Noctua NH-D14 vs Corsair H100 for 2600K OC'ing? Update: Went with both!

[SolMiester]

Me too, TBH

I am thinking though, after seeing what Indigo Xtreme did for the NH-D14, that Indigo with the H100 with 4 fans in push/pull might just net me out one notch lower on the Vcc curve for stable 4.9 or 5.0GHz operation, which would be a win for me.

But yeah...bolting a $220 cooling solution to my $300 CPU is not exactly exciting when the results are seen. There is something to be said of "balance"...the H100 + 2600K is not balanced, the H100 is excessive compared to cheaper and equally performing solutions.

Just goes to prove that turnkey watercooling toys are still just that. Albeit spendy ones.

?? Really?, I just put a H80 together w\ 25k in a Raven03...torture tested at 4Ghz and its going from 25c idle to 34c...I guess once you are over 4.5Ghz, the CPU really starts to heat up!

 

[MrK6]

?? Really?, I just put a H80 together w\ 25k in a Raven03...torture tested at 4Ghz and its going from 25c idle to 34c...I guess once you are over 4.5Ghz, the CPU really starts to heat up!

Power consumption (and therefore heat) increases linearly with clock speed and quadratically with voltage. Overclocking is a constant battle with the laws of physics .

IDC, sorry to incite any inner nagging voices, but have you thought about throwing together a bang-for-your-buck custom loop? I'm positive that for $250 you could net much better performance. But I totally understand it if you want to cut your losses and keep it as is :awe:

 

[alfa147x]

Sorry it took me a month to reply, I stopped checking this thread for new posts a while back and somehow yours failed to register with me.

I'm keeping the H100 on my 2600K. Between the H100 and the noiseblockers it is a $250 investment.

The D14 is going on my HTPC which has a Q9650. Should be nice and quiet, and total overkill

Are you running the D14 passive?

 

[Rubycon]

I'm slightly tempted too, mainly for the geeky/tweaking side of things.

I'm using the TIM that's pre-applied to the H100 and getting load temps of 62C after 2 hours of Prime95 (i2500k at 4.533 / 1.224v).

I think I might have a lot of headroom still. The above temps are with my Corsair fans running as slow as I can get them to run (below spin up voltages).

What about the CPU liquid metal thermal paste or metal wafers from Cool Laboratories?

I've used coollaboratory liquid metal - the kind that's in an insulin syringe! If applied correctly you have rock bottom temps. HOWEVER it practically requires lapping to remove it completely and if your IHS/plate is bare copper it will need to be sanded in between applications, etc. Additionally if the mount is disturbed (heatsink twisted for example) temps will go up and a remount is required. The Indigo Extreme is probably the same way - not sure if it can be reflowed if this happens. With waterblocks this really isn't an issue since they are low profile and not going to budge. With tower coolers that's not quite the case unless the mount is super secure like Megahalems.

 

[Idontcare]

Are you running the D14 passive?

I have in some of my tests, it does rather well.

But in this case I will use a couple noiseblocker fans ($30 a pop) and they are about as silent as it gets while still moving some air.

I've used coollaboratory liquid metal - the kind that's in an insulin syringe! If applied correctly you have rock bottom temps. HOWEVER it practically requires lapping to remove it completely and if your IHS/plate is bare copper it will need to be sanded in between applications, etc. Additionally if the mount is disturbed (heatsink twisted for example) temps will go up and a remount is required. The Indigo Extreme is probably the same way - not sure if it can be reflowed if this happens. With waterblocks this really isn't an issue since they are low profile and not going to budge. With tower coolers that's not quite the case unless the mount is super secure like Megahalems.

Indigo is the same way. You can reflow it if needed but when you are done with it you will have to lap your IHS because some of it will get stuck to it.

That said, it took me all of about 10 minutes to get it cleaned up, not the end of the world.

 

[CervAT07]

Joined today(I never join anything) just to tell you how thoroughly interesting and useful this entire thread has been. Particularly enjoyed your myth busting experiments, lol. Easily the best I can remember. Thanks Idontcare

 

[Idontcare]

Joined today(I never join anything) just to tell you how thoroughly interesting and useful this entire thread has been. Particularly enjoyed your myth busting experiments, lol. Easily the best I can remember. Thanks Idontcare

Thank you very much for your kind words :$

 

[DiaBlox666]

I think this will be my first post since i joined the forum (big lurker lol) just to say WOW! I have never seen such a detailed review of anything before not even from the big reviewer websites. I know you don't care but i care enough to say that i appreciate the time it took you to do all this

 

[mnewsham]

I think this will be my first post since i joined the forum (big lurker lol) just to say WOW! I have never seen such a detailed review of anything before not even from the big reviewer websites. I know you don't care but i care enough to say that i appreciate the time it took you to do all this

It is a very nice review, something i personally think should be written up and put on the anandtech main site.

Also YOU'RE MINE LURKER!

 

[Jalockin]

My ram is headed off to GSkill today for rma, so now was the time to begin the lapping.

As Russian noted, the NH-D14 surface is not at all polished. It does appear as if it were machined (milled) to be flat by-eye though:

Before I started sanding, I added a cross-hatch pattern with a red sharpie pen.

I started with 220 grit, took a few passes (maybe 10) and then inspected to see how even or uneven the surface really was.

Ouch, not good. My NH-D14 had a high-spot right in the center, as well as a high edge to the left.

After a few more passes on the 220 grit (maybe another 10 passes) I inspected it again:

Ugh, double not-good. I have fully removed the original high spots but now we see I also had a low trough too (the remaining gray island to the right)

The low spot was actually really really low, I must have spent nearly 10 minutes sanding on the 220 grit to get the trough down to this barely noticable (but still there) small spot on the right:

Finally, the spot was gone and the HSF surface was flat after about 15 minutes on 220 grit (which is a really long time to spend at the coarse of a grit).

Moved on to 400 grit, here's the results after 400:

After 1000 grit:

And after 3000 grit:

Looks pretty flat to me

I haven't got to the 2600K or the H100 yet, but I did get my Q9505 lapped (going into a HTPC with either the NH-D14 or the H100 when I decide which one goes with the 2600K at the end of all this).

How many passes did you do @ 400, 1000, 3000 grit ? and you did not use any other grits than those?