Water or air cooling for 7600k?

[NinjaSandvich]

This may seem like a really dumb question, but I am new to PC building and this is my first one I'll ever do.

I plan to OC my i5-7600k but I am unsure if I need air or liquid cooling.

To me, water cooling does seem a bit overkill for an i5 but I am no expert. I do like the way AIO Liquid Coolers look, nice and sleek and have the fan on one side of the case rather than on the mobo.

 

Anyway, what do you think I need for the i5-7600k?

[EPPHO]

What oc do you expect?

[Mooshi]

If you're able to get one, the Cryorig H7. It's an inexpensive tower cooler that's somewhat compact. It's what I use for my overclocked 6700k in an itx build. 

[BleakMaker]

5 minutes ago, NinjaSandvich said:

This may seem like a really dumb question, but I am new to PC building and this is my first one I'll ever do.

I plan to OC my i5-7600k but I am unsure if I need air or liquid cooling.

To me, water cooling does seem a bit overkill for an i5 but I am no expert. I do like the way AIO Liquid Coolers look, nice and sleek and have the fan on one side of the case rather than on the mobo.

 

Anyway, what do you think I need for the i5-7600k?

Totally depends on what you want high oc =  Water-cooling or low if you wanna run in Add to dictionary is also a good reason people choose Water instead of air. and my personal opinion is that air is becoming something of the past the future of cooling is water-cooling. Water-cooling and especially Aio is just very reliable where if a fan from your air cooler stops working your cup will overheat and might stop some work it is doing. 

[Guest]

Get a good air cooler, they are quieter, better price to performance and they habe a longer lifespan. I recommend the Noctua NH-D15 (performs better than 240mm aio). Or the be quiet Dark Rock Pro 3 (looks much better, slightly less performance).

[NinjaSandvich]

 

1 minute ago, frozeNNN said:

What oc do you expect?

I don't know, I'm getting a 650W PSU because I plan on getting a high-end GPU later in the years and it is a Z270 mobo, so what do you think I could get?

1 minute ago, Mooshi said:

If you're able to get one, the Cryorig H7. It's an inexpensive tower cooler that's somewhat compact. It's what I use for my overclocked 6700k in an itx build. 

I have been recommended that by a few people, and I do like what I see - how loud is it and what kind of temps do you get under load with it?

[Glennieboyyy007]

you can do both. the biggest difference is price and looks. also a bit of noice comes into play. when you are pushing your system to the max, you can achieve higher clock speeds with an AIO cooler, but generally that one is louder then a good air cooler.

if you want an air cooler i would recomend the be quiet dark rock (pro) 3. both are good coolers, but the pro version is a bit bulky imo)

[toasty6776]

You don't NEED water cooling for any CPU (with some exceptions). You can even run an overclocked 6950X on a Hyper 212 Evo. I use a Hyper 212X on my 6600k @4.6GHz and 1.35V and my CPU temps when stress testing in AIDA64 never top out 70°C and about 55°C while gaming. So you'll definitely be fine with air cooling but I do understand it when you want a water cooler.

[Glennieboyyy007]

1 minute ago, Mark17 said:

Totally depends on what you want high oc Water-cooling or low of but running in silent mode all the time is also a good reason people choose Water instead of air. and my personal opinion is that air is becoming something of the past the future of cooling is water-cooling. Water-cooling and especially Aio is just very reliable where if a fan from your air cooler stops working your cup will overheat and might stop some work it is doing. 

when an air cooler stops working it can still cool it a bit  with the massive heatsink and you can just get a new fan, but when an AIO pump fails the whole cooler is rendered useless.

[EPPHO]

1 minute ago, NinjaSandvich said:

 

I don't know, I'm getting a 650W PSU because I plan on getting a high-end GPU later in the years and it is a Z270 mobo, so what do you think I could get?

650W and Z270 mobo means nothing. It's all about how good heat sinks are on motherboard and cooling on cpu but since you don't know what cooling you go with then i can't tell anything

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Mark17 said:

Totally depends on what you want high oc Water-cooling or low of but running in silent mode all the time is also a good reason people choose Water instead of air. and my personal opinion is that air is becoming something of the past the future of cooling is water-cooling. Water-cooling and especially Aio is just very reliable where if a fan from your air cooler stops working your cup will overheat and might stop some work it is doing. 

AIOs are way less reliable than air coolers imo. Pump failure, leaking (rare), and fan failure. As for air coolers: Just the fan(which you can easily replace, unlike the pump).

[Guest Kloaked]

Even moderate overclocks on CPUs (like a 4.5Ghz OC on Skylake for example) don't need liquid cooling. Fat ass tower air coolers are all you need, unless you want the AIOs for aesthetic.

 

But yes, AIOs for moderate overclocks are overkill.

[Mooshi]

12 minutes ago, NinjaSandvich said:

 

I have been recommended that by a few people, and I do like what I see - how loud is it and what kind of temps do you get under load with it?

Ran aida64 last night and CPU stress testing only was like in the 50's-60's range, when bumped to unrealistic loads that you'll never see with FPU testing, it was in the mid 70's-80c

 

Keep in mind this is in an itx box with a single top 140mm acting as intake and a low rpm exhaust fan. Chip is clocked at 4.4Ghz and in games the temps are <60 majority of the time. As for noise, I have mine set to silent so you only really hear if you're purposely stressing your PC. 

[NinjaSandvich]

12 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Ran aida64 last night and CPU stress testing only was like in the 50's-60's range, when bumped to unrealistic loads that you'll never see with FPU testing, it was in the mid 70's-80c

 

Keep in mind this is in an itx box with a single top 140mm acting as intake and a low rpm exhaust fan. Chip is clocked at 4.4Ghz and in games the temps are <60 majority of the time. As for noise, I have mine set to silent so you only really hear if you're purposely stressing your PC. 

This is great news.

I think this is what I'll go for, thanks

[Mooshi]

12 minutes ago, NinjaSandvich said:

This is great news.

I think this is what I'll go for, thanks

Fired up realtemp to see how things are going, take this for fun lol.

 

[NinjaSandvich]

6 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Fired up realtemp to see how things are going, take this for fun lol.

 

Those numbers do look very good, and a good thing too - I just ordered it

[BleakMaker]

4 hours ago, Glennieboyyy007 said:

when an air cooler stops working it can still cool it a bit  with the massive heatsink and you can just get a new fan, but when an AIO pump fails the whole cooler is rendered useless.

But the truth is that a pump is more reliable than a fan.