Is H115i a good cooler for i7 8700k?

[Nukinator98]

Hey, newbie7777 here

Bought this CPU 1.5 years ago, computer shop guy told me I'd be fine with an Intel Stock Cooler. He was clearly wrong and I was clearly stupid.
After turning off turbo, I had to underclock my CPU just so it wouldn't keep crashing. 

Now I have a good offer for an H115i, [non-Pro] and I've just learnt that AIOs aren't as scary as I thought. I used to think those custom-loops are basically what all water cooling is and you need to maintain it very meticulously and expertly. 

Basically, I'd like to turn on turbo. I don't wish to overclock yet, maybe a few years later when I need to. Would this be a good cooler? My friends said I have terrible air-flow and I need to upgrade my case.  But I believe I should do that later this year because summers here in this part of India are extremely hot, I experienced this last year when my CPU temps shot up high. 

 

My current CPU temps are mostly ~70s under load because it's not even stock speed.  GPU temps are ~70s-80s. 
I play games on 1440p / 4K [mostly the former] 
Application usage is mostly Illustrator, PS, Animate, Maya, 3Ds Max, Unity & Unreal. 

 

My full PC specs are:  

i7 8700k @3.6GHz

Zotac GTX 1080 8GB Amp Edition

Stock Cooler

CM MasterBox Lite 5 RGB

ADATA 2x8GB DDR4 RAM 
Kingston 230GB SSD 
1TB WD Blue Drive

This is the image the seller provided. 

 

[r2724r16]

2 minutes ago, Nukinator98 said:

Now I have a good offer for an H115i, [non-Pro] and I've just learnt that AIOs aren't as scary as I thought. I used to think those custom-loops are basically what all water cooling is and you need to maintain it very meticulously and expertly. 

No need to buy an AIO liquid cooler. Grab a Dark Rock Pro 4 or Dark Rock 4 CPU cooler instead.

[LukeSavenije]

Just now, Geography said:

No need to buy an AIO liquid cooler. Grab a Dark Rock Pro 4 or Dark Rock 4 CPU cooler instead.

or nhd15(s), cryorig h7 (quad lumi) or a freezer 33 esports one if you want te come out a bit cheaper

 

I've seen people hitting 5-5,1 on their 8600k/9600k on it, so a 8700k on turbo shouldn't be a big problem

[Princess Luna]

If you want the best cooling performance with the less noise possible and less future headaches possible, do as told above... Dark Rock Pro 4 is what you truly want.

 

Aesthetics wise it looks sweet too ^^

[Nukinator98]

1 minute ago, Geography said:

No need to buy an AIO liquid cooler. Grab a Dark Rock Pro 4 or Dark Rock 4 CPU cooler instead.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. 

I've looked into additional options and most of them either 1.] aren't available locally so no warranty, 2.] are too expensive because import, 3.] are too expensive locally with warranty, too.  

The Dark Rock Pro 4 is one of them. I will try to contact a few sellers and ask them if they can get it in stock for a reasonable price though. 

Any comments on the H115i? Because it fits perfectly within my budget and the seller still has 2 years warranty intact on it. 

[Princess Luna]

Just now, LukeSavenije said:

nhd15

The problem I have suggesting the NH-D15 nowadays is that the Dark Rock Pro 4 has identical cooling performance and noise levels but it looks 999% prettier... Noctua kinda has to suffer some now by insisting on the worse looking schemes still present in 2019.

 

It's arrogance you know? Oh you want the best? okay but your cooling will look like puke just because we can!

[Tarun10]

I live in India and its pretty hot during the summer and your case looks to have bad airflow so I would recommend getting something better later down the line. But for now get a good tower cooler. But how mush is the seller asking for AiO. With import taxes tower coolers might be more expensive and if you can save a buck or two and get the AiO instead go for it. The performance difference between a good tower cooler like the Dark Rock Pro 4 and an AiO is non existent or can swing both ways depending on the case

[Princess Luna]

Just now, Nukinator98 said:

Any comments on the H115i? Because it fits perfectly within my budget and the seller still has 2 years warranty intact on it. 

The idea is that high end air coolers are usually a better pick, there's plenty of alternatives like a Cooler Master V8 too and so on...

 

But ultimately the H115i would work, you'll just have a bit of more noise and have a product that is more likely to fail like Pumps like dying within a year or two... and the ultimately scare of AiO's if it leaks and damages any component getting a refund then is nearly impossible.

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

The problem I have suggesting the NH-D15 nowadays is that the Dark Rock Pro 4 has identical cooling performance and noise levels but it looks 999% prettier... Noctua kinda has to suffer some now by insisting on the worse looking schemes still present in 2019.

 

It's arrogance you know? Oh you want the best? okay but your cooling will look like puke just because we can!

believe it or not, there are people that like the look of noctua fans. and chromax still exists...

[Nukinator98]

Just now, Tarun10 said:

I live in India and its pretty hot during the summer and your case looks to have bad airflow so I would recommend getting something better later down the line. But for now get a good tower cooler. But how mush is the seller asking for AiO. With import taxes tower coolers might be more expensive and if you can save a buck or two and get the AiO instead go for it. The performance difference between a good tower cooler like the Dark Rock Pro 4 and an AiO is non existent or can swing both ways depending on the case

The seller is offering it pretty cheap, 6500 INR. In the retail market it's around 9500 INR. 

