Needa a new CPU cooler

Watlinguk

Watlinguk

Watlinguk

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Joined
1 Aug 2010
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1,870
Hi guys. I've currently been using a Corsair H100 V2 and it has done a great job. It has since been making a lot of grinding noises. After doing a bit of research I'm due a new cooler before this one fails.

I'm in the market for the best cooler i can get under £100 give or take. Ideally i would like to go air cooling to avoid any pump issues in the future but my case can only fit a maximum of 160mm cpu fan.

Can anyone recommend me a great fan under the 160mm requirement my case has please? Alternatively is they a better AIO cooler i can get please? I prefer low acoustics with the best cooling possible.

I'm cooling a 4790K chip clocked to 4.8ghz.

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
CPU clearance is not the only criteria we need. What motherboard and RAM are also important to know .. and case too if possible.
 
Your graphics card is probably outputting the most heat in your system. Where that heat is going will greatly affect your current cooling solution for the CPU. If you have a non-radial blower on the graphics card then heat from the GPU is being dumped in the case. With average case ventilation, if you have the H100 pulling fresh air in to the case then your CPU could be 10 degrees cooler than if you have the H100 blowing out of the case ( blowing out of the case the H100 may be just sucking in warm air from the GPU ). But...if you go to a heatsink then you are instantly fighting against it. With the heatsink there are no options, a non radial fan on the GPU will dump all the heat directly below your heatsink. That will mean your heatsink will, out of the box, not achieve the temperatures of the H100. The solution is to increase the case ventilation to try to push/pull the GPU heat out of the case before it can have any significant effect on the CPU heatsink. I don't know what case fans you have, but I would recommend a profile that ramps up the case ventilation when the GPU is busy. In other words ( probably ) you need to replace the H100 fans with something else to drive cool air through the box. You may find that with that approach you can manage with a far smaller and cheaper heatsink than you thought you needed. But ultimately the is no theory in the world that can compensate for real life measurement. And this is all guesswork because I don't know your current configuration.
 
What Pocah said is pretty much on track. It is not all that hard to setup case airflow so air coolers work very well. As for CLCs, they are only built well enough to last 3-5 years before they fail .. not to mention they cost more. cool no better than good air coolers at same noise levels never last as long as good air coolers, and when they fail there is no cooling at all to CPU (or GPU if on GPU). With an air cooler the only thing that can fail is the fan .. which rarely happens and if it does system will still work at low load or with any fan held onto cooler with a rubberband until suitable replacement is in hand.
CPU cooler heated exhaust is almost never an issue.
Reason is CPU is generally a tower cooler fan is moving air from front to back of cooler / case and out back exhaust.
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GPU heated exhaust is almost always an issue.
Reason is most GPUs dump itheir heated exhaust in all directs that their fans are not pushing air in from .. often re-using their own heated exhaust.
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But we still need to know what motherboard and RAM OP is using.
 
No, a CPU with a tower cooler transfers almost on heat to airflow though cooler and out of case back exhaust, not to motherboard. The GPU exhaust airflow heats motherboard, RAM. airflow to CPU cooler and anything else in it's way. About the only thing it does not heat in most cases (no pun) is HDDs in cages between front intake fans and motherboard.

Case has nothing to do with it. :D LOL
But yes, gaming GPUs usually are higher wattage then CPUs .. often even when overclocked.
 
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