Need a new air cooler!! I knew this little cooler wasn't going to be enough for the CPU

[IAmNik]

Build has a i7 8700k, non overclocked, in it and I recently took the AIO out to place in another build. I've never done an air cooled PC so I said screw it and decided to try it out on this rig. 

 

BUT temps are not good while gaming. Just casual web surfing and YouTube. It was averaging 50 to 60c, which I know isnt anything to worry about and I was half way pleased with that (although I feel it can be way better) but gaming was another story. Didnt even last 10 mins and it sitting around 80c and would jump and redline up to 90. I've read that 80c isnt jist horrible and I'm well aware air coolers are gonna run hotter than an AIO but yeah, this ain't it chief lol SO NOW, MY QUESTION.

 

What air cooler would be sufficient enough for the non overclocked 8700k? And wont have it hitting 90c while gaming been staring at the MSI Core Frozer 5 120mm. And I can just throw a black and white 120mm fan to match case fans and such to keep the theme going. Also, the cooler itself, even with stock fan still matches the color scheme pretty well. 

 

First, the new setup and upgrades look GREAT including the small cooler, with the matching black and white fans, and honestly the build looks better now than when i was using it, it just needs better cooling.

[WoodenMarker]

There are plenty of air coolers that would be fine for that. A stock 8700k is fairly easy to cool. The cooler you have seems small and not very powerful. Have you checked the motherboard settings are set to stock speeds? There may be a setting labelled Multicore Enhancement that's resulting in higher than stock speeds / power draw. 

[IAmNik]

6 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

There are plenty of air coolers that would be fine for that. A stock 8700k is fairly easy to cool. The cooler you have seems small and not very powerful. Have you checked the motherboard settings are set to stock speeds? There may be a setting labelled Multicore Enhancement that's resulting in higher than stock speeds / power draw. 

Ill check that out! It is a small cooler which is originaly what I wanted, something low profile. It has a 100w tdp rating and the CPU is rated at 95 so i figured it might be ok but yeah, no lolol hell, those ratings might not even matter. Im new school, All I know is "put a aio on it, youll be fine" 

[SircarrotII]

I'd like to sugest the Vetroo V5. It's cheap and performs quite good for the price, and comes with thermal paste.

[GuiltySpark_]

1 minute ago, SircarrotII said:

I'd like to sugest the Vetroo V5. It's cheap and performs quite good for the price, and comes with thermal paste.

This thing is the budget hero at the moment. White version is $30 on Amazon US at the moment. 

[IAmNik]

8 minutes ago, SircarrotII said:

I'd like to sugest the Vetroo V5. It's cheap and performs quite good for the price, and comes with thermal paste.

 

6 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

This thing is the budget hero at the moment. White version is $30 on Amazon US at the moment. 

AYYYYYY nice, thanks for that guys. and that white version is almost perfect for this build hahaha

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, IAmNik said:

Build has a i7 8700k, non overclocked, in it and I recently took the AIO out to place in another build. I've never done an air cooled PC so I said screw it and decided to try it out on this rig. 

 

BUT temps are not good while gaming. Just casual web surfing and YouTube. It was averaging 50 to 60c, which I know isnt anything to worry about and I was half way pleased with that (although I feel it can be way better) but gaming was another story. Didnt even last 10 mins and it sitting around 80c and would jump and redline up to 90. I've read that 80c isnt jist horrible and I'm well aware air coolers are gonna run hotter than an AIO but yeah, this ain't it chief lol SO NOW, MY QUESTION.

 

What air cooler would be sufficient enough for the non overclocked 8700k? And wont have it hitting 90c while gaming been staring at the MSI Core Frozer 5 120mm. And I can just throw a black and white 120mm fan to match case fans and such to keep the theme going. Also, the cooler itself, even with stock fan still matches the color scheme pretty well. 

 

First, the new setup and upgrades look GREAT including the small cooler, with the matching black and white fans, and honestly the build looks better now than when i was using it, it just needs better cooling.

Sounds like a mounting issue…. At idle, it shouldn’t be 50c. Unless it’s literally a bargain basement cooler that is one step above actual garbage.

 

At idle it’s pulling basically now power, thus easy to cool. So either TIM isn’t applied well, or the mount is bad. That’s my guess. I cooled my 8700k (and 9900k) both OCed on my OG hyper 212 evo while I was waiting for water blocks. It got toasty, but even at 5ghz all core on the 8700k, I think the hyper 212 kept it under 80c in games…with the fan at reasonable speeds. 

