My M18x turned into a zombie...so now I'm building that monster desktop I always talked about.

Oh damn, 1.45V. I'd be too chicken for that.

But you've got custom water cooling so it makes sense and you're right, heat is the main killer.

 

Mind you i had to bin 3 chips to get this one,why chicken @1.45V? that's a safe voltage for 4770K 24/7 use, i have bumped it up for benchmarks 5.1Ghz @1.58V no issues but not what i would call stable for 24/7 use. I think as the architecture gets smaller the worse the heat is going to get and the less overclock able cpus will become.

 

Heh heh 'cause of the heat. That kind of extreme liquid cooling setup isn't for everyone, you know.

So it does sound like you got a cherry-picked chip. I heard only 30% of Haswells can reach 4.6 GHz or above.

 

Only about 10% will reach 4.8Ghz and about 3% will do 4.9Ghz and above,a friend of mine has one that does 4.9GHz stable @1.25v crazy..... I had a Corsair H80i cooler and yeah just wasnt up to it...

 

Very nice set up

 

Thanks vulcan78 took a lot of research,patience and money but the results are just so rewarding :thumbsup: finished 4th in the last HWBOT Rookie Rumble Cup which is pretty good considering this is my 24/7 daily driver....good luck with your build too

 

^^^ Chip lottery winner right here.

I thought of rolling the dice on another, but decided that another $350 just wasn't worth a gamble for a media center PC. Don't get me wrong, I'm still happy with the end results from my 4770k, but Haswell doesn't impress me in the end.

 

Funny thing is i didnt gamble bought my current chip of ebay pre binned so i knew what i was getting

 

Hmmm, man I haven't seen that in a long time. I did not know anyone was selling pre-binned CPUs. If I ever decide to build a desktop, I'll have to look on eBay for that. I'd gladly pay an extra 20-25% more for a K or X CPU with a money-back guarantee of it being an excellent overclocker rather than roll the dice on something that might turn out to not be.

 

This seems to be more of an issue on Haswell chips than any other generation of Intel Core processors so far. Sure, there's always been the chance of getting overclocking duds, but I haven't seen nearly as many issues with previous generations. I'm not entirely sure if this is a symptom of the Haswell architecture itself, or lowering standards on the manufacturing process (or both). But yes, I would have to agree that a pre-binned chip would be totally worth the extra scratch to ensure high quality from the get go.

 

I missed the part where it said he had em overclocked for some time - well that is the danger of OC - killing cards faster.

Back in the day I bought 2 Ati Radeons 9700pro AIW - one for my bro and one for me. I was running my overclocked from 325 to 412 (XT Clocks) and it "lasted" 2 years, while one my bro had is still alive and kicking... Not that its any relevant statistical data - but it can be used to explain stuff.

 

I think both, possibly in equal measure. I'm inclined to think 60/40 or 75/25 leaning toward Haswell being a poor design that loose manufacturing standards accentuates.

Man, talk about being way past due for an upgrade. I think Intel Sandy, Ivy and Haswell integrated graphics might have more horsepower. I retired my All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro around 2004/2005 or so because it was too weak back then to do what I wanted it to do. It was a truly awesome GPU in its day. That was back when ATI was still doing fantastic things, before AMD stepped in and started messing things up. I was a die-hard ATI fan back then.

 

Looks like I'm switching to desktop just in time, I can now play around with downsampling!

Downsampling, a simple method for making your pc-games look better. - NeoGAF

"Issues

Doesn't appear to be working with laptops and/or "m" line laptop gpus."

I was actually eager to try this as I am going back through Mass Effect 2 now that I have all the DLC, particularly "Lair of the Shadow Broker", "Kasumi - Stolen Memory" and "Project Overlord" and there doesn't appear to be the same Nvidia Inspector MSAA tweak that is available for ME3. Looks like I will have to wait a few weeks. I should have all the parts in within a week or so but availability of Noctua's NH D-15 isn't until the end of May.

