Best Air Colling-System for OC and Gaming

[Hal0]

Scythe Infinity

Thermalright Ultra-120 (whith fan)

Noctua NH-U12 (with fan)

Thermaltake Big Typhoon

Zalman CNPS9500 LED

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro

Other





Sorry for missing models.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Scythe Infinity is probably the most powerful air cooler available. However, I personally think it is way too heavy for the coolign ebnefits. Sure if you want every ounce of cooling power, thats your bet, but I would personally never go above and Ultra 120.

 

[hardwareking]

no way.the thermalright ultra 120 with fan is better than the scythe infinity.(ateast thats what silentpc says)
the noctua,ultra 120 and infinity are in a class of their own.And the thermalright provides the best cooling performance.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

My opinion was simply opinion so its not much to credit. However hardwareking if you have a link I would like to see it as im interested in this as well.

 

[dasmokedog]

Zalman CNPS9500LED hands down!

http://smokedog.org/500MHz/gutz4.jpg

 

[VinDSL]

What mobo/CPU are 'we' talking about?

 

[JEDIYoda]

there are too many variables from PC to PC to PC to crown an over all winner!!!

 

[hardwareking]

neoseeker's review of ultra 120-http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/thermalright_ultra_120/
Beats out the noctua by a few degrees and nautilus by quiet a few.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article646-page1.html
Silentpc's review.Beats out the ninja by a few degrees.

 

[acegazda]

The sunbeam/tuniq tower consistently beats all opther competitors by 2-3 degrees. The infinity comes within 1c and might even tie it in some tests. They are both huge.

 

[wwswimming]

the fan does not exist in isolation. it needs fans feeding air to it and exhausting the air away. a lot of cases have room for an exhaust fan pulling air away from the Heat Sink Fan on the CPU - if THAT fan is blowing air towards the back of the case.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: hardwareking
neoseeker's review of ultra 120-http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/thermalright_ultra_120/
Beats out the noctua by a few degrees and nautilus by quiet a few.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article646-page1.html
Silentpc's review.Beats out the ninja by a few degrees.

Assuming proper mounting, I'd venture to guess that Scythe Infinty would outperform Ultra-120 by a small bit. It's just from the look of it - 5 heatpipes working like 10, and look at the number of fins and how tight they are. In theory, that should beat the Ultra-120.

But I still went with the Ultra-120 because I hate that push-pin mounting system. Ultra-120 performs better than Zalman 9500, that's 100% sure. I also like the fact that I can choose up to 2 fans (including 38mm deep ones). I'm using Panaflo medium with my Ultra-120 and I should say I'm content with its performance.

 

[Baked]

You can mount 2 fans on the Ultra 120?

 

[lopri]

Yes. Unfortunately the box only contains clips for one fan, however. I called SideWinderComputers (where I ordered the Ultra-120) and they sent me another set of clips for $2. I will upload a pic later/tomorrow.

P.S. I didn't know about that Noctua heatsink, but it looks obvious that it shamlessly copied Ultra-120, or the other way around. (Well, to some extent the Scythe Infinty, too.)

 

[Baked]

Looking forward to dual fan Ultra-120. However, I don't know if 2 fans are necessary for the Ultra-120, since the case exhaust is so close to the CPU heatsink (at least in my case it is). I just ordered the Ultra-120 from Jab-Tech. I will be using the Panaflo FBA12G12M on it. If it gets too loud, I'll switch to a Yate Loon D12SL-12.

 

[imported_Truenofan]

Assuming proper mounting, I'd venture to guess that Scythe Infinty would outperform Ultra-120 by a small bit. It's just from the look of it - 5 heatpipes working like 10, and look at the number of fins and how tight they are. In theory, that should beat the Ultra-120.

having more fins is actually bad, it requires you to have a higher flow fan in order to work properly, having a lower fin count does decrease cooling area, but it allows lower speed fans giving a quieter computer, i personally would rather have a decent oc that was quiet, than a rocket with a couple hundred more mhz.

And if im not mistaken, a heatpipe works by heating one end, having the heat carry over to the other end where the cooling is done, and then going back to be re-heated cycling over and over again.

edit: one more thing about some of these benches on heatsinks, if they dont have the system in a closed case, how can you actually believe the temps they get, they're getting clean cool airflow which isnt possible in a real case situation.

 

[Hal0]

I read a review where they put 2 fans to the thermalright-120 and they had poor results, they got better results with 1 fan.

 

[corsa]

XP-120, Ninja, Tuniq Tower, & Big Typhoon using various fans, various configurations

TT Big Typhoon vs. Zalman CNPS 9500 vs. Scythe Ninja

 

[Baked]

Wow, I'm really surprised at how well the Yate Loon did compared to the Panaflo considering how much less CFM it's pushing. Looks like I'll be using the Yate Loon over the Panaflo then.

 

[Dribble]

Voted infinity. This review covers it and the ultra 120:
http://planetoverclocking.hartware.de/review_604_7.html

Using identical 1140rpm fans the infinity is 0.5 deg cooler, and 0.1db quieter then the ultra 120. They will all be effected by fan layout in your case, infinity suits something like P180 with 2 fans blowing in 2 directions, ultra for front->back with one rear fan, perhaps big typhoon might work out coolest on cases with a side fan blowing down on top of the heatsync. imo they are all so close in performance doesn't matter which of those three you get.

 

[potato28]

No SI-128? The Infinety is the best on that list, but far from the "best" cooler for a cpu.

 

[Ping to the Pong]

I'd go for the Infinity but like Dribble said, they will all perform very close to each other and once you account for all the variables, its a toss up what cooler will work better for you.