Wow an H80 LOSES to a NH-D14

I was expecting just slightly better results, not earth shattering, just slightly better results with a water cooler when compared to a big chunk of tin with slow moving fans on it. First off it was a bigger pain in the ass to put this in my case than the D14. All I had to do to the D14 was to remount the fans in a pull/pull config blowing up. H80 mounting problems are due to the rad size & also design faults of the Lian-Li case & Asus X79 mobo (water cooling cutout plugs on top back of the case lower or limit the space for rear mounting & the x79 pcie slot placement & cpu 8 pin power connector on the mobo cause you to mount the rad sideways on the rear where it touches the side panel when closed). So I had to put the rad in the top front 120mm fan cut-out because the rear 120mm cut-out is blocked by the cpu 8pin power connector & my ram blocks the middle cut-out. To use the front cut-out I had to move my DVD & BluRay to lower slots to make room for the rad & move my smaller fan controller up top. I have 5 - 5&1/2" bays. So top to bottom I have a fan controller, blank, BluRay, DVD & a card reader. I used the blank 5-1/2" bay to make an aluminum duct which funnels air in from the front to the bottom fan of the H80 rad & blows up out of the top of the case. I'm using 2 ThermalRight FDB 2k rpm fans in push/pull which are hooked up to the case fan control. I made a molex connector with a diode in line for the pump which runs at an avg. 2k rpm. I have the pump hoses exiting from the top of the pump & going up to the rad. The Bottom Line are the results = in Real Temp GT 3.70- i73930 at 100x42 = 4200MHz with 100% load & 16Gb of ram at 2133MHz, 1.64v, 11,12,11,33.2t showed higher temps than D14 of 88-83-82-81-86-85. Using CPUID Hardware Monitor I had 1.3v VCore max at 200 Watts with 88-83-82-80-85-85 C. Showing 2k rpms on pump & fans. Unless remounting the pump with hoses coming out of side is going to make a difference this H80 is a total P.O.S. as far as I'm concerned. Anybody else having worse results with an H80 vs. an air cooler ? Or is it just me ? BeCause I was thinking of getting an H100 in push only & trying that later on but I'm not inspired to do that now.

well look at the difference.. you have a tiny rad vs a giant ass NH-D14.. of course the temps aren't going to be better but even so would you rather have slightly higher temps with a much smaller cooler or the better temps with a 1200+ gram heatsink hanging off your motherboard? personally i'd take the higher temps with the H80. the cooler thats meant to compete with the NH-D14 is the H100, not the H80.

None of the all-in-one water coolers are better than high-end air (the H100 is in that ballpark, but at the price it isn't really a good deal for cooling performance alone). They are convenient, and really help in tight cases, but they aren't magic.

Thanks for the replies guys. I guess I expected too much from the h80. The weight was the reason I tried the h80. I also gave it a fair shot with the duct so it only got cool outside air & not warm case air. Plus I didn't want to vent warm cpu air into my case like the D14. Well live & learn I'm going back to the D14. It is quieter & keeps the cpu cooler than the h80. Even if the h100 ties the D14 it isn't worth the 4 fan noise to tie the temp readings as far as I'm concerned. I need a quieter PC.

Also D14 will not fit in many cases (let's not even talk about mini-itx) while a watercooled SG05 is real.

Agreed, the fin surface area is the biggest factor here. However, there are a couple other factors that water cooling brings to the table as well. With water cooling, you have to remove some heat from the pump too, so the load on your radiator is slightly higher. Also instead of one mode of heat transfer (metal to air), you now have two (metal to water to air). Every time you have a heat exchanger there are some inefficiencies to consider. With just a CPU loop (or any loop really) you're splitting hairs at that point though.

jamsomito said:

Agreed, the fin surface area is the biggest factor here. However, there are a couple other factors that water cooling brings to the table as well. With water cooling, you have to remove some heat from the pump too, so the load on your radiator is slightly higher. Also instead of one mode of heat transfer (metal to air), you now have two (metal to water to air). Every time you have a heat exchanger there are some inefficiencies to consider. With just a CPU loop (or any loop really) you're splitting hairs at that point though.

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You are making it sound like water cooling is inferior to air cooling in general !

The D14 is a beast. It is a top air cooler, no wonder it will rival some water cooling setups, let alone closed loop ones.

sram said:

You are making it sound like water cooling is inferior to air cooling in general !

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Hah, sorry about that. Personally, I'm saving up for a custom W/C loop, and I can't wait to build it! For the average joe, there's lots of pros and cons though. You can certainly make something that'll smash any air cooling system. OTOH, single rad AIO coolers like the H80 may be beat. As is the case in point with the OP. It really depends on the components.

With all that being said, the H80 outperforms a stock cooler by a long shot. It's a great unit.

Hey I just checked temp readings I had written down awhile ago. Even an Archon with 2 140mm Silverstone airpenetrators on it beat the h80 by 8C. The D14 with the original fans that I reset to pull/pull instead of push/push (cause it wouldn't clear the top pcie slot) beat the h80 by 10C. That's ridiculous & both are way quieter. Oh well h100 looks interesting but it's back to the D14 for me. At least I know what I've got with it, & I think I'll lay off the experimenting for awhile.

H100 only beats out the NH-D14 when turned up to the max. That's 2500 RPM fans on the H100 compared to the ~1500 RPM fans on the NH-D14.

Pretty old news if you did your research. Top-end air is better than any AIO. Any true watercooling setup is better than an AIO.

Tsumi said:

H100 only beats out the NH-D14 when turned up to the max. That's 2500 RPM fans on the H100 compared to the ~1500 RPM fans on the NH-D14.

Pretty old news if you did your research. Top-end air is better than any AIO. Any true watercooling setup is better than an AIO.

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Tried explaining that to some people on youtube, lol. Like talking into the wind.

Strictly speaking, you guys are comparing phase-change to water :rofl:

Both solutions use air as the convective cooling-medium.....both have 'heat-exchangers', both have 'evaps'

Soz to split ball-hairs.

Tsumi said:

H100 only beats out the NH-D14 when turned up to the max. That's 2500 RPM fans on the H100 compared to the ~1500 RPM fans on the NH-D14.

Pretty old news if you did your research. Top-end air is better than any AIO. Any true watercooling setup is better than an AIO.

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Just to clarify, the stock fans on the D14 spin at ~1200-1250rpm when connected via 3-pin mobo header. The 120mm spec is 1300rpm while the 140mm is 1200rpm but in practice they both hover in the 1250 range on my system. I also agree with your point, 2500rpm fans are not an option if you care about noise.

I Switched back to the NH-D14 (in pull/pull blowing up) from the H80. Tim contact on H80 cold plate was fine just to make sure I didn't mess something up. With the D14 back in, I ran Prime95 Large FFTs for 35minutes & Real Temp GT 3.70 showed 80C max on 1 core. 80,75,74,72,76,75C. That's 8-9C cooler than the H80 with 5 out of 6 cores below 80C & way less fan noise. I'll stick with the NH-D14. I might see if I can get 4500MHz out of the 3930 later on.