I am looking for the best and most affordable liquid cooler for overclocking

MatthewE310

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I have an i7 6700k processor and I am looking for the most affordable liquid cooler that will allow me to overclock to 4.8 ghz and reach acceptable temperatures while gaming. Is there an affordable liquid cooler that will allow me to overclock my cpu to 4.8 ghz while gaming under load and not exceeding temperatures over 70c? I was checking out the Corsair H80i or H100i v2 and I could afford one of them if they will help me accomplish my goal.
 
Solution
it is on the asrock product page. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170M%20Extreme4/
somewhere in the middle on the pictures.
The number of phases is important, but the components used and the method used to achieve the phase count is even more important.
P.S.
Simply counting chokes around CPU socket also gives a rough estimation. But that can be misleading with manufacturers like MSI, ASRock, Biostar as sometimes they just use double the amount of components to "look" serious. good voltage controllers are expensive.

MatthewE310

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I've just looked at it right now and I see that it has a 280mm radiator. I can't find any straight forward benchmarks on the water coolers to see which ones could perform better with an i7 overclocked to the max clock speeds. It would be great if comparisons of water coolers were conveniently as easy to access as GPU or CPU benchmarks through the internet.
 
there is no such thing as "affordable" liquid cooling.
until you get into 140-160USD for things like Swiftech H220 X2 or EK Predator 240, it's crap coolers that have almost 0 practical justification to exist.
that means Corsair, NZXT, TT Arctic, DeepCool and many others are total crap.
you get better noise and thermal perfromance with much cheaper and much more reliable high end air coolers.
 

Vic 40

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Although he has some point if you want to use a watercooler go for it.

A few to look for ,
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/sFzv6h,G7PzK8,kbhj4D,Dz648d/
going up in price. How they will perform is also dependent on how low you can keep your voltage when overclocking,so how lucky are you in the silicon lottery.That 4.8ghz is nothing anyone here can guarantee.
 

MatthewE310

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What about getting a water cooler that is 360mm?
 

MatthewE310

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There are liquid coolers that cost 140-160 USD made by Corsair or NZXT, such as the Corsair H115i Extreme or NZXT Kraken X62. I thought that the only difference of these coolers compared to others ones are that you can't change the liquid from the cooling system, hence they don't last as long? Because shouldn't all of these coolers all have similar components and function similarly, but the only difference is that the ones you are criticizing are disposable? I never asked for an actual affordable liquid cooler, since the word "affordable" could be subjective. I was only asking for the most affordable ones that could help me achieve my goals. That could possibly mean a cooler that is $160 or even $200 if necessary. I am very intimidated of the idea of installing a liquid cooler that doesn't include liquid and requires me to add the liquid myself. I like simplicity of use.
 

Vic 40

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Depends on what your case supports and might not make such a difference.If you want a good performance is the Cryorig a very nice cooler
The Corsair H105 is also a good choice,
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Ld3RsY/corsair-cpu-cooler-cw9060016ww
or if you can get it,
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XGM323/silverstone-tundra-td02-slim-359-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-td02-slim
no price here.Was often cheaper than the others mentioned.
 

MatthewE310

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My case is the Corsair Air 740. I was looking at the Arctic Liquid Freezer 360 as a possible purchase. It is a 360mm liquid cooler and it only costs $120. Plus it has 6 years manufacturer's warranty. Maybe I should buy it if I have nothing to lose?
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4Qhj4D/arctic-liquid-freezer-360-740-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-acfre00022a
 

MatthewE310

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Most liquid coolers come with a 5 to 6 year manufacturer's warranty. Hopefully that means quality control should not be an issue, especially if I use it for the whole warranty period.
 

BigBoomBoom

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Deepcool Gamerstorm Captain 240 Ex (updated version) only offer 3 years warranty, though I often hear it broke down within 6m - 1 year. You could try it if you don't mind the risk, it's really the cheapest competitive AIO. it's same price as H80i but perform like H100i, with LED on top.
 

MatthewE310

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My budget is around $150. I prefer to get the best for that price.
 

amtseung

Distinguished
EK Predator 360 or Swiftech H320.

Other 360 rad AIO's include the Thermaltake's water 3.0, Raijintek Triton, Fractal's Kelvin s36, I think silverstone has one, etc.

I still think you should totally buy one of Thermaltake or EKWB or Alphacool's everything-you-need-in-a-box water cooling kits; you get all the performance and fun of building/using a custom loop, without the time spent scouring pages of catalogues to find compatible parts, colors, and metals.

IMO, most of the sealed AIO's have roughly similar designs/constructions/materials. What'll really make the difference in thermal performance between all of them are the fans used and pump flow rate/head pressure. Sticking a slough of Gentle Typhoons on any AIO is going to make it outperform the stock fans any day. At least, that was the case with my H100i before I discovered it gargling like a drowning man 22 months after I'd bought it.
 

MatthewE310

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If there was an "everything you need" water cooling kit that costs no more than $150 and is easy to install, then I would definitely go for it.
 


They are very different almost on any level.
Lets' take for example corsair and nzxt - their liquid coolers are made by asetek and coolit. you can see a teardown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc07JtDerUw&t
to summarize, they have anemic pump, aluminum radiator - thus high fin density - thus high RPM fans and some copper plate that serves as cold plate (the one that contacts CPU).
If you look at Swiftech or EK you get AiO made of enthusiast grade components:
1. Real pump (xylem DDC) that can reliably push the liquid through the loop at lower speed = lower noise and higher reliability. this pump also allows to add components to the loop as it can handle 1-2 GPU blocks and couple of radiators.
2. Full copper radiators - much better heat dissipation + lower noise
3. Real high end CPU water blocks.
not to mention that they are customizable , expandable and serviceable.
And this is called "entry level".
If you are really want to start with liquid, those (swiftech and EK) are the most affordable.
Though the later is currently EoL as it will be replaced by something new soon.
 

MatthewE310

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I was thinking of getting the Swiftech H320. Is that a great choice for overclocking my i7 6700k to 4.8 ghz?
 
For CPU alone, it's overkill. unless you plan to expand it to GPU in the future. 240-280mm rad is all you need to keep the CPU cool enough under any overclock.
no cooler will guarantee the 4.8GHz overclock. The overclock result, mostly depends on your luck with the particular CPU you have. It also depends on the MB and PSU. MB should have decent VRM (good current capabilities with enough power phases) and PSU should be able to provide "clean" power.
 

MatthewE310

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I have an Asrock Z170M Extreme 4 Micro Atx motherboard and a Raidmax Vampire 700W 80+ Gold Certified PSU. I would assume that my motherboard and PSU qualify for maximum overclocking, is this correct?
 
I will not comment on the PSU (too lazy to search for it).
So let's talk about the MB. Not sure it is "qualifying". ASRock claim that it's 6 phases, though i could count only 5 chokes (inductors) by the heat sink close to the CPU + 2 without cooling above the CPU socket. So my guess is that the (probably) two phases above CPU socket are for iGPU etc - not interesting.
That leaves us with the "weird" 5. Since I can not find a pic of that board without VRM heatsink, I can only guess.
1. it can be 5 phases for vcore and the two are actually 1 with double amount of components - weird.
2. it can be 4 +2 phases. which again kinda weird to see with 5 chokes.
I can not see the and thus can not tell you if it's true 4-5 phases or just doubled or fake phases. Also can not tell you the current capabilities and the efficiency of the MOSFETs.
It will work on stock clocks. it will work with slight overclock. I can not tell if it will be able to hold 1.3v and up at full CPU load for hours. I've seen better boards with true 6 phases failing to do so due to VRM overheat. Best case, the system crashes, worst case it can kill the MB.
So assuming you can achieve 4.8GHz with the CPU, I doubt this MB will be able to pass 2-3 hours stress test.
It might work stable enough for gaming since the gaming load does not put that much stress on CPU as other tasks.

P.S.
By no means I'm trying to discourage you on overclocking or bashing your system.
Just trying to explain what you can and can not expect from your system.
You will be probably able to get 4.5GHz, but no guarantee beyond that.
 

MatthewE310

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How can you tell how many power phases that a motherboard has? I cannot find this information online.
 
it is on the asrock product page. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170M%20Extreme4/
somewhere in the middle on the pictures.
The number of phases is important, but the components used and the method used to achieve the phase count is even more important.
P.S.
Simply counting chokes around CPU socket also gives a rough estimation. But that can be misleading with manufacturers like MSI, ASRock, Biostar as sometimes they just use double the amount of components to "look" serious. good voltage controllers are expensive.
 
Solution

BigBoomBoom

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For comparison I'm using Gigabyte Z270 Gaming K3 which has 7 power phase and there's no problem reaching 4.8Ghz at 1.39V stable, and most reviewers would put that as a fairly weak (still got the job done) motherboard.