Can you use an air cooler with the i9 9900k?

Question

I read on the PC gamer site that the i9 9900k has hyper threading and because of it, the CPU would get hot compared to the non hyper threading i7 9700k and they suggested using liquid AIO cooling.  I suggested to a friend who has never built a gaming PC to get the latest CPU i9 9900k and I should've told him he would need liquid cooling instead of air cooling.  He doesn't want to do overclocking.  My friend also said he doesn't want liquid cooling in case if it breaks and leaks and chose to use air cooling.  Should I tell him to just get the i7 9700k?  He said that although he is on a limited budget, he is willing to spend up to $3,000 if he has to.
Thanks, if anyone has any advice.

Suggested parts I mentioned to him:
i9 9900k
ASUS republic of gamers motherboard
Air Cooling
16 gb DDR4 memory
Samsung M.2 NVME drive
Samsung 4tb SSD Drive
EVGA 850 watts Power supply
Nvidia RTX 2080
Case with CD/DVD/Blu-Ray tray

Answer 1

Yes. That's a 95W CPU meaning you need a cooler designed to wick away that much or more heat. Consider the Cryorig H7 tower cooler with a 140W TDP rating. That air cooler provides more than enough protection for the CPU. http://www.cryorig.com/h7.php. The DARK ROCK PRO 4 is another option

https://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/1378.



Both of those coolers are compatible with the 9900K with the assumption the user will OC. Your job is to ensure the cooler you choose will fit in your case. The case specs need to exceed the cooler's height meaning a cooler such as the 159 mm 212 Evo needs a case wider than 6.25". The user needs to account for the added height of the risers and the motherboard meaning an 8" wide case gives the cooler some breathing room. 

Answer 2

Last year I upgraded a rig with an 8700k to the 9900k, and yes it's power consumption is out there.



Long story short, a cooler like the Thermalright Le Grande Macho, D15, Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4 is going to be more than enough to cool a 9900k or even a Ryzen 9. 



https://www.anandtech.com/show/13400/intel-9th-gen-core-i9-9900k-i7-9700k-i5-9600k-review/21



The best thing to do with the 9900k is pair it with a decent z370 or z390 board, then adjust the voltage and power limit settings to get the best performance. The 95w TDP is only when all cores are at 3.6ghz, which doesn't ever happen. Newer Instruction sets like AVX2 will result in higher thermals and power consumption.



https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/9223/scythe-fuma-2-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html



https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3499-evga-clc-360-liquid-cooler-review-noise-normalized-thermals

Answer 3

Yes, shouldn't be necessary to change any Bios settings (overclocking) with this CPU as well.

You can consider still buying a aftermarket Intel CPU fan instead of using the included stock fan.

Answer 4

the answer to your question is "does he plan to Over Clock the processor"? 



also, i'd be hard pressed to recommend a 4tb SSD unless Money is the least of his concerns. you can get a 4tb Hybrid or strictly slow-media storage HDD for a fraction of the price.