Cooling a i9-13900KF

[Mr. Never Happy :)]

Hello, My i9-13900KF didn't come with a cooler. I have watched youtube videos of people saying you have to use water cooling because it runs hot, and others saying you can air cool it, and some talking about under clocking it.

I've never over/under clocked anything and I've never used water cooling, so I was wanting to try a 360mm AIO. I prefer plug and play.

My PSU is 1000 watts and I plan to get a RTX 4090 so I'm a little worried about the extra power to the water pump with everything else. I'm not sure if I will get the water cooled RTX 4090. (another water pump = more power)

Of course I want the best and cheapest cooler and I will most likely buy it on black Friday/Christmas sale.

Please help! Thanks!

My PSU = CORSAIR RM1000e CP-9020250-NA 1000 W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply

 

[KrazyT]

W1zzard tested the 13900K version here on TPU :

I'm not sure if power consumption is a deal breaker for 13900K—seems we've all got used to power consumption increases. I've hardly seen anyone in the last months who complained about the power draw of their 12900K or Zen 4 processor. NVIDIA released GeForce RTX 4090 just a few weeks ago, and people still want the card, even though it consumes 400-500 W during gaming. That still doesn't mean we should blindly accept ever-increasing power numbers. Besides the obvious "power bill" argument, there is also the problem of cooling. Keeping 13900K at good temperatures requires an excellent cooling solution. Even at stock, with a good CPU cooler, our processor reached 100°C during heavy workloads and started to throttle a little bit. Unlike on AMD, Intel does allow you to increase the temperature limit, up to 115°C, which helps avoid throttling. High temperatures seem to be the new normal anyway. AMD's Zen 4 is even designed to operate at 95°C, and when cooler, the CPU will aggressively boost the clocks to maximize performance until it reaches that temperature. Pairing the 13900K with watercooling is always an option, but it will not magically solve all temperature problems, rather it will give you a few degrees better temperatures to help avoid that throttling point.

The fan was an Noctua NH-U14S ... one of the best and had hard times to cool the beast ...

Some here will give you good advices, I'll just warn you to prepare the cash

 

[ir_cow]

In the Motherboard BIOS you can set a power limit. 125w / 255 / Unlimited are the common ones. It goes by PL1/PL2 or Short / Long Power Duration. If you have a 360 AIO, do 255. Unlimited will draw 380 watts in heavy CPU workloads if you allow. But even so, the CPU will always target 100c. Either it hits that temp or the turbo reaches the specification first. 115c is for the KS CPUs, but they are the same silicon, just Intel doesn't officially support 115c on anything but the KS CPUs.

 

[oiawshboiwsahnoidaws]

Your use case is important, if its gaming (good) air cooling is more than enough, something like Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120.
And yeah you can undervolt a cpu to use less power thus less heat and personally i do that and its simple to do but can cause instability so might take some trial and error till you find a good and stable undervolt.

 

[fevgatos]

Hello, My i9-13900KF didn't come with a cooler. I have watched youtube videos of people saying you have to use water cooling because it runs hot, and others saying you can air cool it, and some talking about under clocking it.

I've never over/under clocked anything and I've never used water cooling, so I was wanting to try a 360mm AIO. I prefer plug and play.

My PSU is 1000 watts and I plan to get a RTX 4090 so I'm a little worried about the extra power to the water pump with everything else. I'm not sure if I will get the water cooled RTX 4090. (another water pump = more power)

Of course I want the best and cheapest cooler and I will most likely buy it on black Friday/Christmas sale.

Please help! Thanks!

My PSU = CORSAIR RM1000e CP-9020250-NA 1000 W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply

I had it on a u12a, works fine. The only reason go crazy with cooling is if you are running cinebench with no power limits 24/7, but why do that? Just set a temperature limit to 80c on the bios and let it do its thing

 

[ir_cow]

Just set a temperature limit to 80c on the bios and let it do its thing

No, leave the temp alone, it is designed to run at 100c. You are throwing money away not using the CPU Turbo correctly.

 

[fevgatos]

No, leave the temp alone, it is designed to run at 100c. You are throwing money away not using the CPU Turbo correctly.

It's better than power limiting it in terms of performance. If you power limit it to, say 200w, the CPU will never draw more than that. If you temp limit it ,. it will draw whatever it wants as long as it is cool.

The main issue with cooling is, people dont like their cpu running at 100c, even if it's safe. Don't ask me why.

 

[oiawshboiwsahnoidaws]

I even do both lower powerlimit and temp limit of 90° lol
(Well power limit is only there as i found it easier to get a good undervolt that works in all workloads with it)
btw are we sure intel knows what they are doing? 12900k had Tjunction of 100° and 12900ks of just 90°

 

[ir_cow]

Once again. 100c is perfectly fine....

