Quiet cooler for non-overclocked i7-6700

[ATIorNvidia]

Sahil did a very good job of testing in his reviews, but they did not have noise measurements and deltas were based on different between room and CPU. Room temp is not important, the temp of air going into the cooler is, Cooler intake is not the same temp as room, even in when testing on an open bench. It is even higher when testing in a case. Think of it as looking at the thermometer in the lounge to see how warm it is in the kitchen or bedroom.

Testing will be based on temperatures recorded by Core Temp and HWMonitor after 20 passes of LinX stress test. The maximum absolute temperatures will be recorded after the test and averaged over the 4 cores. The delta is then calculated by substituting the ambient temperature recorded near the intake fans. All tests are conducted with the i7 920 at its default 2.66GHz stock speed and overclocked to 4GHz. As always, the tests are done inside my own Lian Li B25B case to simulate real world conditions. To keep the tests standardised and based on people’s tendency to use their own thermal paste, we apply Thermalright’s ChillFactor II thermal paste to all coolers unless specified in the result entries (where the bundled thermal paste performs better).

Stop grasping at straws. To repeat myself for the third time, yes the Matterhorn is "technically" superior but it simply won't make any difference over a Hyper 212 EVO until you need to dissipate a much larger amount of heat. As the Matterhorn is out of stock, there would have been other options for the OP that will perform just as well.

The difference in FPI is a non issue, and any noise you hear at 600-800rpm on a 120mm fan will probably be motor noise...

 

[doyll]

Stop grasping at straws. To repeat myself for the third time, yes the Matterhorn is "technically" superior but it simply won't make any difference over a Hyper 212 EVO until you need to dissipate a much larger amount of heat. As the Matterhorn is out of stock, there would have been other options for the OP that will perform just as well.

The difference in FPI is a non issue, and any noise you hear at 600-800rpm on a 120mm fan will probably be motor noise...

"near the intake fan" was case intake fans, not cooler.
I said nothing about FPI, only face area and total area.

But sense you brought it up, higher FPI increases heat radiating / exchange surface area, but also inreases resistance t airflow and creates more noise. At low airspeed lower FPI actually gives better cooling because of less airflow resistance.

As for "simulate real world conditions" by using a case, the only "real world" involved is the system the testing is being done in. I don't have that system, do you? Monitoring case intake air temp and CPU is not testing cooler. It is testing the system's performance with different coolers .. and different systems perform differently. Simply changing the fan speed a few hundred rpm as often as not changes the cooler intake air temp.

I've known Sahil from when he was testing for Vortez. I also test and review, and have have worked in airflow and cooling R&D for twice as long as PCs have been in homes.

You believe what you believe, but your posts here lead me to believe you have learned enough about air flow and cooling to think you know, but not enough to realize how much you do not .. and never will. I am still learning it's secrets.

Airflow is a very complex study with an almost infinite number of variables involved. It is very hard to predict all of the variables beforehand and know what the results will be. It is often easier to analyze the data and reverse engineer why it did what it did.

 

[ATIorNvidia]

"near the intake fan" was case intake fans, not cooler.
I said nothing about FPI, only face area and total area.

But sense you brought it up, higher FPI increases heat radiating / exchange surface area, but also inreases resistance t airflow and creates more noise. At low airspeed lower FPI actually gives better cooling because of less airflow resistance.

Obviously higher FPI = more noise. They're heatsinks though, they don't have the fin density of a radiator, and they're both pretty low FPI as far as aftermarket 120mm towers go anyway.

As for "simulate real world conditions" by using a case, the only "real world" involved is the system the testing is being done in. I don't have that system, do you? Monitoring case intake air temp and CPU is not testing cooler. It is testing the system's performance with different coolers .. and different systems perform differently. Simply changing the fan speed a few hundred rpm as often as not changes the cooler intake air temp.

It's probably the most "real world" test you'll find that has such a large amount of data. You can argue about the variables all you want, but testing with the same case, fans, and ambient is more than enough for a close to accurate representation of how a cooler performs. The "intricacies" are irrelevant to a typical end user and you know it.

