5820k Air cooler(NH-D15s) vs AIO cooler.. help

OrionTC

OrionTC

OrionTC

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Ill keep it short and sweet. I currently have a 5820k running at 4ghz with a Noctua NH-D15S (single fan).

I have been wanting to push it as far as I can, 4.4 - 4.6ghz or so. With the heat in the UK lately and the fact I want to O/C I have been thinking about buying a good AIO cooler. Question is, is there any AIO cooler that's worth changing my D15S for? I'd probably be fine going to £150 or so. I can always re-use the cooler if I ever get a new CPU in the future.
 
The D15S is a pretty beastly cooler, it should be quite capable. Are you unhappy with your current temperatures?

You'd want to get a good quality AIO i.e. one that is made from proper water cooling components rather than the CLCs from Corsair etc which use aluminium radiators and weak/under specced parts.

bequiet! do a good range called Silent Loop which has double and triple fan versions, plus their OEM produces coolers directly. They have good reviews, are pretty quiet, look good, and are expandable/refillable.
 
Its not that I'm unhappy, i love Noctua fans but with the current heat and a mild O/C of 4ghz my max temps are pushing 70c. They average around 60c - 70c but I'd like to try and push for 4.5ghz or as close as possible. This is obviously in the summer where temps are generally a bit higher in the house.

Ill have a look at the bequiet one. So far I'm quite disappointed with popular AIO's compared with the Noctua fans.
 
Would help to know what case you have, what the case fans are and their placement, and what the case fans's temp to speed curves are .. and what GPU you have.

Theree are very few AIOs that are not CLCs and no CLCs that are any good .. no good as far as I'm concerned when price to performance is compared to a top tier air cooler like NH-D15S is .. assuming case airflow has been tuned to meet the needs of air cooled components in the system. ;)

As already mentioned, the be quiet! Silent Loop is good. I'm using a Silent Loop 280 in one of my systems and like it, but they are way more expensive than top tier air like NH-D15S costing £74.99 compared to Silent Loop 280 costing £139.99 with similar cooling and noise level. Silent Loop are made or be quiet! by Alphacool. Alphacool also makes their own Eisbaer line that are lower priced, but they have had some problems and company has horrible customer support so problems are not easily resolved .. I would avoid them. They also make/made Fractal Design Kelvin AIOs, but I believe they are no longer available .. and the new Celcius are just another CLC with no fill port, no threaded fittings, etc. Now worth buying.
 
Fractal Design define S, the almost bare bones case. Stock fans in the case +1 extra Noctua fan so:

1 Noctua + 1 Stock case fan in the front
0 top
0 bottom
1 Rear stock fan
1 DH-15s Noctua (1 fan)

All fans are currently running at max due to the heat. I can have a look for some HW info temps when I'm home

5820k @ 4ghz currently between 60-70c (depending on this summer weather)
1080 GTX
X99 Sabertooth board

My build can be seen here, https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/build-log-x99-new-build.18714684/#post-29092718
only thing changed is the 970 is now a 1080

I did think about adding another case fan in the top/bottom.
 
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big air coolers are quiet.often aio you can hear the pump. a decent aio can yield really good results i have a x99 [email protected] never moves on a antec 1200 aio same temps as you getting now at 4ghz i get at 4.5. brilliant cooler for temps but pump slight noise you can hear.its fine for me but most people are different.
 
OrionTC said:
Fractal Design define S, the almost bare bones case. Stock fans in the case +1 extra Noctua fan so:

1 Noctua + 1 Stock case fan in the front
0 top
0 bottom
1 Rear stock fan
1 DH-15s Noctua (1 fan)

All fans are currently running at max due to the heat. I can have a look for some HW info temps when I'm home

5820k @ 4ghz currently between 60-70c (depending on this summer weather)
1080 GTX
X99 Sabertooth board

My build can be seen here, https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/build-log-x99-new-build.18714684/#post-29092718
only thing changed is the 970 is now a 1080

I did think about adding another case fan in the top/bottom.
Click to expand...
Nice looking build.

NF-A14 PWM is a good fan, but there are many others as good for less money.

