The title may have given the gist of this question away, so. 240, 280 or 360mm rad? My target would be a 280, ie 2 x 140 fans. Would be interested to see what others think.
I have a 5950x and no issues with a 280mm radiator. Since the boosting behavior of PBO is temperature-dependent, I would get the largest radiator your case can accommodate for max performance. However, be aware you’ll have no issues with a 240mm radiator.
240 is more than enough keeps my i9-9900k temps down even with an overclock. Think some of the tech channels on YouTube have tested it and found no benefit between 2 fan or 3 fan rads.
If youre going 280 i would recommend an arctic liquid freezer ii 280. It does the job and the offset mounting is better for the 5900x chiplet design. If your going 360 the offerings expand to the Lian Li Galahad 360 and the EK series of AIO’s in addition to the Arctic Liquid Freezer 360 version.
I chose the Arctic for the balance of low/no noise superior coldplate design which translates to superior cooling and PBO headroom and no RGB.
I do hover between 4.9 and 5.1 ghz in flight with this aio installed. Thermals are kept fully under control.
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I have a 5900X and went with a 360, Arctic Liquid Freezer II for all the reasons @Maxisone said. Might be a little overkill but my case had room to top mount it so I figured why not.
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5900X +200 PBO here. Never seen temp over 55 C yet with Artic 420. 360 will be perfect fit in my opinion.
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280mm or 360mm would be fine. Watch reviews before you buy.
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Not really a fan of watercooling.
I just use Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black on my Intel i9-9900K running and factory stock speeds.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. My own requirement has stretched out for a bit longer, due to SU5 easing the timetable for replacement but having had a Corsair case and rad for over 10 years of problem free running, my ideal is going to probably be a Corsair H115 (280) Capellix AIO inside a Corsair 680X case. I am all ears if anyone else has thoughts though and besides, if it helps others, then even better.
I have the same Corsair Capellix 280mm AIO. It’s a solid AIO and I’d recommend it. Can’t go wrong with Corsair for AIOs.
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Whatever will be able to fit in your case.
I have a Meshify 2 XL, so its loaded with 1x360mm and 1x420mm rad.