Air Cooling Setup for i7 3820 in Antec P280

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manini

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
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183
Hey all,

Just picked up a bunch of parts for a Sandy Bridge-E setup and had a couple questions regarding cooling.

I picked up a 3820 to go along with a Sabertooth x79 and hope to at least be able to OC to 4.5+, ideally 4.7 or 4.8. I'd like to pair this with a Noctua DH-14. Would this be a good combo or should I just go for a 212 EVO? The cost difference is not really an issue. I just want the best performance without resorting to watercooling. (Side note: I hope to upgrade to the hexacore Ivy Bridge-E chips when they come out if this makes any difference.)

Also, the case I chose is an Antec P280... I currently have a Antec P180 for my current build which I had to replace all the stock case fans a while ago. Ended up replacing them with Scythe S-Flexes. I'd like to replace the stock fans in the P280 as well up front so I don't have the hassle later and was wondering what are good case fans these days with the best performance to sound ratio? Since the P280 is a quiet case, I would like the replacement case fans to be quiet as well but still provide decent performance. Any suggestions? Or are the S-Flexes still good?

Anyone who actually has the P280 have any recommendations on fan placement to provide optimum cooling?

Finally, I've used Arctic Silver 5 for all my builds in the past... has any thermal paste come out recently that is better than AS5? Sorry, I am behind the times!

Thanks so much for your help!
 
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nh-d14 is basically the best air cooler money can buy (along side the silver arrow sb-e and the phanteks).
May wish to purchase some higher cfm fans, as the noctua ones are geared more towards silence and less towards performance.
The silver arrow sb-e and the phanteks would also be excellent for what you do.

I still like s-flex fans.
 
yea, buit also one of the most pricey ones :D ive used all kinds.. And most of the good name brands, pretty much work the same. Maybe off by 1-5c difference between them all.. AS long as you do a good thermal paste job.. they all work :D
 
Couple points:

1) The 3820 is multiplier locked, so I believe the highest you can OC is +400MHz (4 turbo bins above stock), the 3930K is of course unlocked so it can OC further.

2) I have an NH-D14 and love it, awesome performance and if you use fan speed control (via motherboard software or a physical fan controller) it is near silent. I have my CPU fans down about 500rpm at idle and they ramp up to full speed (~1250rpm) when the CPU goes over 60C on the cores. I thought about saving some money with a 212+ but decided that since I only upgrade my PC every 4+ years it was worth it. NH-D14 was also on sale for $49 at NCIX last week but I think the sale is over :(.

3) I had a P180 and was considering the P280, but after a bunch of research decided the Corsair 550D was a better case for me. It provides adequate cooling while being much quieter (and looking better IMO) than the P280. I've found the 550D stock fans adequate with the addition of one further intake (went Gelid Silent 12, cheap PWM fan). The secret sauce for me was ensuring that all fans in my case (CPU, case and GPU) can spin down at idle so the machine is silent during desktop use (in case I happen to not be listening to music), while letting the fans ramp up as temperatures/load increase, since usually that means playing a game whereby computer noise is not as big an issue. FWIW this rig at 100% load is still significantly quieter than my P180 which housed a Q6600 @ 3.3GHz and GTX280 with fixed speed 1200rpm 120mm Scythe S-FLEX case fans.
 
Thanks for the information guys. Interesting points you all make. I ended up going with a NH-D14, which apparently comes with Noctua's TIM, which I think I will use. However, I do have a question... what's the proper method for applying thermal paste these days? I've seen vertical line talked about a lot on the web as well as the other option of pea sized amount in the center, which is what I was thinking of going with. Can anyone confirm for 3820?
 
grambo said:
Couple points:

1) The 3820 is multiplier locked, so I believe the highest you can OC is +400MHz (4 turbo bins above stock), the 3930K is of course unlocked so it can OC further.
Click to expand...

My 3820 runs great at 5150mhz. Boot strap + BCLK and keep the multi at 36 or 37 can get you pretty high. My 3930k was nowhere near as good an overclocker.

The 212 Evo is not going to cool SB-E with a hefty OC. I prefer to use the H100 or H80 rather than the giant heatsinks because they take up way too much space if you're not going custom water. I don't care much about a few degrees difference compared to having your motherboard dominated by a 5lb heatsink (just personal opinion here, some people think they look cool). I would rather have access to my RAM and fan headers, etc.
 
LigTasm said:
My 3820 runs great at 5150mhz. Boot strap + BCLK and keep the multi at 36 or 37 can get you pretty high. My 3930k was nowhere near as good an overclocker.

The 212 Evo is not going to cool SB-E with a hefty OC. I prefer to use the H100 or H80 rather than the giant heatsinks because they take up way too much space if you're not going custom water. I don't care much about a few degrees difference compared to having your motherboard dominated by a 5lb heatsink (just personal opinion here, some people think they look cool). I would rather have access to my RAM and fan headers, etc.
Click to expand...

What temps are you getting with your OCed 3820 @ 5150 and at what voltage? and is that with the H100?
 
manini said:
What temps are you getting with your OCed 3820 @ 5150 and at what voltage? and is that with the H100?
Click to expand...


I have a "custom" cooler, H60 pump with res and 2x120 radiator (one from the H60 and one from an H50). Idle is 26-30*C and load maxed at 76*C on a hot day with push/pull fans running P95, normally gaming load is around 55*C. I'm running it as 1.415v vcore. Effectively my cooler might be equal to an H100, I have more coolant but less flow because of the increased restriction.
 
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