CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo air cooling or Corsair H80i liquid cooling?

Gabby2805 · June 7, 2016

I'm nearly ready to buy my dream build...

MSI Z170A Gaming M7 Motherboard

intel i7 6700k

32GB (16gbx2) Corsair Vengence DDR4 2400MHz RAM

MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X

1TB Samsung 850 evo SSD

3TB Toshiba 7200RPM HDD

Corsair RM 850x

Gigabyte Network Card

Corsair Spec-02 Case

I absolutely love the case so I am stubbornly unwilling to change it, but due to a rather poor design, the Motherboard is mounted so high in the case that the RAM would obstruct a 240mm rad so 120mm is the largest I can go...so no H100i for me.

So, I'm left with the decision between the 212 evo or the H80i.

This is my first build so I wont be rushing into overclocking, but I know it is something I will be interested in soon and since the rest of my build is pretty future-proofed, there's no reason for my cooler not to be too.

At first, I was completely set on the 212 evo because it seems like an extremely good air cooler for just £30. However, the main reason I've started to consider the H80i for £75 is mainly the aesthetics - I think it would look nicer in my stunning build. However, that is not quite enough to completely base my decision upon - I'm interested to know about the actual difference in temperatures and overclocking potential. Furthermore, the aesthetics may actually be compromised if the H80i radiator covers up half of my motherboard.

Also, if I do go for the H80i, should I have a fan on both sides? Should I replace the stock fan? Should the fans be AF or SP??