i9 13900ks Cooling?

Ayden kinley · June 11, 2023

I want to get a computer with an i9 13900ks, but I heard it is hard to cool. I will need a lot of performance out of the chip. What can I use to cool it with out spending an outrageous amount of money? I was looking at direct die cooling it, but its kinda expensive and sounds kinda risky. Are there any other options, or any sights that make pre-built machines with direct die cooling? Any insight will be great.

Shimejii · June 11, 2023

No direct die companies exist as shipping them with a cooler on would be a nightmare. If you can buy a 13900ks you can afford to cool it, if you cant get a 13700k and the price difference is your cooling. 360mm AIO with some voltage tuning should do enough though.

The contact frame would do some good though.

RONOTHAN## · June 11, 2023

5 minutes ago, Ayden kinley said:

What can I use to cool it with out spending an outrageous amount of money?

I mean, you're spending $700 on a CPU that performs within margin of error of a $500 CPU, I think not wanting to spend outrageous amounts of money is out the window.

The only true way to keep a 13900K(S) cool is with a custom loop and a contact frame, and it will still be flirting the line with 100C depending on how aggressive your motherboard's stock voltage curve is. There are kits out there that exist if you don't want to piece it together yourself, they range anywhere from ~$300 to ~$700 depending on who makes it and the quality of the included components, though it's almost always cheaper to just price shop each individual component than trying to get one of those kits. There are boutique builders who do custom loops out of the box, though I'd argue that if you don't know how to build a custom loop yourself, you probably don't know enough to maintain a custom loop as they do require regular maintenance about once a year.

Direct die is technically an option, but there's so much stuff to go wrong that unless you're going to be overclocking only at ambient cooling it's just not worth it. If you're going to OC at sub-zero temps (like what the KS was designed for), you actually don't want a delid as the solder does a better job than the liquid metal at those lower temps.

ZeusXI · June 11, 2023

34 minutes ago, Ayden kinley said:

I want to get a computer with an i9 13900ks, but I heard it is hard to cool. I will need a lot of performance out of the chip. What can I use to cool it with out spending an outrageous amount of money? I was looking at direct die cooling it, but its kinda expensive and sounds kinda risky. Are there any other options, or any sights that make pre-built machines with direct die cooling? Any insight will be great.

Get a 7950x. Save the 200$ and get a good cooler and actually be easier to cool properly. Intel has been crap the last few gens with their top tier to cool. Linus did a video on it somewhere that you loose the performance for how hot intel runs.