Best cooler for £80?

deano-5

deano-5

deano-5

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I have a 4690k build. I have a budget of £80, what is the best cpu cooler I can buy that will match my black and red theme? My case is an Evolv itx
 
AIO, especially CLC are not much if any better than top air .. in fact they are often much worse and generally cost more too. CLCs all use very low flow rate pumps, aluminum radiators with high fin density that requires high powered fans that make noise to push air through them. Swiftech Hxxx X2 series AIO are good, but also expensive. Other AIO make like Fractal Design Kelvin, be quiet! Silent Loop, AlphaCool Eisbaer are also good. All of these AIOs have proper fittings, filler cap, copper radiator and decent flow rate pumps. But they are still not as dependable as air coolers, cost much more and will not last as long.

Top tier air coolers range from about £50 to £80. CLC are £60-100. AIO are £80-180.

Right now the Phantkes PH-TC14PE are £44.99-47.99 making them the best cooler value at the moment.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-ph-tc14pe-cpu-cooler-silver-hs-000-pt.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-ph-tc14pe-cpu-cooler-black-hs-009-pt.html
 
The best air cooler you can get for less than £80 is the Noctua NH D-15, however, you won't have much change left over. On the upside, though, it performs on par with AIO coolers and has none of their issues (pump whine, taking up space, the eventual leak...).
 
benjii said:
The best air cooler you can get for less than £80 is the Noctua NH D-15, however, you won't have much change left over.
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Agreed, it's the best cooler - a beast - but not sure it will sit well in his 'black and red themed interior'. ;)
 
Plec said:
Agreed, it's the best cooler - a beast - but not sure it will sit well in his 'black and red themed interior'. ;)
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Wow, I totally missed that. Get some black and red fans maybe? :D If the theme is important then I guess Plec's suggestion would be spot on.
 
Whiie NH-D15S is a great cooler, it is over-priced and no better than other top tier coolers like R1, PH-TC14PE, TRUE Spirit 140 Power, NH-D14, etc. The only reason it performs as well as it does is because it is using 1500rpm fan/s while most others are 1200-1300rpm. Slow it down to same speed or use same fans as others and it's performance drops significantly. ;) You can get the PH-TC14PE for £44.99-47.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-ph-tc14pe-cpu-cooler-silver-hs-000-pt.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-ph-tc14pe-cpu-cooler-black-hs-009-pt.html

NH-D15 is £76.99, but keep in mind it is 75mm center CPU toward PCIe socket, PH-TC14PE is only 70mm.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noct...pu-cooler-with-two-nh-a15-fans-hs-026-nc.html

NH-D15S is £69.95
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noctua-nh-d15s-dual-radiator-quiet-cpu-cooler-hs-031-nc.html
 
Bit of trivia; Dark Rock Pro 3 is 35mm between top of CPU and bottom of front fan, 39mm to bottom of fins and fan can be mounted flush with bottom of fins. 35mm and 39mm translate to 40mm and 44mm tall RAM will fit. Noarmal RAM (ram PCB specifications) for DDR3 is 30mm and DDR4 is 31.4mm. DDR4 has 1.4mm lower center part on bottom of connection while DDR3 is flat bottomed. ;)

Add 3mm to RAM's physical measurement and that is how high above surface of motherboard RAM is.
 
Plec said:
If ever i find myself second guessing myself on a particular cooler for an awkward build i'm going to post the thread for your attention doyll - you really know your Coolers (not sarcasm) - kudos. :)
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Thanks, I try to test as many as I can get as well as keep a sizable database of cooler dimensions and clearances. Still a lot of coolers I never get to test. ;)
 
benjii said:
The best air cooler you can get for less than £80 is the Noctua NH D-15, however, you won't have much change left over. On the upside, though, it performs on par with AIO coolers and has none of their issues (pump whine, taking up space, the eventual leak...).
Click to expand...

Agree - air over aio! And been the biggest baddest air cooler fan off noctua 15 for a very long time. But when i wanted a build using a Silverstone Fortress FT03 Tower Case, which i still have and love to this day , I needed space! So i used a
NH-U14S and then downsized to a NH- U12S .

Do not get locked in by a few degrees, its not worth it, even for stability results - you dont run the computer 24/7 prime bull turd

take a look at this chart the Notua's - 3 degree diff n15 and the smaller, latter designed u12

temp_oc_wprime_zpstphholio.png
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So easily disturbed by fan noise, whines, anything really, even my typing, ha! They are so damn quite, not saying Noctua are the only ones, but myself have used them since they came out, quality, each time, even their paste, not use other!
 
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What laddy said.

Unless you are extreme overclocking there are many great cooler in the 30-50 quid range. Even some of the best coolers can be had in this range, like PH-TC14PE. Going with smaller size is only a few degrees different on stock CPU or one with reasonable overclocking.
 
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