Water cooler for i7-3770K??? (HELP NOOB!)

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If you want custom water-cooling, your going to be spending more than $100 for even a low end kit. An RS240 kit is ~$140.

@Toolmaker.
The HAF-X has mobo clearance issues with thick rads, even slim ones in push/pull obstruct the 4pin CPU power socket on most mobo's.
Though you can drill your own mounting holes to offset the rad away from the mobo to fix it.

@Belial
Iv got a water loop and I'm running a 3570k at 4.3Ghz, water-cooling is like a hobby in a hobby for me. Not just for extreme overclocking (and its good for silent rigs).
 
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If you aren't planning on anything crazy for overclocks, there's absolutely no reason to be getting a water cooler. That's just ridiculous. That money is much better spent getting a better GPU, better PSU, better motherboard, better RAM, better SSD...

I wouldn't really look into water cooling ivy bridge unless you are into delidding either. Going for water without delidding seems like such a waste.

And not to be mean, but a 'noob' should not really be getting a water cooler. Get a lower end air cooler, learn overclocking, blow out a few hardware components as people generally do when they become so fascinated with overclocking that it'd actually be useful to get higher end components for, or whatever, and see how good your chip is first.

It'd just be a huge waste of money to go water if you have a terrible chip (2/3 ivies I bought were absolute crap, and I think more than the majority gets really bad ivies) that can only do 4.6ghz@1.45vcore. Bin your chip on stock settings (see lowest voltage you can boot stock settings) or how low a voltage you can do 4.5 with a lower end cooler to see how good it is, to see if it's worth getting a good cooler for or not.
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I take no offense at all! I appreciate blunt honesty. As much as I would love to be able to play around and blow out parts I can not afford to blow out parts. I want a water cooler because I plan on going with 16gb of ram and I just do not feel like dealing with clearance issues of a big aftermarket heat sink, plus a water cooler, whether or not I overclock hardcore is going to be a more efficient cooling device. I am a Computer Science major and I write programs for my college (College of Engineering) so while I am spending a decent amount of money building it after that I need it to work properly.

Can you provide me some suggestions for under $100?

Thank you for your help!
 
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Here's how I see it. You have a $100 budget and don't want to spend more than that. You want a watercooler that can do a great job. Well, you either get H100i or H80i and swap the fans, their noisy, I own the H80i but does a great job cooling. However, knowing what I know now, I think the best option for you has to be the Noctua-D14. It mops the floor with the best AIO watercoolers on the market and it's near dead silent in comparison. Or you can get the Zalman LQ320 which was give an award by tom here and you can find it on sale if you look around. So if you just want a good OC with good cooling, you either get the Noctua-D14 or grab a Zalman LQ320. I hope this helps. In the future, just go with a custom water loop. Cheers!
 
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Here is some from www.ncix.com

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=47090&vpn=NH-D14&manufacture=Noctua&promoid=1268

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=60587&vpn=KUHLER%20H20920&manufacture=Antec&promoid=1305

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=79705&vpn=CW-9060013-WW&manufacture=Corsair&promoid=1382

And this is from www.newegg.ca same prices as www.newegg.com

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709001

etc.. pick one and you won't regret it

Cheers
 
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Thanks for saying that. I gave the OP what he asked something under $100. I wonder why he had to say that at all. We are here to help and I took my time to give him some examples.
 
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^ Those are all atrocious prices for all of those. Wow what a terrible post.

@Belial
Iv got a water loop and I'm running a 3570k at 4.3Ghz, water-cooling is like a hobby in a hobby for me. Not just for extreme overclocking (and its good for silent rigs).
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Yes, but you are buying water cooling for no rational reason. You are buying water cooling specifically because you enjoy water cooling.

OP isn't saying that, and I seriously doubt a 'noob' such as the OP just loves building water rigs.

As for silent rigs, that's preposterous. Water cooling requires fans just like air cooling, they are just as loud. And for only 4.3ghz, you could use a hyper 212+, set the stock fan to 40%, and it'd be as quiet, if not quieter, than any water cooling rig.

I wouldn't really say sound would be an issue if you are just doing 4.3ghz. If you really wanted quiet, you'd get an HR-02 Macho and not put any fans on it, that would really be the quietest, capable cooler.

I take no offense at all! I appreciate blunt honesty. As much as I would love to be able to play around and blow out parts I can not afford to blow out parts. I want a water cooler because I plan on going with 16gb of ram and I just do not feel like dealing with clearance issues of a big aftermarket heat sink, plus a water cooler, whether or not I overclock hardcore is going to be a more efficient cooling device. I am a Computer Science major and I write programs for my college (College of Engineering) so while I am spending a decent amount of money building it after that I need it to work properly.

Can you provide me some suggestions for under $100?

Thank you for your help!
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Be careful because when you ask for help on line, people will recommend you spend the bank because it's not their money. You also get a lot of bad advice on forums sometimes.

