I’m new at PC building , and I just bought a unfinished PC. The build was missing the GPU, the Storage, and the watercooling. I’ve done my research, but I’m still confused as to what the best watercooling setup is for this CPU
I’m looking for a closed loop (120x240 if possible, but will settle for a 120x120) with hardware. I have an i5 3570k and an ASUS PBZ77-V LX. I’ve checked multiple forums and sites, linked at many tests, and compared numerous setups.
Do you have a budget in mind?
And are you sure you need water cooling?
The Noctua NH-D15 outperforms many 240 mm AIO’s, while being cheaper.
The case I bought doesn’t have any mounting hardware, so a heat sink wouldn’t be a good choice, since I would need to buy the mounting hardware anyways. My budget is under $125.
what do you mean your case doesn’t have mounting hardware?
mounting hardware comes with coolers
unless you’re talking about motherboard standoffs, which in that case I don’t see why that would prevent you from using an air cooler
you can get motherboard standoffs for like a buck on ebay
I have to agree with @Donk . The Noctua NH-D15 is a really good cooler.
Don’t get me wrong. You can also get good performance by water cooling. In fact, I have done it myself 
. But after a few years, my system failed due to a leak. It is dangerous, specially because I am someone who don’t give proper and constant maintenance to it (I am just lazy 
). So If you are like me, the Noctua is the way.
As for the overclocking features, In my main PC I have the Noctua and I overclocked with no problem.
Regards.
The mounting hardware is included with the cooler?
If your budget is Max 125 usd, then I recommend the Noctua D15.
I also have an i5 3570K on an Asus p8z77- v le. It was my main rig for many years. Some thoughts:
On a cheap air cooler you can get stable 4.3Ghz but voltage will be high. Depends on your silicon of course and how much overclocking it had in its life (that CPU is from 2012, so I hope you didn’t spend too much on it.
On a Corsair h110 you will get 4.5 easily, more if you tune well. But you will need a case with space for a twin 120mm cooler.
Getting more clockspeed out of that CPU is not really worth it. In modern games you will be core limited.
The Asus board is good and stable, and supports fast ram (1833 easily).
GPU wise it will support a 1080Ti without issue. For RTX cards you may want a more modern system as again you will be core limited on anything that could benefit from ray tracing.
I hope that helps
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