[LukeSavenije]

3 minutes ago, Nukinator98 said:

the seller still has 2 years warranty intact on it

keep in mind that only covers your aio, not your other components.

[Nukinator98]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

The idea is that high end air coolers are usually a better pick, there's plenty of alternatives like a Cooler Master V8 too and so on...

 

But ultimately the H115i would work, you'll just have a bit of more noise and have a product that is more likely to fail like Pumps like dying within a year or two... and the ultimately scare of AiO's if it leaks and damages any component getting a refund then is nearly impossible.

I definitely don't want leaks or the pump to die within a year, that's been one of the biggest fears when considering the budget AIO products. I tried looking things up with similar builds but I couldn't find any, so it's like no reassurance for someone who's very new to this lol. 

I don't mind an air cooler either, in fact I can get the DH-15 for a few rupees more. But will it fit in my case? I've seen people complain about how massive the cooler is and it's tough to fit within a CM Masterbox 5 Lite RGB. Also while I'm at it, this is the same variant you're recommending, right? @LukeSavenije 

[Tarun10]

1 minute ago, Nukinator98 said:

The seller is offering it pretty cheap, 6500 INR. In the retail market it's around 9500 INR. 

That's around 90 USD which isn't bad considering it sells retail for around 110-120 I wanna say. If you can find the Dark Rock Pro 4 or a similar performing cooler for the same price or cheaper get the tower cooler otherwise get the AiO. I would recommend you search newegg its the closest to US pricing but check local stores sometimes they have deals but I can't find a decent shop in my entire city.

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, Nukinator98 said:

I definitely don't want leaks or the pump to die within a year, that's been one of the biggest fears when considering the budget AIO products. I tried looking things up with similar builds but I couldn't find any, so it's like no reassurance for someone who's very new to this lol. 

I don't mind an air cooler either, in fact I can get the DH-15 for a few rupees more. But will it fit in my case? I've seen people complain about how massive the cooler is and it's tough to fit within a CM Masterbox 5 Lite RGB. Also while I'm at it, this is the same variant you're recommending, right? @LukeSavenije 

that's the one... but it seems like you come literally 2 milimeters short, so I'm not sure. a ndh15s seems to fit tho...

what about the h7 (quad lumi)?

if you aren't overclocking too heavy something like a freezer 33 esports one would do too.

 

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, LukeSavenije said:

.

It does fit albeit it'll be tight as tight gets... might wanna make sure on memory clearance too... but yeah if he picked it then he'd not have to concern himself with cooling ever again.

[LukeSavenije]

Just now, Princess Cadence said:

It does fit albeit it'll be tight as tight gets... might wanna make sure on memory clearance too... but yeah if he picked it then he'd not have to concern himself with cooling ever again.

It's that I use a low-profile cooler in mine that I can't varify it... good to know for my future upgrades tho

[Tarun10]

3 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

It does fit albeit it'll be tight as tight gets... might wanna make sure on memory clearance too... but yeah if he picked it then he'd not have to concern himself with cooling ever again.

The NH-D15S is available for around 89$ with shipping. The NHD-15 is not available at a reasonable price except with AMD mounting hardware. But OP could get a Artic Freezer for 30 USD and upgrade case for better airflow.

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, Tarun10 said:

The NH-D15S is available for around 89$ with shipping. The NHD-15 is not available at a reasonable price except with AMD mounting hardware. But OP could get a Artic Freezer for 30 USD and upgrade case for better airflow.

I actually did some research with some people over on the case mod subforum. a mb500 panel would fit natively

[Nukinator98]

11 minutes ago, Tarun10 said:

The NH-D15S is available for around 89$ with shipping. The NHD-15 is not available at a reasonable price except with AMD mounting hardware. But OP could get a Artic Freezer for 30 USD and upgrade case for better airflow.

The Arctic Freezer 33 e-sports edition will cost me around $56 with shipping from Newegg. 
Also is it wise to forego warranty entirely? I'll look up the D15S. 

[Tarun10]

For an air cooler yes, provided fans are fine out of the box but for an AiO you might need warranty. It depends on your luck.

[WoodenMarker]

9 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

that's the one... but it seems like you come literally 2 milimeters short, so I'm not sure. a ndh15s seems to fit tho...

The NH-D15 and NH-D15S are the same height but the NH-D15S has the fan lowered into the heatink. You can get the NH-D15 to the same height by lowering the fan a bit. Alternatively, the front fan can be repurposed elsewhere in the system if the ram is too tall for the fan to be lowered.

9 hours ago, Nukinator98 said:

I don't mind an air cooler either, in fact I can get the DH-15 for a few rupees more. 

If it's just a bit more, the NH-D15 would be better since it's easier to install, quieter, and would last longer. That being said, it's overkill if you're not oc'ing and just planning to use turbo.

Can you link us to where you're shopping?