I'm Considering Upgrading My Cooler. Thoughts?

Hey, everyone!

 

I'm considering upgrading my cooler, but I want to get some opinions on whether it's worth it before I do it.

 

Here's some information on my current setup.

 

Case: Corsair 460X RGB

Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 (240mm)

Cooler Fans: Stock

Cooler Location: Front

Cooler Setup: Push / Pull

 

The cooler is mounted in the front, as stated. I have 3 Corsair SP120 fans in the front in push, although the bottom one doesn't contact the radiator. The stock fans for the cooler are set up in pull.

 

I'm considering upgrading to the Corsair H150i Pro (360mm), but due to the nature of the 460X, I'm not sure if I'd see an increase in cooling performance that would justify the cost of the upgrade.

 

See, the HDD Cage / PSU Shroud of this case will prevent me from being able to use a FULL push / pull setup. Meaning, I'd have 3 fans in push, but could only have 2 in pull.

 

Would I still see an increase in cooling performance by having the larger radiator? I mean, there'd be 3 fans pushing air through it, and 2 fans pulling air through it, so it'd be getting plenty of airflow.

 

If I wanted to run it in a FULL push / pull setup with 3 push and 3 pull, I'd have to get the 570X case, which I don't particularly care for.

 

What are your thoughts? Is the upgrade worth it in this scenario, or will the gain be negligible for the money?

 

Thanks!

 

Oh, and I attached two pictures just to try and explain it a bit more.

Surface area generally trumps airflow across the fins and you would have 50% more with a 360mm. You'll need to look at your coolant delta (start/peak) doing whatever things you like to do. I would expect a typical value of +4-5C for your CPU and the H150i. You might be something like +6-8C now. The most notable difference would the ability to let your fans dwindle along on the H150i without any particular need for speed. I am not sure what speeds you typical run on the 240mm, but at worst it's slightly better cooling with less noise. I don't like that 240mm very much and that alone would prompt me, but only you know your current level of satisfaction. In terms of overall cooling, the differences for most any cooler will be small. If you are looking for 5-10C, it's not going to happen and there isn't that much to reduce on the cooler side of the CPU.

Surface area generally trumps airflow across the fins and you would have 50% more with a 360mm. You'll need to look at your coolant delta (start/peak) doing whatever things you like to do. I would expect a typical value of +4-5C for your CPU and the H150i. You might be something like +6-8C now. The most notable difference would the ability to let your fans dwindle along on the H150i without any particular need for speed. I am not sure what speeds you typical run on the 240mm, but at worst it's slightly better cooling with less noise. I don't like that 240mm very much and that alone would prompt me, but only you know your current level of satisfaction. In terms of overall cooling, the differences for most any cooler will be small. If you are looking for 5-10C, it's not going to happen and there isn't that much to reduce on the cooler side of the CPU.

 

I run my case fans at max RPM, and I match the two H100i fans (the two that actually came with the cooler) to that RPM of about 1,600.

 

My CPU is delidded, so under gaming load I rarely see over 50C with an overclock of 4.8GHz at 1.155 VCore.

Then the question is do you want to be able to run your fans lower? It doesn't seem like you need to lower actual CPU temps. The cooler can only alter the coolant temperature, so the H100i v2 Temp or coolant temp is relevant measure for the cooler's effectiveness or capability. Most of your CPU temp is going to be voltage and conductive heat based, for which you can do little except lower voltage, delid, or somehow magically make heat conduct more efficient across a metal surface. The coolant changes are small and thus the only real gain is likely to be lower noise.