Trying to choose a motherboard (for 7800X3D, almost certainly)

[brc19]

Is a water cooler required for the 7800X3D? I'm concerned about long term reliability of AIO coolers.

 

[RasmusP]

Is a water cooler required for the 7800X3D? I'm concerned about long term reliability of AIO coolers.

Not really. It depends on what you're doing with it. If you only play games that use all the cores to full extend, then it might make sense to watercool it.
But for simracing and most games in general, it only takes 60-80W, easily cooled with standard bigger air coolers.

You can also set a power limit and a temperature limit in the BIOS to not have big temperature spikes when you restart Chrome with 40 tabs or similar short burst stuff.
I don't really care if re-opening Chrome takes 5 seconds or 5.7 seconds.

 

[brc19]

Not really. It depends on what you're doing with it. If you only play games that use all the cores to full extend, then it might make sense to watercool it.
But for simracing and most games in general, it only takes 60-80W, easily cooled with standard bigger air coolers.

You can also set a power limit and a temperature limit in the BIOS to not have big temperature spikes when you restart Chrome with 40 tabs or similar short burst stuff.
I don't really care if re-opening Chrome takes 5 seconds or 5.7 seconds.

Thanks Rasmus!
Mostly gaming - I have another system for day-to-day work.

 

[Spinelli]

Is a water cooler required for the 7800X3D? I'm concerned about long term reliability of AIO coolers.

Na, they're fine. My Swiftech H320 has ran perfect for like 10 years. Arctic has like an 8 year warranty or something with their AIOs. There have been certain models in the past with issues but most of those were years ago.

 

[Mr Latte]

Is a water cooler required for the 7800X3D? I'm concerned about long term reliability of AIO coolers.

Watercooling seemed totally overkill and not worth the hassle, for me anyways.

Aesthetics can be a large part of considering what to go for...
This is one of the newest AIO models, with incredible looking LED & LCD.
Comes with the fans already pre-installed too.

Have to say, very happy with mine.

Also comes with 5 year warranty.

 

[Neilski]

Water cooling is most definitively off the table for my build.

Will see how it goes, but I'll undervolt, power-limit and/or temperature-limit it (as @RasmusP suggests) as required to make sure it doesn't get too toasty with a decent air cooler.

 

[Mr Latte]

Water cooling is most definitively off the table for my build.

Will see how it goes, but I'll undervolt, power-limit and/or temperature-limit it (as @RasmusP suggests) as required to make sure it doesn't get too toasty with a decent air cooler.

This one seems well represented/recommended by system builders.

 

[brc19]

I'll try air cooling first, if it doesn't work out then it's AIO time.
The cooler I'm getting is the Thermalright Peerless Assassin based on latest video on Gamers Nexus.

 

[blekenbleu]

if it doesn't work out then it's AIO time

Exhaust fans bundled with cases can be pretty poor.
Improving that exhaust fan can help a lot,
along with ducting from it to the CPU cooler fin stack.
A Scythe Kaze Flex II exhaust fan significantly improved cooling,
with reduced noise level in my PC.

 

[Neilski]

Thermalright Peerless Assassin based on latest video on Gamers Nexus

I haven't seen that video yet, but I googled the heatsink, saw the price and thought "uhoh". Then I realised that it gets high praise and didn't feel so worried for you

 

[brc19]

I haven't seen that video yet, but I googled the heatsink, saw the price and thought "uhoh". Then I realised that it gets high praise and didn't feel so worried for you

Most of my builds have Noctua coolers. Trying something different.

 

[RasmusP]

Improving that exhaust fan can help a lot,
along with ducting from it to the CPU cooler fin stack.

Yep, although it highly depends on the case too. My last case (2011-2020) had a closed front with only the bottom half on the sides of the front being open with slits.
No mesh anywhere and only a 120mm rear exhaust. PSU in the bottom.
The 2x 140mm Be Quiet Silent Wings barely helped. The CPU fan itself had a big impact but got a bit stuck after heating up.

The rear fan's RPM had as much impact as the CPU fan, as soon as the CPU fan was above 60% speed.

Now I have a big Fractal Meshify S2 with a mesh bottom, mesh front mesh top and a few slits here and there at the rear that allow some air output around the GPU.
To be honest, none of the 6 fans in that case have any really impact apart from the cpu fan.
The air is just swooshing around however it wants without any chance of getting some directional flow.
I even ducted the cpu cooler and the rear fan: no difference apart from more sound from the moving air.
Putting an exhaust fan above the cpu was worse than the free mesh up until 70% of the fan speed (silent wing 3, 120mm, 70% = ca. 900 RPM).

Also all the air cooler are very similar. It seems that it's simply about the raw surface area and the RPM of the fan (and its effeciency).

The fan determines the noise, the width of the gaps between the fins determines if it works great for not too high loads and low RPMs or for high loads with high RPMs.

So if its not about visual aesthetics, just buy the biggest CPU cooler with not too tightly packaged fins and with a good fan. Or rather a fan that doesn't completely suck.
Or an even cheaper cooler with a shitty fan and replace that fan

 

[Novopaine]

Most of my builds have Noctua coolers. Trying something different.

I put a Thermalright PS120SE CPU Air Cooler in my build. The only complaint I have is I ended up with a noisy fan. It's only noticeable when it the fan speed ramps up, but the game audio usually drowns it out. I should have requested a replacement, but meh... it works.

 

[blekenbleu]

it highly depends on the case too

No doubt; having recently dealt with Alienware PCs
(my neighbor flight sims) strangulation is no stranger.
I picked an Antec Phantom case for optical drive bay, RTX 4090 space, low cost and venting.
Power supply gets dedicated airflow with bottom intake and rear exhaust.
For case fan tuning, side glass was replaced by newspaper to confirm positive pressure.
The stock Antec rear exhaust fan was ineffective until noisy despite positive pressure.
3 front intake and 2 top exhaust fans move case air.
5 internal fans stir case air for the GPU, motherboard and CPU intake.
Single CPU fan and ducted rear exhaust fan are dedicated to CPU cooler fin stack airflow;
that seems more efficient than a dual fan CPU air cooler