We built the ULTIMATE air cooled 12900K PC! But did it work? Benchmarks and Thermals inside!

Love your videos! Question, does the cpu throttle during long video renders and other cpu usage? Thinking of doing a similar build for my new 4k content creation work station and want to stay with air vs AIO.

Just passing by with my head about to blow lol I have this case and im stock in what motherboard D5 should I go for a gaming set

Is a stock fan for I9 12900 ( non k ) enough to keep temps low? No clocking. Just factory settings

Will I be able to mount this u12a on it 12700k??

Man I was looking for something smaller then my dark rock pro4 possibly for the 13900k and if the Noctua NH-U12A is getting low 80s on both aida/cinebench on a 12900k might just get one.

Pretty cool of you to show mistakes here. I'll definitely be more diligent about paying attention to the small things.

Thank God! A build without all of the stupid rainbow lights. Great build!

STOP the BS. Run Cinebench R23 it goes over 100C with Nactua NH U12

Is this with XMP enabled and the w11 power plan set to high performance?

I originally cooled my 12600k with a Big Shuriken 3 but was getting up to 100C on Cinebench. I switched to a FrostFlow240 and replaced the AIOs fans with Noctua 120mm PWMs and also changed the 92mm 3-pin DLH21 case fan to a Noctua PWM unit. I did the same undervolt but no overclock and dropped the peak temps to consistently less than 80C. The other caveat is the GPU (6950XT) is a gd reactor and is the source of most of the heat exhausting from the case.

Justin, thanks so much for this video! I just ran across it this week while researching a choice between the 12700k and 12900k as I upgrade from 9900k. Currently have a full-size Torrent and Noctua NH-D15 cooler, which do a great job with the 9900k and a 3080 - your video convinced me that I should be able to manage the 12900k with that gear (and maybe an additional rear-panel fan added to the Torrent just in case, using a little undervolting and overclocking. Will also be adding a new CPU holddown frame, replacing the stock lever system, to keep the IHS as flat as possible to optimize cooling. Avoiding liquids in the box is a high-priority to me, but still want a system good for the next few years with GPU and VR-headset improvements along the way.

Your work here is much appreciated, buddy - just the sort of info I was searching for, and more!

How come you have between 70-80 degrees with NH-U12A and I with NH-D15 have almost 100 at max load? I might be stupid or something, but i just dont get it.. maybe its an airflow problem? I really dont want AIO

Looking to get a 13700k with this case and a noctua ndh15 I only game. Don't overclock will it be fine?

Thanks man, gonna aircool my 13700k with a Noctua NH-U12A and will also aim for 80 degrees with some undervolting and tuning.

Thank you Robey, amazing video! Do you know approx. what would be the temperature of a 12700k with the same build? (when idle or doing very basic tasks)

You think the Noctua NH-U12A can cool down the i9 13900k significantly and not much noise?

Think it’s good with i7-12700KF ? NH-U12A

What's a "DH15"? I have an "NH-D15", but haven't heard of that "other" cooler.

Thanks Awesome

hi.
TDP of NH-U12A is 169W.
the TDP of AK630 is 260W.
i'm not sure but if we use AK630, the result is much better.

nice i have the exact same setup with the D15 and full Fractal torrent RGB and was able to set to 0.075 and 51xP all and 39Xe all and average 77c in CPUID HWM

Just came across your video and boy I’m I happy….. just about to build a Pc after 7yrs and was nervous about the right choice of air cooler for my system Mob, Asus Z690 rog strix D4,Intel I7 13700k Case Corsair 4000D airflow …… I’m not a gamer but a creator in photography and 4k video editing, So this has definitely eased my anxiety 😊 Thanks for a great explanation and sharing some knowledge to a newbie Pc builder.

Dark rock pro 4 can cook this cpu? Anyone have a similar setup with the dark rock pro 4?

I used a EK 120 Aio. Kind of works.

This guy is full of it

I just found this video 6 months after my build. Same case, i9-12900k, asus tuf 3090, but using an arctic 280 aio. But that i9 runs HOT! Great video!

I have the TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi 4D & i9 12900K. I'm using Enermax ETS-T50 air cooler. In BIOS I set my P cores to 4500MHz & E cores to 35MHz. It gets too hot if I set it higher. I should give the cooler a try.

Would love to see the DeepCool AK 620 comparison in this very same setup.

The machine without light is really beautiful！！🎉🎉

Good to see an aur cooler for 12900K, recently purchased a 12900K and the only air cooling systems i have available are forza 50 and silverstone hydrogon 120 W. Which is better?

Legitimately excited by this video. Right now at Micro Center the 12900K is up for a bangin deal in a bundle. I bought it, look forward to completing the build and then follow your journey to overclock. Making matters better I had already settled on the fractal torrent for case as well. Awesome video!

64 dba is not quiet, even on the edge of your desk away from you. Corsair ML120s are rated at 37 dba, and they are stupid loud. That's almost twice as loud as these.

Dang, picked up the 12900k bundle from Newegg at a great price a month ago. Have a DRP4 and I’m getting thermal throttling during cinebench. Gonna have to try undervolting and reapplying thermal paste I guess

holy smokes 64 db. that's noisy as hell

Hi mate you doing good but your camera really black.. cant see Computer :) pls check this stiation. Have a nice day.

Which fans on the case are doing exhaust and intake is what Im very curious about. Very insightful things going on, great video! Someone who finally doesnt only liquid cool.

find a air cooler with copper heat pipes, don't purchase aluminum heat pipe coolers they aren't as efficient at pulling heat into the heat sink. My 36$ arctic cooler air cooler keeps up with my i9 12900kf under load because it uses 5 copper heat pipes

Is just bulding a very simler computer, torrent compact, a 14700K same cooler, also will probely be a 4070 ti super....

Hey cool video, l bought an i9 12900K recently and l'm looking at aircooling it, l'm considering the Deepcool assassin III or IV trying to do as much research and find as many benchmark results as possible from different air coolers and different sources, l'd like to see a video comparing the assassin coolers to something like this Noctua or the AS500, thanks!

This is a VERY helpful video! Thanks!

The only good looking and strong cpu air cooler in the market , coming tomorrow !

Which RAM? Corsair …

Lifetime of an air cooled system is likely double of any AIO and especially custom water cooled. I like this approach, especially if you are not buying a nwe computer every secon-third year.

Make sure to get a retention bracket for your cpu folks. It makes a huge difference in thermals

3dmark isn’t very taxing on a cpu.

Thinking 🤔 Microcenter hit up pick up I9 12900k with Motherboard Memory DDR 5 6000 Mhz next few weeks see what all fuss is about

Love this vid. Great overall build, very cool stealth theme. All of the parts make perfect sense and the result is excellent. I watched the original stream and this is a very cool and concise way of summarizing the whole purpose of the build and getting quickly to the main takeaway. Great job!