Air Cooler Decision

Steves1982 · 9 Jan 2011 at 20:56

I am trying to decide on a cooler for my 2500k (OC'ed of course) which I will be ordering next week for my new build. It will be going in a Silverstone FT02 case which has the new air penetrator Ap181 fans.

At the moment I'm trying to decide between the Thermalright Silver Arrow, Noctua NH-D14 and the Prolimatech Super Mega (with Apache Fans).

The main priority for me is noise levels, I'm not fussed about aesthetics/size and would tolerate a couple of degrees extra heat if it meant the noise level was kept to a minimum.

What are people opinions of the above and which do you think would be the best choice?

Also I read in a review of the new Ap181 fans in the FT02 that the airflow of the new fan is concentrated directly on the cooler and therefore the cooler can be run fanless without much effect on temps. Has anyone tried this or know more?

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Invertigo · 9 Jan 2011 at 20:59

Seeing as you mentioned size not being an issue' I'd opt for the NH-D14 os Silver Arrow. They're both rated as 2 of the best air coolers. Depending on what you're cooling, passive might be possible in the Fortress case, as the AP fans are nothing short of awesome for the case design

Helios1234 · 9 Jan 2011 at 21:28

I have run the Noctua NH-D14 and Silver Arrow passively in my case which isn't exactly the best for airflow and they coped with an i7 920 at 4GHz perfectly. So you should be able to do the same. The Silver Arrow was better out of the two. Even if you use the bundled fans, it'll remain quiet.

Steves1982 · 9 Jan 2011 at 21:43

Thanks for the info guys.

Looks like the Silver Arrow is the one to go for and it's the cheapest which is a bonus!

Helios, what temps were you reaching on passive?

Helios1234 · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:17

Mid-80s but have a look here for comparison against other coolers (the last graph): http://www.vortez.co.uk/articles_pages/thermalright_hr_02_cpu_cooler_review,10.html

Steves1982 · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:43

Helios1234 said:
Mid-80s but have a look here for comparison against other coolers (the last graph): http://www.vortez.co.uk/articles_pages/thermalright_hr_02_cpu_cooler_review,10.html

Thanks for that.

I will get the Silver Arrow and try it passively 1st.

Because the FT02 is a positive pressure case I assume a push/pull config would be best if I decide to use the fans? That way the air will be exhausted from the top of the case and maintain the pressure?

Helios1234 · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:46

Yeah that's right. Just make sure you have enough clearance if your memory modules have tall heatsinks. If they do, you can either move one of the fans or just use one fan in the middle.

Steves1982 · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:54

I'm going to take advantage of the price for the Corsair XMS3 so clearance shouldn't be be an issue. Didn't see the need to spend a lot more on ram as it appears it won't make much difference with the Sandybridge CPU's anyway.

Thanks for the advice

OLDPHART · 10 Jan 2011 at 00:26

Smashing case, using the FTO1, yes a push/pull set up, if l remember right the fans have 2 speeds 700/1200rpm FTO2.

Steves1982 · 10 Jan 2011 at 08:35

That's right, and according to most reviews at 700rpm the temps are only 1-2 degrees higher than at full speed. Means I can keep them on low to keep the volume down.

Hopefully passive will be cool enough but if not the fans don't seem to be too loud on the Silver Arrow.

C64 · 10 Jan 2011 at 08:39

Thermalright Archon

Just to complicate things even more but this new one looks to have almost the benefits of the silver arrow and d14 but without taking up so much room.

Steves1982 · 10 Jan 2011 at 09:00

Just when you think you have decided!

Thanks, will have a look at that one and compare.

I noticed that therer are hardly any retailers selling the Thermalright coolers. Is there any reason for that?

C64 · 10 Jan 2011 at 09:13

No Idea but after seeing that the Thermalright Archon is right up there with the two best if not possibly better without all the space issues I would get that and add a secondary 140mm fan or 120mm for push pull.

Steves1982 · 10 Jan 2011 at 17:08

Yeah, I will see which is the cheapest way to do it although I doubt there will be much difference.

As the penetrator fans apparently are so good in that case setup and direct the flow straight onto the cooler (push) could I not get away with just having the fan on the top exhausting out (pull)? The reviews seem to suggest this may be just as good as using 2 fans on the cooler itself.

Steves1982 · 13 Jan 2011 at 18:38

C64 said:
No Idea but after seeing that the Thermalright Archon is right up there with the two best if not possibly better without all the space issues I would get that and add a secondary 140mm fan or 120mm for push pull.

Looks like the Archon is a no go. It is 170mm tall and the Silverstone FT02 only fits 160mm coolers according to the spec sheet.

Shame as a one fan solution would have been nice. Might try the Silver Arrow using one fan on pull and and seeing if the penetrator fans on the case do the job anyway.