Looking for ideas to cool a new I7-6700K build

[BonzaiDuck]

I agree with this post. I have a Kraken x62, and a 6700K that is overclocked pretty well. Extremely easy setup, good cooling, quiet, and I like how it looks.

You can configure the colors to anything you want, which is pretty cool. Long ago I was 100% against AIO coolers. My opinion was if you didn't build your own loop it wasn't really water cooling. I have changed my opinion on that and am happy with this cooler. Hell, I have even used MSI's auto overclock now. Before I would have thought that was sacrilege. I am sitting at 20c idle with it at 4.4gz@1.320v in silent mode. I can go higher, and I do some times, but at my res of 3440x1440 overclocking doesn't yield any real fps increases. So I just purr along about 4.4, sometimes more. Its a little pricey, but I think worth it. Check out some reviews, just make sure it fits in your case if you go that way.

edit, the pics were the right way when I posted it. Now they're sideways... ugh. I am too lazy to try and fix, sorry in advance if anyone gets a crick in their neck.

You mean that you used fixed-VCORE overclocking? Because it isn't the idle temperatures that matter so much. In the upper range of stress and performance at 4.7 Ghz, you'll be pushing above 80C.

Of course, that all depends on the type of stress-test you want to use to validate stability. With Haswell, people would abjure using LinX or Prime95 because of the heat, so they chose lesser stressors. I was bent on passing 30 iterations of LinX below an 80C limit. And -- I did that.

My cooling is totally adequate to my overclock objective, and my overclock objective sits right on the voltage beyond which I'd rather not go.

Even so, the Kraken has my attention.

 

[Crono]

I just finished transferring my i7-6700K over to a new motherboard and case (mini ITX Thermaltake Core X1, which is huge for ITX but has room for a lot of fans), and changed the cooling from air (Be Quiet! Pure Rock) to a Arctic Freezer 360 (they have other sizes, too) AIO cooler. Very quiet Arctic F12 (120mm) fans, a total of 6 mounted on the radiator in push-pull configuration.

Overkill considering I'm not overclocking the i7 anymore, as it's a B250 motherboard and 4GHz is plenty for VR and HTPC duties, but it's running 24C at idle and 50C under full load, which is about 20C cooler than before.

 

[Valantar]

I just finished transferring my i7-6700K over to a new motherboard and case (mini ITX Thermaltake Core X1, which is huge for ITX but has room for a lot of fans), and changed the cooling from air (Be Quiet! Pure Rock) to a Arctic Freezer 360 (they have other sizes, too) AIO cooler. Very quiet Arctic F12 (120mm) fans, a total of 6 mounted on the radiator in push-pull configuration.

Overkill considering I'm not overclocking the i7 anymore, as it's a B250 motherboard and 4GHz is plenty for VR and HTPC duties, but it's running 24C at idle and 50C under full load, which is about 20C cooler than before.

I always find it kind of funny how people stick 240, 280 and 360 (and in some cases 420) mm radiators just on their 65-95W CPUs, while 250W GPUs do fine with single 120mm rads ...

 

[Ackmed]

You mean that you used fixed-VCORE overclocking? Because it isn't the idle temperatures that matter so much. In the upper range of stress and performance at 4.7 Ghz, you'll be pushing above 80C.

Of course, that all depends on the type of stress-test you want to use to validate stability. With Haswell, people would abjure using LinX or Prime95 because of the heat, so they chose lesser stressors. I was bent on passing 30 iterations of LinX below an 80C limit. And -- I did that.

My cooling is totally adequate to my overclock objective, and my overclock objective sits right on the voltage beyond which I'd rather not go.

Even so, the Kraken has my attention.

I'm aware idle doesn't matter much. I don't have the same desire as I once did to push things to the extreme, to document it all the way, etc. I don't do loops anymore either with any software, I just play a game.

