Stock fan, Liquid Cooling or Air Heatsink?

[Gault05]

What's your more preferred method of using these types of fans to keep your cpu in the green light, even if you do or don't overclock it much?

[cichlidfan]

It depends on the chip and whether you overclock or not but, IMHO, the stock fan (in cases where the chip came with one) is a waste of time. The last time I stuck with the stock fan was a Celeron 300A (mid 1990s) which required ripping it apart to change the fan.

 

I, personally, am not a fan of water cooling but that is due to my paranoia about leaks. Many years of experience with aquariums and water ending up on my floor causes me to shy away from mixing water and electricity in my $2000+ computers.

[Gault05]

It depends on the chip and whether you overclock or not but, IMHO, the stock fan (in cases where the chip came with one) is a waste of time. The last time I stuck with the stock fan was a Celeron 300A (mid 1990s) which required ripping it apart to change the fan.

 

I, personally, am not a fan of water cooling but that is due to my paranoia about leaks. Many years of experience with aquariums and water ending up on my floor causes me to shy away from mixing water and electricity in my $2000+ computers.

 

I never really bothered much about what types of fans would I be interested in until my old rig broke down. Even then, I already knew which fan to pick out. What I didn't think would happen is that the cpu would come with its own fan as well.

[Pilotasso]

closed water loop. I got an X62 kraken for my Ryzen build (parts will be here monday).

 

The choice is due to:

 

1)maximum accessibility around the socket and memory area for maintenance and parts swapping.

2)cleaner look overall inside the case

2)quieter due to lower RPM 140mm fans

3)lower CPU temperatures

4)RGB!!!! (yes I'll RGB my cat, dog and parakeet)

 

disavantages:

 

1)Less reliable in the long term as an aircooler like the NOCTUAs

2)pricier

[Gladman]

Im a water cooling guy. I actually just put a water block on my FE GTX 1080 and I've always run a water block on my CPU which I overclock. I've never had a leak and I do find that I can run the system hard without high temps so it works for me. I understand these days you can get the big bad air coolers for your CPU but that's not an option for your GPU. That's a lot of the reason I water cool. I create one loop that has both in it and I'm done.

 

 

The photo attached is during the build. Its much cleaner upon completion.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Gladman

[Winston 60]

Stock CPU cooling fan for me. Of course, this may be the exception to the rule but the old intel Extreme processors used to come with one of these. I'm overclocked from 3.33GHz to 4.20GHz with this fan and heatsink solution and CPU temps never exceed 55 deg.

 

[cichlidfan]

This is my CPU cooler. It does a fine job.

 

[Chump]

I run @ 4.4Ghz OC and my temp never gets over 35C. I am a huge fan of Corsair AIO water coolers. I have one on all of my PCs, and would never go back to air-cooled, let alone the stock cooler. </2¢>

[ricktoberfest]

Stock fan, Liquid Cooling or Air Heatsink?

 

I just switched to closed loop water (corsair h80i v2) and it seems to do the job my cooling tower did but with less noise and more room in the case. I had to switch as my tower air cooler didn't allow more RAM to be installed and the LEDs are kinda neat too

 

Oh and I've run an overclock of 4.5 on my 3570k for the last 4 years

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Konovalov]

This is my CPU cooler. It does a fine job.

 

Same. Noctau customer service is super too. My 140mm fan started to fail near the 6 year warranty and within a couple weeks I had a new fan replacement. Mounting is a breeze despite its size. Keeps even the toastiest of CPU's cool. Compared to all in one water coolers even if a fan dies it still keeps cooling. You can even use this as a passive air cooler with good case cooling. While al ion one water units when they die( i.e. pump failure) then the cooling stops and so does your computing experience.

 

Only downsides are of course the size with the potential RAM clearance issues that come with it, the colour of the Noctua fans, and the fact the size can obscure the aesthetics of nice looking components and all that RGB bling.

 

Personally for my next rig I would like to go down the water cooling route as I would like to show off the new components and have a cleaner cooling area around the socket. Had been considering an EKWB Predator AIO however the series has been discontinued as it is being replaced by a new series to be released in the coming months hopefully. I'm not sure that I have the patience to build a custom loop although I am sure doing such would be immensely satisfying once complete.

[Konovalov]

I run @ 4.4Ghz OC and my temp never gets over 35C. I am a huge fan of Corsair AIO water coolers. I have one on all of my PCs, and would never go back to air-cooled, let alone the stock cooler. </2¢>

What is your ambient room temperature? A CPU never getting over 35C sounds ridiculously low. That sounds more like what an idle temp should be.

[Chump]

It is about 21C in here right now (wife likes it warm). According to Core Temp (which I have running all of the time), low is 2C, high is 40C. Since I hardly ever shut down my PC (only reboots), this has been keeping track for a few weeks now. I cannot say the exact reliability of this application. I have seen it in the past at idle say 0C. I'm sure that we can agree or disagree with the legitimacy of this reading. :) Either way, you see why I swear by Corsair. I have used expensive air coolers with upper results in the 70s.

[cichlidfan]

Well, something isn't accurate. 2C is about what the temp inside my refrigerator is.

 

My physics knowledge is a bit rusty but I am pretty sure there is no way that a Noctua cooler can bring your CPU temp down below room temp. Especially not that far.

[Chump]

As I said, I will gladly dispute the accuracy of that program since it seems absurd to me as well. Here is a screenshot of the Corsair LINK temperature taken a few minutes ago:

 

[cichlidfan]

Quite bizarre.

[Chump]

To lend some credibility to this, I have a HAF-X case with multiple 200mm+ fans. In the front/side, out the back/top (cooler is mounted on top in a push config). This is not the ambient temperature inside my case, but only what the apps are saying that the CPU temp is at the moment. It normally hovers in the teens while browsing. Games, on the other hand, keep it around 40. I am using the Corsair H100i v2 cooler.

Edited April 14, 2017 by Chump

[Gladman]

It's called cooling not refrigeration. Something isn't right with your readout.

[BitMaster]

condensation would follow on the next foot if that reading was true, simply impossible or suicide :)

[cichlidfan]

Send a note to the folks making Core Temp and tell them that you stored beer in your PC and it did not get cold even though the temperature reading indicated that it should. :P

[BuzzU]

I keep my computer in a chest freezer. No problem keeping beer cold.

[Chump]

Did I not mention that it doubles as a mini fridge? Only one on the block with LEDs!

[FragBum]

I'm a fan of air cooling (pun intended) I use the largest heatsink and fan I can fit in the case, my current rig runs i7 5930K upto 4.4Ghz with Noctura D15 oddly enough I only have one fan on it and temps in early to mid 50's C (during summer) when processing RAWs for export and it's quite, well the 980Ti cooling makes more noise.

 

That said, liquid cooling will likely deliver the better cooling capacity and does have the advantage of a cleaner build. Some of my friends have some very nice builds verging on post modern industrial art but that's another story.

[BitMaster]

CPU while you play = ~50-65 Watts

GPU while you play = ~150 Watts

 

as measured on my system when fully overclocked

 

Properly cooling the GPU makes even more sense than cooling the CPU with max effort.

 

Many options to choose from, make your pick :)

[BuzzU]

I'll be different. My last system was water cooled and it ran hot with and without overclocking.

 

My new system is air cooled and runs very cool even though it's a much higher clock speed.

 

Go figure.

[cichlidfan]

I'll be different. My last system was water cooled and it ran hot with and without overclocking.

 

My new system is air cooled and runs very cool even though it's a much higher clock speed.

 

Go figure.

 

My guess would be that the first system suffered from improperly applied thermal paste. Too much, or too little, can seriously affect heat transfer.