What fans/CPU cooler, and PSU, should I get for my z490-a / i7-10700 build?

[cyberdogg]

I recently bought an Asus Prime Z490-a mb and an i7-10700K cpu, 32mb of Crucial Ballistics ram.

I intend on getting an RX 5700 XT gpu when the prices are a bit more rational (ideally Sapphire, but maybe MSI or Gigabyte). If prices remain high for a while I may opt for a 5600/5500/580... time will tell I guess.

But I am stumped regarding PSU. Most builds I've looked at here in the forums or on youtube, with a similar build to mine, have at least a 650w PSU. Often 750w or more. Seems like overkill to me. Surely a 650w or even 600w modular PSU would do my build fine... What say you?

And then there's the fans and CPU cooling. Here I see in the buyers guide recommends the Thermaltake Slim X3 Low Profile (Air), is this sufficient? I've seen lots of people recommend Noctua fans... the ugly brown ones, though you can get them in black now I think... they look mightY pricey. The beQuiet fans look good and are cheap. What's the besT BeQuiet cpu cooler for under £50? (definitely don't want liquid cooling, yuck)

I'm going to be putting all this in a G5 case mod. I'm sure I'll need to ask about other fans to put in there at some point but will cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

[Jamesbond007]

I recently bought an Asus Prime Z490-a mb and an i7-10700K cpu, 32mb of Crucial Ballistics ram.

I intend on getting an RX 5700 XT gpu when the prices are a bit more rational (ideally Sapphire, but maybe MSI or Gigabyte). If prices remain high for a while I may opt for a 5600/5500/580... time will tell I guess.

But I am stumped regarding PSU. Most builds I've looked at here in the forums or on youtube, with a similar build to mine, have at least a 650w PSU. Often 750w or more. Seems like overkill to me. Surely a 650w or even 600w modular PSU would do my build fine... What say you?

And then there's the fans and CPU cooling. Here I see in the buyers guide recommends the Thermaltake Slim X3 Low Profile (Air), is this sufficient? I've seen lots of people recommend Noctua fans... the ugly brown ones, though you can get them in black now I think... they look mightY pricey. The beQuiet fans look good and are cheap. What's the besT BeQuiet cpu cooler for under £50? (definitely don't want liquid cooling, yuck)

I'm going to be putting all this in a G5 case mod. I'm sure I'll need to ask about other fans to put in there at some point but will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Yes, I concur that a 750W PSU is probably overkill for your build. A 600W / 650W should have one or more PCIe power connectors which can supply power to your future graphics card, which should be enough.

However, I am basing this on the assumption you do not need to seriously overclock and/or stress the CPU. If you do, you should note that motherboards like your Asus Prime Z490-A have TWO CPU power connectors (in your case one is 8-pin and the other 4-pin) on the motherboard. Without a high CPU overclock you should only need to connect ONE power connector from the PSU to the 8-pin CPU power connector and the system should work. But a high CPU overclock means that the CPU will require vastly more power and you may need to connect a second cable from the PSU to the 4-pin CPU power connector on the motherboard to supply enough power. In such a case you may want to have a higher power PSU. Also, 600W / 650W PSUs generally do not have a second CPU power connector cable.

Note the location of the 2 CPU power connectors on your motherboard at the top of this picture :

My own Z390 Designare also has 2 such CPU power connectors. I only connect one cable from the PSU to the 8-pin power connector and the system works fine, as I do not overclock my i7 9700KF and I mostly do not stress the CPU.

 

[cyberdogg]

So what about fans?

• Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2 Air Tower CPU Cooler
• Thermaltake Slim X3 Low Profile
• Noctua NH D15

These have all come up in threads I've noticed. The Noctua comes in black now it seems but is still a hefty penny. Could I get away with the Be Quiet Pure Rock 2?

Re GPUs... I'm seing 5700 XTs on ebay for £900... welp.

 

[joy2000]

my build is 10700k oc 5.1ghz. i use Cooler Master ML240L Liquid CPU Cooler All In One MasterLiquid V2 RGB Universal but if run Cinebench R20 cpu power could reach 210w more and temperature is 100℃ (room temp is about 25℃). So my opinion is 360mm AIO cooler should be better for 10700k OC

 

[cyberdogg]

my build is 10700k oc 5.1ghz. i use Cooler Master ML240L Liquid CPU Cooler All In One MasterLiquid V2 RGB Universal but if run Cinebench R20 cpu power could reach 210w more and temperature is 100℃ (room temp is about 25℃). So my opinion is 360mm AIO cooler should be better for 10700k OC

argh! water cooling no thank you!

 

[scottkendall]

argh! water cooling no thank you!

I used to think the same thing, then I got a Corseair AIO. Works awesome the radiator is in the front tucked away and I do not have a huge heat-sync hanging off the mother board. As much as I did not want Liquid cooling I enjoy the space it has allowed. Because the radiator creates so much surface area the liquid is passively cooled for doing most tasks keeping the system silent until I game or when I render something.