Best air cooler

w3bbo · 26 Dec 2010 at 19:41

So it's been a while since I aircooled so I'm looking for the top performing air cooler.

I've heard good things about the polimatech meglahems, is this still top dog or is the noctua better? Any other suggestions? Cost not an issue, just fancy aircooling as opposed to water for a while.

setter · 26 Dec 2010 at 19:57

Prolimatech mega/super mega are good, (using the super here), also highly reccomended is the Thermalright venomous x, or still even the old TRUE. The noctua nhd14 is probably the best, however due to it's size it can interfere with ram, ok if your using standard size ram, not dominators, patriot vipers or reapers.

sunjoo2012 · 26 Dec 2010 at 20:03

noctua d14, venomous x or silver arrow or thermalright archon

bainbridge · 26 Dec 2010 at 21:01

Super Mega is performing well for me too

j.col · 26 Dec 2010 at 21:33

here is a nice comparison chart http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2562&page=5

Helios1234 · 26 Dec 2010 at 21:42

I wouldn't go by FrostyTech's list because they only simulate their results. An overclocked i7 would generate much more heat than their test setups.

The best coolers are the Thermalright Silver Arrow or the Noctua NH-D14.

GoogalyMoogaly · 26 Dec 2010 at 22:05

Lots of people seem to recommend the Venomous X but when I looked up reviews of various coolers the reviews didn't suggest it was that good compared to the others.
Did the reviews do something wrong? Were they using the wrong fans? Has there been a revision to the design that's improved it?
Or did I just happen to find a few reviews where it didn't test well?

Helios1234 · 26 Dec 2010 at 22:13

The VX is tremendous! Check the link in my sig.

GoogalyMoogaly · 27 Dec 2010 at 00:45

Maybe I was being a bit hard on it from these reviews:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2010/01/24/thermalright-venomous-x-cpu-cooler-review/2
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1215/4/
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-venomous-x_5.html#sect0
http://www.overclockers.com/thermalright-venomousx-review/
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...rmalright-venomous-x-cpu-cooler-review-8.html

But the way everyone seems to go on about it I was expecting it to beat everything short of a custom water-cooling solution by around 10C or more, so those reviews were disappointing.

Justintime · 27 Dec 2010 at 00:48

Noctua NH-D14, big beast though and finicky if over a RAM slot, need low profile spreaders.

setter · 27 Dec 2010 at 06:10

For an i7, the coolers id reccomend are the super mega and the TRUE, preferably lapped.

On s775, i tried the following.

Tuniq tower, rubbish
Titan fenrir, pathetic
Thermolab baram, worse than above
Noctua nh12, waste of time
Sunbeam core contact, should have kept it in the box

None of them could cope with my old q6600 at 3.8ghz.

liamcrane · 27 Dec 2010 at 10:03

+1 for the megahalems, 2 apache fans push & pull just as good as water cooling imo

w3bbo · 27 Dec 2010 at 12:07

I have OCZ blades so looks like the D14 might cause some issues unless I raise the fan up a little. IS it just the fan or the actual heatsink that covers the ram slots?

Tempted by the megahalems with a couple of magmas though. Why Noctua insist on that crappy colour scheme I'll never know

.

sunjoo2012 · 27 Dec 2010 at 14:39

if space is an issue then definitely get a thermalright archon

Helios1234 · 27 Dec 2010 at 15:01

w3bbo said:
I have OCZ blades so looks like the D14 might cause some issues unless I raise the fan up a little. IS it just the fan or the actual heatsink that covers the ram slots?

Tempted by the megahalems with a couple of magmas though. Why Noctua insist on that crappy colour scheme I'll never know .

The heatsink covers one slot and the fan covers three more. The Thermalright Archon is a good call.

w3bbo · 27 Dec 2010 at 21:34

Pretty much seals the noctuas doom them - shame coz it looks immense! So it's donw to the megalahems or one of the thermalrights (silver arrow, ven x or archon). Space isn't an issue in the case I'm planning on using (Haf-X).

freddie64 · 28 Dec 2010 at 07:19

Think you can rule out the silver arrow as well, as it is about the same size as the noctua D14.

Frozennova · 28 Dec 2010 at 08:48

The silver arrow doesnt obstruct RAM slots like the noctua does freddie, height isnt the issue.

freddie64 · 28 Dec 2010 at 09:15

Ah, sorry then. Thought i read somewhere that it had the same clearance issues.

Helios1234 · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:14

frozennova said:
The silver arrow doesnt obstruct RAM slots like the noctua does freddie, height isnt the issue.

It does. The heatsink covers the first slot and the fan covers the next three. It is possible to move the fan to the back but there's still the issue of the slot closest to the CPU being obstructed if RAM with tall heatspreaders are used.