First thing, REMOVE ALL PCIe BACK SLOT COVERS!! This will double case's rear vent area and greatly increase front to back airflow and exhaust area around GPU .. thus lowering GPU temp as well as stopping GPU heated exhaust air that is moving up and mixing with CPU intake air heating it up .. every degree warmer the air is going into component results in component being basically a degree hotter.

Your Noctua fan is the only real fan you have moving air into and through your case. The included Dynamic GP14 fans are almost worthless. Even at full speed they only make 0.71mm H2O . about half what I have found is needed to move a decent amount of air through grill and filter restriction. be quiet! Silent Wings 3 (quite expensived), Phanteks PH-F140MP, PH-F140XP, PH-F140HP (low cost if on special), ML140 (expensive), and even Arctic F14 PWM / F14 PWM PST (low cost) are way better than stock case fans.

My favorite fan of the list based on price to performance are PH-F140MP. They can usually be found on special for like a 2-pack for £16-17 which makes them low priced and very good. Sadly OcUK has no PH-F140MP in stock at this time, but if you search around you can find them for about 11 quid. 2x front and 1x bottom intakes with all holes not covered by fans sealed off so the air they are pushing into case cannot leak out to intake side of fans. Then they can be speed synced to match component airflow needs so they speed up and slow down when component fans do. Here is link to basic guide to case airflow and how to optimize it. https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

~>Dg<~ said:
big air coolers are quiet.often aio you can hear the pump. a decent aio can yield really good results i have a x99 [email protected] never moves on a antec 1200 aio same temps as you getting now at 4ghz i get at 4.5. brilliant cooler for temps but pump slight noise you can hear.its fine for me but most people are different.
Click to expand...
In my experience a top tier air cooler is easily as good as 240/280mm CLCs (CLCs are a sub group of AIOs) at similar noise levels. But high airflow / pressure fans on air coolers and they cool as well at high noise level as CLCs do .. but air coolers last much longer, have no pump noise, only thing that cna go wrong is fan which is low cost compared to pump meaning entire CLC has to be replaced.
 
doyll said:
Nice looking build.
Click to expand...

Funny you mention. I wanted to double check the air flow and whether is was on in take or exhaust. I put my hand in front of the noctua and yep breeze...air moved. I put it in front of the stock case fans and while the fans were spinning I could barely feel any air flow lol.

Ill check out the link and I may just try adding a couple of decent fans to the case and see how that improves things. I'm not too impressed with the AIO benchmarks. Most are comparable to my D15s tbh.

Cheers for the help
 
OrionTC said:
Its not that I'm unhappy, i love Noctua fans but with the current heat and a mild O/C of 4ghz my max temps are pushing 70c. They average around 60c - 70c but I'd like to try and push for 4.5ghz or as close as possible. This is obviously in the summer where temps are generally a bit higher in the house.

Ill have a look at the bequiet one. So far I'm quite disappointed with popular AIO's compared with the Noctua fans.
Click to expand...
What voltage are you using to get to 4GHz? What programs were used to get those temps? I have same cooler although I've added a 120mm fan to it to reduce temps by a couple of degrees. My [email protected] at 1.2V gets 50s-60s in gaming and 60s to 70s in moderate stress tests like Aida64 in this weather.

I need 1.2V to be AVX stable with this chip. Any more voltage and I think it will exceed the capabilities of the cooler. However, I haven't heard of any AIO that's significantly better and if they are it's because the fans are running really fast creating a lot of noise.
 
OrionTC said:
Funny you mention. I wanted to double check the air flow and whether is was on in take or exhaust. I put my hand in front of the noctua and yep breeze...air moved. I put it in front of the stock case fans and while the fans were spinning I could barely feel any air flow lol.

Ill check out the link and I may just try adding a couple of decent fans to the case and see how that improves things. I'm not too impressed with the AIO benchmarks. Most are comparable to my D15s tbh.

Cheers for the help
Click to expand...
Indeed, there are many mid and upper level air coolers as good as CLCs at same noise levels. Top tier air is often much better than CLC at same noise levels .. just don't just slap on a good air cooler and expect that to solve everything .. case airflow has to be tuned to component airflow needs .. reason for link. :p
 
doyll said:
Indeed, there are many mid and upper level air coolers as good as CLCs at same noise levels. Top tier air is often much better than CLC at same noise levels .. just don't just slap on a good air cooler and expect that to solve everything .. case airflow has to be tuned to component airflow needs .. reason for link. :p
Click to expand...