 

So in the end which components did you decide to buy/build?

 

Meh, I don't really like downsampling at all, and it works just fine through Nvidia Control Panel on my laptop.

It's a bit of a hit-or-miss with different monitors as far as how high of a resolution they'll tolerate. Most 1080p screens I've seen can't seem to be able to break 4K and a lot can't even get above 2.5K. At that point downsampling is basically not worth it at all as 2x MSAA will look the same while running way faster. Not to mention that downsampling is a global setting so things become smaller and sometimes blurred, not just in Windows but oftentimes in games as well with their HUD, text, and other UI elements. Only good thing about downsampling is that it works for just about everything.

For DX9 and older games I prefer to use MSAA+transparency supersampling. Or SGSSAA/OGSSAA through the Nvidia Inspector flags which has both better IQ (since it allows for much higher sampling rates) and performance (since it is optimized in the driver) than downsampling. And for DX10/11 games I use SMAA 1x through the injector.

 

Yep they do - but its an old machine we keep in the garage - when we have a drunken blowout or are fixing stuff its good enough to run Winamp and watch TV or open pdf manuals - and its acting like a NAS Most important thing ATI AIW remote is awesome! Add a bit of sentimental connection as its a amd athlon 3000+ overclocked from 2 to 2.7ghz, together with those awesome bh-5 chips rated 400mhz overclocked to 500 while keeping latencies 2-2-2-5 and the time i spent to mod PSU to provide more voltage for memory. No way i'm gonna get rid of that.

Now to comment part 1 of your post, didnt Intel place some voltage regulators into CPU itself which increases tdp and hinders overclocking as a result - its was up to motherboard manufacturers to use separate chips for it and when they were of higher quality overclocks were able to go much higher. Since that is actually a drastic change maybe MBO manufacturers were caught a bit off guard - especially notebook vendors. Could it be why new aw's 17's and 18's have such troubles with temperatures while overclocking? I mean VRM-s produce extreme amount of heat once you move into overclocking. And if you factor in that there is possibility that intel is limiting power that new integreted voltage regulators can provide to save them from burning you get "overclocking walls".

If you lower manufacturing standards when you produce chips like cpu cores you automatically lower your yield, or at least that is what they thought us. Meaning you want wafer yield to be as high as possible to maximize profits.

 

Yes, part of Haswell's defective design (for enthusiasts) is SoC structure with fully integrated voltage regulators (FIVR) that hinders performance and contributes to overheating. This design is OK for cheap crap like Ultrabooks that run at low voltage and low clock speeds, but not the brightest idea for a high performance CPU.

 

Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Black Edition

CPU: i7 4930

GPU: EVGA 780 Ti SC w/ ACX Cooler

PSU: Corsair RM850

Case: Corsair 540 Air Arctic White

Cooler: Noctua NH D-15

OS: Windows 7

Storage: Migrating existing HDD's and SSD from M18x R2, the 540 Air has done away with multiple 3.5" drive bays in favor of 2.5" in the rear compartment so no need to purchase a separate 5.25" to 2.5" conversion bay as I was originally going to do with the first case I settled on, the Corsair 600T.

Memory: 2x8G Corsair Vengeance Pro 2133 Mhz (4 sticks might not fit with the particular cooler I have selected, even though it's design has been revised to accommodate taller RAM the issue is actually the intake fan, with the mobo I am going with I can place the RAM on the left side of the CPU without an issue. The other option is going with low profile memory but I had already jumped on this memory as I found a good deal on ebay, $140 new shipped)

Grand Total: ~$2200.

Ok if you got this to work with your laptop I will try it as well, as far as external displays go, I faintly remember there being an issue with HDMI not being able to convey anything greater than 1080p at 60Hz, meaning, if you step up to say 2560x1440 it will only go at 30Hz or something along these lines. Well I will just try it and see what happens. I am also trying to get OGSSAA to work for Mass Effect 2 via Nvidia Inspector but so far it doesn't seem like anything is working. Same for SLI. If anyone reading this has figured this out please let me know.

