8086k OC cooling help ?

[ioverclocker]

Hi,

new here to the forum.
I'm starting to build a hackintosh and am gathering the components : a 8086k for CPU and Maximus x apex mobo (should be easily overclockable).
Got the RAM (Gskill trident at 4400 MHz) but now the question of cooling arises. I would like to OC the CPU to 5 GHz at least but would like to avoid water cooling (why? well you know, you never know...). I may delid the CPU in order to drop temps.

Are there any air coolers that would be able to do the job (guess not ...).
So, what could you recommend?

Would passive cooling be possible, like quietpc.com stuff, or arctic Alpine 11 - Passive ?
I'm intrigued by the thermoelectric stuff, like phonetic HEX 2. Anyone using this on a overclocked CPU ?

Thanks for any help !

 

[EarthDog]

Hey there, and welcome!

First thing I notice is the Apex motherboard. Unless you are usng subambient cooling methods and benchmarking competatively, a lesser board will easily drive that 8086K to 5Ghz all cores and beyond. Save your money and get a cheaper motherbard (ASRock Taichi - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...7792&cm_re=Z370_Taichi-_-13-157-792-_-Product) or something of the like is fine.

Also that RAM is a pretty big waste of cash. The CPU IMC may not like it running that fast without a some tweaking. If you can return it, I would and pocket the $ difference........again unless you plan on benching subambient competatively. Buy a set of DDR4 3200 MHz like these GSkill Trident Z's and call it a day. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820232476

As far as air coolers, I doubt many will take a non-delidded 8086K to 5GHz. Something like the Noctua NHD-14 r something of the like has a chance but it depends on the CPU sample, ambient temps and case airflow. Its best honestly to get a good 2x120mm AIO over air in this case.

Passive cooling, not with overclocking this CPU, no way.

 

[trents]

I second everything ED said.

Having built a number of Hanckintoshes, my advice to you is to get the system running right at stock clocks and voltages before trying to overlock it. It will be challenging enough to get all systems operative (particularly video and audio) at stock with 8th generation Intel components. Remember, Macs are very picky about fitting within a given power envelope, particularly since the idea behind a Hackintosh is to "trick" the bootloader and the OS into thinking it is a true Mac. Apple is generally a little behind the curve (generationally speaking) with regard to the latest hardware so going with cutting edge hardware on a Hack can be challenging. Picking a compatible GPU is critical.

Concerning cooling, there are a lot of good choices but an AIO water system with 240mm rad would be my recommendation if you want both a good overclock and quiet. Water is not so dependent on high, noisy fan case air flow to keep temps down because you can bring in cool air from the outside to push through the radiator.

 

[wingman99]

+1 on the memory speed reduction. There is about 5% gain in performance going from 2133 to 3200 speed. Link: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews...Memory_Performance_Benchmark_Analysis/10.html

 

[ioverclocker]

Hi and thanks for your replies.
Ok, well, I can still return the Apex to Amazon for sure. The reason I selected that mobo was that it was advertised as being very easily overclockable.
I understood that hackintoshes prefer Asus or Gigabyte, so could the ASRock Taichi cause any problems ?
Basically, what I need is a mobo with easy OC, easy hackintosh setup (not too much kexting), fast (native?) RAM, M.2 support, and yes, I guess 4 RAM slots are better than 2.
So f.ex. would a Gigabyte AORUS Z370 GAMING 7 better suit those needs ? If not, what mobo in the Asus-Gigabyte constellation would be a best fit ?
As for the RAM, same thing, I can still return it, but then would it be better to invest in 16 GB rather than in 8 GB sticks ? I heard it's always recommended to better invest in the best native RAM speeds possible, but you kinda infirm this. Thanks for any further help.
I see you guys are not afraid of water-cooling. Any thoughts about the phononex hex ?

 

[wingman99]

I help someone recently overclock hackintosh Gigabyte AORUS Z370 GAMING 7 and all went well. Gigabyte has a very intuitive BIOS for overclocking. How much ram do you need?

 

[ioverclocker]

well, I guess 16 GB would be the minimum with best native speeds. I dunno how prices are for RAM these days, but if it's worthwhile I'm willing to invest in 32 GB OOB.
Checking comments on Newegg I do find the following thumbs down for this mobo : "Plugging a M.2 into the top slot will disable sata Ports 4 and 5. Plugging a M.2 into the middle slot will disable sata port 0. Plugging a M.2 into the bottom slot will disable the bottom PCIExpress slot.". By the time you get a DVD drive in there, a boot hd and a raid configuration, you have used up all the SATA and then some." How much of a problem would this be for "normal" use?

Do you think this would be a better fit for a hackintosh novice than the Apex ?

 

[wingman99]

If your going to use 16GB I would purchase 8GBx2 3200 speed memory. You can use the M.2s for boot and raid. The Z370s do disable sata ports and slot with use of M.2 and you can still use DVD HD.

 

[ioverclocker]

The Z370s do disable sata ports and slot with use of M.2

So I guess this is true with all Z370 mobos right, not just GB one's ? For an ordinary use, what would this mean ?

 

[EarthDog]

It depends on the board, the type of m.2 device used as to what sata ports or pcie is disabled. If you are using one m.2 drive it likely wont be an issue as the z370 boards have 4-6 SATA ports. So youll be able to use 3-5 which covers 2 SATA drives and an optical.

Why do you think you need such fast ram and so much? Something you do requires this or are we just assuming faster and more is better? If you dont have a real need.. like wingy said, 2x8gb ddr4 3200mhz offers plenty of bandwidth and capacity for the normal user.