I understand your post somewhat but do you have any examples of good air flow setups? I'm now reading about static pressure etc and it's getting quite deep.

I will buy either nf-a14 or the industrial versions (3000rpm). I love noctua fans so paying extra isn't an issue. Do I need "CPU" fans rather than case fans for static pressure in the front fans?

I will be happy to replace the stock case fans as they seem pretty useless now.
 
OrionTC said:
I understand your post somewhat but do you have any examples of good air flow setups? I'm now reading about static pressure etc and it's getting quite deep.

I will buy either nf-a14 or the industrial versions (3000rpm). I love noctua fans so paying extra isn't an issue. Do I need "CPU" fans rather than case fans for static pressure in the front fans?

I will be happy to replace the stock case fans as they seem pretty useless now.
Click to expand...
Link examples what a good airflow setup is.
For example
  • My Define R2 system has three TY-140 74cfm intake fans. (no exhaust fans) in case while CPU has TY-143 130cfm fan and GPU has two TY-100 44cfm fans
  • Case = 222cfm
  • Components = 218cfm
  • Air temp inside of case is never more than 3c above room.
  • 2 front TY-140 & CPU cooler TY-143 fans are PWM controlled by CPU
  • Bottom TY-140 & GPU TY-100 fans are PWM controlled by GPU
Click to expand...

Sense you can't seem to understand that basic setup, here is what \I think your Define S case need for a good basic airflow setup:
  • Remove PCIe slot covers
  • Change front fans to something that will run about 300-1300rpm and has a minimum pressure rating of 1.4mm H2O
  • Add same fan as front repalcements as bottom intake
  • Raise case up 15-25mm so there is 40-50mm between case bottom and what it sets on. Can be open center castor base, feet extensions, or just blocks spray can caps, etc. under case feet
  • Set intake fan curves to sync with component fans so case flows air to match needs of components.

A few good fans that I like are PH-F140MP .. 2-pack is £16.26 but they only show one pack in stock.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/two-...140mm-fan-radiator-performance-bu-003-pt.html

Arguably the best are Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM High Speed £20.99

A decent low cost fan is Arctic F14 PWM or PWM PST £6.95 .. not as good a price as it used to be. They used to be about £18 for a 5-pack. ;)
 
Midget Mafia said:
Which specific model of this fan would be best? There are 11 different versions on Amazon. I am intending to fit them to my Corsair 780T. I believe BL067 is the one, but grateful for clarity.
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I would get the high speed model not because I plan on using more than 1000rpm but i's nice to have a reserve i very hot weather under extreme load with dirty case filters, and both the 1000rpm and 1600rpm PWM models idle down to about the same 200-250rpm minimum speed .. slower speed than I ever use.
 
OrionTC said:
Ill keep it short and sweet. I currently have a 5820k running at 4ghz with a Noctua NH-D15S (single fan).

I have been wanting to push it as far as I can, 4.4 - 4.6ghz or so. With the heat in the UK lately and the fact I want to O/C I have been thinking about buying a good AIO cooler. Question is, is there any AIO cooler that's worth changing my D15S for? I'd probably be fine going to £150 or so. I can always re-use the cooler if I ever get a new CPU in the future.
Click to expand...

add a 120mm noctua fan to the front of the d15, it'll make it cool better.
 
Only real difference I tend to notice with my large Noctua or 480mm AIO is where the heat ends up and how that affects other components in the system. Both are very capable of removing heat from the CPU and keeping it below 60 DegC in the most demanding games.

Currently I have a HAF XB EVO case with a horizontal motherboard orientation and the 480mm CPU rad dumps the heat out the front of the case so the Asus 1080 Ti Strix GPU in the case hasn't gone above the factory set 67 DegC (3 x fan cooler) or throttled down as a result even with 28+ DegC room temps.

One thing I did notice with my 5820K was that there was a marked difference between 4-4.2 GHz OC with the BCLK set to 100 or 125 MHz. 100 MHz BCLK being much cooler and less demanding on voltage. So shock horror I'm now running a BIOS pre-set OC of 4.2 GHz (voltage was well below 1.2v but jumped up beyond this via the BIOS) with 100 MHz BLK and missing on a few percent of RAM speed.
 
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