What type of cooling should I get? Noobie

[TribulationFu]

Hey guys, I am completely new at building pc's and I am working on my first build. This is what I have come up with so far: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FP8JHx I am trying to figure out what type of cooling system I should put into it. I was thinking about putting a custom loop in and have seen videos on it but I dont really know what it all means. I am looking for someone with some experience to help me out possibly. Also what do you think about my pc that I am building as well.

 

[Janus67]

to the forums!

That's a great build that you have there!

Custom loops can be fun but also frustrating and require a decent amount of homework, planning, and upkeep. I have a hard time recommending them to a first-time PC builder.

If you really want to do it, there are multiple sticks in the water cooling section of this forum that go over what most/all of it means. There isn't a 'just buy this' part to it though, as there are a lot of options to consider. I would personally recommend keeping the cooler that is already on the 980 as it is pretty solid and getting an aftermarket cooler for the 4790k, something either along the lines of a Noctua NH-D15/Phakteks TC-14PE or if you want to get your feet wet with water cooling (although it barely counts) buying a Corsair H100i/H110 or Swiftek H220x/240x would get you started. The benefit to the Swiftek system is that it allows you to expand it in the future if you wanted to eventually include the graphics card, for example.

 

[Lvcoyote]

My personal preference on memory is G.SKill and EVGA for video cards, but there's nothing wrong with what you have chosen there. The cooling depends on whether or not you plan on doing much overclocking.

 

[TribulationFu]

Thanks guys for the info. I dont know how to overclock but I want to learn. What are the benefits of overclocking? I see alot of people talking about it. What does it do and what is it used for?

 

[Janus67]

Overclocking is essentially running the specific piece of hardware faster than it was sent to you (stock/reference) in order to gain additional performance. By increasing the CPU speed (for example) from 3.5ghz to 4.0ghz you can gain a few FPS here and there in games. Same goes for video cards, and to a lesser extent memory. When overclocking there's a careful balance of finding what settings allow for the card to be stable yet doesn't overheat, as generally when overclocking in order to continue to increase the speeds more voltage is needed (Moar Volts!) which will increase the heat output of the specific piece of hardware. Which is why people buy aftermarket coolers, be it air, water, or sub-ambient in order to push the hardware past what it was rated to do.

 

[TribulationFu]

So if I were to overclock my cpu and gpu, what would be the max that they could probably go? What determines that? Also I know you said its a good build but is there anything that you would possibly change about my build to make it faster or stronger for gaming?

 

[Janus67]

Overall an overclock is determined by both luck (every CPU, GPU, RAM, etc is unique) and cooling available. I would imagine being able to get the 4790k to 4.3-4.5 on average with one of the coolers that I listed in my first response to you. As for the 980, I haven't paid close enough attention to see what they can do, but I believe that exact model was reviewed on this website which we 'push the limits' to see what was possible.

The only change that I would consider is getting a different hard drive, I have a difficult time recommending Seagate drives as of late because of numerous reports of them failing. I would be much happier to see a Western Digital or Hitachi (HGST) drive listed, for what it's worth.

 

[TribulationFu]

That was the harddrive in my previous pc. Unfortunately the motherboard on it fried so I figured I would just stick that into my new pc. I just put it in the parts list to see if it was compatible or not. Hey you wouldn't know if its possible to take windows 7 from that harddrive and use it on this new pc would you? I have looked around and seen both answers.

 

[Janus67]

Possible, yes, recommended no.

I would always recommend doing a fresh install when changing platforms, especially different chipsets and architectures.