Release date is supposed to be November, but goodness knows what availability will be like. And pricing. But yah... saves me deliding my 6 core. I'll probably just upgrade to a 9900x 8 core / 44 lane.
 

So I have decided to go to liquid cooling, but not an AIO.  For my first build, I feel more comfortable going with a kit and wondered what everyone thinks about the Alphacool CoolAnswer 360 D5/UT.  It looked good in all the reviews but note were of this family of processors.  Also saw some scornful discussion about it having a bay reservoir and wondered what the big problem is there.  Have not yet looked at EKWB

Looks,like,the EKWB units use a traditional reservoir. Will research those.

SimonOcean
The BeQuiet Dark Rock 4 Pro is listed as compatible and their chart usually says if any slots are blocked. For the Dark it just says "Compatible". I've not tried it myself (I am on custom water loop) but it should be sufficient to cool your i9 so long as you don't overclock.
 
Similarly the biggest Noctua should be sufficient - as it is for the Threadripper and is just as effective as many AIOs.
 
But note that I say sufficient, rather than ample. Overclocking, particularly on something like HCC i9 changes things considerably and in this case you would be looking at delidding and water. 

Well, I heard back from Be Quiet! yesterday and they said "According to our motherboard check it does shows you should not have any issues using our Dark Rock 4 or Dark Rock Pro 4 even with the new VRM heatsink they added. Note Dark Rock TF with check! in this case it is due to possible PCIe slot blocked.". They even sent me a screenshot of the "Motherboard check". While I don't think they took the time to double check it, they just used what's on the website. Cause I just checked and it took 2 hrs and 5 minutes to get a reply. that's by far the quick response I have ever got.  
 

There is no air cooler at this time that will fit and cool the non-soldered i9 9740X. Intel's decision to use thermal paste was idiotic. But even after the new soldered i9's come out there is still no air cooler that will work with the EVGA X299 Dark and some other name brand motherboards as well.

bcavnaugh
i9-7940x On Air NO WAY.
Look at this one http://www.performance-pcs.com/alphacool-eisbaer-360-cpu-black.html
 

So do yourself a favor and take bcavnaugh advice.
 

@4400MHz AVX2=1 AVX3=2 100% CPU Running Prime95 62C after 24 Hours using LM and No Deliding.

dreamliner330

saberwalk
I am running a Noctua NH-D15S with a single fan on the X299 with a 7940X (stock).  Using E-Fleet CPU core temps were reported to run at idle between 22 -25 degrees C, with a CPU temperature of 24 C.  I have not looked during regular use, but will update to post temperatures on the stress test.

I was wondering if you (or anyone else) could provide some more input on this. I think I’m going to a X299 DARK soon and I really don’t want to liquid cool. I’ve been planning on getting the Noctua D15S but their site says it won’t work on this board but you got it to? I also saw it blocked your first slot and you had to mount the offset backward to clear the VRM fans, is that right? Is there any way to have it mounted airflow front to back without it blocking the first slot? I also want to put 3 fans on it, will they fit?

Correct, had to mount it backwards to clear the VRM fans.  I also turned the fans around to get the air to flow front to back.  There appears to be room to run three fans, but I am running only one on the D15s itself.  I am running the 7940 stock.  I have not delidded the CPU so not sure how accurate the temps are, but E-Fleet is reporting idle temps at @ 20 degrees C (68 degrees ambient).  Running the 3D Mark stress test this past weekend, max temp was 49 degrees C at same ambient.  Not sure if this is the best way to test.

cdc-951
Woah woah wait... I just got a x299 dark, so will the Noctua Dh15 not fit in any position???

I already ordered everything and was going to reuse my dh15. Someone please tell me there is a way to fit it. I’ve yet to receive it

Based on my research, the D15 will not fit, which is why I went with the D15s.

I think I have the D15S also what’s the difference between D15 vs the 15S? Extra fan that’s it? I don’t have talk ram also. So will it fit or will the vrm cooler get in the way? No I’m really worried before everything arrives

Just in case anyone else is interested, here's a couple of other air coolers that will also work with the Dark:
 
-Noctua NH-D9L
-Scythe Fuma Rev. B
 
The Noctua uses 92mm fans. Installed in a standard front-to-rear/right-to-left airflow configuration, I can use (1) 92mm x 25mm fan in the middle of the heatsink, and (1) 92mm x 15mm fan on the back side to just clear the RAM.
 
The Scythe uses 120mm fans, but has to be installed with bottom-to-top airflow configuration (fans parallel with RAM slots). I can use (1) 120mm fan in the middle of the heatsink and (1) 92mm x 25mm fan on the back side/top (just above the VRM heatsink and fans). Clearance to the inside RAM slots is very tight in this configuration, but works fine.
 
I'm using Corsair Vengeance RGB RAM, which is sort of in the middle for height. Processor is a piddly i7 7800x (delidded) that I had laying around. So it's only a 6-core, but with the Scythe cooler I'm able to keep the cores generally under 80C when stress testing at an all-core OC of 4.6 GHz and AVX/AVX512 offsets of -2. I can push a couple of cores to 4.8 GHz and similar temps, but I'm still chasing stability. The Noctua runs about 5C hotter but looks much better IMO.
 
I'm also height limited as I'm cramming this into a CaseLabs BH7, which only has about 150mm of clearance from the motherboard. So not ideal setup by any means and still usable in my case.
 
Running one of these air coolers on a 10-core and up processor is probably asking for thermal throttling unless you're really limiting to stock clocks. I have a 7900x that I may test with this Scythe cooler as well, but it's currently in another build in progress. You really do need to still delid these chips regardless of how you cool them, otherwise you're leaving tons of performance on the table.

Glad that your now considering water cooling. Cooling with air seems to have a lot less great options as AIO coolers are cheap and effective which has hurt the air cooled market.

So finally had an opportunity to run Prime 95 on the stock 7940X with DH15s.  Wow!  Temperatures shot up really quickly to 89 degrees C and pretty much stayed there.  So while the idle temps of the DH15 seem to be lower than for an AIO, it does not seem to do as good a job handling temperatures at load.  Am I missing something here?

saberwalk
So finally had an opportunity to run Prime 95 on the stock 7940X with DH15s.  Wow!  Temperatures shot up really quickly to 89 degrees C and pretty much stayed there.  So while the idle temps of the DH15 seem to be lower than for an AIO, it does not seem to do as good a job handling temperatures at load.  Am I missing something here?

What did you use for a paste and did you test fit / check the spread?
 
JayzTwoCents recently had an IHS on a new chip that was high in the middle that created problems for him
[tubr]https://youtu.be/EALCvMxvLyA[/tube]

GGTV-Jon

saberwalk
So finally had an opportunity to run Prime 95 on the stock 7940X with DH15s.  Wow!  Temperatures shot up really quickly to 89 degrees C and pretty much stayed there.  So while the idle temps of the DH15 seem to be lower than for an AIO, it does not seem to do as good a job handling temperatures at load.  Am I missing something here?

What did you use for a paste and did you test fit / check the spread?
 
JayzTwoCents recently had an IHS on a new chip that was high in the middle that created problems for him
[tubr]https://youtu.be/EALCvMxvLyA[/tube]

I used Noctua's TP.  Not Thermal Grizzly but has good reports.  Alos, CPU is not delidded.  Pretty sure it isn't the TP or the IHS though.  Recall from my earlier post that idle temps are in the 20s and on the 3d Mark stress test never even hit 50 Degrees C.
 

With that particular cpu Jay had it would not have mattered if it was soldered or not. If the IHS is high in the middle the actual contact point will be reduced and thermals high. His was actually cool at idle but temps shot up under load