 

[ioverclocker]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

Why do you think you need such fast ram and so much? Something you do requires this or are we just assuming faster and more is better?

Well basically it's the experience of the 27" iMac I used to have before it R.I.P. ... Macs just seem to be more RAM-hungry than their PC counterpart I guess. Basically I'm doing design and 2D animation (with a bit 3D animation and video editing as well). I used to have 24 GB of Ram in that iMac and it wasn't too much... Googling around I found people advised to prefer speedy RAM to the bare quantity, so as this is a new build in order to replace the iMac I guessed I just preferred to invest into it just now. But with 2x8 GB of RAM, I can always add later anyway.

Just another noob question. If I understand well, the Aorus gaming 7's RAM base clock speed is set to 2666 MHz. So plugging in 3200 MHz of RAM won't cause any problems ? It's just going to scale itself down to the base speed of the mobo ? Secundo, would it be worthwhile to invest into a speedier native RAM in order to get as close as possible to the OC limit of 4133 GHz ? Tertio, when brands advertise that as a OC limit, would it still be possible to OC beyond it or not ?

Lastly, as I already bought 4400GHz Tridentz G.Skill memory for the Apex board - which I'm going to return too now - is there any quality difference between G.Skill Tridentz RAM and let's say Corsair ?

 

[EarthDog]

If you need more, get more.

2666 is jedec standard. 3200 mhz is nothing (funny question to ask AFTER buying 4400mhz memory ). Does what you do respond to fast ram? The cost difference between 16/32gb or 3200 and 4133+ is quite significant for, in most cases, little gain. Its possible to go past the limit, sure. But those speeds arent a given to be able to achieve due to the memory controller on the cpu.

For your uses, ram is ram is ram.

 

[ioverclocker]

(funny question to ask AFTER buying 4400mhz memory )

yea right ...

Well, that's when I was still going with the fast-as-possible RAM stuff matching my 4500+ GHz OC limit on my Apex mobo... Well, looks like a previous life to me now...
Hey, if you're a taker for my G.Skill RAM, I may do you a price . Otherwise, any reason to prefer G.Skill over Corsair ?

 

[EarthDog]

Thanks for the offer, but i will pass (please no selling outside of the classifieds )

No reason for one or the other really. If it looks good and is priced right, go for it!

 

[ioverclocker]

righto.

Last thing : what's the difference in timings. I'm checking GSKill's Tridentz 3200GHz ram, but the timings are set differently : CL16-16-16-36 ; CL16-18-18-38 ; CL14-14-14-34 ; CL15-15-15-35 ; CL16-18-18-38 ; CL16-18-18-38 ; etc... What difference does that make ? How can I make sure this RAM has been tested on the aorus gaming 7 mobo ?

 

[EarthDog]

The lower the timings the better, but a sweetspot for 3200 is cl15 or 16.

Your board has a qvl list at its website which shows ram that has been tested on the board. 99% will work on the boards. If you want 100% get it off the list.

 

[trents]

Gigabyte motherboards do seem to be the most compatible with Hackintoshes. ASRock is the least compatible brand. AMD video cards are the most compatible but not all of them. The Nvidia 10xx series is often difficult to get working. The thing to keep in mind is that building a Hackintosh is much easier if you choose components that Apple has actually used in their own builds.

I assume you are familiar with tonymacx86.com. The sight has a section for recommended components for building a Hack, the "Buyer's Guide". It's a very helpful community but beware; they have a specific way of doing things and do not take kindly to forum contributors who espouse different methods than theirs. There seems to be a great deal of animosity between some of the different Hackintosh online communities or at least between those administrating them.

 

[ioverclocker]

thanks for the help.

Now that I'm settled on the mobo and RAM, I'd like to get to the original subject of the thread : cooling !
With OC in mind (let's go with a 5 GHz OC on all 6 cores), and trying to avoid water cooling, what other options do I have ?
Heatsink : Noctua ? Be quit! DARK ROCK TF ? What else ?
Thermoelectric : how about Phononic Hex 2 or a Coolermaster v8-ver2?
They're a bit exotic I guess, but can they (or similar solutions) be used when OC ?

 

[wingman99]

righto.

Last thing : what's the difference in timings. I'm checking GSKill's Tridentz 3200GHz ram, but the timings are set differently : CL16-16-16-36 ; CL16-18-18-38 ; CL14-14-14-34 ; CL15-15-15-35 ; CL16-18-18-38 ; CL16-18-18-38 ; etc... What difference does that make ? How can I make sure this RAM has been tested on the aorus gaming 7 mobo ?

G.SKILL has a QVL also. LINK http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3200c14d-32gtzsk

You can also take a look at the Cas latency timing calculator to see how many ns is the memory accesses time. LINK: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...mV_44QazuvsSjjTu-H4KyVfpg/edit#gid=2008389493

The NH-U14S is a good cooler. LINK: http://www.overclockers.com/noctua-nh-u14s-heatsink-review-2/

 

[ioverclocker]

Thanks for your help.

I'm skimming through the review of the Noctua NH-U14S. Quite impressive results indeed. At the end it is stated though that

The Noctua NH-D15 still appears to be the best heatsink around.

. It skims off a few more degrees on a 5 GHz OC. Could anyone tell me whether it would obstruct any RAM slots when using G.Skill Trindentz?

I guess no-one tried out the more exotic solutions such as the Phononic Hex?