As I said, at 3440x1440 the overclock on the CPU doesn't yield much for games. Which is 95% of what I use my PC for. Last night with it at 4.4 and the Kraken set to silent I played BF1 Frontlines for a match that lasted just over an hour. I took a pic of the stats with about 5 mins left in the match. If it was on performance mode and not silent it would have been several degrees less, but to be honest I just keep it on silent and don't push the CPU that much for reasons I stated. Changing out my 1070 for a new ti would be a much better way for me to increase frames, which is my plan. Much better keeping my Gsync too.

I am very happy with the Kraken, goes well with my system and the color theme. Have a Razer kb, mouse, and pad as well. The chroma color scheme is the same as for the Kraken basically.

 

[theNEOone]

Same processor and mobo as you, with the Corsair H100i v2 + ML120 fans. I'm running a 4.7ghz overclock with manual fan curves and pump curves set as low as possible (temps are fine but I'm at work now so can't reference them easily).

I hate noise so much that I moved my backup HDDs to another room and access via NAS. The setup is essentially silent. I would recommend the Corsair H100i v2 since it worked for me.


=|

 

[Crono]

I always find it kind of funny how people stick 240, 280 and 360 (and in some cases 420) mm radiators just on their 65-95W CPUs, while 250W GPUs do fine with single 120mm rads ...

It's not that funny. It's pretty easy to understand given that there are far fewer aftermarket cooling options for video cards (full water loops aside) than there are for CPUs, and GPUs with attached AIOs have only recently become fairly common. Also most people are inclined to upgrade to a new GPU more frequently than CPU, so it's not typically worth it to pay extra if you are looking at a new GPU every 1 to 3 years versus 4 to 6 years (or longer) for a CPU.

 

[guachi]

I wonder if it would be practical to sell GPUs with no heatsink/fan if there were readily available aftermarket AIO cooling solutions.

 

[Valantar]

It's not that funny. It's pretty easy to understand given that there are far fewer aftermarket cooling options for video cards (full water loops aside) than there are for CPUs, and GPUs with attached AIOs have only recently become fairly common. Also most people are inclined to upgrade to a new GPU more frequently than CPU, so it's not typically worth it to pay extra if you are looking at a new GPU every 1 to 3 years versus 4 to 6 years (or longer) for a CPU.

Does the scarcity of aftermarket GPU cooling explain massively overpowered CPU coolers? I don't get that logic. I can somewhat understand a 240, as they're usually noticeably cooler than 120s (although good 120s and 140s tend to encroach on 240 territory), but a 360 on a non-HEDT CPU alone? That nets you maybe 3-4-5 degrees better load cooling, all while adding yet another noise source and costing significantly more. Sorry, I don't get it.

 

[Crono]

Does the scarcity of aftermarket GPU cooling explain massively overpowered CPU coolers? I don't get that logic. I can somewhat understand a 240, as they're usually noticeably cooler than 120s (although good 120s and 140s tend to encroach on 240 territory), but a 360 on a non-HEDT CPU alone? That nets you maybe 3-4-5 degrees better load cooling, all while adding yet another noise source and costing significantly more. Sorry, I don't get it.

Yes, but by that logic liquid cooling doesn't make sense at all. You get a few degrees better cooling than a premium HSF at most, and yet the negatives are plenty (especially with a custom loop): risk of leaks, noisier pump than some of the quieter HSFs, a potentially more complicated setup process, more maintenance issues, and/or a harder to transport machine.

Not to mention even the cheapest AIO is still more than double the average large tower cooler, at minimum. Most CPUs run well within manufacturer spec with an inexpensive Cooler Master HSF, so if one is being completely logical, liquid cooling seems unnecessary for everything outside of extreme overclocking scenarios.

