i7-3770K OC'd Best Cooling Solution

[Grieva3]

Hi, I have the above CPU, I have it OC'd to 4Ghz but get very high temps at 100% load (around 90c-94c). What would be the best cooling solution for this, air or water? Suggestions on specific models would be cool (no pun intended haha). I'd also like to overclock the CPU even further. Cheers

 

[ksham]

Water will give you cooler temperatures but for an overclock of 4GHz, an air cooler is sufficient. Try a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO heatsink. It can handle up to 4.5GHz on IB.

 

[i7Baby]

The Noctua NH D14

 

[Grieva3]

Water will give you cooler temperatures but for an overclock of 4GHz, an air cooler is sufficient. Try a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO heatsink. It can handle up to 4.5GHz on IB.

Yeah I've heard good things about that cooler. How noisy it though in your experience? I was originally thinking of water cooling since they're meant to be quieter.

 

[4Ryan6]

Hi, I have the above CPU, I have it OC'd to 4Ghz but get very high temps at 100% load (around 90c-94c). What would be the best cooling solution for this, air or water? Suggestions on specific models would be cool (no pun intended haha). I'd also like to overclock the CPU even further. Cheers

Well you did ask for the OC'd Best Cooling Solution?

Hi I'm running the same i7-3770K CPU as you, click my CPU-Z validation and check the temperature at the time of the validation.

The link below is the cooling I am running to reach that 24/7 overclock.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/282844-29-peltier-water-cooling

 

[ksham]

Not noisy at all. The stock fan isn't quiet but not loud either, but I replaced it with a Noctua NF-F12 w/ low voltage adapter so it's barely audible now. Even with water cooling, make sure the fans cooling the radiator is capable of running quiet operations or else, it'll be loud.

 

[Grieva3]

The Noctua NH D14

I fancy this one, just need to make sure it will fit in my case ! It looks huge. The low decibels are a big plus for me. If I plan on crossfiring 2 R9 290's in the future should I be leaning toward water cooling the CPU though? I'm assuming the 2 gfx cards would make my case a lot warmer.

 

[ksham]

You probably want to do a custom loop and water cool your graphics cards. The CPU Cooler will not cool your graphics cards.

 

[Grieva3]

You probably want to do a custom loop and water cool your graphics cards. The CPU Cooler will not cool your graphics cards.

Sorry, I know the CPU cooler won't cool my graphics cards. I just meant having 2 of them in the case at full load will make the air in the case pretty warm. So would that have a big effect on how cool a CPU air cooler can get my CPU as opposed to a CPU water cooler?

Also, out of interest, how much would a closed loop for the CPU and 2 graphics cards cost? Not really looked into that possibility yet.

 

[ksham]

Sorry, I know the CPU cooler won't cool my graphics cards. I just meant having 2 of them in the case at full load will make the air in the case pretty warm. So would that have a big effect on how cool a CPU air cooler can get my CPU as opposed to a CPU water cooler?

Water cooling will still be cooler. But the hot air inside your case won't have a big impact to how well the air cooler will perform. You should still have decent airflow so heat isn't bottled up inside the case, so there's no big issues there.

Also, out of interest, how much would a closed loop for the CPU and 2 graphics cards cost? Not really looked into that possibility yet.

If you want to do a custom water loop, it can cost quite a bit of money. You have to buy each component. There are CLC that are decent, but not as good as a custom loop of course. Something like the H100i and a few ARCTIC Accelero will go for about $350, so that's also not very cheap. You can probably run your own custom setup for around that price.