Noctua NH-D15 vs Corsair H100i v2 vs H110i

[gerilovski]

Hey, so I'm building a new PC soon, and I'm getting an i7 7700k, which I'd like to overclock in a few years when it starts underperforming. I'll be using an Aorus z270x Gaming 7 mobo, and the case will probably be either Corsair Air 540 or Air 740 (if I can get my hands on a 740 I will, since it's hard to find some stuff in my country and I'd rather not order from amazon etc.). I was wondering if I should go for a liquid cooling or air one. I'd prefer going with the stock fans that go with the cooler, because I don't want to spend more money on additional fans and throw the stock ones away. Basically I've narrowed the choice down to those coolers:
Noctua NH-D15
Corsair CPU Cooler Hydro H100i v2 Extreme Performance
Corsair CPU Cooler Hydro H110i Extreme Performance

The corsair ones are the exact same price, while the noctua one is 50€ cheaper. I really don't mind paying the additional 50 bucks, as long as I'm sure that It's worth it. I've read a lot of posts about all those coolers, however nobody specified those cases (which could be important). Even tho I like the looks of the liquid coolers (noctua are really ugly coolers in my opinion), I won't be even seeing it more than once or twice a year anyway, plus I'd rather have performance than looks.

tldr: is it worth getting any of those liquid coolers, and would they overclock much more than the noctua.

Thanks in advance

Edit: I don't mind getting suggestions for other coolers, however as I mentioned above I live in a country where there aren't a lot of options for PC parts.

 

[geofelt]

How well you can Overclock will be determined by your luck in getting a good chip.

I would always go air I a good case like yours.
All in one coolers are likely less effective than a good air cooler like Noctua.
Do look to see if you can buy one of the new s variants of the noctua coolers.
They are designed to allow tall ram heat spreaders and are offset to not interfere with graphic card backplates.

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
I would support an AIO cooler only in a space restricted case.
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well with a decent air cooler.

 

[jpe1701]

The Noctua will handle an overclock just as well if not better than both of the Corsair, and you won't have to worry about leaks.

 

[gerilovski]

Thanks for the fast responces! I'm going with corsair vengeance lpx 3200mhz 2x8gb ram, with plans to add 2 more of those later on (maybe in half a year). Those are low profile rams so I hope everything will fit perfectly. I currently have a palit gtx660 and I don't plan on upgrading that atleast till next nvidia gpus release (end of summer).

Edit: I can actually get the s version, however I'm bothered that it comes with 1 fan. Rather have the normal one, since the price difference is really small and if I just buy another fan it will be more expensive. Do you have any idea if I'll have problems with space?
Edit 2: I found this page: http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-d15/comp
I'm amazed how fast they updated their info. I'm starting to fall in love.
The lpx is 31mm height, so everything should be ok I guess.

 

[geofelt]

A couple of caveats:

1. Some coolers with 140mm fans are so wide that they impact your graphics card if it is installed in the first pcie slot.
That is the recommended place for X16 operation.
I found this to be true when I used a NH-D14. I had to use a paper shim to keep the cooler fins from touching.

The s variants are equally wide, but there is an offset so that no longer happens.
Here is a review of the D15s which performs so close to equally that differences are irrelevant. .
http://www.legitreviews.com/noctua-nh-d15s-versus-nh-d15-cpu-cooler-review_188613
I do not know if the price is less because they only supply one fan.

2. Rethink your ram upgrade plan.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when 4 sticks are involved.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.
It is safer to get what you need in one kit.
But, it is a bit more expensive because of the added matching of all the sticks to insure compatibility.

 

[gerilovski]

Yeah true, I did the same with my current pc, and somehow I got matched sticks, even that it took me a half year to buy the 2nd couple. Thank you for your answers

 

[gewinnste]

...
My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
I would support an AIO cooler only in a space restricted case.
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

...

So why do liquid AIO coolers consistently outperform/allow for higher OCs (with lower temps even) air coolers?
You're just wrong. Liquid cooling is NOT air cooling at a different location because of two very important factors:
1. You can cool the liquid with a much larger cooling surface than would ever be possible via air cooling.
2. With liquid cooling you get a step-gradient of temperature from the CPU/GPU to the cooler, hence, there is going to always be, let's say 65C directly at the GPU/CPU, whereas with air cooling, there is a continuous temp-gradient that is at moderate temp on the outside, but very hot at the chip. You just can't radically OC under constant full load without worrying about your hardware. That NEVER is an issue with proper water cooling (because of the step-gradient).
But keep believing in your old-fashioned air-cooling - in 10 yrs, there's not gonna be any around any more.

 

[geofelt]

In 10 years, liquid cooling will be obsolete.
Smaller micro electrics will be faster and generate less heat.

The heat exchange of a large air cooler like the dual tower coolers is about the same surface area as that of a large dual fan radiator.
True, some massive three fan radiators can have a larger surface.
Plus, the cooling material inside of an air cooler will be closer to the place where the heat is exchanged.

Then, liquid coolers need faster/stronger fans to push air through a radiator.

Somewhere, noise needs to come into the equation.

Lastly, how good does one really need to be?
Perhaps it would be better to spend the bigger bucks for a liquid cooler on a stronger cpu in the first place, or perhaps for a better graphics card.
With skylake at least, it is the vcore you can tolerate that limits your overclock.
At 1.4v, you do not need much to keep temperatures under control.
Past 1.4v, you are potentially damaging your cpu, even if you can keep it cool.

Just my opinion.