Good enough watercooling for Core i5 7500

[gx_saurav]

Hello,

First of all, this is how my PC's internal look like. This picture was taken at the time of assembly of my PC.

http://imgur.com/a/5MyZV

As you can see, most of the PC is covered with that huge Cooler Master Hyper 212X heatsink. I cannot even install a M.2 drive as the port is right under it and installing an M.2 drive will mean no air will reach that drive to cool it.

This Hyper 212X was purchased around 4 years ago. I want to replace it with a water cooling solution which can handle my 65W CPU as well as a 95W CPU too as I want to give some headroom.

Which one should I go for? I was thinking that a 120MM radiator based water cooler will be enough for me.

 

[Valantar]

That should be plenty. From what reviews I've read, the Arctic Freezer 120 is the go-to 120mm CPU AIO (although it's been half a year or so since I paid attention. It got rave reviews all around. It easily cools CPUs far out of your power range, which means it should be dead silent for your uses.

That being said, note that with an AIO cooler, there will be less airflow around your motherboard than with the 212X. Having a fan there at all, even blowing parallel to the board, creates airflow all around. Removingthe fan means that even if you have an exhaust fan around, there will be far less airflow.

 

[gx_saurav]

Which liquid cooler do you recommend?

 

[lehtv]

Liquid cooling is quite overkill for an i5-7500. Not only does it cool much better than you need it to, but it also makes more noise than a cheap air cooler (and of course it costs more).

My go-to recommendation: Arctic i11. Cheap, powerful, silent. However if you want an air cooler that takes little space around the socket, why not just use the Intel stock cooler? It handles i5-7500 fine.

Of course, there are other compact coolers you might consider if you don't want to use the stock cooler... Arctic Freezer LP, for instance. About 10C cooler than Intel Stock and makes less noise. Noctua L9x65 if you just want to pay extra for overkill, while still saving money vs a noisier liquid cooler.

 

[Valantar]

@lehtv is of course entirely correct in that statement. A 65W CPU doesn't need liquid cooling, unless you have horrible in-case airflow and run it under constant 100% load. You'll do fine with a traditional heatsink. If you're still dead set on liquid cooling, as I stated in my previous post, the Arctic Freezer 120 is the best reviewed 120mm AIO cooler I've seen in recent times, both for performance and silence.

 

[gx_saurav]

The only reason I am looking to buy a liquid cooler is because I want to move to NVMe.

Right now with Cooler Master Hyper 212X, with prime95 I reach 56C which I think is very good temperature.

Let me hold this thought for a while till I can save enough money to buy a NVMe drive as without that I have no need of a liquid cooler for CPU.

 

[Valantar]

The only reason I am looking to buy a liquid cooler is because I want to move to NVMe.

Right now with Cooler Master Hyper 212X, with prime95 I reach 56C which I think is very good temperature.

Let me hold this thought for a while till I can save enough money to buy a NVMe drive as without that I have no need of a liquid cooler for CPU.

Unless you have a fan blowing air directly at the cpu socket and the area around it, water cooling won't help your SSD temps. It might even make it worse, as you're removing the one source of airflow close to the drive. Also, unless you run very drive-intensive woekloads, your NVMe drive isn't going to overheat. I would try it out before changing the cooler.

 

[gx_saurav]

Also, unless you run very drive-intensive woekloads, your NVMe drive isn't going to overheat. I would try it out before changing the cooler.

That's the plan. I will first use NVMe drive for some days. If I see high temperature, then only i will upgrade to a liquid cooler.

I got a 140mm side intake fan which throw air directly at M.2 port.

 

[lehtv]

A top-flow cooler would be best for M.2 temperatures, e.g. CM GeminII M4. With a liquid cooler you're taking all the airflow away from that area, which certainly will not help M.2 SSD temperatures, though it won't do harm either.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Hello,

First of all, this is how my PC's internal look like. This picture was taken at the time of assembly of my PC.

http://imgur.com/a/5MyZV

As you can see, most of the PC is covered with that huge Cooler Master Hyper 212X heatsink. I cannot even install a M.2 drive as the port is right under it and installing an M.2 drive will mean no air will reach that drive to cool it.

