The King of Coolers

Justintime · 10 Jan 2011 at 23:48

mayebaza said:
We all have opinions, but where is the evidence,

The fact that i've built more pcs in a month using mainly Thermalright, Corsair, Coolit, Noctua and Prolimatech products than most will build in a lifetime?

bainbridge · 11 Jan 2011 at 00:02

While your current cooler may well be running very cool & be a big improvement over your last cooler, I don't see how you can declare it "The King of Coolers" without having done extensive tests on lots of different coolers. I do however agree AS5 is very good, if not the best.

bifday2k · 11 Jan 2011 at 00:31

King of coolers is liquid hydrogen, end of story lol.

All top end air coolers are so close, its like 1/2c difference at best, it really all comes down to personal preference.

I recently was deciding on a top air cooler, so was looking at all the top contenders, what my choice came down to in the end, was price, as i already have 2 very good fans, i opted for the VX at just over £40 delivered.

Helios1234 · 11 Jan 2011 at 01:05

bifday2k said:
King of coolers is liquid hydrogen, end of story lol.

All top end air coolers are so close, its like 1/2c difference at best, it really all comes down to personal preference.

I recently was deciding on a top air cooler, so was looking at all the top contenders, what my choice came down to in the end, was price, as i already have 2 very good fans, i opted for the VX at just over £40 delivered.

Good choice. I'm surprised so many people overlook the VX. It's a very good cooler and not too expensive either. I use to think that the NH-D14 was faily good value for money considering the expensive fans they come bundled with. But the Thermalright TY-140 fans are slightly better at less than half the price.

bifday2k · 11 Jan 2011 at 01:33

Helios you have any idea if those thermalright fans fit on the Vx with the standard fan clips? It looks like they may, as they are kinda have standard 120 fittings, just wondering due to there shape.

I'll be testing mine in the coming weeks with vipers, but may switch to those fans if they fit, as they may cool it better, and quieter.

Helios1234 · 11 Jan 2011 at 11:43

bifday2k said:
Helios you have any idea if those thermalright fans fit on the Vx with the standard fan clips? It looks like they may, as they are kinda have standard 120 fittings, just wondering due to there shape.

I'll be testing mine in the coming weeks with vipers, but may switch to those fans if they fit, as they may cool it better, and quieter.

Unfortunately you can't because of their shape and also because it requires different wire clips.

It requires clips that extend to the front set of mounting holes.

.Ox. · 11 Jan 2011 at 15:14

Waiting to replace my intel cooler with the d14 now. Just cleaning everything up as i have no excuse not to with having to take my mobo out.

C64 · 11 Jan 2011 at 19:30

mayebaza said:
If you look closely at the results the Silver Arrow does not beat the Noctua when each is using cooler its own fans, only with the SWiF2-120P fans operating at a thundering 1900RPM does it beat the Noctua.

I have seen the noctua put up against the silver arrow in many places including videos and it does beat it bot hwith own fans.

C64 · 11 Jan 2011 at 19:32

bifday2k said:
King of coolers is liquid hydrogen, end of story lol.

All top end air coolers are so close, its like 1/2c difference at best, it really all comes down to personal preference.

I recently was deciding on a top air cooler, so was looking at all the top contenders, what my choice came down to in the end, was price, as i already have 2 very good fans, i opted for the VX at just over £40 delivered.

That is simply not true the VX style smaller coolers require high rpm settings to get close.Whilst the ones with 140mm fans can get there quietly.
There's just no way I'd be able to put up with a TRUE or VX if I needed 2x fans at 1500 + rpm.

Helios1234 · 11 Jan 2011 at 19:46

mayebaza said:
If you look closely at the results the Silver Arrow does not beat the Noctua when each is using cooler its own fans, only with the SWiF2-120P fans operating at a thundering 1900RPM does it beat the Noctua.

You're right but I went on to explain a few more things on the next page. On that chart I use Thermalright's Chillfactor II for all the tests. However, the Silver Arrow is bundled with the superior Chillfactor III which is also better than the Noctua thermal paste. So out of the box, the SA will end up better. I just add a bit of consistency to the test by using the same thermal paste because in a lot of cases, people will end up buying some after market thermal paste.

C64 said:
Video

Hmm, I've had a few chats with TTL about his article and I find it hard to believe that the SA could suddenly end up performing so much worse at 4.4GHz when it outperforms the Noctua at lower clocks. It's not unheard of for coolers to be unable to cope with higher heat output because of their surface area becoming the limiting factor. But on that note, I would expect the NH-D14 to outperform the SA in his other tests which it didn't. Unfortunately, I can't clock my CPU that high to confirm but Xbitlabs conducted some tests at the same speed with high voltages as well and found the SA to be better.

C64 · 11 Jan 2011 at 19:49

I still think the archon will turn out to be the best of the lot have already seen a test with it beating the SA on certain setups.

I cant believe anyone would go near a VX at £40 when you can get a silver arrow or archon for £10-£15 more.

I would advise anyone to get the new archon if the silver arrow / d14 cant fit because of ram clearance, it's basically a bigger TRUE/VX with a 140mm fan = less noise for same results.
It's only problem is it's height (170mm) so you need to doubly check it will fit in your case.

Cant even stand the noise of my tuniq tower fan at anything over 1200 rpm and i have tried a 1250 rpm SL12 yate loon in there too so no way would I be able to stand 2x 1500-2000 rpm fans on a TRUE/VX to achieve -70c temps for my q6600 @ 3.6ghz.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-archon.html

bifday2k · 11 Jan 2011 at 20:23

Both those 2 coolers you mentioned where closer to £60 delivered when i bought my VX.

So the Vx at just over £40 delivered was better value for me, as i already have 2 fans to use with it, which i will cap at a max of 1300rpm, as im not after epeen temps, that and my rig is stock most of the time, only put the oc profile on for when im encoding or stuff like that.

@Helios
Yeh thats what i thought from looking at pics, but thought id ask anyways, 2 vipers caped to 1300rpm it is then lol.

C64 · 11 Jan 2011 at 20:34

Yea it is a great cooler but only IF you already have the fans as it doesn't come with any unless that has changed ?

HighlandeR · 11 Jan 2011 at 20:36

C64 said:
I still think the archon will turn out to be the best
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-archon.html

There I was thinking either D14 or Silver Arrow... but now even im thinking the archon is an impressive beast and more importantly its in stock for 53 quid... sadly at a competitors place.

bifday2k · 11 Jan 2011 at 20:37

Yeh still comes fanless, so i totally agree if you need fans, the 2 you mentioned are better then.

I just wish OCuk would have stocked all 3 to behonest, hate having to shop around at times lol.

C64 · 11 Jan 2011 at 20:42

I have raised a new product suggestion in that forum enquiring why they don't really stock much thermalright stuff no idea why they don't here.

HighlandeR · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:20

I almost posted a rant on the sandybridge new bundles claiming to be the cheapest thread....

Anyhow lol best not to post it but for a store thats got overclocking in mind it might want to stock the top 3 coolers....

D14/Silver arrow and archon coolers....and also update the 14cm fans with the top rated fans also...

Helios1234 · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:22

Indeed, personally I haven't been as impressed with the Megahalems so I'd like to see the Thermalrights for a change.

bifday2k · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:23

Same goes for the watercooling section on the shop, not exactly the best selection lol.

Stock of a lot of stuff is a bit low lately, iv even reverted to buying stuff from the bay as people on there have stock lol.

setter · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:31

The Thermalright archon looks very impressive, at only 53mm wide it shouldnt block any ram slots which is nice. Thats my main gripe with the megahelims, cools well enough but is pretty wide.