 

[GerKNG]

just send it. it's a 13900k. you really don't want to save on the cooler or motherboard with a high end premium CPU... otherwise buy a 13700k

 

[ir_cow]

btw are we sure intel knows what they are doing? 12900k had Tjunction of 100° and 12900ks of just 90°

Interesting. Intel specs do say 90c. I'm guessing it's a typo considering they are the same CPU with different clocks.

 

[absoluteUnit]

ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 (or larger if you prefer)​

240mm works a treat mounted at top of case on my 13900KF. highly recommend.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Once again. 100c is perfectly fine....

I've set my KS @ 115°C so no thermal throttling for me even at 110°C+

They are all based on the same silicone so you would think 100°C is perfectly safe.

OP: Just review the best AIO you can, and you should see some joy.

 

[Bobaganoosh]

It would help to know your motherboard and case. Generally speaking, I'd say get the best performing aio that fits in your case and top mount it as exhaust. 4090s are huge and most have over-designed air coolers, so as long as you have plenty of fresh air coming into the case, you should be fine with an air cooled gpu.

You probably have plenty of power, but if you crank up the power limit on the gpu to 600W and then find a way to fully load both gpu and cpu, you could be in trouble... Realistically though, it would be near-impossible to do unless you run furmark and cinebench at the same time lol (why would anybody do that?).

 

[Mr. Never Happy :)]

It would help to know your motherboard and case. Generally speaking, I'd say get the best performing aio that fits in your case and top mount it as exhaust. 4090s are huge and most have over-designed air coolers, so as long as you have plenty of fresh air coming into the case, you should be fine with an air cooled gpu.

You probably have plenty of power, but if you crank up the power limit on the gpu to 600W and then find a way to fully load both gpu and cpu, you could be in trouble... Realistically though, it would be near-impossible to do unless you run furmark and cinebench at the same time lol (why would anybody do that?).

Fist of all, Thanks for all the advice everyone!! I'm checking out all the recommendations..

Bobaganoosh, Here is my motherboard and cases.

Motherboard = MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK

MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s DDR5 ATX Motherboard - Newegg.com

Buy MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s ATX Motherboard with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Old case that I wanted to use for this build = Phanteks Eclipse P400S, but it has a solid front cover with a top and bottom screen/filter openings. I don't think it has very good air flow on the front.

Phanteks Eclipse P400S PH-EC416PSTG_BW Silent Edition Black/White Tempered Glass/Steel RGB ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com

Buy Phanteks Eclipse P400S PH-EC416PSTG_BW Silent Edition Black/White Tempered Glass/Steel RGB ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Case I was considering. Seems like a good choice at a good price. = Phanteks NV5

Phanteks NV5, Showcase Mid-Tower Chassis, High Airflow Performance, Integrated D/A-RGB Lighting, Seamless Tempered Glass Design, 8 Fan Positions, Black - Newegg.com

Buy Phanteks NV5, Showcase Mid-Tower Chassis, High Airflow Performance, Integrated D/A-RGB Lighting, Seamless Tempered Glass Design, 8 Fan Positions, Black with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

it is designed to run at 100c

Iunno if that's true but I'm inclined to think it is as I was an eyewitness of an i7-2600K farm (about a couple dozen such CPUs) running overclocked (@4.4 GHz IIRC) with temperature always exceeding 80C and never exceeding 90C for 10 years and only one of these CPUs actually died (alongside the rest of the PC as it died to the PSU's "heart attack"). Yes, they ran 24/7.

 

[fevgatos]

Iunno if that's true but I'm inclined to think it is as I was an eyewitness of an i7-2600K farm (about a couple dozen such CPUs) running overclocked (@4.4 GHz IIRC) with temperature always exceeding 80C and never exceeding 90C for 10 years and only one of these CPUs actually died (alongside the rest of the PC as it died to the PSU's "heart attack"). Yes, they ran 24/7.

The combination of voltage and temperatures accelerated electromigration that kills your CPU. Now that might not matter much, cause a CPU that is normally going to last for 20 years, might drop to half by overclocking and high temperatures, that's still 10 years. But as you keep on pushing it in terms of voltage and temps, the more the life expectancy drops, to the point that you can actually instakill your CPU.

 

[ir_cow]

@Beginner Micro Device Straight from Intel. Watch the video above.

 

[Bobaganoosh]

Fist of all, Thanks for all the advice everyone!! I'm checking out all the recommendations..

Bobaganoosh, Here is my motherboard and cases.

Motherboard = MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK

MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s DDR5 ATX Motherboard - Newegg.com

Buy MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI LGA 1700 Intel Z790 SATA 6Gb/s ATX Motherboard with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Old case that I wanted to use for this build = Phanteks Eclipse P400S, but it has a solid front cover with a top and bottom screen/filter openings. I don't think it has very good air flow on the front.

