuate between 200-350 fps despite lowering graphics in the game. I believe this is due to my cooling failing. I will link my original trouble shooting post made on this forum about a week ago here.

I am not set on mATX or ITX, just simply liked the prospect of having a set up that did not take up an insane amount of space as my current living space is not the largest.

That is why at this point I am determining what kind of cooler to replace my current 240mm AIO as well as supplement my rig with additional case fans as this is something I have neglected for quite some time.

 

[jumanjistevensen]

Hey folks just wanted to provide an update regarding my PC matter:

In the past few days I attempted to test everything within the BIOS to attempt to lower temps to see if this was simply a CPU going bad after 3 years of use. I have lowered my core speed by 3.00mghz, from the original 5.1 to now 4.8. This allowed my temps to drop by around 5-8 C on medium loads but would still throttle with gaming peaking over 100c on a few cores. I checked my voltages and it seemed to max out at 1.3 V max, which is significantly lower than the original max of 1.45V or so.

As a result I feel like this is indeed a failed AiO.

I ended up purchasing a Deepcool AK620 with an additional 5 pack of arctic p12 (not PWM) fans and additionally x2 of Arctic p12 MAX fans (which I believe are PWM).

I am supposed to receive all parts by the end of this week but I was thinking terms of in take I place 3 of the Arctic p12 fans in the front as intake, and place one of the p12 MAX fans as the rear chassis exhaust to replace my now nearly 6 year old thermaltake stock fan that came with the case when originally purchased.

I figured that some of the newer Air cooling systems come at a slightly cheaper price point with competitive performance without the headscratching that can potentially come with an AiO cooler (As I have been dealing with this exact problem). The Deepcool ak620 seemed like a good budget option suitable for my 10th gen intel cpu as it is recommended on more modern CPUs that seem to draw more power and produce more heat. I would have went with the Noctua U12a or d15 as well, but I had to take into account the 160mm clearance my ancient case allows, and it seems that the AK620 clears this according to manufacturers specs and being significantly more budget friendly.

I also read that since the stock deepcool 120mm fans on the air cooler is capped at 1850 RPM, that I can potentially switch them for equal thickness aftermarket fans for higher RPM. I am unsure if this is necessary before I test the ak620 with its stock fans, but I figured I should also mention I am open to the idea of switching the stock fans for something potentially more quiet and effective from brands like Noctua.

Thank you once again for the replies and I will try to update after everything has been placed.

 

[jumanjistevensen]

UPDATE:

Happy Labor day weekend folks.

I was able to replace everything and have been running games + creative apps for 2 days straight and maintaining 40-50 c under load with new fans. It seems the AIO was the problem all a long.

Was able to increase core clock of CPU back to 5.0 ghz as well.

Thank you once again to everybody that took the time to help! Cheers!