 

You can game with your Alienware's native display set to 2560x1440 @ 70Hz if you want to. Just set that in NVCP as a custom resolution and set the game(s) to run at that.

 

On the desktop side Haswell is worse than ivy due to poor TIM between the heatspreader and core, if you replace it or go for the upcoming devil's canyon redesigned package it should be similar or better.

 

Update:

The case, GPU and RAM have already arrived. Having unboxed the case I have to say that it is smaller than you would think it is, its has a nice footprint in my opinion, but I am kind of wishing I went with the black although it was a very difficult choice as the black didn't include the white LED fans.

I have a feeling I will have all of the parts by the end of the week but will have to wait until the end of May for the cooler. I will just put everything together so that the last thing I need to do is drop in that cooler and transfer over my storage drives.

Fingers crossed the motherboard is good to go.

Here's a few pics to give you an idea of the size:

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1548277/

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1548278/

A nice Arctic White build:

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2006575/

Looking at the first pics I am definitely wishing I went with the black case and purchased some red LED's. I ended up settling on the Arctic White as I figured it would be less common, it was the same color as the 600T I had originally settled on, and it comes with white LED fans which do look nice, especially if youre doing a semi-budget build and don't want to purchase additional lighting accessories.

The video below shows off these white LED fans, they are quite nice and for $100 out the door the Air 540 in white definitely looks semi-custom and sporty. This video also shows off how the same air-cooler sits and works with the case fans.



Here's the Arctic White:

 

2560x1440 @ 60 Hz works fine on my Y500. As for external monitors, you should still be able to do 1440p just fine on a 1080p screen over HDMI but you might have to bump refresh rate down to 55 Hz or something. Higher bandwidth connections such as DVI and DP will allow you to go higher, for example the 1920x1200 monitor hooked up to my desktop can do up to 2880x1800 @ 60 Hz over DVI.

The default AA compatibility bits 0x080100C5 should work fine for MSAA in ME series but you have to use the flag 0x080000C1 for SGSSAA. I don't know if OGSSAA works, I don't have the game so I can't test. You can also use downsampling of course.

While we're on the subject, you know you can enable supersampling in PlanetSide 2 by increasing Render Quality past 100% in UserOptions.ini right?

 

Nope. Haha I can tell you're new at this. The correct sequence is to first mount the CPU, RAM, and cooler on the mobo, then the mobo on the case, and then everything else.

 

I'm running an external display, an Eizo Foris FS 2333. I believe I need to use DVI out to go 2560x1440 + @ 60Hz which doesn't appear to be possible with M18x.

Edit:

Mini-DVI to DVI converter can make this happen now that memory serves me better.

 

LOL! Looks like I am waiting until the end of May before doing anything then.

 

Yeah 1.41 correct? I think I've tried this but couldn't tell a difference.

 

1.41 is 2x supersampling, 1.73 is 3x, 2 is 4x (2x2 or 4K). The improvement won't be very noticeable until you get to 1.73 and above and the performance hit is massive, but it does an awesome job at increasing GPU usage. :thumbsup:

 

Lol, I can imagine, I will be trying this with the new PC though, I have a feeling I will have just a little CPU + GPU muscle to spare....

 

Dude this is PlanetSide 2 we're talking about. Don't get your hopes too high.

 

http://cdn.overclock.net/1/19/19e47d0c_BUd5qsd.jpeg

I see a Schiit Audio Modi and Magni. Schiit Audio is da Schiit. I used to have the Lyr to power the LCD-3. But eventually I found the LCD-3 too heavy and moved on to electrostatic cans. Now I only have the cheap Sennheiser HD 600, which is kinda sad.