There is no 'blowing out of parts'. It's like saying "I cant afford to drive my Shelby Mustang 50mph on the highway so I drive on the backroads". It's a shelby, and 50mph is not going to stress anything.

Ivy Bridge is extremely durable, and it would take a LOT to 'blow it out'. You have to understand, water cooling is for cooling extreme voltages, as in voltages that will cause an Ivy bridge to degrade. If you aren't doing that, it's just a waste of money (unless you are like manofchalk and do it for aesthetics), when a 'measly' high end cooler could do the same job for 1/4th the price.

Also, RAM fits to a standard. Going for water cooling because you are buying lots of ram is absolutely absurd. It's like saying "I fly the plane everywhere instead of take the subway because I'm afraid I'm not short enough to fit through subway doors".

It's built to a standard. Unless your RAM looks like this:
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/20-233-144-TS?$S300W$

Trust me, you aren't going to have issues with RAM. Even with taller ram, you can fit it on most coolers because you can slide the fan up and down to be compatible with high heatsink ram.

See:
http://i.imgur.com/KzEqvl.jpg


Why are you going for 16gb of RAM? I hope you are aware that for gaming/general usage, getting more than 4gb of RAM is a waste of money because games are specifically written to be compatible with 32 bit OS, meaning you can't possibly use more than 3.5g of ram in gaming. Bear in mind that the best RAM, such as PSC and BBSE, is only made in 2gb sticks.

I'm actually a heatsink tester, I test heatsinks for companies and do official reviews. I've tested over a dozen heatsinks, and not once have I had issues with RAM compatibility, even with over half a dozen kits of RAM owned.

It's such a non-issue. If your ram is any bigger than normal g.skills or kingston hyper xs, just google your cooler + ram and see if there's an issue. It's really quite easy to do....

It's such a non-issue, that I would not worry about ram compatbility until after you pick out your ram and heatsink.

The best heatsinks right now are the Zalman LQ320 for $39 (not sure if that sale is still going on) or the Logisys Assassin, the best air heatsink in the world for only $39 at performancepcs.com. There are other coolers that are similar, on ebay used or something, but you can figure that out for yourself.

Specials come and go every day, so I'm sure tommorow there will be a better buy for the money. You just have to keep an eye out.
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Where can you get a closed loop cooler for that price? Are you sure you are talking about LQ320 being 39.99. I know the Zalman LQ310 is on for 49.99. Check that price before you mislead someone.
 
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Yes, but you are buying water cooling for no rational reason. You are buying water cooling specifically because you enjoy water cooling.

OP isn't saying that, and I seriously doubt a 'noob' such as the OP just loves building water rigs.

As for silent rigs, that's preposterous. Water cooling requires fans just like air cooling, they are just as loud. And for only 4.3ghz, you could use a hyper 212+, set the stock fan to 40%, and it'd be as quiet, if not quieter, than any water cooling rig.

I wouldn't really say sound would be an issue if you are just doing 4.3ghz. If you really wanted quiet, you'd get an HR-02 Macho and not put any fans on it, that would really be the quietest, capable cooler.
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There's a rational reason, it keeps my CPU cooler. When I changed over to water, I saw a 20°C drop in load temps (~65° to ~45°) with the same ambient. Now that its summer here in Oz with 30°C days, bet with my old 212 EVO my CPU would be running in the high 80's under load, not the 60's like it is now.

Maybe not, but as many will tell you here, water-cooling is more of a hobby than a necessity. You yourself constantly point out its unnecessary. Plus, the OP is asking for advice on water-cooling, not whether he should do it or not.

A water-cooling radiator 240mm or above has more surface area than a high end air heatsink, means you can run slower (ie, quieter) fans for the same cooling performance. Get an overkill amount of radiator space, and you can run your fans quite slow and see no impact to cooling performance.
My radiator fans are adjustable between 40 and 100% speed, there is no temperature difference between either extreme, under load. By turning up the fans, all I achieve is noise, which ruins the silence I currently have from the fans in my rig.
Try that on an air heatsink.

 
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The temperature I stated was with dual fans on the 212 EVO using MX-4 Paste. In a Coolermaster HAF-X as well, so case airflow wasn't an issue.

I was just pointing that that water-cooling can be silent, you seemed to make out that it was impossible by the mere presence of fans.

Get enough radiator space, you could easily passive cool a CPU. Though I am not confident that a normal air heatsink could manage that. As I said, my 212 EVO setup would be getting an estimated 80°C right now under load, wouldn't want to find out what it would be with a passive heat sink.

A H60 performs no better than the aforementioned 212 EVO at a greater cost, don't know why you would mention it.

Just a question., what do you consider an acceptable load temperature? How hot is too hot for you pretty much. because personally, I dont let my components above 70°C, which is why I have this cooling setup so it doesnt. I suspect your a person who is fine with chip running at 90°C.
 
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