This Hyper 212X was purchased around 4 years ago. I want to replace it with a water cooling solution which can handle my 65W CPU as well as a 95W CPU too as I want to give some headroom.

Which one should I go for? I was thinking that a 120MM radiator based water cooler will be enough for me.

Why can't I see that picture? IE takes me to IMGUR, which has other "picture" links, but nothing for yours.

So I'm a "cooling obsessive," "Water-neurotic" enthusiast who thinks regular full-tower cases are too big, mid-towers just right, and smaller cases without sufficient possibilities as I want to imagine them.

When you say that the Hyper 212X, EVO or whatever is too big, I'm just stunned and flabbergasted at the assertion -- not yet having seen your case and hardware.

As others mentioned, you can always get a low-profile heatpipe-cooler from at least a few different makers and models.

I wouldn't even consider water-cooling for an i5-7500 because it isn't even a K processor. That definitely makes many heatpipe coolers like my TR LG Macho beyond simply "overkill."

I might test the Intel cooler for that model, and it would be perfectly fine. I might use a CM 212 Hyper/EVO/X-whatever, and it would be great.

Here is a thought about water-cooling in general, not written to inflame the devotees of an established art-form and marginally the best choice of a cooler for only that purpose and reason.

With a range of the K processors -- my 6700K a firsthand observation -- you may reach a practical safe-limit to voltage before your temperatures and peak-package reach 85C -- provided that you have just enough cooling. "Just enough" likely includes dual-fan 240mm radiator assemblies with modest reservoir.

But you can improve on just such a cooler by maybe 5C degrees by re-lidding the processor with CLU and using an $80 heatpipe cooler. Well -- there goes the art-museum.

You also eliminate possible failure-points, even if there's a slimmer chance of a leak or a pump-failure than you might guess. I can only say I've spoken to at least a few people who lost a Titan card or a motherboard for a leak. Not many -- just a few.

Then, there's the maintenance of distilled water and possible additives, flushing and the inconvenience of flushing and refill.

Those costs will be recurring and regular.

If you transfer your computer in a car facing pot-holes, you had best remove a "super-heatpipe" cooler and fans weighing about 900gm or more when preparing for the transport or shipping. How often will you do this on a regular basis? Do people still go to LAN parties?

My Skylake air-cooled "Porsche" is about as good as it gets, unless I chose dual-240 rads and something like a dual-Laing-D5 reservoir-pump combo.

All that being said, I'm just guessing that a 120mm rad would be great. How about a CM H80? Maybe even an H60? Even for those, you might actually find better among AiO offerings.

One of us here built a Devils Canyon with an OC reported at 4.7, temperatures between 68 and 75C, and use of an H80 cooler. It was ducted and removed from the inside case panel by some few inches with long screws and dual-sequential fans. Can't remember for sure, but there may have even been the pusher fan opposite all that. The CPU was unmolested by any CLU-relidding option.

So what good will a water-cooler do for you with a non-K, (non-overclockable) i5-7500? If you ever upgrade to a K AND overclock, you would still have a feasible choice between air and water, and a smaller case discouraging "Big Air" would also discourage water-cooled possibilities.

What is it for you -- the Bling factor? Could that be the reason I didn't see "AiO" in your post?

 

[gx_saurav]

Why can't I see that picture? IE takes me to IMGUR, which has other "picture" links, but nothing for yours.

So I'm a "cooling obsessive," "Water-neurotic" enthusiast who thinks regular full-tower cases are too big, mid-towers just right, and smaller cases without sufficient possibilities as I want to imagine them.

When you say that the Hyper 212X, EVO or whatever is too big, I'm just stunned and flabbergasted at the assertion -- not yet having seen your case and hardware.

As others mentioned, you can always get a low-profile heatpipe-cooler from at least a few different makers and models.

