Noctua NH-D15S or Corsair H115i Pro RGB

[jwilliamson47]

Hi,

I currently have an X99 system with the i7-5820K, 16GB Quad-Channel RAM and the GTX 1080Ti. The air cooler has worked beautifully but it's a tight squeeze to install the GPU in he first slot (EATX). In theory, I could opt for another X8 slot, but isn't ideal. Also, I'm using the Evolv ATX TG Edition and the Noctua doesn't match the build's black theme and covers up the black memory. To be clear, performance/noise is key but it would be nice to have an aesthetically pleasing machine.

I was wondering if it's worth the current sale price of £115 to get the Corsair H115i Pro RGB? I've been avoiding CLCs due to monstrous fan speeds but this model appears to be focused on silence with ML fans.

 

[doyll]

If the extra cost can be justified go for it. But keep in mind that CLCs last a few to 5 or 6 years while a good air cooler will last 20+ years. if you want a cooler that is more color matched to your sytem look at Cryorig R1, Thermalright TRUE Spirit 140 Power (might not clear PCIe socket), be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 or similar. If you want liquid cooling look at be quiet! Silent Loop series of AIOs. They are AIO with copper radiator, real fittings so hose length can be adjusted/changed/change part as needed and a fill port for topping up and changing coolant .. but they are not CLCs which are factory sealed with no way to add coolant, replace parts, etc. Others like this are Alpacool Eisbaer and Fractal Design Kelvin. All 3 of these are made by Alphacool. Swiftech also makes a AIO, the H series.

 

[jwilliamson47]

Yeah, Tend to have more confidence in air as the only point of failure is the fan. I like the BeQuiet design and prefer copper but doesn't seem to soar ahead of the competition and the 3 year warranty is disappointing.

 

[Brozart]

Have you considered keeping the Noctua heatsink and adding their chromax range to match your theme instead?

You'll need the NA-HC4 heatsink cover and a few NF-F12PWM chromax fans to de-beige the cooler

 

[doyll]

Yeah, Tend to have more confidence in air as the only point of failure is the fan. I like the BeQuiet design and prefer copper but doesn't seem to soar ahead of the competition and the 3 year warranty is disappointing.

Having tried / tested a fair few CLCs over the years I have come to hate them. The only one I've used for more time than it took to test it is the Silent Loop 280 I have on one of my systems from the time the came out with not problems. It is so quiet I can't hear it. Warranties are a joke. It's nothing but a built in insurance policy and just as hard to get compensation too. Look at custom loop warranties and you will see they are not any longer. I

The reality is I use air cooling on all but one system, (6 systems here) and only have Silent Loop because I got it much less than normal retail price. I will not pay more for an AIO with similar cooling and noise levels as air coolers costing about have as much. I only suggested it because you were looking at possibly getting a CLC, and in my opinion they are as close to junk as can be.

Have you considered keeping the Noctua heatsink and adding their chromax range to match your theme instead?

You'll need the NA-HC4 heatsink cover and a few NF-F12PWM chromax fans to de-beige the cooler

Good idea, but covers cost £26.99 plus £23.99 each for fans makes their cost £74.97. That as much or more than a new cooler for fans to replace fans with same performance, just a different color and a couple of covers to go over the finpacks.

 

[jwilliamson47]

Yeah, the Chromax stuff is really overpriced, but I'm guessing they will come down a fair bit. After doing some research, it seems I'm best sticking with the Noctua cooler. Yes it might not be the most beautiful thing to look at, but it works damn well. Plus there's no annoying pump whine, risk of leaks of consistent pump failures I keep hearing about CLCs. I'd consider the BeQuiet Silent Loop due to the copper radiator and Alphacool parts but it's probably not worth spending the money when I already have the Noctua. Probably stick with my current setup and wait for the Chromax to get cheaper before using the add-ons.

 

[doyll]

I agree, NH-D15 is a very good cooler, so it's not cost at all cost effective to use any kind of water cooling versus a good air cooler. If you wanted different color fans the PH-F140HP_II or TY-147A are as good as Noctua cooler fans at £13-17 each, but OcUK doesn't sell them and I can't say where else to look. Drop me a not if you want to find some.

For many years I ran custom loops, but when good air coolers came out I switched back to air. I can use get and pretty much any cooling system I want and choose air cooling 99.9% of the time. I'm using be quiet! Silent Loop because I was able to get it for same price as top tier air coolers I test, and it works so nice I kept instead of selling it to get another new cooler to test. I haven't used any of the other Alphacool units, but suspect they are similar. People I know who have used Swiftech H series say they are quite good too. But all cost half again to twice as much as top tier air with similar performance, much longer life, and almost always much quieter so the obvious choice is air.

 

[TheVoice]

I've got the Corsair mentioned, I've been very happy with it. It's near-silent, the fans are particularly quiet and it keeps temperatures very low. Also looks good in a windowed case. It was a bit of an indulgence for mine, I have no current intention of overclocking but I'm very happy with it.

 

[Ad_Augendae]

I'm building/testing 2 boards at the moment using Brocken 3 coolers cooling an 1800X full tilt @70c, I'm pretty impressed so far for around £40 ish
Only time will tell if I need to change out the AM4 bracket or not for something that supports the MB ?

 

[jwilliamson47]

I've tried those coolers before, really good value and extremely quiet. Perfect for the average build.

 

[jwilliamson47]

I've got the Corsair mentioned, I've been very happy with it. It's near-silent, the fans are particularly quiet and it keeps temperatures very low. Also looks good in a windowed case. It was a bit of an indulgence for mine, I have no current intention of overclocking but I'm very happy with it.

At stock settings, it will probably just relaxing Nice to hear it's quiet though, far too long CLCs have used crap fans.

 

[TeraVirus]

I'm holding out for the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 that will drop in April, I would take an air cooler over a AIO any day.

A proper CLC also trumps an AIO cooler, as they tend to have much higher quality components. Just avoid Thermaltake...

 

[jwilliamson47]

Will certainly keep an eye out for the Dark Pro 4!