Liquid cooling or air cooling

[MatchuEnsmith]

I am buying a Intel 6700K and do not know whether I should air cool or water cool. Any thoughts on this topic?

[Sahil10416]

if you are overclocking at very high frequencies (4.5-4.7) then liquid cooling is a better option but if you re planing to overclock up to 4.4ghz then air cooling is sufficient.

[TheStigsChineseCousin]

How much are you planning to OC?  As far as I can tell, the Noctua NH-D15 can just about keep pace with most AIO coolers out there (and stays very quiet).  That's just one cooler I know can hang with the best of them, I know there are plenty of other good ones.  You may see a few degrees cooler from a higher end AIO but you'll be paying a lot more for it.  Another thing to keep in mind is noise.  Some radiator fans tend to get a bit noisy at load, so definitely something to consider when looking at reviews.  

 

And of course weighing an air cooler against water cooling solutions also comes down to how much room you have in your case.  Most of the higher end air coolers take up a ton of space, so not only will your case need to accommodate, your mobo and everything around the cooler will need to be compatible.  Again referencing Noctua, they have full compatibility lists on their website for just about every motherboard imaginable out there, so that may be something worth looking at to narrow down choices. 

[MatchuEnsmith]

I plan to squeeze as much juice out of my processor as I can. Also @TheStigsChineseCousin awesome nickname I love top gear. My budget is $100 for CPU cooling.

[Gonio]

Jup besides the mentioned Noctua aircooler, also check the cheaper Scythe Fuma (height is 159mm) that performs almost the same minus the Noctua price. Only the bigger AIO's outperform these. But a simple 4.5 to 4.8 GHz is good doable with air.

 

Above that might check AIO coolers. The very best is the NZXT Kraken x61. Performs better and quieter then the Corsair counterparts that overall cost even more.

[HKZeroFive]

Each presents its own advantages and disadvantages.

 

Air cooling...

 

...is usually quieter

...usually has a better price/performance ratio and a big reason why I rarely recommend a 120/140mm AIO

...has less points of failure

...can consume a lot of space so check if you can actually fit the cooler

...cannot reach the performance levels of 280mm AIOs and above

...means poop brown Noctuas

 

Liquid cooling...

 

...can perform higher on 280mm radiators and above, to the extent where no air cooler can match its cooling performance

...is more compact space-wise (great for mini-ITX builds)

...looks better (arguably)

...has more points of failure

...can be matched or surpassed by cheaper air coolers (a Noctua NH-D15 could easily keep up with a GTX H100i for example)

...is usually louder due to the additional noise of the pump on top of the fans

[HKZeroFive]

13 minutes ago, MatchuEnsmith said:

I plan to squeeze as much juice out of my processor as I can.

Read the points I've made above.

 

I'd be inclined to go air cooling on this budget provided that the case has an ample amount of room. The Noctua NH-D15 would be the 'best' choice perfomance-wise but you may not agree with the aesthetics. The Cryorig R1 Ultimate/Universal, Thermalright Macho, Phanteks PH-TC14PE and the beQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 are also great alternatives.

[vagabond139]

Technically there is no such thing as either air or liquid since a HSF like a D15 or a Evo 212 uses liquid and air to cool just like a H100i does.

 

As for the question unless you care about looks a lot I would get a HSF, they can just as good or better than a AIO cooler that costs a lot more and unless you are aiming for like 5Ghz although you aren't going to hit that at a safe/non super high voltage there are HSF's out there that have no problem cooling at something like 4.8Ghz ~1.42V. Not to mention HSF usually have better bang for your buck. For suggestions I would get a Sytche Fuma, it out performs the D15 and R1 and all other HSF's and is right behind a EK Predator 240 in terms of performance. All for below $50.

[TheStigsChineseCousin]

2 hours ago, MatchuEnsmith said:

I plan to squeeze as much juice out of my processor as I can. Also @TheStigsChineseCousin awesome nickname I love top gear. My budget is $100 for CPU cooling.

Thanks!  

 

2 hours ago, HKZeroFive said:

Read the points I've made above.

 

I'd be inclined to go air cooling on this budget provided that the case has an ample amount of room. The Noctua NH-D15 would be the 'best' choice perfomance-wise but you may not agree with the aesthetics. The Cryorig R1 Ultimate/Universal, Thermalright Macho, Phanteks PH-TC14PE and the beQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 are also great alternatives.

Good selection there, you can't really go wrong with any of them.  Regarding the Noctua colors, you can always replace the fans with their redux line, although that adds a bit to the overall cost of course.  

 

Just a note, right now, at least where I am in the US, the HD-D15 is on sale for $88.49 on Newegg, that sale ends on Monday.

[MatchuEnsmith]

Would the Noctua air cooler preform the same as the corsair h100I v2

[WoodenMarker]

13 hours ago, MatchuEnsmith said:

Would the Noctua air cooler preform the same as the corsair h100I v2

If you're referring to the NH-D15, they perform similarly.

[TheStigsChineseCousin]

Posted 8 hours ago

22 hours ago, MatchuEnsmith said:

Would the Noctua air cooler preform the same as the corsair h100I v2

If you're referring to the NH-D15, they perform similarly.

 

Exactly.  To add to this, here's an in depth comparison of the NH-D15 to some popular closed loop coolers, they have the H100i GTX in this, so it's not the v2 but this should still give you a good idea of what numbers you're looking at, both for temperatures and noise. http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15-versus-closed-loop-liquid-coolers/1