What air cooler to replace a TRUE 120?

Space Monkey · 4 Feb 2011 at 13:11

Hey all,

I have a TRUE 120 on my Q6600, and not overly impressed with it, so what new breed of cooler would you guys recommend to replace it that'd give me great temps and if possible, nice and quiet too?

One thing I'm concerned about is if the new coolers are too heavy for the mobo and thus bend it? I have an Asus P5Q Pro Turbo.

Cheers

Helios1234 · 4 Feb 2011 at 13:32

NH-D14 or the Thermalright Silver Arrow are two of the few coolers that can perform better than the TRUE. There isn't much else that can be considered as an improvement.

They might be big but they have excellent mounting kits so they shouldn't bend your motherboard.

C64 · 4 Feb 2011 at 14:16

What temps are you getting under the TRUE and at what voltage and which fans ? the TRUE should still be holding it's own with two decent fans

I'd look at the d14, silver arrow and thermalright archon.

I have a tuniq tower 120 and a Q6600 @ 3.545 ghz 1.4 volts and gaming load never goes above 60c and prime around the same but intel burn test it gets real toasty like 70-85c but that doesn't matter really all that matters are gaming and prime temps imo.

Space Monkey · 4 Feb 2011 at 16:17

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replys

I can't remember the exact temps as its been a while since I've tested them but I remember that I was getting quite high idle and load temps, mid to high 40s for idle and probably mid to high 80s on load on prime, at stock clocks, and as I'm in the process of changing to a new mobo & graphics card due to an early death by them both I'm using this to change to a better cooler.

I'm using 2 Noctua NF-P12s with the TRUE 120.

I also didn't like the look of the mobo bow'ing(sp?) under the pull of the TRUE, others online at the last time I checked had mentioned something similar?

I like the look of the Noctua NH-D14, and its supposed to have a great mounting kit, so I may just plump for that, or do you thing HDT are better?

C64 · 4 Feb 2011 at 20:39

I'd look at reseating it as you should be getting 30's idle and prime around 60c.

The thermalright silver arrow or archon would be my choice over the d14, I like the d14 but it's overpriced imo.
Also might be worth waiting for some more reports on the BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro cooler.

To me though it sounds like you aren't seating it well or using a good thermal paste spread.

Try a just under a pea sized blob in the middle with the thermal paste.