Choosing a cooler

Status
Not open for further replies.

BringTheRain

BringTheRain

BringTheRain

Soldato
Joined
3 Jan 2009
Posts
5,593
Location
Bedfordshire
I want to have a go at choosing my own cooler.

I would like to get a bit more involved before I part with my money. Stulid may not be here forever :eek: :p

So how do you find out if its fits?

Do you measure things?

Also why does ram come into it? Could it be it wont clear the cooler?

Thanks

BTR
 
your on socket 1155 now aren't you?
99% of all cooler listings everywhere will state what socket mount they are compatible with, just a case of finding the one you want that fits ( not hard )

you dont measure anything lol

ram is only an issue if you have tall ram, ( corsair vengeance, patriot viper, etc etc ) and some coolers, first to spring to mind are the silver arrow, Megahalems, Noctua DH14,

picking a cooler is basically all down to your budget

10-20 quid will pick you up something pretty basic, but it will work better than a stock HSF
20-30 gets better, options of running twin fans on some coolers for better cooling,
30-40 even better though coolers usually start getting pretty large, so make sure your case etc is big enough
40-60 is basically top end money, ultimate air cooling if you will, coolers are very large indeed and maybe sometimes fiddly to fit depending on case and motherboard room :)
 
i believe you have an antec 300 case, so the only thing you are likely to need to measure is the gap between the motherboard and the side panel, because some coolers are REALLY tall and might stop your side panel from going on.

also, as Seraph said, we need to know if your RAM has really tall heatsinks
 
Last edited:
It could theoretically be possible that a cooler wouldn't fit inside a case, but only in one way.

All motherboards are manufactured to a particular "form factor". In your case, that's ATX. There are more, such as mATX (or small form factor. Usually HTPCs etc), but for now just focus on ATX.

What this means is that all motherboards of ATX factor are the same size, and all ATX cases have specific mount points to fit them (screw them into the case).

From this, heatsink manufacturers are able to determine the maximum widths that will fit onto a standard motherboard! Thus, within reason, all coolers should fit inside your PC.

However, it is possible if you have an old case that some coolers may be a bit too tall. My silver arrow, for example, only has 2mm of clearance above it. That said, I find it unlikely that there are cases too shallow to hold any coolers currently available.

Also, a Silver Arrow is unlikely to fit inside an mATX case/Mobo, but like i said, yours is ATX so you needn't worry.

So as above, just pick a cooler based on price/reviews :)
 
Right okay I get ya. So you would mount the cooler to go with air flow.

So I have a rear fan and a top fan. Would I mount it east to west or north to south?
 
BringTheRain said:
Right okay I get ya. So you would mount the cooler to go with air flow.

So I have a rear fan and a top fan. Would I mount it east to west or north to south?
Click to expand...

East, but it depends on which way your fans are pushing/pulling.

For example, you could have the fan on the right pulling air into the cooler, then the fan on the back pushing air from the cooler and the rear case fan sucking all the hot air out of the case.
 
Cleeecooo said:
East, but it depends on which way your fans are pushing/pulling.

For example, you could have the fan on the right pulling air into the cooler, then the fan on the back pushing air from the cooler and the rear case fan sucking all the hot air out of the case.
Click to expand...

Ah right that makes sense, i thought both fans would blow onto the cooler?
 
BringTheRain said:
Ah right that makes sense, i thought both fans would blow onto the cooler?
Click to expand...

no, you want the cool air to be passing over the fins of the cooler as quickly as possible and once its been heated up, moved as far away from the cooler as possible (preferably out of the case).

if your looking for ~4.5Ghz then a gelid tranquillo will be more than adequate and will definitely fit in your case

DampCat said:
However, it is possible if you have an old case that some coolers may be a bit too tall. My silver arrow, for example, only has 2mm of clearance above it. That said, I find it unlikely that there are cases too shallow to hold any coolers currently available.
Click to expand...
theres very few good coolers that would fit in mine. my cooler is probably the shortest of all the decent ones, and even that bends the side panel slightly.

however, my case is pants, and a lot smaller than the antec 300
 
Yeah I have standard Kingston ram with regular heatsinks and my silver arrow sits ON the ram. Still, got all 4 slots working for 16gb.
 
at least you asked for advice first ;)

i bought a cooler for my case (nzxt hades) and it wouldn't fit because of the side fan, :( so i had to fit the fan on the outside.

also i was in your neck of the woods tonight, my son had a footie match in Sandy
 
j.col said:
at least you asked for advice first ;)

i bought a cooler for my case (nzxt hades) and it wouldn't fit because of the side fan, :( so i had to fit the fan on the outside.

also i was in your neck of the woods tonight, my son had a footie match in Sandy
Click to expand...

Must have been near the industrial estate and scout hut?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom