Water or Air for 8700k?

[SeanAngelo]

kinda stuck between getting the Noctua NH-U14S or the H100i V2 for my 8700k. I will be planning on overclocking it to 4.8ghz. I already have the H100i V2 but it is still sealed in the Amazon box. The only reason why I'm considering this is the price... I don't wanna spend £100 on an AIO where an air cooler for half the price can do the job. If I was to go with an air cooler, I don't want something too big that you cannot see my RGB memory.

 

just for reference:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/DMjG3C/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhu14s

or

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/CrDzK8/corsair-cpu-cooler-cw9060025ww

 

Thanks,

Sean.

[IziBartek]

I personally would go for the liquid cooler.

[Master Disaster]

I don't understand the question.

 

If you already have the H100 then why even consider getting the Noctua? Use the one you already have.

[myselfolli]

Same. Especially when overclocking a watercooler will keep your CPU nice and cool (ish)

[myselfolli]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

I don't understand the question.

 

If you already have the H100 then why even consider getting the Noctua? Use the one you already have.

It's sealed and could be sent back?

[wildgg]

9 minutes ago, SeanAngelo said:

kinda stuck between getting the Noctua NH-U14S or the H100i V2 for my 8700k. I will be planning on overclocking it to 4.8ghz. I already have the H100i V2 but it is still sealed in the Amazon box. The only reason why I'm considering this is the price... I don't wanna spend £100 on an AIO where an air cooler for half the price can do the job. If I was to go with an air cooler, I don't want something too big that you cannot see my RGB memory.

 

 

if both can do the job for your overclock i would go with the aircooler, i recently had a custom loop and i had aio's before but nothing is more reliable and quieter than a good aircooler like noctua. (IMO)

 

i will say that aio's look better in most pc builds. but that's up to you

[manikyath]

the watercooler will do a better job especially when you get towards the higher tdp side of things, the air cooler will probably manage just fine, but its a big block of metal with an "untastefully colored" fan on it, and will probably be rather on edge thermal wise (guessing from their TDP guide)

[SeanAngelo]

49 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I don't understand the question.

 

If you already have the H100 then why even consider getting the Noctua? Use the one you already have.

i'm trying to save as much money as I can on rather just spending it at pointless things that have no benefit over another product that's lower in price.

 

45 minutes ago, wildthing said:

if both can do the job for your overclock i would go with the aircooler, i recently had a custom loop and i had aio's before but nothing is more reliable and quieter than a good aircooler like noctua. (IMO)

 

i will say that aio's look better in most pc builds. but that's up to you

i'm tempted to just buy the noctua and test both coolers out and return whichever one performs worse.

 

42 minutes ago, manikyath said:

the watercooler will do a better job especially when you get towards the higher tdp side of things, the air cooler will probably manage just fine, but its a big block of metal with an "untastefully colored" fan on it, and will probably be rather on edge thermal wise (guessing from their TDP guide)

I don't mind the colour of the fan. if you were to guesstimate what temps do you think the noctua will go up to at 4.8ghz?

[manikyath]

Just now, SeanAngelo said:

I don't mind the colour of the fan. if you were to guesstimate what temps do you think the noctua will go up to at 4.8ghz?

depends on:

- what kind of voltage you'll need

- ambient temperature

- case fan setup

- the amount of fan noise you can deal with

[Columbo]

Here is my two cents. I used to always use 120mm air coolers. They are very good for what they do. The liquid cooling solutions give you added flexibility, lower noise in most cases and you do not have to worry about bad cooling cases. Water is less dependent on a case having good air flow vs a case with good aesthetics but bad air flow such as the Phanteks P400 case. With that said any water cooler of 240mm or more is what I think is best. A 120mm cooler is mostly for the cool factor as it cannot outperform a 120mm air cooler. 

[paps511]

H2Oh yeah

[KoeppColto024470]

Liquid Cooling is better its quieter and I've never seen a Air Cooler get as high as 4.8 without frying the CPU. Plus with I7 it runs fast enough that you don't need to overclock unless you intend to use your pc as a workstation. Most games these days realy on how much ram you have and how good your GPU is. It depends on your preference really but Liquid cooling would give lower temps.