CPU Cooler for 3770k

Associate
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9 Apr 2010
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279
Hi all

Looking ahead to the new Ivy Bridge chips, now looking to a cooler. I'll be going air cooled but I can't decide between the following:

Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro
Alpenfohn K2
Noctua NH-D14-2011
Thermalright Silver Arrow

They are all roughly a similar price, I'm leaning to the NH-D14-2011 (with bracket for support of 1155) or the Thermalright Silver Arrow (if I can find it) as they offer PWN fans.

Thoughts?

Thanks
Neil
 
Caporegime
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If you can afford a 3770k, you can afford custom water.

If building custom water doesn't float your boat, go for a Corsair H100 closed loop thingy.

Not sure why you'd want to stick with air cooling. :confused:
 
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The k2 comes with PWM fans as well, and compatible with all intel sockets. Best looking cooler of the lot, and pretty much on a par with the Silver arrow/NH-D14. Very well priced at £59.99 on ocuk, the NH-D14 is very overpriced in some stores.
 
Caporegime
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Isn't the 3770K the Ivy Bridge equivalent of the Sandy Bridge 2600/2700K?

I don't see how affording one means the OP can afford/should have custom water cooling.

I don't recall it being suggested to all 2600/2700K users that they can afford custom water cooling so why is the 3770K any different?

The 3770K uses less power than the 2600/2700K and as they can be seriously overclocked with good air cooling I don't see why that won't apply to the 3770K.

Edit:

Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £59.99

Alpenföhn K2 CPU Cooler Revisited

Pros
+Brilliant performance
+Aesthetics and broad colour appeal
+Very well packaged
+Two quality PWM fans included
+Low noise
+Rich bundle
+Support for Intel and AMD sockets (including LGA2011 mounting kit)
+Ease of installation
+Innovative
+Efficient
+Excellent support
+Support for three fans
+Cost

Cons
-Small clearance for very tall memory modules (Easily fixed by buying lower profile modules)
-Fan wire clips are tedious to install
 
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Associate
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I would get the NH-D14, all those coolers perform similarly, all come with PWM fans but the D14 has a high quality mounting system that is easy to use, the be quiet mounting is rubbish, same as my old scythe mugen 2 which was a PITA to install. Plus noctua are a decent company with their sending brackets out for free etc, i would say they are the logitech of cooling companies.

This guy has reviewed all these coolers at some point apart from the K2, might help in your decision:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToLiveCustoms/videos
 
Associate
OP
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If you can afford a 3770k, you can afford custom water.

If building custom water doesn't float your boat, go for a Corsair H100 closed loop thingy.

Not sure why you'd want to stick with air cooling. :confused:

Reviews show the h100 to be not much better, and noisier on full power which it needs to match the air coolers...? plus I'm not trying to push a high overclock, just something sensible and reasonable for 24x7.

Btw case is cm Haf 932 to be coupled with either asus p8z77-v pro or asrock extreme4 or fatal1ty pro.
 
Associate
OP
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9 Apr 2010
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279
Isn't the 3770K the Ivy Bridge equivalent of the Sandy Bridge 2600/2700K?

I don't see how affording one means the OP can afford/should have custom water cooling.

I don't recall it being suggested to all 2600/2700K users that they can afford custom water cooling so why is the 3770K any different?

The 3770K uses less power than the 2600/2700K and as they can be seriously overclocked with good air cooling I don't see why that won't apply to the 3770K.

Exactly - that's my thoughts too! :)
 
Associate
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From the benchmarks I've seen the Silver Arrow if you can find one will shave a little off the other choices at full load. otherwhise the NH-D14 is perfectly acceptable.
 
Caporegime
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From the benchmarks I've seen the Silver Arrow if you can find one will shave a little off the other choices at full load. otherwhise the NH-D14 is perfectly acceptable.

Based on the Vortez review there's so little to choose between them it doesn't really matter which the OP gets.

The Silver Arrow is very hard to get hold of, certainly at any e-tailer I've heard of.

The NH-D14 is £12.99 more than the Alpenföhn K2.

The Alpenföhn K2 would seem to be the one to go for.
 
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OP
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I must admit given all I've read on them and pricing, plus the news that the K2 has pwm I think that seems the one to go for.....
 
Caporegime
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I must admit given all I've read on them and pricing, plus the news that the K2 has pwm I think that seems the one to go for.....

Out of the three it's near enough equal in performance, cheaper than the NH-D14 and easier to source than the Siver Arrow.

FYI if you did buy an NH-D14 for Ivy Bridge buy this one not this one unless you're after the PWM fans and can get it to fit S1155 somehow.
 
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Associate
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Out of the three it's near enough equal in performance, cheaper than the NH-D14 and easier to source than the Siver Arrow.

FYI if you did buy an NH-D14 for Ivy Bridge buy this one not this one unless you're after the PWM fans and can get it to fit S1155 somehow.

You can get Noctua to send you a 1155 bracket for the 2011 free of charge.
 
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What does Affording IVY got to day with affording WC ???
If those cpus are like 250f watercooling is like 150+.
I would go for nocturna cos everyone got one and seems they are doing good job :D
 
Soldato
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The 3770K will have a lower thermal envelope than the current batch of Intel chips. That means you need to worry less about cooling it than you do otherwise. Assuming you have reasonable airflow in your case any decent air cooler will be fine. Don't bother with custom water unless you're going to do your GPU too, and don't bother with a closed loop self contained 'watercooling' cooler, as they're really no different to high end air.

Paradigm's post really is rubbish, 8 pack too.
 
Soldato
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The K2 as above is a brilliant suggestion. There's also the Phanteks PH-TC14PE to consider if you're looking at dual tower coolers. Saying that, the i7-3770K will run cool and stretching to the Phanteks pricewise will be overkill compared to what the K2 will achieve.
 
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