I wouldn't even consider water-cooling for an i5-7500 because it isn't even a K processor. That definitely makes many heatpipe coolers like my TR LG Macho beyond simply "overkill."

I might test the Intel cooler for that model, and it would be perfectly fine. I might use a CM 212 Hyper/EVO/X-whatever, and it would be great.

Here is a thought about water-cooling in general, not written to inflame the devotees of an established art-form and marginally the best choice of a cooler for only that purpose and reason.

With a range of the K processors -- my 6700K a firsthand observation -- you may reach a practical safe-limit to voltage before your temperatures and peak-package reach 85C -- provided that you have just enough cooling. "Just enough" likely includes dual-fan 240mm radiator assemblies with modest reservoir.

But you can improve on just such a cooler by maybe 5C degrees by re-lidding the processor with CLU and using an $80 heatpipe cooler. Well -- there goes the art-museum.

You also eliminate possible failure-points, even if there's a slimmer chance of a leak or a pump-failure than you might guess. I can only say I've spoken to at least a few people who lost a Titan card or a motherboard for a leak. Not many -- just a few.

Then, there's the maintenance of distilled water and possible additives, flushing and the inconvenience of flushing and refill.

Those costs will be recurring and regular.

If you transfer your computer in a car facing pot-holes, you had best remove a "super-heatpipe" cooler and fans weighing about 900gm or more when preparing for the transport or shipping. How often will you do this on a regular basis? Do people still go to LAN parties?

My Skylake air-cooled "Porsche" is about as good as it gets, unless I chose dual-240 rads and something like a dual-Laing-D5 reservoir-pump combo.

All that being said, I'm just guessing that a 120mm rad would be great. How about a CM H80? Maybe even an H60? Even for those, you might actually find better among AiO offerings.

One of us here built a Devils Canyon with an OC reported at 4.7, temperatures between 68 and 75C, and use of an H80 cooler. It was ducted and removed from the inside case panel by some few inches with long screws and dual-sequential fans. Can't remember for sure, but there may have even been the pusher fan opposite all that. The CPU was unmolested by any CLU-relidding option.

So what good will a water-cooler do for you with a non-K, (non-overclockable) i5-7500? If you ever upgrade to a K AND overclock, you would still have a feasible choice between air and water, and a smaller case discouraging "Big Air" would also discourage water-cooled possibilities.

What is it for you -- the Bling factor? Could that be the reason I didn't see "AiO" in your post?

Initially, it was to make space and install as well as cool a NVMe drive. However, that Cooler Master Gemini or Noctua low profile cooler are fine for my needs to it seems. I don't plan to overclock.

Let me get a good deal on NVMe drive first and based on that I will buy one of these low profile cooler.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Initially, it was to make space and install as well as cool a NVMe drive. However, that Cooler Master Gemini or Noctua low profile cooler are fine for my needs to it seems. I don't plan to overclock.

Let me get a good deal on NVMe drive first and based on that I will buy one of these low profile cooler.

"Good deal" depends on what state-of-the-art you are seeking, the number of guaranteed TBW in the NVMe-M.2-SSD's lifecycle, the total capacity, total price and price per GB.

A 960 Pro 1TB cost me $620. Its TBW spec is 800 TBW, while the 960 EVO is 400 TBW and probably costs $120+ less than that. For performance, we can only wait and see what sort of response other manufacturers give to the Samsung NVMe's.

With an upper-mid-range motherboard like mine, you only have one M.2 slot and three x16-"long" PCIE slots, slots 1 and 2 your only hope for SLI x8/x8. The third slot at bottom of the installed ATX board is the x4 slot, which for me requires disabling of SATA ports 5 and 6.

I'm trying to figure out how the choice of a cooler impacts your NVMe decisions. And I said I can't access the link you posted to your system photo(s). If the case is very slim, then -- sure -- something like the Gemini or Noctua of similar design with do just the trick. If there's sluggish airflow in the space where you would install the NVMe, that's still easy to fix. It depends on what type of passive cooler you'd use for the NVMe -- like the KryoM.2 and PCIE (NVMe M.2) card bundle.

