Quietest CPU cooler

Cuppa

Cuppa

Cuppa

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239
Location
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I had a hydro H50 cooler which has packed up and I'd like to replace it with a silent air cooler.

I have a IP35 pro with an E8400 sat inside an Antec P180 case so size/space shouldn't be an issue. I won't be overclocking but I would like something that cools well as I play games but the most important thing is noise, the quieter the better. The ones i've been looking at are:

Alpenfohn K2 Chap at work has one of these and says its not hugely quiet.
Silver arrow SB-E Although there are 3 different models of these so not sure which one.
Phanteks PH-TC14E
Noctua NH-D14

The more I research the more I can't decide, so if anyone has experience of these and can tell me which is quietest I'd be very grateful, or if you have an alternative solution I'm happy to listen.
 
I would have said the phanteks would be quieter due to its larger 140mm fans but ive not heard any of them. If you want silence get a decent fan controller that will allow the fans to be turned off completely like the recon. Ive got my nzxt havik 140 on mine and during crysis 2 runs its hardly ever on, it blips for a few seconds every couple of min when the heatsink temp rises up to about 30ish which on my 3770k normally means sub 70c core temps
 
Cuppa said:
I had a hydro H50 cooler which has packed up and I'd like to replace it with a silent air cooler.

I have a IP35 pro with an E8400 sat inside an Antec P180 case so size/space shouldn't be an issue. I won't be overclocking but I would like something that cools well as I play games but the most important thing is noise, the quieter the better. The ones i've been looking at are:

Alpenfohn K2 Chap at work has one of these and says its not hugely quiet.
Silver arrow SB-E Although there are 3 different models of these so not sure which one.
Phanteks PH-TC14E
Noctua NH-D14

The more I research the more I can't decide, so if anyone has experience of these and can tell me which is quietest I'd be very grateful, or if you have an alternative solution I'm happy to listen.
Click to expand...

Honestly all of the top coolers are within a couple degrees of each other. NH-D14, K2, all Silver Arrow SB-Es', TC14PE, HE-01, Archon SB-E X2, Dark Rock Pro, etc.

I have TC14PE, Cogage Arrow anf SA SB-E Extreme. Throw them in a bag and the one you grab will be no better than the other two. I also have TY-140 fans and a set of the new Phanteks 140mm 1300rpm fans. I find no appreciable difference in the way they sound at similar rpm. Each has it's own unique sound but none are remotely noisy and below 800rpm are almost silent. On open bench less than 2m away I don't hear them until they go above 950-1000rpm.. and then only enough to know they are running.. and that's in a silent room. The wind, birds, any other noises in the house are louder than the fans are. Both cooler will run my 980 under continuous 100% load below 50c @ 1000rpm. Put them in my case and it's 50c @ 1050rpm depending on ambient of 22c If ambient changed 2c so does CPU temp.

All Silver Arrow SB-E models make the same volume of noise up to
1200-1300rpm, the SA SB-E Extreme uses TY-143 fans ramp all the way up to 2500rpm so of course if you run them above 1300rpm they get progressively louder.

SA SB-E has TY-141 & TY-150 and SA SB-E SE has 2x TY-145 fans. They are all the same blade design, ball bear, and same motor amp rating. My guess is same motor and TY-150 is 200rpm slower because it is bigger so more blade area and more resistance.

Unclue Petey (aka Uncle Petey) ran the K2 and is running water. IIRC he put a TY-140 or TY-141 on it and it was cooler and quieter. Grab a couple of the TY-147s' for £5.99 each if you like the K2. Hopefully he'll come along a help out. If not drop him a not and ask. And please tell him I said he was unclue Petey from the wet side. :D
 
I have the noctua d14 and silver arrow,i didn't have pwm fans on my noctua though and found them too loud so swapped them for two akasa apache pwm fans and its very quiet now,max temp is 71c in intel burn test max stress with a 2600k @4.5ghz
 
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