360mm versus a smaller radiator makes plenty of sense if you have the room for it. If you are going to go for a liquid cooler and your case can accommodate a triple rad, why not for a little bit more money (it's not even that much more for a 360mm AIO like the Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate, which is $120). The Arctic Freezer 360 is not a significantly noisier option in my case; I'm willing to bet it's quieter than many 240mm solutions, and it's quiet enough for my use case (VR/HTPC machine) even with 6 PWM fans mounted on it, which is all that matters for me.

It's okay if you don't get it, as I'm not saying everyone needs to buy a 360mm cooler, anyway. It's a perfectly logical option if the price is right and you have the room for one, though.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yes, but by that logic liquid cooling doesn't make sense at all. You get a few degrees better cooling than a premium HSF at most, and yet the negatives are plenty (especially with a custom loop): risk of leaks, noisier pump than some of the quieter HSFs, a potentially more complicated setup process, more maintenance issues, and/or a harder to transport machine.

Not to mention even the cheapest AIO is still more than double the average large tower cooler, at minimum. Most CPUs run well within manufacturer spec with an inexpensive Cooler Master HSF, so if one is being completely logical, liquid cooling seems unnecessary for everything outside of extreme overclocking scenarios.

360mm versus a smaller radiator makes plenty of sense if you have the room for it. If you are going to go for a liquid cooler and your case can accommodate a triple rad, why not for a little bit more money (it's not even that much more for a 360mm AIO like the Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate, which is $120). The Arctic Freezer 360 is not a significantly noisier option in my case; I'm willing to bet it's quieter than many 240mm solutions, and it's quiet enough for my use case (VR/HTPC machine) even with 6 PWM fans mounted on it, which is all that matters for me.

It's okay if you don't get it, as I'm not saying everyone needs to buy a 360mm cooler, anyway. It's a perfectly logical option if the price is right and you have the room for one, though.

Well, for me, it all boiled down to a few things: How much I wanted to invest; how much time; how much trouble; my objectives and what I deemed necessary (just . . . necessary) to achieve them.

And as I said, if I could OC the 6700K so it would pass LinX at 72C and 4.6Ghz, or 77C and 4.7, no risks from multiple failure points, quiet as a church-mouse -- it works for me. Gaming, I don't even think I break 44C on the CPU, but it all depends on which games one plays. And it's just an air-cooler with a relidded CPU.

 

[Hardball]

Hi all--
Thanks to everyone for all of the great information you have shared with me on this build thus far. I kicked the different options around for the last few days, and decided on the NZXT Kraken X62. I picked it up today and look to get the build started soon.

The last item I am still pondering is the storage. I have narrowed it down to Samsung SSD's between the 850 EVO 1TB Sata drive or the new 960 EVO 512 GB NvMe drive. Price is similar between the two.

Thoughts?

 

[theNEOone]

I would do a combo. You could get a 250gb 960 Evo as your boot SSD and a 1TB X400 for storage. Total is $394 on Amazon.


=|

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I would do a combo. You could get a 250gb 960 Evo as your boot SSD and a 1TB X400 for storage. Total is $394 on Amazon.


=|

That's a feasible idea. Hold on -- lemme look at my drive "properties" . . . OK -- Truth be told, I have considerably more space available on my Win 10 boot partition of my NVME Pro -- the OS and selected software installations only consume about 65GB.

It was my own plan, and I verify that it works fine -- to simply add "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)" folders to a secondary drive just like the Sandisk. if your backup solution is an all-inclusive imaging over relevant devices and volumes, it needn't be a confusion or complication. Just make custom software installs to either the folders on C: or the folders on [E: or whatever] you letter the second drive. You can use more or less discipline in deciding which software folders go on which drive.

Probably, you could double what I have on my NVMe Win10 volume with software installations before even thinking about it.

For a single-boot-OS system, 250GB NVMe + 1TB SATA SSD should be stellar for a lot of usage patterns.

I like it. I just like my own setup better. I like it better, but it still cost more buckets of ducats. I'm going to sell someone a 500GB MX100 with < 10 TBW on the odometer just to defray the cost. Too many spares laying around.