New build - which CPU cooler?

Jayos

Jayos

Jayos

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Making preparations and list of components for major upgrade. The last on was years ago :)

Looking at Asus ROG Hero mobo, with new alderlake i9 12900k

Case will be NZXT H170i

Looking at the LianLi Galahad CPU cooler as looks to be good value @ £139
would you recommend something else?
It needs to be quiet, very quiet.
what about the Corsair H170i - is it worth the extra?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d92QArCqF8g

It is ment to be very good. Aris has a strong accent but he knows his stuff.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arct...ormance-cpu-water-cooler-360mm-hs-07r-ar.html

The Arctic freezer AIOs have thicker radiators so they can cool better with lower rpm but the sound level will depend on the fans you use. I have Lian Li SL120 fans and they are very quiet at 800rpm but when I manually increase the speed to 1k rpm for gaming they are audible. I think the Galahad comes with a Lian Li controller and I find their L-Connect software to be very good.

IIRC Alderlake will use a maximun of 240w so it will require decent cooling.

Edit - Noctua NH15 is also always an option, Huge tower cooler with 2 fans on it gives great performance and is very quiet.
 
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Just upgraded my sons PC and went for an air cooler first time for years. Noctua U12s but it dumped so much hot air into his room I went and got a MSI AIO 240mm and doesnt put half as much hot air back into the room. I looked at the Galahad as it got excellent reviews but went for MSI just because it was £40 cheaper.
 
varkanoid said:
Just upgraded my sons PC and went for an air cooler first time for years. Noctua U12s but it dumped so much hot air into his room I went and got a MSI AIO 240mm and doesnt put half as much hot air back into the room. I looked at the Galahad as it got excellent reviews but went for MSI just because it was £40 cheaper.
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The only way it would put out less heat is if there is less heat coming from the CPU. The heat doesn’t vanish into the cooler, it is moved from the CPU to the cooler and then into the air by the fans.
Putting more heat into the air is a good thing, it means the cooler is doing its job. More heat transferred means a more efficient cooler.
 
Distracted said:
The only way it would put out less heat is if there is less heat coming from the CPU. The heat doesn’t vanish into the cooler, it is moved from the CPU to the cooler and then into the air by the fans.
Putting more heat into the air is a good thing, it means the cooler is doing its job. More heat transferred means a more efficient cooler.
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Noctua U12s is an air cooler, MSI AIO is water cooled. Two different types of cooling. The latter being more efficient hence due to location and therefore less heat exhausted from the case. Same amount of heat is being produced by the same CPU using the same OCCT stress test. U21s exhausted hot air, AIO produced less as it was more efficient at cooling. CPU was 10c cooler with the AIO than the U12s. AIO was situated at front with cool air incoming, U21s was exhausting air from within which was already warmer than ambient room temperature.
 
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varkanoid said:
Noctua U12s is an air cooler, MSI AIO is water cooled. Two different types of cooling. The latter being more efficient hence due to location and therefore less heat exhausted from the case. Same amount of heat is being produced by the same CPU using the same OCCT stress test. U21s exhausted hot air, AIO produced less as it was more efficient at cooling. CPU was 10c cooler with the AIO than the U12s. AIO was situated at front with cool air incoming, U21s was exhausting air from within which was already warmer than ambient room temperature.
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I’m not sure I completely understand what you mean.
The CPU is producing the same amount of heat in both instances, so the coolers have to remove the same amount of heat. I think we agree on that.
What are you saying the AIO is doing with the heat if it isn’t putting the same amount as the Noctua into the air?
 
Distracted is 100% correct. Energy cannot be created or destroyed it can only be changed into a different form of energy. In this case , electricity in = heat out.

You may perceive the AIO to be kicking out less heat due to it having a much larger mass than the air cooler. A lot of that mass is water, which has a very high specific heat capacity. Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy it takes to raise 1kg of a substance by 1 degree C and iirc H2O is 4200 j/KG, this is much higher than most substances and is one of the reasons water is so good for transferring heat from one point to another.
What this all means is it takes time for the energy output from the cpu to heat up the mass of the AIO and this leads to a delay in you feeling the air exhausted heating up. If you were to leave it running for an hour the AIO would reach an equilibriam point and would then be kicking out the exact same amount of heat as the air cooler.

I see this all the time with my watercooled setup. For a while the air being expelled is cool but once the loop has heated up the air being expelled is much hotter. All that was happening was the energy was heating up the mass of fluid in my loop so for a while it felt cool but after a while the loop had heated up and the expelled air felt hot.
 
Interesting read, a guy from overclockers has also recommended the msi.
Any other feedback from users of msi cooler?
Now the question 2 fans or 3? Are there big gains using 3 fans?
 
Jayos said:
Interesting read, a guy from overclockers has also recommended the msi.
Any other feedback from users of msi cooler?
Now the question 2 fans or 3? Are there big gains using 3 fans?
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360 will be better than a 240. 280 close to a 360.

Pump on the msi unit can be loud. arctic do an ARGB freezer II if you want colours
 
Distracted said:
I’m not sure I completely understand what you mean.
The CPU is producing the same amount of heat in both instances, so the coolers have to remove the same amount of heat. I think we agree on that.
What are you saying the AIO is doing with the heat if it isn’t putting the same amount as the Noctua into the air?
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Exactly.
Assuming both coolers are properly installed and making good contact 100W on air is the same as 100W on AIO. The only difference would be where that heat would be dumped. Using the AIO as exhaust, on the top of the case, pretty much all heat will be dumped outside, without affecting the other components inside the case.
The air cooler would require other fans to direct the hot air from the cooler to avoid it affecting the interior of the case.
For AIO, I would go 240mm minimum, 280mm or 360 if possible.
The Arctic Freezer are fantastic, but the thicker radiator may be an issue depending on the case you're using.
 
Thanks for great tips and feedback.
Finally received some of the bits required for the build, but still Need to purchase RAM (DDR5) and cooler which will be 360. it's down to 3 at the moment NZXT X73 | MSI Core Liquid | Artic Freezer
 
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