Hey guys. I got all my parts laid out and finalized besides 1 last thing; the CPU cooler. I have a Cooler Master 690II Advanded Mid tower case. I'm stuck between the Corsair H90, Corsair H100 or the Noctua NH-D14. I heard the Noctue is great and even better than most of the Corsair water coolers, both in temp control and fan noise. However, I do plan on trying out OCing for the first time. Nothing super crazy, just a slight boost but I was wondering if I should indeed go with a Cosair or the Noctua.
A lot of people recommend the H100 but IF I do indeed pick that up, I'm not entirely sure if it will fit in my case.
Would like to hear fellow members feedback on this matter. Thanks!
My personal opinion is that if you're going to watercool your CPU with an all-in-one, you might as well get the 240mm radiator if it fits in your case, and it sounds like it does. I don't THINK the H90 competes with the Noctua, more so after overclocking. That being said, between the Noctua and the H100i, it seems to come down to preference.
Some people like the look of a waterblock with tubing going to the radiator, while some people like the look of a big ass air cooler. Some people feel that an air cooler is a safer, more reliable option than an AIO water cooler. I know that both products have good warranties, and I haven't heard many problems with either product.
With the RAM you have selected, I think you might have a clearance issue with the Noctua. I would do some research to see if anyone has had problems/successes with that combination. If it is a problem, you can avoid this by getting a set of RAM with a regular heatsinks.
Another thing to take into consideration is the noise. Once you get the stock H100i fans over 40-50% load, they tend to get too loud for most people's taste. The Noctua comes with fans that very few people would ever call loud. You could get Corsair SP 120 fans for the H100i, but that is more investment to consider.
The last point is that the H100i comes with advanced software to control it. Some people dislike the software, but most people have positive things to say about it. The only way to control the Noctua is through whatever options your motherboard (or third party software) provides for CPU fans.
So, like I said, it comes down to preference, personal tastes, and whatever pro/cons you want to take into consideration. I have an H100i, so if you have any specific questions about that, let me know and I'll try my best to answer them! Good luck!
Very informative Grayson! Thank you. I think I'll go with the H100 as I'm betting on trying out OCing for the first time.
However I do want it to be as quiet as possible. My current rig is loud. I have the H50 Stock fan in the back, The case stock fan in the front and a 120mm on the side panel.
I'm worried about cooling for my upgrade rig as well as the stock fans that come with the H100. Can you recommend fans that are silent yet can do the job just fine? I want to swap the stock fans that come with the H100 for more quieter ones. I might use the stock fans that come with the H100 and put them in use throughout my case for cooling but just not with the radiator.
Just out of curiosity, you keep referring to the H100, and I keep saying H100i. Which are you planning on using? I don't think that you can still buy the H100, but I just want to be sure.
As for fans, a popular solution is to mount the Corsair SP 120 Quiet Editions to the radiator. Combine those with AF 120 Quiet Editions on your case, and you have an effective and uniform cooling strategy. I have experience with both of those types of fans, and I really like them.
When it comes to flat out silence, you can't get much better than Noctua fans. I think the most popular one is the NF-F12.
After that there are a lot of options that are all good, but they have a hard time breaking away from the pack. The Bit Fenix Specter Pros are always well regarded, the beQuiet! Silent Wings, Scythe Gentle Typhoon, Antec TrueQuiet Pro, etc. There are a lot. Those seem to be the ones I come across most. I'm sure I'm missing one or two. Your best bet is to do some googling about silent case fans, read some reviews, watch some videos, check out some comparisons, and see what you find.
Sorry about the confusion Grayson. I meant the H100i. Was just forgetting to add that letter at the end.
And yes that's actually what I've thought of doing. I'm thinking about replacing the stock H100i fans with the Noctua NF-F12 and picking up a pair of Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition.
Here's a quick mock up and how I plan on having the airflow and fans set up.
Sorry for the slow replies! It was a busy weekend. Anyway, I'm really impressed with your planning. Most people don't go so far as to draw out their airflow design, haha. I'd say your flow design is pretty good. That plan will probably work just fine if you want to leave it as is. I'm a bit of an OCD type when it comes to airflow, and I would probably adjust a couple things.
The stock H100i radiator fan on your hard drive tray might leave you wanting silence. Unless you have some sort of fan controller (or software like Asus Fan Xpert [not available on your MB]), that fan will run at 100% and it will be LOUD! If you can get it to run at a much lower RPM, it will probably be OK.
I'm a big fan of positive internal case pressure. This will help control dust build up, but only if you have filters on all your intakes. It should be pretty easy to find an acceptable filtration system if your case doesn't have one. Some googling and a trip to the hardware store will probably be all you need. It looks like you'll have a slight imbalance of intake vs exhaust. I think you will be able to get positive pressure just by adding a 120 fan to the side of the case, so that both mounts are utilized. This will also get more airflow over your motherboard.
Like I said earlier, this is just me being picky. Your airflow plan will work fine, but those are the changes I would make.
Don't sweat it one bit, I truly do appreciate the help.
I'll be changing my MOBO to the ASUS Maximus VI Hero so I'm not sure if that changes the fan control program that you spoke of.
Now regarding the intake vs exhaust ratio. When you say to put another 120mm on the side panel, do you mean having two fans on the side panel as intake? If so I can do that as I'll have a extra 120mm lying around.
I'm also confused on your internal case pressure part. Is this a separate filtration system that has to be implemented into the case or is it just a system of keeping dust under control?
Sorry, I used too many words to say something simple. It is a bad habit of mine.
The Asus Maximus VI Hero will come with the Asus AI Suite III. One of the utilities in there is Asus Fan Xpert. This will allow you to control all of your fans from Windows. It's a nice little program, very handy. This will allow you to fine tune all of the fans attached to your motherboard. Logan did a video on it if you want to look it up. With the H100i, I would recommend using the Corsair Link software to control the CPU cooling and Fan Xpert to control case cooling. That is what I did when I was using that combo and it worked pretty well.
For the intake and exhaust ratio, yes, I did mean put two 120mm fans intaking on the side panel of the case. Those, combined with the 140mm intake on the front will net you more intake air than exhaust air. So, you have two 120 fans and one 140 fan bringing air in, and three 120 fans pushing air out.
As for the air filtering, it is pointless to have positive internal case pressure unless you filter dust out before it gets into your case. If you have more exhaust air than intake air, dust will find its way in no matter what. If you have positive pressure with filtered air, the dust can't find its way in because it gets filtered out at the intake. This can be as simple as a dryer sheet in front of each intake fan, or you can buy a fan filter (for each intake fan) from a tech store. Like these:
I ordered everything and got all the parts delivered today. I also won a photo contest for Microcenter and got a $500 gift card from them. Which means I pretty much got the GTX780 for free. They said it never expires so I'll just hold onto it until I feel like upgrading it down the road. Amazon also shipped me 4 Noctua NF-F12 by mistake when I ordered 2 so I'm also really happy about that.
I really appreciate the help Greyson, helped me out a lot. I purchased 2 120mm fan filter and 1 140mm fan filter as you suggested.
Will have to swap out my rig and install it all some time this week. Will be sure to update on how it goes. Thanks again!
