Noctua NH-U14S or Water

[MKDLMR]

Hi All!

I'm debating between the Noctua NH-U14S or some sort of water cooling. Right now I'm thinking $70 is a lot for CPU cooling, so try to keep it around there.

Thanks!

 

[MrWillyP]

When it comes to water, I don't recommend water until the post $100 solutions. So if you want to stay under $70 I'd recommend that you buy an air cooler. The question is, what are you planning to do?
If you don't plan to overclock then I'd just stay with the stock cooler, there's no point in paying more for the same performance.
If you do plan on overclocking, but you want to save some money, Id recommend the Hyper 212 (any version, I own an evo for one of my rigs) This is the best price to performance cooler.
One of the best air coolers you can get is the Noctua NH-D14, personally, I think that you should go with the hyper 212, It will hold a pretty substantial overclock on most cpus, (got a 4790k to 4.6ghz, and to 4.8 on water) You can't go wrong with it, and odds are the overclock you will be able to make stable will fall within exceptable temps.
but if you aren't overclocking, don't waste your money.

cheers,
Will

 

[MKDLMR]

When it comes to water, I don't recommend water until the post $100 solutions. So if you want to stay under $70 I'd recommend that you buy an air cooler. The question is, what are you planning to do?
If you don't plan to overclock then I'd just stay with the stock cooler, there's no point in paying more for the same performance.
If you do plan on overclocking, but you want to save some money, Id recommend the Hyper 212 (any version, I own an evo for one of my rigs) This is the best price to performance cooler.
One of the best air coolers you can get is the Noctua NH-D14, personally, I think that you should go with the hyper 212, It will hold a pretty substantial overclock on most cpus, (got a 4790k to 4.6ghz, and to 4.8 on water) You can't go wrong with it, and odds are the overclock you will be able to make stable will fall within exceptable temps.
but if you aren't overclocking, don't waste your money.

cheers,
Will

The i7 7700k has a stock cooler?

 

[MrWillyP]

hmm, apparently it does not... interesting. Then I'd go with a hyper evo.
You'll have to forgive me, I didn't know you were running a 7700k.
most cpus do come with a stock cooler, so I was a bit surprised that the 7700k didn't.

 

[synphul]

Since skylake none of the 6th or 7th gen i5 or i7 k series cpu's come with a stock cooler. The non k like the i5 6500 or i7 7700 do. If going with a lower budget cooler, a cryorig h7 or h5 would be a good place to start. Slightly quieter, better cooling performance and no ram conflict. Depending on how big your case is (cooler height clearance) and what ram you're using (to determine if ram height is an issue with cooler clearance) there are several others.

There's the scythe mugen 5 which also has no ram clearance issues similar to the cryorig coolers. Test results here show it handling an overclocked 4th gen i7 as well as an nh-d15s.
http://www.modders-inc.com/scythe-mugen-5-cpu-cooler-review/4/

It's around $52.
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/q9QRsY/scythe-mugen-5-512-cfm-cpu-cooler-scmg-5000

If you have the room in your case and don't mind the color, another solid performer with cooling performance similar to an nh-d14 is the reeven justice. It doesn't have 0 conflict with the ram though so ram height may be something to consider. I don't expect the fans are quite as nice as noctua but it's also $45 instead of $60-70.
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/pGPzK8/reeven-justice-821-cfm-sleeve-bearing-cpu-cooler-rc-1204