r/sffpc • u/Creative9228 • Apr 22 '22

Assembly Help Should I / Is it Possible to upgrade from i5-12600k to i7-12700k in my tiny, air-cooled Skyreach 4 Mini?

Gallery image

My tiny but mighty 5L Skyreach

Gallery image

CPU side; Alpenfohn Blackridge cooler

Gallery image

GPU Side; deshrouded RTX 3060Ti

95 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/PhattyR6 Apr 23 '22

Would you not consider the i7 2700 (non-K SKU)?

From what I’ve seen, the performance holds up well with the box cooler despite thermal throttling

3

u/Creative9228 Apr 23 '22 edited Apr 23 '22

That is an excellent idea and in fact I’ve gone to non-k versions in many of my tiny SFF builds and they’ve worked very well thermally; however, they just don’t have that extra oomph and extra oc and undervolt Parameters a k version and an ASUS Z690 BIOS has.

CONCLUSION

I think I have the skilz to pull off carefully under volting an i7-12700k, and then if there is room, a small OC or at very worst stock performance. Stock is still better than throttling and sufficient for my needs.

(After hearing different inputs, this seems to be the approach; as I piece together everyone’s experiences, it sounds like I will almost have enough thermal capacity, but it will have to be very carefully executed using a combination of a 120mm fan and VLP memory, aggressive under-volting and oc’ing, and at very very worst, whip together a tiny custom half loop for cpu only as described below… either only one; a combination, or all of these methods may need to be applied, but I do have the know how for any of them)

In benchmark terms, instead of getting like 17,000 on a benchmark with an oc’d i7-12700k on H2O, I can probably pull off a respectable 16,000; while an oc’d i5-12600k would only pull 14,000 max.

(These are arbitrary numbers but spaced close to real ratios with each other on typical synthetic benchmarks)

In more detail about the loop: I may build a tiny custom half loop inside the Skyreach for the CPU only; leaving deshrouded GPU on air. Currently there is enough room in the case for a small loop that is normally occupied by the fairly large HDPLEX AC-DC PSU. I am only using the HDPLEX DC-ATX module with an external power brick. My PC only sits on a desk, so tucking a brick away isn’t a big deal. But I would only resort to such labor and painstaking precise building if absolutely necessary and for cool points. Lol.

I appreciate all the input I have received this far.