But whatever... the numbers are there, and they show exactly what I stated in the first place, there's almost nothing between the two coolers.

 

[Quartz]

You must be joking.
Why pay £100 to do what a £30 cooler will do making less noise than other case fans or GPU fans make?

Because it's absolutely silent. All that noise adds up.

 

[doyll]

Obviously higher FPI = more noise. They're heatsinks though, they don't have the fin density of a radiator, and they're both pretty low FPI as far as aftermarket 120mm towers go anyway.



It's probably the most "real world" test you'll find that has such a large amount of data. You can argue about the variables all you want, but testing with the same case, fans, and ambient is more than enough for a close to accurate representation of how a cooler performs. The "intricacies" are irrelevant to a typical end user and you know it.

But whatever... the numbers are there, and they show exactly what I stated in the first place, there's almost nothing between the two coolers.

The "numbers" are incomplete. There is no noise level, and therefor no way to know which is quieter.

As I already said, it's only "real world" for people the the exact same system .. and there are every few peeps with the same system as tester.
It's simply logical that it's a test of how cooler perform in that system and not just how the coolers perform. I have tested same coolers in different systems and know the results are not the same, nor do the results keep them in the same order. Obviously you have not or you wouldn't be arguing with me about it.

The "real world" thing is nothing but hype .. smoke and mirrors. Anyone who has ever done any accurate testing knows there are way too many variables left unrecorded to give any kind of accurate comparison of the coolers' performance. I'll say it again, it's a test of how the system performs with different coolers, not a comparison of how the cooler themselves perform.

Numbers and relevant accuracy are two very different things. Data and graphs are often presented in such a way the are extremely misleading .. like showing coolers temperatures in a bar graph with 1 degree being 5mm in length with results to 0.05c when intake air temp has a +/-1.0c margin of error .. meaning anything 1c either side of bar graph is within margin of error .. meaning cooler "A" rated 40.1c is not any better than than a cooler "B" rated 42c because the margin of error is that cooler 'A' may be 42c and cooler 'B' may be 40.1c if tested a second time.

Long comparison lists are usually extremely inaccurate because the variables are not the same for every test. seeing things like airflow temp is measured in 1.0 or at best 0.5 degree accuracy while they post 0.05 result accuracy are a clear example of skewed results.

Because it's absolutely silent. All that noise adds up.

Absolutely silent means nothing in a room where an ambient noise level of 30dBA is considered a very quiet environment (30dBA is what a quiet bedroom is). A idling fan in any half decent cooler will be well below that threshold and cool as good or better than the 95 does.

Most any top tier cooler will give similar results without fans .. and cost half as much

Thermalright sell 2 passive coolers. HR-22 and Macho 0. Both can be used with a duct from back of cooler to rear case exhaust fan in "semi-passive" form for a significant improvement in performance.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

The Bequiet Slim is a great cooler. Really quiet even with the fan on 12v.

 

[ATIorNvidia]

The "numbers" are incomplete. There is no noise level, and therefor no way to know which is quieter.

As I already said, it's only "real world" for people the the exact same system .. and there are every few peeps with the same system as tester.
It's simply logical that it's a test of how cooler perform in that system and not just how the coolers perform. I have tested same coolers in different systems and know the results are not the same, nor do the results keep them in the same order. Obviously you have not or you wouldn't be arguing with me about it.

It applies to any case you test two coolers in. If you test the Matterhorn and Hyper 212 EVO in any other case with the fan/setup being the same you will reach similar results. The results will differ from case to case obviously, but not cooler to cooler.

Almost any 120mm fan is quiet/silent at 600-800rpm against a low FPI heatsink, unless you have issues with PWM clicking or something, or the noise floor of your room is ridiculously low. Even then most people don't hear bearing noise.

Long comparison lists are usually extremely inaccurate because the variables are not the same for every test. seeing things like airflow temp is measured in 1.0 or at best 0.5 degree accuracy while they post 0.05 result accuracy are a clear example of skewed results.

