Poll: Alder Lake owners: were you able to get a cooling solution for LGA 1700?

Alder Lake owners: were you able to get an LGA 1700 cooling solution?


  • Total voters
    72
Got another motherboard yesterday and did some testing with Noctua NH-D15S and 12900K... Asus Z690 Hero with MCE disabled, rest is all default. Case is Fractal Meshify 2 Compact with 2x140mm Scythe Kaze Flex fans in front and 120mm in the rear.

Cinebench R23 gave 1994 single core and 27200 multi-core. The CPU goes up to 90C when doing multi-core test. (system is pulling 300W from the wall)

My take: NH-D15S is fine for gaming. If you're gonna max out all the cores often or overclock, then water's probably a good idea.
 
Got another motherboard yesterday and did some testing with Noctua NH-D15S and 12900K... Asus Z690 Hero with MCE disabled, rest is all default. Case is Fractal Meshify 2 Compact with 2x140mm Scythe Kaze Flex fans in front and 120mm in the rear.

Cinebench R23 gave 1994 single core and 27200 multi-core. The CPU goes up to 90C when doing multi-core test. (system is pulling 300W from the wall)

My take: NH-D15S is fine for gaming. If you're gonna max out all the cores often or overclock, then water's probably a good idea.
Its pretty amazing how much work those P-cores are doing. 16 cores where half of them do not have hyperthreading but are still more/less the IPC of Skylake (with hyperthreading). And you are still pushing on 5950x w/PBO's doorway.
 
Noctua 99.00 Air Cooler I was going to wait for the Free 1700 kit but bought one on Amazon because I didn't know how long I would have to wait.
 

12900K Air Cooler Test Small P Core Overclock NH-U12A chromax.Black 4K HDR PC Gaming​


P-Core 5200Mhz/5100Mhz with AVG Temperatures in the 40°C-50°C on 12900K for anyone interested​

 
i got a z690 motherboard with both 1200 and 1700 holes. no kit required. (not optimal, but good transition, and works fine for me)
 
Not a lot of room around the processor on my Gigabyte Z690i itx board using the MSI C240, but I made it work. Mounted the block upside down but since the board is also upside down in the Lian Li Q58, it actually looks correct.
 
Regarding Noctua coolers I was wondering if anyone was concerned that with a base plate that's only 37mm square they won't cover a 45mm Alder Lake chip. I have a box full of Noctua Coolers and just got my LGA 1700 adapter kit. I for one would certainly feel better with a cooler that has a larger base plate. Anybody know of any ?
 
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Arriving today, about 3 days early!
Installing now.

EK says there is an installation manual attached to the product page, as a PDF. But.......I don't see it. So I'm winging it. I'm pretty sure I have it right but....!!

I sent them a message.
 
Also, they included a Pen and a little tube of Thermal Grizzly. But....it doesn't say which Thermal Grizzly product. So......I'm just gonna use my Thermalright TF8 ;)
I own like six different kinds of paste. Even a MX4 that is over 10 years old and they all give the same thermals or at least I never notice a difference. Last two years over 10 CPU changes with many different motherboards with AMD/Intel. Just my 2 cents.
 
I own like six different kinds of paste. Even a MX4 that is over 10 years old and they all give the same thermals or at least I never notice a difference. Last two years over 10 CPU changes with many different motherboards with AMD/Intel. Just my 2 cents.
I used to be a big fan of Gelid GC Extreme but.... a couple of years ago, they started shipping an inferior product. I got some a few months ago, to see if it was still the case. And its noticeably worse than TF8.

I dunno if there is fake GC Extreme out there or if they just have different sources or what. But, its a thing which has been happening. I first became aware of it, when I was watching a youtuber who live streams paste tests, by going through the trouble of changing out pastes and testing them live in front of the camera. And he got one of the bad tubes of GC extreme and was very surprised at how bad it was. Later he got another tube and it was a lot better.

Anyway, there are plenty of tests which show that certain pastes are a fair bit better. And I'm willing to spend the money on 'em ;)
 
I used to be a big fan of Gelid GC Extreme but.... a couple of years ago, they started shipping an inferior product. I got some a few months ago, to see if it was still the case. And its noticeably worse than TF8.

I dunno if there is fake GC Extreme out there or if they just have different sources or what. But, its a thing which has been happening. I first became aware of it, when I was watching a youtuber who live streams paste tests, by going through the trouble of changing out pastes and testing them live in front of the camera. And he got one of the bad tubes of GC extreme and was very surprised at how bad it was. Later he got another tube and it was a lot better.

Anyway, there are plenty of tests which show that certain pastes are a fair bit better. And I'm willing to spend the money on 'em ;)
Yeah that is 100% fine to buy what makes you feel comfortable. I am just saying for me I can not tell the difference, sure I could measure a couple of degrees but that is not a difference to me.I am fine with the trashy whore MX use to be lol
 
As soon as I placed a order for a mounting kit I had the free one from Noctua to ship all I had to do was wait one day. I need the parts for my build by December anyway dont think I could do it In two day game migration would be the hardest part.
 
