CPU Advise

[Griffinix]

Well I have decided on the 2700x and Crosshair VII Hero motherboard. There is a ASUS/AMD promotion for Q4 of this year that gives you a £100 game voucher which pretty much swung it for me. I also just got fed up in the end and just decided I could splash the extra money. However as I stated I do have an interest in going beyond gaming and media viewing and am likely to pursue it so future proofing from that perspective.

Currently looking at CPU coolers however. While AIO's are better looking, I am a little uneasy about the chance of them leaking and so far I have had a Noctua Nh-U12p Se2 that has done remarkably well for almost 8 years. For AIO coolers I am currently looking at the Corsair H100i Pro, Cooler Master L240 RGB which is really cheap on novatech and the Antec Celcius S240. Only thing that bothered me about the Noctua is its colour scheme and I don't want to splash the extra cash on getting the Chromax accessories on top of another Noctua cooler.

[Jonj1611]

Good choice.

I have never had an AIO leak and I have had a few. Saying that currently have a bequiet Dark Rock Pro 4 and its pretty much silent and doing an excellent job.

I had the Coolermaster 240 RGB and the pump was a bit noisy and the fans weren't too quiet either!

[Griffinix]

Good choice.

I have never had an AIO leak and I have had a few. Saying that currently have a bequiet Dark Rock Pro 4 and its pretty much silent and doing an excellent job.

I had the Coolermaster 240 RGB and the pump was a bit noisy and the fans weren't too quiet either!

Yeah I have read a lot of reviews on pump noises. Also not sure what the warranty is regarding a leaking Coolermaster AIO.

For air coolers I am interested in Noctua's, Bequiet's, Cryorig's. Size does concern me for future ram choices and ease of use. At the same time I want to get really decent performance out of my CPU and thus would like really efficient cooling.

[Jonj1611]

The dark rock pro 4 in my system clears my ram, which is Corsair Vengeance LPX

[deejayburnout]

I watched a Jayz2cents video recently and he brought up a good point. When using a AIO they don’t produce an airflow like air coolers around the VRMs. Most air coolers will blow some air over the VRM and help keep them cool and thus help overclocking.
Not something I had considered before with An AIO.

[Griffinix]

I watched a Jayz2cents video recently and he brought up a good point. When using a AIO they don’t produce an airflow like air coolers around the VRMs. Most air coolers will blow some air over the VRM and help keep them cool and thus help overclocking.
Not something I had considered before with An AIO.

Yeah I remember him saying that also. I tend to lean towards the side of caution and think an air cooler will be enough for the 2700x. Though getting an air cooler does mean having to replace my CM Storm Stryker's top exhaust fan as it currently rattles a lot. And a water cooler would have just swapped places with it.

I am really interested in the Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B with the offset heatsink allowing for great ram compatibility. While it does not cool as well as bequiet and Noctua fans, I imagine that is something I could change myself and get better performance.

[J17hnt]

I just bought the raith prism cooler from the 2700x for £20 to go on my R5 1600. Haven't built my system yet but plugged the cooler in to my current setup and the leds look stunning.
Will the Scythe be that much of an improvement in cooling performance?

[Griffinix]

I just bought the raith prism cooler from the 2700x for £20 to go on my R5 1600. Haven't built my system yet but plugged the cooler in to my current setup and the leds look stunning.
Will the Scythe be that much of an improvement in cooling performance?

I would imagine over the Wraith Prism yes it would be a decent improvement especially when it comes to acoustics. I ended up getting the Noctua U14s with the mounting kit for AM4.