It is unreasonable to expect 100% accuracy. If all variables were kept the same and data wasn't normalized, it would take an exceedingly long amount of time to actually get results... If you want to start squawking at little details like that, you might as well mention manufacturing inconsistencies between the coolers, thermal paste application, cooler mount tightness, etc, all of which can give you variances of at least ~5c.

And despite all the wildly different testing methodologies that HS/F reviews have, I bet you won't find one where there's a big difference between the two.

 

[doyll]

It applies to any case you test two coolers in. If you test the Matterhorn and Hyper 212 EVO in any other case with the fan/setup being the same you will reach similar results. The results will differ from case to case obviously, but not cooler to cooler.

Almost any 120mm fan is quiet/silent at 600-800rpm against a low FPI heatsink, unless you have issues with PWM clicking or something, or the noise floor of your room is ridiculously low. Even then most people don't hear bearing noise.


It is unreasonable to expect 100% accuracy. If all variables were kept the same and data wasn't normalized, it would take an exceedingly long amount of time to actually get results... If you want to start squawking at little details like that, you might as well mention manufacturing inconsistencies between the coolers, thermal paste application, cooler mount tightness, etc, all of which can give you variances of at least ~5c.

And despite all the wildly different testing methodologies that HS/F reviews have, I bet you won't find one where there's a big difference between the two.

My statements stand as stated.

I do not expect perfect accuracy, but 5c is not reasonable, especially when it is not pointed out by the sites or their testers.

My own testing (and others doing it properly) have a margin of air of less than +/- 1.0v Of course this requires doing a reference test with a know cooler each time to be sure the baseline is consistent .. something very few testers and reviewers do .. most probably don't even know it should be done.

Try testing 4 or 5 different coolers in 4 or 5 different case designs and see for yourself how different the results are. I have. So have a few others.

Test results between sites vary dramatically. Few have a margin of error of less then 3-5c, and some are much worse. The lack of even a semblance of acuracy in test proceedures and equipment is the usual cause. Many reviewers have no idea how to to do proper testing .. and that goes for the management of many of the review sites as well.

I will not continue this further. We will just have to agree to disagree and move on.

 

[Quartz]

Absolutely silent means nothing in a room where an ambient noise level of 30dBA is considered a very quiet environment (30dBA is what a quiet bedroom is). A idling fan in any half decent cooler will be well below that threshold and cool as good or better than the 95 does.

I can attest that despite my tinnitus I can still hear them. Plus with the Nofan you don't suddenly get the CPU fans hitting 100% and sounding like a hurricane when you stress the CPU.

 

[doyll]

I can attest that despite my tinnitus I can still hear them. Plus with the Nofan you don't suddenly get the CPU fans hitting 100% and sounding like a hurricane when you stress the CPU.

Well, unless the entire system has no fans it doesn't matter.

True, with the 95 you don't suddenly have CPU fans hitting 100%, you just get throttling, BSOD, crash, stutter, etc.

My on systems with fans reach about 35dBA when running 100% on all 12 cores. I'll live with that and have the job done in 30 minutes rather than slowing system down enough for 95 to cool it and taking 15 hours to do the same job.

 

[Quartz]

True, with the 95 you don't suddenly have CPU fans hitting 100%, you just get throttling, BSOD, crash, stutter, etc.

You don't use the Nofan with an overclocked CPU or a CPU with a higher TDP than it can cope with, so you don't get throttling, BSOD, etc. I've had mine over 2 years now; have you ever used one?

Look at this video and fast-forward to 14:30 for the completely passive results.

 

[doyll]

You don't use the Nofan with an overclocked CPU or a CPU with a higher TDP than it can cope with, so you don't get throttling, BSOD, etc. I've had mine over 2 years now; have you ever used one?

Look at this video and fast-forward to 14:30 for the completely passive results.

With same CPU as under a Nofan under a Macho or HR-22 .. under any top tier cooler in same system as Nofan will never get above a fast idle.