 

The Noctua NH-D15 has received an award in every review I've come across so far and I am kind of not regretting going with the white 540 Air anymore as I think it will gel more aesthetically with this particular cooler:

Noctua NH-D15 Review | bit-tech.net



I am really happy with the choices I have made for this build, the i7 4930 tends to run about 10-15 C cooler than the 4770k that most are going with, the EVGA 780 Ti Superclocked w/ ACX Cooler also runs nearly 20 C cooler than reference, and the 540 Air resulted in ~5 C cooler GPU and ~10 C cooler CPU temps with this test rig as compared to conventional mid-tower case designs.

And the performance with this GPU out of the box is decent enough to compel me to not even use any OC at all unless I need to, say if I upgrade to a 2560x1440 G-Sync monitor next year, even though there is plenty of headroom (60 C under load in a 540 Air?). But I will definitely be OC'ing the CPU, especially with the thermal headroom I will have (LinusTechTips pushed a 4820 to 4.0 Ghz @ 1.3 V and only saw 57 C with a Noctua NH-D15!) these Intel CPU's seem to be built like tanks, I've yet to experience one fail on the last three systems I've owned whereas this is my second time experiencing GPU failure, although admittedly the 2960 I only had for 3-4 months:

Alienware M17x R2 i7 920 @ 3.5 Ghz, 5870 X-Fire

Alienware M18x R1 i7 2960 @ 4.3 Ghz, 580M SLI (GPU failure)

Alienware M18x R2 i7 3920 @ 4.5 Ghz, 680M SLI (Zomibified GPU)

Coming from the M18x R2, I am ecstatic with the kinds of temperatures I can expect to see, not just across the GPU and CPU, but the mobo and memory as well with this particular set-up.

Right now I am sitting on cloud nine thinking of pushing my hex-core 4930 to 4.5 Ghz and beyond without hitting 80 C and playing nearly every game known to man on max settings, SLI compatible or not (I actually shelved Titanfall a week or so after launch and there is still no SLI support) without my GPU going over 60 C.

And all of this just in time for summer.

I will post back when I get it all buttoned up and powered up (may record initial boot-up) and definitely with some benches and temperature readings.

See you guys again around the beginning of June.

 

Hehe I'm excited for you man. I look forward to seeing it

 

Normally I would agree with you on this, since most aftermarket coolers have a backing plate that must go on the back side of the motherboard, but this isn't really the case these days, and particularly in the case of the Air 540. The 540 has a MASSIVE cutout on the motherboard tray that allows you to service the cooler and backplate without pulling the motherboard. Not only is it accessible, but there's so much room to work with in both chambers of the 540, it's quite comfortable to do so. He can indeed plug everything in after seating the motherboard with no hassle at all.

On a side note, not only would I put everything together before you get your cooler, I personally would also pop the OEM Intel cooler on there and run it at stock CPU clocks while you're waiting to get your Cooler. This way you'll have a chance to make sure everything jives well together, if you happen to be unlucky enough to get a DOA component you'll have plenty of time to RMA it so you can still be up and running when your cooler is released. Besides, that way you'll get to play while you're waiting, and when you do get your cooler the OEM Intel unit just snaps right off. Quick cleaning of the thermal grease and you're ready to rock the new one.

 

Yeah I was considering this, I think I will do this actually, thanks again for your advice and support ratchet, it has been invaluable.

 

Glad to help! I'm excited for you, man. This is gonna be pretty awesome build and I'm really looking forward to seeing how she turns out.

 

Update:

Unfortunately the CPU didn't come with a heat-sink so I will likely be waiting until I get my Noctua NH-D15 in. The good news is, I looked up the batch number and this is the only bit of information I could find on the interwebs (aside from origin, Costa Rica), but it's definitely good news:

...The batch # is 3331B526. I'm comfortably running 4.7ghz now, I reached 4.8ghz but I wasn't okay with the temps I saw at that speed...


Intel Retail Edge Winter Deal: 4770k, 4930K, Intel SSD 530 Series (180GB) - Page 30 - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

The owner didn't specify what cooler or case, chances are good that they may not have been running a Noctua NH-D14 or comparable AIO cooler in an Air 540. They were able to hit 4.8 Ghz, that's what matters.