Regarding Noctua coolers I was wondering if anyone was concerned that with a base plate that's only 37mm square they won't cover a 45mm Alder Lake chip. I have a box full of Noctua Coolers and just got my LGA 1700 adapter kit. I for one would certainly feel better with a cooler that has a larger base plate. Anybody know of any ?
Typically the heat spreader is much larger than the actual die, which is the important thing to cover.
 
Installing now.

EK says there is an installation manual attached to the product page, as a PDF. But.......I don't see it. So I'm winging it. I'm pretty sure I have it right but....!!

I sent them a message.
The facepalms continue.

EK's reply:

Unfortunately, it has not been yet finished and uploaded. Please check again later.
 
My bracket is coming Friday. I don't have a LGA1700 setup, but I figure it doesn't hurt to have the parts just in case.
 
Purchased the Noctua 1700 adapter and have it on my U14S. Motherboard is MSI Z690 Force WiFi with 16gb Crucial DDR5 4800. CPU is 12700K and the HSF keeps temps in the low 70s when gaming. Will upgrade to 32GB of faster RAM once it is available and plentiful. Very pleased with the PC so far.
 
My bracket is coming Friday. I don't have a LGA1700 setup, but I figure it doesn't hurt to have the parts just in case.
That’s actually a good idea. I have 2-3 Noctua coolers around and why not ask.

I have everything but a cpu and mobo to do a DDR4 build and probably will cave at some point and mess with the i5 or i7 AL cpu.
 
Purchased the Noctua 1700 adapter and have it on my U14S. Motherboard is MSI Z690 Force WiFi with 16gb Crucial DDR5 4800. CPU is 12700K and the HSF keeps temps in the low 70s when gaming. Will upgrade to 32GB of faster RAM once it is available and plentiful. Very pleased with the PC so far.
That board is in my short list if buying a DDR5 setup. Seems like it’s good so far? Win10 or 11? GPU?
 
That board is in my short list if buying a DDR5 setup. Seems like it’s good so far? Win10 or 11? GPU?
Solid board and I like the looks of it in my case. No regrets here.

Windows 11, RTX 3080.
 
Typically the heat spreader is much larger than the actual die, which is the important thing to cover.
Yes but it's the 'Heat spreader' that transfers the heat to the cooler. With Noctua you've got 4mm of chip heat spreader on each side that the cooler doesn't cover. It certainly should
 
Yes but it's the 'Heat spreader' that transfers the heat to the cooler. With Noctua you've got 4mm of chip heat spreader on each side that the cooler doesn't cover. It certainly should
Not saying it shouldn't, just saying it will probably do a fine job cooling it. I looked at pics of Alder lake cpu delidded and looks like 8mm would cause no issues.
 
Apparently Asus have a BIOS update out now that gave some folks a performance boost. I am on a Gigabyte so have to wait a bit more....
 
That’s actually a good idea. I have 2-3 Noctua coolers around and why not ask.

I have everything but a cpu and mobo to do a DDR4 build and probably will cave at some point and mess with the i5 or i7 AL cpu.

LGA 1800 appears to use the same retention bracket, both are stamped on it, so it should be good for the next socket as well.
 
Wait ... I haven't even finished my lga 1700 build and you're telling me that a 1800 socket is coming out? Jeebus 🙃
 
Wait ... I haven't even finished my lga 1700 build and you're telling me that a 1800 socket is coming out? Jeebus 🙃

If you have your board already, look on the plastic socket cover, it has LGA-17xx / LGA-18xx stamped on it. Theoretically the current socket could have 1800 pins with some reserved for future use but I haven't bothered to count them.
 
the real problem is in DDR5 availabilitu not in AIO availability.
what temp does your 12900K get after 10 minutes of stress testing?
 
the real problem is in DDR5 availabilitu not in AIO availability.
what temp does your 12900K get after 10 minutes of stress testing?
I had to wait a week and a half after I bought my 12700k on launch day, to be able to install my EK AIO. And multiple other cooling companies did not exactly have solutions ready, either.

My poll shows nearly half of the participants having issues related to being able to put a cooler on their alderlke CPU.

That’s a big problem and the point of this thread.

There may be others, but, Noctua might be the only brand whom was offering mounting hardware and shipping new coolers with hardware—-in advance of launch day.
 
I just bought a Noctua NH-D15s from Amazon, and also picked up the conversion kit for $10, rather than waiting to get one for free from Noctua. Amazon said they wouldn't get the conversion kit to me until later this month, but it actually shipped out way earlier and I should have it in a couple of days. Going to use this on my 12700k. Looking forward to seeing how well it does.

On a side note- does anyone know the ideal technique to apply thermal paste on Alder Lake- is it different than previous generations, given the different size?
Same here. Mobo gets here Friday, already have 12900k, ordered the Noctua because its only solution I could get in short order. Will go AIO eventually again.
 
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