[IAmNik]

9 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Sounds like a mounting issue…. At idle, it shouldn’t be 50c. Unless it’s literally a bargain basement cooler that is one step above actual garbage.

 

At idle it’s pulling basically now power, thus easy to cool. So either TIM isn’t applied well, or the mount is bad. That’s my guess. I cooled my 8700k (and 9900k) both OCed on my OG hyper 212 evo while I was waiting for water blocks. It got toasty, but even at 5ghz all core on the 8700k, I think the hyper 212 kept it under 80c in games…with the fan at reasonable speeds. 

The cooler on it is a ID COOLING IS-40X, and after readong some ID COOLING reviews, im not surprised lol as for mounting, she seems legit! But I did get some better thermal paste in shortly after installing it so, I might take it off, re thermal paste with the thermal grizzly and see what its talkin about then but all in all, Im almost set on choosing a different cooler.

[narrdarr]

Can you retest with the side panel off. Those cases are not very good for airflow. A new cool may not be the answer. Or might be only half the answer.

[IAmNik]

8 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

Can you retest with the side panel off. Those cases are not very good for airflow. A new cool may not be the answer. Or might be only half the answer.

You have a very valid point there. This is the H500, old school version so yeah, it had way worse airflow than the new H510 cases

[jaslion]

On 4/10/2022 at 8:17 AM, IAmNik said:

You have a very valid point there. This is the H500, old school version so yeah, it had way worse airflow than the new H510 cases

And those still have just flat out bad airflow :p.

 

But as others said a vetroo v5 will do the trick easily (I mean since you'll have to take out the board to install maybe spend like 34$ on a dirt cheap case like the versa h15 and then also get a lot better airflow? :p)

[Dogzilla07]

 

@IAmNik ID-COOLING SE-214-XT ARGB White is also white, and is even cheaper than Vetroo V5 at $20. And would be enough for your CPU (Choose which ever one looks nicer for you xD). ID on left pic, Vetroo on right pic:

 

On 4/10/2022 at 8:07 AM, narrdarr said:

Those cases are not very good for airflow. A new cool may not be the answer. Or might be only half the answer.

On 4/10/2022 at 8:17 AM, IAmNik said:

You have a very valid point there. This is the H500, old school version so yeah, it had way worse airflow than the new H510 cases

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

spend like 34$ on a dirt cheap case like the versa h15 and then also get a lot better airflow? :p)

H500 works ok, when you do the exact opposite of what should be done. If you haven't tried running it this way, try running back exhaust fans faster than the front intake. H500 is designed for exhaust. It's gonna be more dust, but should help with the temps in the short term.

[Dogzilla07]

On 4/10/2022 at 5:11 AM, IAmNik said:

Ill check that out! It is a small cooler which is originaly what I wanted, something low profile.

If you still want a small cooler that will work good get the ID-COOLING IS-60 EVO ARGB instead for $45.

[An0maly_76]

OP, I actually just posted a nice little write-up on this sort of thing after hearing one too many myths from one of the naysayers. You might want to check it out. I have a 5900X that cools quite well with a Scythe Mugen 5, if that tells you anything.

Edited April 14, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[jaslion]

8 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

OP, I actually just posted a nice little write-up on this sort of thing after hearing one too many myths from one of the naysayers. You might want to check it out. I have a 5900X that cools quite well with a Scythe Mugen 5, if that tells you anything.

Oh yeah a fuma 2 easily beats most 240/280mm liquid coolers. It makes perfect sense as in the ends the surface area is about tha same.

[IAmNik]

2 hours ago, An0maly_76 said:

OP, I actually just posted a nice little write-up on this sort of thing after hearing one too many myths from one of the naysayers. You might want to check it out. I have a 5900X that cools quite well with a Scythe Mugen 5, if that tells you anything.

Yoooo I'll for sure check that out! Thanks brotha 

[IAmNik]

2 hours ago, Dogzilla07 said:

 

@IAmNik ID-COOLING SE-214-XT ARGB White is also white, and is even cheaper than Vetroo V5 at $20. And would be enough for your CPU (Choose which ever one looks nicer for you xD). ID on left pic, Vetroo on right pic:

 

H500 works ok, when you do the exact opposite of what should be done. If you haven't tried running it this way, try running back exhaust fans faster than the front intake. H500 is designed for exhaust. It's gonna be more dust, but should help with the temps in the short term.

Thanks for the info, man! Still not sure how I want to go about this situation but, I'll figure it out soon enough haha