In my case -- and in my midtower STacker 830 case, a sidepanel 140mm intake fan blows all over the PCIE area of the motherboard, and the air gets sucked forward by a ducted barrel-fan exhaust to the case right-side-panel.

I think it would be easy to mount a 40mm Noctua fan on or near an M.2 PCIE heatsink. The need for such options depends on what else you can do to provide airflow over the heatsink. If you're looking for a lower-profile NVMe PCIE x4 card, ASUS has one:

ASUS Hyper M.2 Mini card

 

[gx_saurav]

Right now I am eyeing a MyDigitalSSD BPX 256GB. I currently have a Samsung 850 Evo 256 GB and want to sidegrade to MLC NAND SSD.

Here is a better picture of my CPU. http://i63.tinypic.com/fad0cg.jpg

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Actually, the spec speeds on that MyDigitalSSD BPX look good, and no different from the 512GB model. It may not be top-end and stellar, but I had the misconception that the MyDigitalSSD's were slower than that. Good to know.

Which motherboard puts the M.2 slot under the CPU cooler? I think you'd be better off with a PCIEx4 adapter card, anyway -- unless you don't have the slots. But you should: that looks like an ATX motherboard, am I right? Even so, you should be able to add ventilation under the 212 cooler. For instance, some boards offer an intake vent on the I/O plate that fits a 40mm fan. But even without that, you should be able to mount a 40x10mm Noctua fan somewhere near the cooler at board-level to ventilate the board and any M.2 drive.

 

[gx_saurav]

Actually, the spec speeds on that MyDigitalSSD BPX look good, and no different from the 512GB model. It may not be top-end and stellar, but I had the misconception that the MyDigitalSSD's were slower than that. Good to know.

Which motherboard puts the M.2 slot under the CPU cooler? I think you'd be better off with a PCIEx4 adapter card, anyway.

This is what I am also thinking. I am finding out which boards are available in India.

 

[Valantar]

If you're truly worried about m.2 cooling and have an ATX or mATX case, why not spend a measly €30 and get an AquaComputer Kryo m.2? Should more than do the trick. Compared to the price of even a cheap NVMe drive, it's not much money, and it's a product you can use for many builds down the line.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Two thumbs up on that. We all spend nickel-and-dime amounts on all sorts of PC-related silliness, but given the many options for PCIe x4 NVMe adapters and their prices, the Kryo M.2 has all sorts of advantages. For one thing -- orientation: it's a "high-profile" PCIe card, but that also makes it short and stubby back-to-front. That might make it better for ventilating a nearby graphics card, although the long, low-profile ASUS Mini card might prove equally.

I would certainly use something like the Kryo if I invested in an upper-tier M.2. The nickels and dimes are just pennies compared to the price of a 960 Pro.

 

[gx_saurav]

I checked. The good cards are not available in India.

I am dropping this plan for now.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I checked. The good cards are not available in India.

I am dropping this plan for now.

Well, in case you check back here, I just want to observe that a lot of those x4 cards don't have "passive cooling sinks" or waterblocks or the ability to connect the ASUS Mini Hyper M.2's optional mini-SAS device. But the circuitry is relatively simple, and there should be several good ones assuring reliability.

For the cooling in such a situation, there is a $12 heatsink from some obscure outfit called Gnome Tech, and I believe they're shipped from China. You only need to the blue foam thermal pads -- probably a couple dollars -- because the sample shipped to me didn't have any full-length pieces.

You could buy those adhesive thermal pads separately -- it's maybe 2mm thick. Then you could visit a metals shop and get a rectangle of aluminum heatsink material that would allow you to cut your own to size -- that could take maybe 20 minutes with a hacksaw.

We buy "product items" because they offer ready-made assembly. But there's no reason you couldn't do NVMe M.2 cooling for a handful of chump-change with your own custom-cut DIY parts and make it work well and look neat.

. . . . . Unless you're all thumbs with a hacksaw or don't want to take the few hours to do it right.