What is a good air cooler for an i7 920?

PumpkinSteve · 11 Dec 2010 at 23:57

I'm getting 50+ degrees CPU temp on idle using a crappy ASETEK LCLC water cooler with 120mm radiator. Seems like a total waste of time and I'm thinking I'd be able to get much better performance with a decent air cooler, what would you recommend?

Invertigo · 12 Dec 2010 at 01:44

Titan Fenrir, Akasa venom, both just over £30, or if you want to splash out, something like a Megahalem's or Noctua d12/14

Ginger-Menace · 12 Dec 2010 at 01:49

+1 for above all are good some.are bigger than the others. Check to see whoch will fit your case and go from there

robocat · 12 Dec 2010 at 02:27

Also have a look at the Thermaltake Frio has received great reviews and is in the £30-£40 range.

cheers

sunjoo2012 · 12 Dec 2010 at 09:39

get a noctua d14 for great temps

didgemaster · 12 Dec 2010 at 11:52

what are the clock speeds on your CPU?

PumpkinSteve · 12 Dec 2010 at 12:17

It's just an i7 920 2.6, I just loaded level 1 overclocking to 3.2ghz and the idle temps stay the same. My house is not really warm at all, I would think a liquid cooler should give better performance than this...but I'm a noob, what do I know

Invertigo · 12 Dec 2010 at 12:24

50+ degrees idle points to a bad mounting, or a fault with the coolers pump in my eyes. Try reseating the cooler with some fresh thermal compound, making sure to clean both the base and the cpu off properly

PumpkinSteve · 12 Dec 2010 at 13:14

I bought the Noctua NH-D14, the water cooler probably does need reseating but it's a pretty crappy system anyhow. Hopefully this beast is going to fit inside my case

Thanks for the help guys.

sunjoo2012 · 12 Dec 2010 at 13:16

good choice

what case do you have?

PumpkinSteve · 12 Dec 2010 at 13:36

I have the...Aurora ALX:

jones2636 · 12 Dec 2010 at 13:44

Well I have been using the Noctua NH-U12P cooler on my i7 and have never got above mid 30s on my overclocked system at idle. But make sure your case is big enough to take it tho it is a big heatsink.

PumpkinSteve · 12 Dec 2010 at 17:24

I just had to cancel the order for the Noctua, the Northbridge has a huge heatsink (that I somehow missed):

Do you know of any coolers that would squeeze past that? It's ridiculous...Guess I could get a Corsair H70.

sunjoo2012 · 12 Dec 2010 at 17:38

yeah that heatsink is quite tall you could just get a h50 a h70's rad might be a bit big

i would say try reseating the asetek with some better thermal compound

PumpkinSteve · 12 Dec 2010 at 17:41

Yeah, I'll try reseating it first. Do you think putting another 120mm fan on the inside of the rad would help at all?

sunjoo2012 · 12 Dec 2010 at 18:06

PumpkinSteve said:
Yeah, I'll try reseating it first. Do you think putting another 120mm fan on the inside of the rad would help at all?

yes adding another fan on the rad would help

barrix · 12 Dec 2010 at 18:13

I love Corsair H*
But I hear Radiator noise even if I switch turn off my PC. Is it normal to hear that? To fix I have switch off my PSU on and off.

PumpkinSteve · 18 Dec 2010 at 16:19

PumpkinSteve said:
I'm getting 50+ degrees CPU temp on idle using a crappy ASETEK LCLC water cooler with 120mm radiator. Seems like a total waste of time and I'm thinking I'd be able to get much better performance with a decent air cooler, what would you recommend?

Just thought I'd update. I re-seated the cooling block on the CPU using Arctic Silver, now I'm getting 34-40 degrees idle rather than the 54c I was getting before. Maybe it'll go down a bit more once the thermal compound has cured

Invertigo · 19 Dec 2010 at 13:02

What are your load temps like now? Also, what clock is your cpu at?

PumpkinSteve · 19 Dec 2010 at 14:00

I don't know about the load temps, I haven't had time to check them yet but it looks like I spoke to soon about the temps being lower, they're back up to 50 idle. My CPU is set at standard 2.66ghz.