Desicion between Hyper 212 EVO or H100i or Seidon 240M

[shinta86]

I can't seem to make up my mind if I want to go any of these routes. I am getting a Corsair Obsidian 450D.

1. Get a Hyper 212 EVO and 2 extra 140mm case fans for a top exhuast.

2. Get a H100i ($90) or a Seidon 240M ($70) instead.

Even though I am not really concerned with noise too much, I am concerned about the water coolers being annoyingly loud.

 

[Topweasel]

Water coolers aren't annoying loud, but their greatest asset is also their biggest weakness. If you're like me and you use the the cooler as an exhaust you pretty much remove all CPU heat from the case which means better ambient in the case. Downside is that you also are then placing its fans at a vent increasing fan counts on the sides and back of the case increasing its audibleness.

I would tell you without swapping fans the 212 is noisy. Depending on your sensitivity really noisy. It's not a great cooler. It's a great cooler for the cost and I think people miss that when they see all the recommendations for it.

The Seidon I would warn doesn't have any fan control and their 120 and 140mm fans tend to be noisy. But I don't have experience with this unit so I don't know if that holds true still.

The H100i would be my preferred of the two. With Corsair link and the software you can control the noise levels. The previous H100 and H80 (which I have) had a push button for controlling fan levels. I have left my H80 on quiet mode (it's lowest of three settings) and it has kept my 3930k at sub 58c at full load for over 2 years and the fans are barely audible. My whole system (2x 200m fans, 1 220mm fan, the H80, and the 7950 Sapphire 2 fan non-ref) is barely audible. With it inaudible over the sound of my houses vents when I am doing anything non gaming.

So water coolers aren't annoyingly loud. So the question is what are you trying to accomplish?

 

[shinta86]

I will be running a i5-4670k on a z87 extreme4 w/ a r9 280x. I am only interested in doing a mild overclock as stability is more important and I don't want to go through the hassle of testing all the settings. I like the look of the water coolers better than the air ones.

 

[krnmastersgt]

The EVO's stock fan isn't super quiet (there are better replacements out there) but it's not the loudest thing around and depending on the voltage you hit with your 4670K should still be easily do-able.

That being said if you care about temps at all, either for pushing more performance or quieter/cooler operation, either of those AIO coolers will outperform the EVO. Why? Simply put they have more surface area to help dissipate the heat as they are dual fan radiators and the EVO is just a single fan mass air cooler. There are bigger and stronger performing air coolers which come in more expensive, the reason the EVO is so popular is that it achieves roughly 70-90% of the performance of a strong air cooler for half the price.

Between the H100i and the 240M, it seems the general consensus for the 240M is that the stock fans are hideously loud when they spin up at all but I've heard this complaint from both camps. I've only had the H60 and the H110, and the H60 was running with a fan of my own so I can't attest to the fan noise of them when they ramp up. If you're not going to seriously push the voltages (whether that gives you a mild or high overclock) I doubt either will have to spin much above their bare minimum meaning they should remain quite quiet.

 

[1stezekiel]

Just picked up the liqtech 240 from enermax. Fans have three settings. They get loud on over clock mode...however on performance mode, middle setting, not bad at all. Maybe another option for you. I'm coming from using a h55i in a push/pull mode. So I can honestly say it's not too much of a difference... Noise wise.

 

[z1ggy]

I just read a review on the corsair line of CL water cooling, which also included the Kraken line, too.

If you want water, I'd actually recommend either the h80i if you want a 120mm set up or the Kraken x60 if you want to go all out.

 

[shinta86]

I ended up getting the h100i as it was a good deal at the time. I was going to get the h80i but then I ended up adding on more case fans and then it ended up being about the same price.