Phanteks Eclipse P400S PH-EC416PSTG_BW Silent Edition Black/White Tempered Glass/Steel RGB ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com

Buy Phanteks Eclipse P400S PH-EC416PSTG_BW Silent Edition Black/White Tempered Glass/Steel RGB ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Case I was considering. Seems like a good choice at a good price. = Phanteks NV5

Phanteks NV5, Showcase Mid-Tower Chassis, High Airflow Performance, Integrated D/A-RGB Lighting, Seamless Tempered Glass Design, 8 Fan Positions, Black - Newegg.com

Buy Phanteks NV5, Showcase Mid-Tower Chassis, High Airflow Performance, Integrated D/A-RGB Lighting, Seamless Tempered Glass Design, 8 Fan Positions, Black with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Yeah, that first case doesn't look like it has good airflow. The second one seems decent though. Pictures 2-4 on that link show exactly what I was recommending: 360 aio on top as exhaust and the front and bottom bringing in as much fresh air as possible. Should work great.

Edit: as for specific cooler suggestions (if you're looking for one), I agree with @absoluteUnit above that the Arctic Liquid Freezer ii series is great. Personally, I'd buy a 280 or 420 if I could fit it because I like 140mm fans better from a noise perspective. The performance gains over 280mm aren't huge though. You can expect similar performance (maybe slightly better) from a 360mm, then very slightly better yet from a 420. For the most part, what you'd see from going larger is quieter operation with the same performance. The DeepCool LT720 and LS720 have been reviewing really well too. As far as I can tell RGB is the only difference, but they claim one performs better. I've also heard good things about the EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 Dark, but those are more expensive.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

The combination of voltage and temperatures accelerated electromigration that kills your CPU. Now that might not matter much, cause a CPU that is normally going to last for 20 years, might drop to half by overclocking and high temperatures, that's still 10 years. But as you keep on pushing it in terms of voltage and temps, the more the life expectancy drops, to the point that you can actually instakill your CPU.

I've never seen CPU instakills in the post-NetBurst era. Yes, CPUs from early 2000s and the last century were not as safe against overpushing but more modern bad boys are very hard to die. Usually it's the VRM who dies first.

 

[al_bundy]

Hi, the problem of the temps of the CPU is not the tdp itself. The problem is that the heatspreader is too thick and that the heatspreader is konvex.
Bcoz the LGA produce too much preasure at the cpu. U should use a SO 1700 contactframe and if u like, u can lapping ur cpu. It will wins minimum 5-10°C.
The next thing is, that u can adjust some biossettings. Also a potential of 5-10°C. Its not impossible to cool ur cpu by air especially if u use liquid pro. Good luck.

And dont worry of ur AIO. Powerconsumption ~ 20-50W.

 

[Carlyle2020hs]

Nobody i know of likes his xx700 cpu. They all b.. and moan about how hot it gets. 9700, 10700, 11700, 12700, 13700 and i don't think 14700 will be any different. They are all the dumpster bin of the 900 series and need a lot of power to deliver what is advertised.

Besides: did really nobody see that OPs usecase is incomplete?

How can you guys "advise" without asking what monitor resolution he plays?

At 4k 120hrz he couldn't feel the difference between a 13600k or 14900ks anyway.

 

[GerKNG]

check if the radiator fits in your case and buy a Arctic Liquid Freezer 360 or even 420. (the radiator is thicker than normal ones and needs to be checked if it collides with ram or VRM heatsinks.
as a quick reference.
the 360 version fits in the top of the NZXT H7 Flow and the rest of the case can be filled with 140mm fans. (four + Radiator)

 

[Upgrayedd]

You like plug and play? Get a cpu contact frame and a dual tower air cooler and replace the fans.

With an AIO water cooler you have to check if the pump is still working, if there's any corrosion, if the flow in the block is still good, they're plug and play until there's something wrong.

The one W1zz used to test is a single tower cooler with one single stock fan. It's not for high power like a dual tower is.

Something like a Noctua NH-D15 and 3000rpm ippc fans should really cool anything.

 

[sLowEnd]

Nobody i know of likes his xx700 cpu. They all b.. and moan about how hot it gets. 9700, 10700, 11700, 12700, 13700 and i don't think 14700 will be any different. They are all the dumpster bin of the 900 series and need a lot of power to deliver what is advertised.

Besides: did really nobody see that OPs usecase is incomplete?

How can you guys "advise" without asking what monitor resolution he plays?

At 4k 120hrz he couldn't feel the difference between a 13600k or 14900ks anyway.

That hasn't been my experience with the 12700K. Mine tops out at 76c in Cinebench 2024 with an AS500 Plus cooler in 22c ambient.

On topic though, the 13900KF is quite a bit more powerful, so a hefty AIO would be a good idea if you want to get the most out of your CPU. Arctic's Liquid Freezer II 360 is usually pretty well reviewed.
If you want to save some money and don't mind losing a small amount of performance, a dual-tower air cooler like the NH-D15 can work too. Thermalright's dual towers like the FS140 or FC140 are great bang for the buck. Also consider a Thermalright contact frame if you don't have one already.