X58-UD5 Cooling Question

[JFC15]

Basically, my current setup consists of a Gigabyte X58-ud5 motherboard, i7-920 processor, Corsair H70 cooler, and 4 modules of G.Skill RipJaw RAM. 

I was thinking of switching coolers from Corsair H70 to Noctua NH-D14.  I have plenty of room in my case. 

1.  Does anyone know if this behemoth of a cooler would block anything... ram slots, pci slots, etc. on my board?  If anyone has this setup and has a picture, that would be great! 

2.  Also, would this cooler switch be worthwhile or would I be wasting my money?  Yes, it's overclocked and my temps currently are 76 C.

THANKS!!

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome.

Firstly whilst the Noctua NH-D14 is a beast of a cooler it is not going to give you anmy better temperatures than your Corsair watercooler as long as it is functioning properly. I have just been given one to review and it certainly lives up to it's reputation and will cool the CPU even without any fans. With the full compliment of fans it is probably the number one CPU air cooler available at present. It is hard to beat a water cooling setup though even if it is a pre built kit.

Yoiu failed to mention what case you have which is rather important so that does make things rather difficult!   

[JFC15]

I have the In-Win Dragon Rider Case.

[Dark Mantis]

Well you have plenty of cooling available in that case and even if it isn't there as standard you can always add more fans. I really don't think you would be gaining anything by changing coolers as long as yours is running alright.

[JFC15]

I don't know... I only have my i7-920 OC'd to 3.8 and the memory underclocked at 1810MHz and at full stress, my temps get upto 76C.  When I try to go 4.0 or raise the memory closer to its rated 2133, my temps spike to low to mid 80's.  That's why I was thinking that the NH-D14 "might" work out better for me.  Maybe I'm just stuck where I'm at because I'm not comfortable with my temps being in the 80's for any length of time...   

[Dark Mantis]

I only have my i7-920 OC'd to 3.8 and the memory underclocked at 1810MHz and at full stress, my temps get upto 76C.  When I try to go 4.0 or raise the memory closer to its rated 2133, my temps spike to low to mid 80's.  

Your memory might be rated at 2133mhz but that is overclocked and even at 1810 it is still overclocked. Anything above 133mhz is overclocking as the fastest specification by JEDEC is 1333. So you will be producing quite a bit more heat from the memory as wel as the processor. The i7 s are good heat generators anyway and don't need any excuse to get hot.



All you can do is to make sure that you have a good airflow through the case and radiator.  It might help to put a dedicated fan on the memory to help with that side of ikt.