 

When i bought my 3930K i didnt get a heatsink either,i dont think lga 2011 cpus come with one.

 

I remember reading that Intel stopped providing heat sinks with all unlocked Ivy, Ivy-E and Haswell desktop processors to save money, plus most enthusiasts have wanted to use their own cooling solution anyway.

 

Makes sense from the standpoint of Intel, I don't fault them one iota, most probably were tossing the included heat-sink as I would be doing with this build. I'm not really in a rush to put this thing together to be honest, my zombie M18x is still pretty strong. Out of curiosity as to what kind of gains I can expect GPU wise, comparing both systems on default clocks (what my poor 680's were capable of overclocked is now moot as they can no longer run a decent OC) I ran Firestrike and it pulled a 6930, leaning heavily on the Physics score:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2

EVGA 780 Ti SC w/ ACX pulled 10,824 with a Sandy E @ 4.6 Ghz, which is what I can probably expect to see with my 4930, so about a 40% gain GPU wise:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2

Even with a moderately aggressive OC, +250 core/+500 memory @ 1.025 V, my 680M's could only muster 8920 in Firestrike.

CPU wise, I will probably be 40-50% or so faster than now, depending on how high I can go with VCore at 1.4 V. So looking at a roughly 40% faster machine with lower temperatures. As I said earlier, I will be keeping the GPU on default clocks, as it is already plenty fast at 1006 core/ 1071 boost unless I step up to a 2560x1440 G-Sync monitor sometime later this year or next and some new game (Witcher 3?) demands an OC to realize the graphical bells-and-whistles at that resolution. And GPU temps possibly as low as 60 C under load on default clocks in this case are extremely attractive.

Thinking about it today, it seems that each time I stepped up to a new computer it was about 40% faster GPU wise. This will be the first time, aside from when I went from the 920 to the 2960, that I will also be seeing a significant increase in CPU speed.

M17x R2, i7 920xm @ 3.5 Ghz, ATI 5870M X-Fire: 19k Vantage, 17k GPU, 22K CPU (13k GPU default clocks)

M18x R1, i7 2960xm @ 4.3 Ghz, 580M SLI, 32k Vantage, 33k GPU, 31k CPU (26k GPU, 24k CPU default clocks)

M18x R2, i7 3920xm @ 4.5 Ghz, 680M SLI, 43k Vantage, 49.5k GPU, 31k CPU (37k GPU, 23k CPU default clocks)

For reference, as I have not seen any 3DMark Vantage runs with an i7 4930 overclocked and EVGA 780 Ti SC w/ACX Cooler on default clocks, here are both '11 and '13 scores for both of these components, which can be compared to the scores in my signature or to save you the hassle reflect roughly a 40% increase in both GPU and CPU computing power over my M18x R2 (15.5 Physics score @ 4.65 Ghz vs my personal best of 11.5k):

Intel i7-4930K & i7-4820K Ivy Bridge-E Review - Page 17

EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti SC SuperClocked ACX Review - DX11: Futuremark 3DMark 11

One thing to point out about these scores is that although Firestrike hasn't seemed to respond positively to the newer Nvidia drivers, '11 seems to have, at least a little, or maybe its only my imagination. Well enough speculation, I should have this thing all together and figured out in only a few weeks time.

While looking at all of this I was curious as to what kind of performance reference GTX 680 SLI is capable of, and I was really surprised to find that with default clocks it is about on par with a single EVGA 780 Ti SC w/ACX Cooler, but running about 20 C hotter and drawing another 70 W or so (470 peak). Yes its an older review reflecting performance of older drivers (a recent bench of a single reference GTX 680 reflect an '11 P score of 10k, versus the 9.5k of this older review), but simply extrapolating the slight improvement the figure doesn't change enough to even mention this fact.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_680_sli_review,16.html

I am amazed that they managed to get 680 SLI'esque performance out of a single card using the same architecture with the non-reference 780 Ti and with 20 C lower temperatures.

