Question Liquid Cooling vs Air Cooling For I7 12700k? Don't Know What To Get

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Cassius101

Cassius101

Member
Aug 29, 2013
157
1
81
I am in a dilemma on whether I should get the DEEPCOOL or Vetroo. If I get liquid cooling then I won't be able to have as many fans, I wanted to get more RGB fans, I think I should not get liquid cooling or would liquid cooling be recommended for a I7 12700k? Might get a different product than the Vetroo if I do go with a air cooler.

Using my computer for net browsing/computer programs/tv shows/movies and gaming sessions that will range from 5-7 hours for 1 game. Gigabyte 6800XT Gaming OC. I will also over clock it to 5ghz.

People told me on the cool master discord that I should go with liquid cooling for the i7l



 
Last edited:
Sort by date Sort by votes
T

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
3,825
1,342
106

I went with one of these and pleasantly surprised by its performance. I had been using a FUMA on a 8700K that performs well and figured a similar design with a LGA1700 bracket should work.

I set it up with 2 fans on the tower using Arctic 120's w/ PST to daisy chain them together and only need to use 1 fan header.

1643562279091.png

It keeps it at just about room temp when not pushing things and when under load it might get to 130F before it pulls the temps back down. I'm also using a graphite pad instead of messing with paste since it makes things easier to move around / adjust w/o having to clean / repaste.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
BonzaiDuck

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
16,122
1,738
126
I'd have to probe the web for more detail on the processor. Intel began using indium solder between the IHS and processor die again -- for certain processor models -- and this 12700K is a recent entry. That's why Silicon Lottery went out of business. If that processor instead uses the putty goop they'd used previously, then you'd want to de-lid the processor after replacing it with Grizzly-Conduct-o-naut. If indium solder, nothing more to do with it.

I selected my air-cooler heatpipe coolers very carefully over the years. Three or four years ago, the ThermalRight Le Grand Macho edged out the Noctua D15, and came within a couple C degrees of matching top-end AiO water coolers, including some which could be modified with extra parts. The comparisons were based on the same test bed and rank-orderings to compare across more than one review article.

The Macho can be fitted with a $10 TR rubber accordion duct porting air to the rear exhaust. It is designed to expose the memory slots on the forward side of the mobo and processor.

Other wisdom suggests -- indium solder or not -- that processors with so many cores of the recent generations sort of make over-clocking unnecessary.

I'm still running a Skylake i7-6700K and i7-7700K -- quad cores. Both the Sky and Kaby went to Texas and back for Silicon Lottery before they closed the business. I'm happy with what I've got, I'm 74 years old, and I'm wondering if I'll ever need to build another computer again.

I like simulators -- the full measure of my gaming. I need my computer to manage money and communicate. I can't imagine how I could personally use six, eight or more cores.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

doyll49

Member
Jan 28, 2014
112
3
81
ID-Cooling SE-226-XT is quite good and usually very reasonable to low priced for it's performance. Your I7 12700k makes 180-190w and throttles at about 90-95c. 6mm heatpipes are able to cool 30-40w each, so with 6x heatpipes in SE-226-XT you are close to it's limits, so it's important to make sure your case is flowing air at or very close to room temp into cooler.

This is because increases in air temp entering cooler result in 1:1 ratio increase in CPU temp (@ same load & fan speed), so if a good airflow system run 75-80c under full load in 22c room a system with poor case airflow will pre-heat air entering cooler 15-20c raising CPU temp to 95-100c .. which is too hot / throttling performance and life. This is true of all air cooling, just more so when using coolers working close to their performance rating.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tech Junky
Upvote 0 Downvote
BonzaiDuck

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
16,122
1,738
126
igor_kavinski said:
www.techpowerup.com

RockItCool Offering Pure Copper IHS Upgrades for Intel, AMD CPUs

RockitCool is a new entrant towards the deliding and IHS replacement game, and the company is offering new delid kits that allow users to replace the Integrated Heatspreader (IHS) on their CPUs in an attempt to achieve better operating temperatures - and potentially improve performance...
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com

If you are feeling adventurous.
Click to expand...
You might spend $35 or $40 for that device that pops the IHS off a processor. No risk there. or very little. Of course, then, you'd want to use Grizzly Conducto-naut as a TIM for the new IHS, and I think a bare copper surface is a no-no. WEll, maybe I can't say, really, but liquid metal formulations will either form an amalgam with the copper surface or just eat away at it. That's as I remember what I'd read about it online. Someone might know differently, and correct me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mastertech01

mastertech01

Moderator Emeritus Elite Member
Nov 13, 1999
11,875
282
126
I would just recommend the air cooler. I am using a very similar Antec 400 running just fine at 5200mhz on an I7 11700k on a Z490 Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme board. If you arent going to do extreme overclocking its just fine.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

Micrornd

Golden Member
Mar 2, 2013
1,335
219
106
FWIW - Liquid cooled is quiet.
I've built 2 rigs for my grandsons that are used exactly as you posted, except they play games for longer periods
Both used the following components -
CoolMax 900w Modular Power Supply ZU-900B (didn't need that much, but they were on sale)
Gigabyte Z590I AORUS ULTRA
Intel® Core™ i7-11700K Processor (OC to 5ghz+)
EVGA CLC 120 C11 AIO cooler
Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700XT
Cooler Master Elite 130 case

You might want to check the size of that Elite 130 case.
Everything is a tight fit but, the only fans are on the small rad (and are very quiet), in the PS, and on the video card.
No additional fans were needed.
The rigs stay cool, even with 8-10 hrs. of gameplaying.
The only noticeable noise is when the 6700XT ramps up it fans, they can be are noisy.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

dlerious

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2004
2,032
851
136
Micrornd said:
FWIW - Liquid cooled is quiet.
I've built 2 rigs for my grandsons that are used exactly as you posted, except they play games for longer periods
Both used the following components -
CoolMax 900w Modular Power Supply ZU-900B (didn't need that much, but they were on sale)
Gigabyte Z590I AORUS ULTRA
Intel® Core™ i7-11700K Processor (OC to 5ghz+)
EVGA CLC 120 C11 AIO cooler
Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700XT
Cooler Master Elite 130 case
Click to expand...
That PSU looks like one to avoid from what I could find. Their website ( coolmaxusa.com ) doesn't give me much confidence.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

Micrornd

Golden Member
Mar 2, 2013
1,335
219
106
dlerious said:
That PSU looks like one to avoid from what I could find. Their website ( coolmaxusa.com ) doesn't give me much confidence.
Click to expand...
I agree with you on the current website. Here's what I can tell you.
AFAIK CoolMax has switched OEM suppliers and this model is no longer made (although they may be still available). When I purchased them they had mixed reviews and I take all purchaser reviews with a grain of salt.
The PS's had more than enough power for OCing the video cards and OCing the CPUs and were standard size, rather than an extended length as some in that wattage range.
They are still going strong after a year of OCing both CPU and video cards, along with long extended gameplay sessions.
Anyway, the point was that the 120mm liquid cooler was not only quiet, but also worked great in such a small, crowded case even with an OCed CPU, OCed video card, and a high wattage PS.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom