Best air cooler? (In both outright cooling and noise)

Marvin

Marvin

Marvin

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So, I've been out of the loop (sorry...) with air cooling as I've been watercooling for a long while now. What is considered to be the best air cooler at the moment? I've read many conflicting opinions, but things like the Thermalright Silver Arrow, and Archon, then the Noctua DH14 and so on seem to come near to the top regularly.

So, what is the best air cooler, both in terms of cooling ability, and in terms of being nice and quiet when required? I don't really mind how loud it is (within reason) when gaming as I wear headphones, but when doing general web browsing and the like, I would like as near silence as possible.
 
Without a doubt

Noctua NH-D14

Mine keeps my quad chip at 4.2Ghz, 55c max and at a flatrate 12dB even at load. Plus you get free 6 years support from Noctua which includes new socket compatability brackets posted to you free of charge.

Im really picky about noise and have wasted tons of cash trying to find quiet components and Noctua stuff is pretty much unbeatable.
 
I'd wait for more archon reviews I'd get one myself and add another thermalright 140mm fan for push pull.
I just think if it's close at the bleeding edge to the SA and D14 it's a better buy due to ram clearance etc.
 
Unfortunately I've just found out that the Archon won't fit in an FT02 - where the cooler's height limit is 165mm, and the Archon is 170mm tall.
 
Ok its not air, but water, without the hassles of water - H50 I think is bloody brilliant. Water for the (like me) air cooling crowd. I've had proper water setups before and get so ****ed at the hassle of water, pumps, res's etc

The H50 is best of both and better value than the top air coolers imo
 
I was never convinced by the Hx0 coolers - the rads are so weedy. Also they make a case look cluttered to me, while 'proper' water can be made to look comparatively elegant.

I'm thinking of going for a Thermalright HR-02 and running it passive as the FT-02 can blast so much air through the case. Should cope with a low voltage 4GHz overclock nicely. (1.272V for 4GHz)
 
The Silver Arrow and NH-D14 perform very similarly but the advantage of the thermalright is that it is cheaper and quieter. The tr ty-140 fans are brilliant and have own functionality.

Marvin, the HR-02 should cope with your CPU perfectly. If you're interested, drop me an email as I have one that I don't use. It can passively cool my 4ghz i7 at 1.3v.

Oh and don't bother with the h50 if you want the best performance. Those A.L.C units can't compare to good air coolers.
 
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How does the IFX-14 perform when slotted into the mix? is it on-par with the SA and D-14? Or is it cheaper for a reason? (or is it just cheaper as it doesn't come with fans?)
 
The frio cannot perform the same as a silver arrow d14 or archon.

Op if you do decide on the D14 make doubly sure you have no height on your rams heatsinks.
 
EniGmA1981 said:
How does the IFX-14 perform when slotted into the mix? is it on-par with the SA and D-14? Or is it cheaper for a reason? (or is it just cheaper as it doesn't come with fans?)
Click to expand...

I have IFX-14 with 2 Akasa Viper fans in push pull config with MX-4 thermal paste. Keeps my [email protected] under 64C in Prime 95 small FFTs and under 70C in IBT custom stress test:) considering they are hot chips. The heatsink design is 90% similar to silver arrow or should I say it is the other way round as IFX-14 is the ancestor of both cogage and silver arrow so the latter are based on the former.
The performance of IFX-14 largerly depends upon the fans used, thermal paste and ofcourse the cooling performance of the case.

ifx3.png


q660034ghzloadbiosvcore.png


q660034ghzintelburntest.png


I would say it would perform similar to silver arrow and noctua nh-d14. Infact if using viper fans on both IFX-14 and silver arrow the results should be similar. I did ask this question to a reviewer on youtube and he also confirmed that they should perform roughly the same:).


Here is a pic comparison of IFX-14 and Cogage Arrow(similar heatsink to silver arrow). They are essentially the same with few design differences :).

ifx14vscogagearrow3.jpg
 
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WingZero30 said:
I have IFX-14 with 2 Akasa Viper fans in push pull config with MX-4 thermal paste. Keeps my [email protected] under 64C in Prime 95 small FFTs and under 70C in IBT custom stress test:) considering they are hot chips. The heatsink design is 90% similar to silver arrow or should I say it is the other way round as IFX-14 is the ancestor of both cogage and silver arrow so the latter are based on the former.
The performance of IFX-14 largerly depends upon the fans used, thermal paste and ofcourse the cooling performance of the case.



q660034ghzloadbiosvcore.png


q660034ghzintelburntest.png


I would say it would perform similar to silver arrow and noctua nh-d14. Infact if using viper fans on both IFX-14 and silver arrow the results should be similar. I did ask this question to a reviewer on youtube and he also confirmed that they should perform roughly the same:).


Here is a pic comparison of IFX-14 and Cogage Arrow(similar heatsink to silver arrow). They are essentially the same with few design differences :).
Click to expand...



Not too impressive when you consider I can get the same temps on a q6600 @ 3.5ghz with more voltage cpu pll and northbridge voltage under a tuniq tower.
However the IBT tests are very impressive but again the voltage is low.

You should get some 140mm fans on that thing I bet it improves even more.
 
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rustEswan said:
Ok its not air, but water, without the hassles of water - H50 I think is bloody brilliant. Water for the (like me) air cooling crowd. I've had proper water setups before and get so ****ed at the hassle of water, pumps, res's etc

The H50 is best of both and better value than the top air coolers imo
Click to expand...

h-series coolers aren't even really watercoolers imo
they are more like high end air coolers

go for a noctua dh-14 OR your own custom watercool setup (for large e-peen ofc)
 
WingZero30 said:
I have IFX-14 with 2 Akasa Viper fans in push pull config with MX-4 thermal paste. Keeps my [email protected] under 64C in Prime 95 small FFTs and under 70C in IBT custom stress test:) considering they are hot chips. The heatsink design is 90% similar to silver arrow or should I say it is the other way round as IFX-14 is the ancestor of both cogage and silver arrow so the latter are based on the former.
The performance of IFX-14 largerly depends upon the fans used, thermal paste and ofcourse the cooling performance of the case.


I would say it would perform similar to silver arrow and noctua nh-d14. Infact if using viper fans on both IFX-14 and silver arrow the results should be similar. I did ask this question to a reviewer on youtube and he also confirmed that they should perform roughly the same:).


Here is a pic comparison of IFX-14 and Cogage Arrow(similar heatsink to silver arrow). They are essentially the same with few design differences :).
Click to expand...

really not impressed with that either, i used to run my q6600 at up to 3.5 with 1.45vcore and with my tuniq 120 in a coolermaster stacker 831 it wouldn't go above 60c in prime or ibt :confused:
 
chipps101 said:
really not impressed with that either, i used to run my q6600 at up to 3.5 with 1.45vcore and with my tuniq 120 in a coolermaster stacker 831 it wouldn't go above 60c in prime or ibt :confused:
Click to expand...

yea and thats with 1 fan in the middle I don't get why it isn't performing better with 2x vipers ? maybe it needs 140mm fans to compete with the arrow and d14 ?

Maybe look at a reseat ? surely something isn't right here you should try 1.45 v and IBt if it still stays under 75c that would be impressive.
 
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