Liquid cooling... to liquid cool or not?

[frldyz]

First I want to thank everyone for their response about SATA III connections. It helped a lot.


As I mentioned I am building this PC from the ground up
It's purpose will be a basic computer. But at some point I would like to get into some gaming. I don't think I'll get too serious into it.
Like I mentioned this is a basic purpose PC. I would like to getsome software to do some editing on our family videos at some point in time

My next question is cooling.
I have an i7 4790k. Its more of a processor then I need. But I got a screaming deal on it @ Microcenter for $250!
Everyone has told me to replace the fan as it sucks.
I do not intend to overclock.

But I am taking this build serious. Money is not an issue. I would like to put the best parts on/in it to get the most out of it. And hopefully get more longevity.

When I was @ Micro center the lady had recommended I go with a closed loop liquid cooling system. And toss the i7 fan in the garbage.

Is liquid cooling way to much of an overkill for my needs. I know its more then is necessary. But will it negatively hurt to go with liquid cooling. Or would I get better performance out of an air cooled unit.

I have a Corsair 760t case. So room and venting is not a problem.

Thanks in advance everyone.

I would like to take advantage of my 760t panel window and show of my build.

 

[inachu]

There is closed loop and there are also a newer type where the heatsink is kinda hollow and uses steam inside to further advance the heat extraction from the cpu.

If the max game you will do will be playing world of warcraft or something liek age of empires then the steam copper block would be perfect. Anything more would require liquid cooling. Zalman makes very good heatsinks that I use.

 

[Charlie98]

Personally, I would try the Intel HSF... they aren't that bad. Granted, I don't have an i7, but I've found them to be pretty decent.

If you are not going to OC, why add the complexity of water cooling, even one of the closed loop units? Get a decent air cooler and be done... CoolerMaster 212 EVO or, since money is no object... a Noctua D15.

 

[OlyAR15]

If you are not overclocking, I would save your money and use the stock HSF. It is fine. Your friends that told you it sucks are idiots.

 

[Ketchup]

The only reason to get a better cooler is the turbo. A 4790k will probably do some throttling at turbo on the stock hsf at the heaviest loads.

Do you need turbo? No
Will throttling hurt the cpu? No

But you don't need anything like liquid cooling to prevent this. My $30 cooler does just fine. But I have seen some nice-looking rigs with water, so there is nothing wrong with going water for that aspect of it.

A "good" water cooler will always outperform air. Some water-cooling unit are actually louder than air. So with overclocking out of the equation, it is really up to you which way you want to go.

 

[geofelt]

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------
I have become a bit jaded on the subject of haswell cooling for overclocking.
How high you can OC is firstly determined by your luck in the bin lottery.
I had high expectations from the Devil's canyon parts and their better thermals.
I found out that the thermals really do not matter unless, perhaps, you are a competitive overclocker.
Haswell runs quite cool, that is, until you raise the voltage past 1.25v or so.
Once you go past 1.3v, then you really do need very good cooling to keep stress loads under say 85c.
But, the consensus is that voltages higher than 1.30 are not a good thing for 24/7 usage.
I have been unable to find any official Intel recommendation on what is a safe vcore limit.
If you are an enthusiast, you can go higher.
Even if you can handle the heat, how much do you really need that extra multiplier from say 4.4 to 4.6?
My thought is that it is better to use the exotic cooling funds for a quieter and less expensive air cooler.
I suggest a good tower air cooler like noctua or phanteks with 140mm fans.
Mainly because the stock intel cooler can spin up and get noisy under load.