Sensible and decent CPU cooler

Razyre

Razyre

Razyre

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Joined
4 Jun 2012
Posts
259
Yo.

I can't make my damned mind up about this.

First I was going to water cool, then thought money, maintenance, and I don't want to be a skid with a ****ing closed loop cooler when I can get the same performance from a decent air cooler.

I need to replace this damned clicking H50 so what coolers can you suggest for me that aren't insanely large but can tame my 4770K @ 4.5/1.34v to decent temperatures while remaining silent?

I'm happy to settle for a mid sized cooler but I don't want something that will consume the entire case.

Temperatures aren't a massive concern to me, I mainly want silent and not too large - silence is perhaps the biggest factor. My Fractal Design Define R4 is damn near silent with the great fans Fractal make, it's just the annoying sound of a clicking CPU cooler and the low hum of my PSU. As long as it idles somewhere around 30-40 and at max hits around 70 I'm happy.

Thanks.
 
I have the perfect cooler for you:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Prolimatech Black Megahalems CPU Cooler £49.98
1 x Prolimatech Megahalems Rev C CPU Cooler £42.98
Total : £103.46 (includes shipping : £8.75).



Theres a black one (if aesthetics are important) and a plain metal one..

You'll notice it comes without fans, you'll need to get 2 fans to go on it.. You can get somemore of your beloved Fractal silent fans if you wish. :)
 
Corsair H100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000i You need a whole planet to house it but its the best cooling around



Terrible joke :( but seriously what is wrong with AIO watercooler's ? they perform brilliantly especially when talking about overclocking, often they are silent, Come with fans(ok not the best ones out there), Look 10x better in the case, and are easier to Fit in my experience
 
Prolimatech looks nice. From a quick check on a review performs pretty well too, up there with that Noctua with the ugliest fans on the planet.

AIO watercoolers? I can't cool my GPUs on them. I don't even see WHY people cool CPUs on WC most of the time since they don't generate nearly enough heat to warrant it. If I'm going to spend £100 on a CPU cooler, I may as well go the full hog and get a waterblock, res etc. and do it myself so I can add my GPU(s) into the loop later.

The only time I see that you actually need watercooling on your CPU is if you're running your CPU at near 5GHz. I'm using a dying H50 and my CPU doesn't go above 70 and the performance from these air coolers is better.
 
Mei said:
hm phanteks?
come in diff colors :)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-012-PT&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2348

not bad price for 2 fans included rly
Click to expand...

Ooh that's a pretty little number. Goes with the R4 black/white scheme. I have the gold from the Z87 Pro too but the colours mix.

Question is, what's the performance like? For it to be that much cheaper there must be a compromise.

EDIT:

Had a quick look at thermal performance and looks great. Just need to know how noisy it is.
 
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Mei said:
its probably not as good at cooling as a beast like this
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-099-TR
bigger is nearly always better with these coolers
but they pwn fans so i bet it idles silent, and most mobo's these days let you dial them back anyway
Click to expand...

Not only is that silly big but it's hideous xD

Thing is, with CPU coolers you seem to be paying hell of a lot more for a few degrees, and as I said, I give few craps about the temps as long as they are within sensible operating numbers.

So, the Phanteks one can be controlled with my mobo as all of my fans currently are right?
 
depends on ur mobo i guess
i know on my gigabyte i can select pwm then select how far it ramps it up, works on some percentile thing, you will need to look :)
 
Razyre said:
Not only is that silly big but it's hideous xD

Thing is, with CPU coolers you seem to be paying hell of a lot more for a few degrees, and as I said, I give few craps about the temps as long as they are within sensible operating numbers.

So, the Phanteks one can be controlled with my mobo as all of my fans currently are right?
Click to expand...

Lol, funny post.

The very point you make about air coolers is more applicable to ALC units. You pay A LOT more for not much in gains... if any. Air coolers are great and depending on your taste, they also look fantastic. The SBE-Extreme fans aren't the nicest to look at but there's the black and white non-Extreme variant.

There's also the issue of noise. A high end cooler is generally quieter than the equivalent ALC unit, with the latter requiring fans to be at very high RPMs to get air cooling beating temperatures. Oh and yes, you can control the fans from your motherboard if the bundled fans support PWM functionality. That's how I control my K2 fans.

As for the OP, if you want something inexpensive, then check out the Thermalright TRUE Spirit 140 (Check the height restriction of your case), otherwise the Macho is also good. If you want more performance, then choose whichever dual tower cooler you like the look of between the Phanteks, K2, Silver Arrow or NH-D14. The Silver Arrow is the cheapest and the fans are amongst the best in terms of performance/noise.
 
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Helios1234 said:
Lol, funny post.

The very point you make about air coolers is more applicable to ALC units. You pay A LOT more for not much in gains... if any. Air coolers are great and depending on your taste, they also look fantastic. The SBE-Extreme fans aren't the nicest to look at but there's the black and white non-Extreme variant.

There's also the issue of noise. A high end cooler is generally quieter than the equivalent ALC unit, with the latter requiring fans to be at very high RPMs to get air cooling beating temperatures. Oh and yes, you can control the fans from your motherboard if the bundled fans support PWM functionality. That's how I control my K2 fans.

As for the OP, if you want something inexpensive, then check out the Thermalright TRUE Spirit 140 (Check the height restriction of your case), otherwise the Macho is also good. If you want more performance, then choose whichever dual tower cooler you like the look of between the Phanteks, K2, Silver Arrow or NH-D14. The Silver Arrow is the cheapest and the fans are amongst the best in terms of performance/noise.
Click to expand...

Oh not dissing air coolers at all - other than the size and perhaps in some cases noise. But look at some benches and in many cases you're looking at a range of 10 degrees for £50 in price. This isn't just air coolers, this is closed loop too.

Also, ALC unit?

Yeah I was just confirming that the Phanteks bundled fans support PWM. I should read more hahaha.

How does the Thermalright compare to the Phanteks also mentioned here? I prefer the aesthetics of the Phanteks but this cooler is smaller and £10 less.
 
If most of them have more cooling power than a ****** old H50 that I had to mod the bracket on to fit my 1150 processor, then probably yes.

The H50 doesn't go above 70 degrees when the CPU is stressed. Of course, when you run benches using AVX extensions, it's a different story, my CPU hits 100 degrees in under 3 seconds, but that's besides the point XD Under normal use this does the job fine, I just want a non clicking CPU cooler and I don't really see the point in buying another AIO cooler.
 
I have one of those Phanteks coolers but mine is the two tower version ..i did replace the fans though with two 120mm Noiseblocker eloops and ....its now just about silent ...although it wasnt noisy before...but it could be heard , but with the stock fans its not too bad actually :)
 
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