i7 9700k water cooling

B1ackfly · October 29, 2020

hello

Im thinking of getting a new pc that has an i7 9700k and an rtx 2070. The pc comes with an AIO cooler that has a 120mm radiator and I was told I should buy one that had a 240mm radiator. Will the 120mm one cut it or should I buy the 240mm?

P.S I'm not going to overclock, I just want a system I can play games on and have them look decent.

5GigsOrBust · October 30, 2020

If you're DEFINITELY not overclocking then yes a 120mm rad will keep the CPU from getting too hot at stock speeds. If you overclock, upgrade the cooler to 240 or larger. When you get the system, do your own testing with prime 95 or another stress test and make sure the CPU doesn't thermal throttle.

Chris Loudon · October 30, 2020

The 9th gen Intel chips run pretty toast even at stock settings so I would definitely recommend a 240mm rad as a minimum and as 5GigsOrBust said, you wont be able to OC.

I know you said you didn't want to OC but its dead easy and there is so much headroom on the 9700k. With a good AiO you'll be knocking on the door of 5Ghz all-core in no time which will have a noticeable effect on your gaming experience.