 

Woops, I didn't realize that Intel had stopped shipping coolers with some processors. My 4770k shipped with an Intel cooler, so I assumed the Ivy-E would have one too. Oh well, they're probably correct though in assuming that almost anyone who buys a high end Ivy-E is just going to chuck the cooler anyway in favor of a higher quality alternative.

 

This is a little off-topic but I love this guys .gif on the bottom of this page. Data from Star Trek is humming along on a computer and gets a BSOD and goes nuts, hilarious! I LOL for a while because that's EXACTLY how I feel when I get a BSOD.

[Official] Asus Rampage IV Black Edition Owners Club! - Page 277

 

Update:

I found a U.K. based merchant selling the Noctua NH-D15 with shipping to the U.S.

https://www.quietpc.com/nh-d15

Bad news is that it would be $150. shipped. Only consolation with this is that unless amazon.com gets it early when it becomes available state-side at the end of May I can probably expect to pay shipping anyway, take NCIX for example:

NCIXUS.com - Buy NH-D15 - Noctua NH-D15 Dual Tower Heatpipe Cooler w/ 2x NF-A15 140mm Pwn Fans LGA115X/2011 AM2/3+ FM1/2+ - Noctua - Great price and fast delivery

But even then shipping shouldn't be more than $10-15. What do you guys think, should I jump on it? The other thing is that there is no telling if it will actually be available state-side at the end of May, it could end up being the middle of June or even later.

 

Why don't you just grab a nice $75~$100 closed loop liquid cooling system for the CPU and be done with it?

 

Vulcan was adamant about NO WATER COOLING, or at least that's what he told me.

 

I don't know if youve seen the reviews but the Noctua NH-D15 offers comparable performance to the AIO coolers, with some reviews such as the LinusTechTips review and others (see previous post) showing the Noctua with lower temps under load while also being roughly 20db quieter. Other things to consider would be that a 240 mm radiator would be cutting off airflow in the Corsair Air 540 if placed in the front (hopefully as exhaust, but I am seeing some youtube videos with these coolers as intake, I don't see the logic of pumping in air from outside the case, heating it up through a heat-exchanger, and pumping it onto your mobo and other components but that's what some people are doing).

Case in point (pardon the pun):



Alternatively one could place a 240 mm radiator above their mobo and GPU but I am not comfortable with having a liquid cooling set-up in this area, as if a leak ever happens, which a few Corsair H80i and H100i owners have reported, that is going to drip right down onto your mobo and GPU with disastrous consequences. Without a radiator in this area any heat can naturally escape; placing a radiator here not only will obstruct the natural rising path of heat from the mobo but if set up as exhaust will see diminished performance with the alternative, doing what Corsair recommends, setting it up as intake would mean pumping hot air from outside the case right down onto your mobo etc. Both are problematic, the best option is no radiator in this location at all.

Others things to consider, there is a significant minority of those who have gone the AIO cooler route, particularly the Corsair H80i and H100i models, who have experienced pump failure within 4-12 months time (see newegg and amazon.com reviews). There are next-to-zero reports of failure with the Noctua NH-D14 and it comes with a 6 year warranty for this reason.

All the test results of the AIO coolers reflect performance under the "Max" profile, with maximum pump and fan speed and everyone complains that the noise is unbearable on that profile (an idea would be an M18x R2 with the fans at 4200 RPM, or around 50 db) and everyone runs the "performance" profile that results in roughly 5 C warmer temperatures but a bearable 40 db with others spending up on Noctua fans (that come with the Noctua air coolers) either $40 for two (H80i, push-pull) or $80 for 4 (H100i push-pull), which although significantly quieter than the supplied fans also diminish performance by about 5 C. So as matter of fact, the Noctua air coolers perform better at a tolerable noise level, and for significantly less if one is to add the cost of Noctua fans to the price of an AIO cooler.

