So my question is quite simple. I am planning on getting either the Corsair H100i or the H80i but I need a little help choosing. The main reason I'm asking is mainly the price. The H100i is about 20€ (around 27$) more expensive than the H80i. I want to be sure that the extra money I put into it is completely worth the temp. performance, silence as well as future proofing. Should I go for the H80i and wait for an even better upgrade in the future or go for the H100i straight away?
I've also taken into consideration the NH-U14S since it is cheaper than the H80i. I know NH-D14 would be better but it wouldn't fit due to RAM height.
well if noise is an issue for you, then honnestly both the H80i and the H100i are not the best choices, dont get me wrong, both do an excelent job for cooling, but the stock fans are rubbish in terms of noise production. that is something to keep in mind. If you realy want a silent H80i or H100i you need to buy diffrent fans, like corsair SP120 quiet editions, with less performance, or some noctua NH-F12 fans, if you want better performance. that is something to keep in mind.
a highend aircooler, does also a great job, if you have the room for it. like the Noctua NH-D14 performs realy close the the H100i but it cost less. and its much more quiet.
There would be plenty of room in the case (Fractal Design Define R4) for the NH-D14. But I am not sure if it would fit due to the height of the Kingston Predator RAM heat sinks. If it does fit i would have no problem going for it even though aesthetically the Noctua fans are not appealing. But that's just my personal opinion. If I were to set aside silence though which one would be better future proofing and performance wise?
I was expecting that answer. Another option if i were to go with Noctua would of course be a NH-U14S in push/pull configuration. Though then again in comes the question of performance against the h80i and h100i.
I'm gonna sleep on it but I'm pretty sure I'll just go for the NH-U14S unless someone has some last minute advice/thoughts to share with me. Overall I would like to thank everyone who replied and helped.
if u use the corsair link software, you can make the fans run at the sp120 quiet edition speed, the fans are exactly the same as the performance edition which just need to be set on quiet mode which turns it into the quiet edition fans.
Also the Noctua NF-f12 fans are EXTREMELY similar to the sp120 quiet editions. So essentially you can get a similar performance with the stock fans. if you want to do push/pull then i can understand getting fans...otherwise the stock fans do just fine.
Could you elaborate as to why you recommend that? Every benchmark I've checked so far for the H100i, H80i and NH-U14S have all been with different systems so I can't make a decision based on those temp readings. I would like to know real price to performance statistics. With your suggestion the prices would be : H100i + 2xNF-F12 = 140.46€ (193,16$), H80i + 2xNF-F12 = 121,88€ (167,60$). Where as the NH-U14S in push/pull with an NF-A15 would only cost 100.5€ (138,20$). Here's my dilemma. I currently have an Amd A10-5800K cpu which has serious over heating problems when running demanding games with the stock cooler. I am planning to upgrade to either a FX-9590 or something close in the future. I've understood that the 9590 doesn't come with a cooler at all. The question is do I really need to go all out with an AIO liquid cooler based on my current CPU and future plans or can I get by with NH-U14S? Don't be afraid to specifically explain why your opinion is what it is.
Well basicly i thought that the Noctua NH-U14S would not gonne fit with your kingston beast rams, but i just looked some sites. and i saw that there will be no issues with that at all. So maybe the Noctua NH-U14S in push pull isn´t such a bad idea in the end. its definitely a quieter and cheaper option. in terms of performance i would expect it to be sit arround an H80i
p.s an FX9590 is not realy worth it for a gaming rig. FX8320 or FX8350, i would look at those. also less heat.
If you're going to go for the 9590, the NH-U14S won't perform as good as the h100i. Now if you had the NH-D14 it would be a very close match up. Though from the choice, i would say get the h100i and you should be fine. The NF-F12 aren't going to give you more than 1-2*C improvement which doesn't change much. THE AMD Piledriver processor is able to handle heats up to 63*C which isn't bad when considering that i average with my 8350 @ 4.6ghz with the h100i w/ stock fans at around 35-40*C. My guess is that you'll probably hit around 50-55*C average under load with the h100i. Though things can vary depending how much heat your motherboard puts out, how well your PSU works and how much heat inside your case may be.
I'm a bit of a clean freak and i'm very anal about the way i try to pass the airflow. There's a lot of factors that play into temperature than just a good cooler. In my case which is a Corsair 600t, i have a bitfenix spectre pro 200mm fan at the front which is one of the strongest 200mm fans out there. In the back i have another bitfenix spectre pro, but 120mm. Up on the top i have the 2 stock h100i fans. My case is a bit limited up top which forces me to make my fans push air through the radiator inside the case (i know this is not the desired set up but pull configurations is the worse of the two evils). Remember Pull is ALWAYS weaker than a push configuration and that can vary from 2-5*C in performance. Another thing is that you ALWAYS want more positive pressure than negative...even if the air is warm, it's more beneficial for the graphics cards.
In all reality getting better fans is such a minimal improvement that you probably won't notice since Corsair already gives pretty good fans with the h100i/80i series, and along side the corsair link software, you won't have a problem getting the fans to run the way you want them. I do know the the NF-f12 are the best fans out there for quiet performance. My fans generally run from 1000-1400rpm and if the temps get WAY high i tell the fans to ramp up to 2000rpm(usually last resort, but i've never had to do that). I did all that with the software's custom fan profile. There are many benchmarks and especially the ones from Linus who has tested the h100i with noctua and stock fans and have proven that they are on par, just the Noctua fans are a little bit quieter, but if you look at the sound of the pump, it'll be louder than the stock fans at 1000-1400rpm.
I know this is a long response but i'm trying to cover as much ground as i can. In the end, i wouldn't recommend the NH-U14 but i would recommend h100i mainly because of the flexibility, the less pressure on the motherboard, and also because you dont have the NH-D14 as the choice which makes the h100i a clear winner out of the 3 choices.
i agree with the 8350. It's a great CPU and the performance gain of the 9590 is quite negligible..from many benchmarks, gaming hardly benefits with around 1-5fps gains. I'd rather take the difference and put it on my gpu.
nice video selection. Ever heard of putting it on quiet mode? There goes your noise issue...the reason why the fans are loud at the start of the computer is because the fans re calibrate themselves every time. so that if they start to lose speed they adjust percentage. Also the pump is louder than the fans at quiet mode.
Well I thought about going for the 9590 because I do quite a lot of video editing and as I've heard it handles that better. And I'm also planning on doing livestreaming in the future which the 9590 was also supposed to be great for. At least that's what I've read.