I've ran my i7 [email protected] in normal use under a Silver Arrow SB-E with fans unplugged with temps below 70c in 22c room. At 100% load it took 15 minutes to reach 80c .. I chickened out and plugged the fan back in.

I'm not saying the Nofan is not a good cooler, just that many top tier coolers will give similar results with no fans at a much lower cost.

 

[Quartz]

I'm not saying the Nofan is not a good cooler, just that many top tier coolers will give similar results with no fans at a much lower cost.

I presume you meant 'with fans'. You chickened out on your test; I, with a Nofan, don't need to chicken out: I've left it running a good long while. Noise is one of the considerations in the OP, and you can't get less noise than having no noisemaker.

 

[doyll]

I presume you meant 'with fans'. You chickened out on your test; I, with a Nofan, don't need to chicken out: I've left it running a good long while. Noise is one of the considerations in the OP, and you can't get less noise than having no noisemaker.

LMAO
I doubt the Nofan would be able to keep a stock i7-920 cool. They are 130w TDP .. and mine was running at 4.1GHz when I chickened out as plugged the fans back in. After all it has a 95w TDP.

I didn't chicken out with Silver Arrow SB-E with no fans on stock i7 920 under full load. It stayed below 75c.

I will admit I did have the side cover off of case.

 

[Quartz]

LMAO
I doubt the Nofan would be able to keep a stock i7-920 cool. They are 130w TDP ..

Fair enough. The Nofan does have a 95W TDP limit.

 

[evakaname]

Why get such an expensive little cooler when there are bigger and better for less money? Is your case too small for a taller cooler?

Something like the Matterhorn Pure is only £29.99 (out of stock at the moment) and is a few degrees better than NH-D9L. NH-D9L is a great little cooler .. key word being "little."
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-037-AL&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2337

Silverstone HE01 is a great cooler for £44.99. Yes if fan is ran at high speed it is loud, but you would be plenty cool with it not much above an idle.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-005-SV&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2351

Hi, i just found here the twin of one of my problems too. Looking for cooler for same cpu.

I have a 6700 equivalent xeon cpu, in GA-X150M-PRO ECC. It had an overkill (for future proofing) Corsair h100i cooler which died. It was in warranty so i picked a Noctua NH D15 as "refund". The pc was at service, they informed me to pick another. I asked them if the d15 would fit. They said yes. It arrived and surprise surprise it did not fit. (idiots put my RTX 2080 into an x4 slot, and so it fit, but obviously this cant stay. I brought the pc to anther place)

Now i have to change the cooler again. I want air cooler cuz i had tons of issues with the liquid one before it died on me. i want something that keeps that cpu cool on long demanding loads. That would leave space for the gpu in its proper place.

I really dont know what to pick, as it seems i need to know what would fit and cool efficiently... and i dont. Please help.

 

[doyll]

Hi, i just found here the twin of one of my problems too. Looking for cooler for same cpu.

I have a 6700 equivalent xeon cpu, in GA-X150M-PRO ECC. It had an overkill (for future proofing) Corsair h100i cooler which died. It was in warranty so i picked a Noctua NH D15 as "refund". The pc was at service, they informed me to pick another. I asked them if the d15 would fit. They said yes. It arrived and surprise surprise it did not fit. (idiots put my RTX 2080 into an x4 slot, and so it fit, but obviously this cant stay. I brought the pc to anther place)

Now i have to change the cooler again. I want air cooler cuz i had tons of issues with the liquid one before it died on me. i want something that keeps that cpu cool on long demanding loads. That would leave space for the gpu in its proper place.

I really dont know what to pick, as it seems i need to know what would fit and cool efficiently... and i dont. Please help.

Your mobo has just a little more than 75mm center CPU to near side of top PCIe socket and about 54.2mm center CPU to near side of RAM.

Assuming your 6700 equivalent is Xeon E3-1225 V5 making up to 80 watts TDP so quite low amount of heat. Something like Mugen 5 would do nicely and be very quiet .. or something like Matterhorn Pure for even less money. As long as your case is flowing air properly you should have no problems.