A big part of my motivation to build a desktop is the noise level of my M18x R2, which is only barely bearable with the fans at 3700 RPM, at 4200 RPM, or 50 db, there is no hiding from the screaming fans in any kind of headphones, it is always there and is totally unbearable. With this in mind, noise was a big factor in cooler selection.

So:

Similar cooling performance (actually superior performance if both systems are used at a tolerable noise level).

Less complexity means less potential for catastrophic failure.

Significantly quieter.

Same price point (significantly less as it comes WITH Noctua fans that most AIO cooler owners upgrade to and consider the average AIO cooler life-span of 1-3 years whereas Noctua NH-D15 will last 6 years minimum after which time only the fans may need to be replaced).

No potential liquid nightmare.

Unimpeded case airflow for superior cooling across all components, not just the component an AIO cooler is attached to.

Compare the build above, where all of the airflow is completely blocked, to the build below, where the air cooler works in harmony with the case design and doesn't impede airflow over other components, the mobo, GPU and memory.

 

Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you had your heart set on it. It seems clear that the Noctua NH-D15 is a great air cooling solution, so nobody needs to help you avoid making a bad decision.

If that's what you want for your new beast, then nothing else matters.

 

I can understand your apprehensiveness to liquid if it's something you've never dabbled in before, but it really is a pretty safe bet these days with a good quality all-in-one unit (just as safe making your own loop if you do your homework and take your time during the build process). I've personally used AIO units from Corsair in the past for customer builds (I used to run a small custom build boutique out of my house in my free time years ago) and none of them have had an issue to date. It's worth noting that not only does Corsair guarantee their AIO units to be leak free for 5 years under warranty, but their warranty ALSO covers the cost of replacement hardware affected by any leaks for that 5 year period. From what I've read, for the unfortunate few who have experienced leaks with Corsair AIO units (and is a seriously small percentage of users), Corsair has been extremely quick and hassle free to reimburse them for their damaged components.

Honestly, with an H100i mounted topside exhausting outward with a couple of good high static pressure fans, you'll stay just as quiet and cool as you would with the Noctua. Having said that, it's also equally worth noting that Noctua makes BY FAR the best air cooling units you can get your hands on. In my opinion, you won't be sorry either way you slice it. If it was between the two for me, my choice would come down to price and availability, not the risks.

Edit: I also have to add that the functionality of Corsair Link is more than just a bonus, it's what makes the H100i stand out from all the other 280mm AIO units on the market. The ability to adjust lighting and fan speed, as well as make custom cooling profiles and monitor the status of the built in pump from Windows is supposedly pretty awesome stuff.

 

Even Alienware uses closed loop liquid cooling on their desktops, so you know if there was any real risk of having to replace a bunch of parts or an entire machine due to leakage they would never do that. I only brought it up because the NH-D15 seems to be hard to get right now, or way out of scope on price with shipping from UK. I'd rather have liquid myself, but the main thing on any machine, especially a desktop, is to have things the way you want them. It's a very personalized matter that adds value to the experience. If letting other people decide what's best for you were a great option more people would be buying pre-built desktops instead of going the build your own route. The exception to that would be trying to help someone avoid making a tragic mistake (clearly not the case here). Being able to say "this is my creation" is a lot more satisfying.

 

I had a Corsair H80i AIO cooler, heat in the case was never an issue in fact a air cooler your suggesting will put even more heat into your case,i have a open loop cooler in my desktop which i admit i was apprehensive about but no regrets fantastic cooling:thumbsup:You do realise part of Corsairs AIO coolers warranty cover damage to components incase of a leak? If it were me and you could fit H100i i would go down that path,the thing about the AIO coolers is that their peak temperature is about the same as good air cooler but they drop the temperature so so quickly....the only thing i will say is that their Link software is a great concept but its not terribly good functionally ie:its still very buggy.

 

Did you start with the H80i or the Koolance? I looked up the Koolance unit you're running and HOLY CRAP is it expensive. Then again 2004 was the last time I built a desktop so I'm seriously out of date lol