Haswell i5 4440 CPU cooler.. low profile?

[RageValley]

I'm looking for a quieter CPU cooler. I currently have a Haswell i5-4440 @ 3.0Ghz. Not too bothered about overclocking at the moment, when the system is under pressure the stock fan doesn't sound very nice at all.

My case restrictions are 120mm, however i'd like to keep it within 70mm as this will avoid issues later down the line.

I was originally looking at "Noctua NH-L9i Intel-only Low Profile Quiet CPU Cooler" but it says it's only designed for max output of 65 TDP, my current CPU has a TDP of 84, most reviews seem to throw higher wattage at it anyway and it performs well but i'm not sure how it will scale with upgradability as i will no doubt upgrade to a i7 further down the line.

So to summarise:
- Height within 120mm (ideally 70mm)
- Is good enough to handle bigger CPUs
- Is quiet
- 1150 chipset
- Is actually good at keeping the cpu cool

Is the Noctua still a good shout, or should i be looking else where? the £50 price range would be ideal.

 

[lehtv]

£50 is incredibly expensive for a low profile cooler. You can get a decent one for half that price.

Cooler Master GeminII M4 £22. 59mm tall. Uses a half width 120mm fan at 500-1600RPM (PWM controlled). Set it to the quietest setting in the motherboard BIOS.

A more expensive and better performing option: Scythe Big Shuriken 2 £35. I think you'd be fine with the M4 though, as it will already outperform Intel's stock cooler quite well in both noise and heat.

EDIT:

Not too bothered about overclocking at the moment

The i5-4440 is locked anyway, you can't OC it at all.

i will no doubt upgrade to a i7 further down the line.

What do you use the PC for? Unless you're doing heavily multithreaded work several hours a day, it won't be worth it to upgrade. The performance difference between and i5 and an i7 in quad and fewer threaded and tasks is nil. If you do upgrade to an i7, do it when Broadwell is released (as it will be LGA1150 as well), or do it with the next Intel socket which will support Skylake processors in 2015-16.

 

[RageValley]

£50 is incredibly expensive for a low profile cooler. You can get a decent one for half that price.

Cooler Master GeminII M4 £22. 59mm tall. Uses a half width 120mm fan at 500-1600RPM (PWM controlled). Set it to the quietest setting in the motherboard BIOS.

A more expensive and better performing option: Scythe Big Shuriken 2 £35. I think you'd be fine with the M4 though, as it will already outperform Intel's stock cooler quite well in both noise and heat.

EDIT:

The i5-4440 is locked anyway, you can't OC it at all.


What do you use the PC for? Unless you're doing heavily multithreaded work several hours a day, it won't be worth it to upgrade. The performance difference between and i5 and an i7 in quad and fewer threaded and tasks is nil. If you do upgrade to an i7, do it when Broadwell is released (as it will be LGA1150 as well), or do it with the next Intel socket which will support Skylake processors in 2015-16.

Oh cool, cheaper the better will check them out thanks

I only use it for gaming and watching movies... reason i was thinking about the upgrade is that i seen some games are saying i7 recommended, for example: Watch Dogs

Processor: Core i7 3770 @ 3.5Ghz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0Ghz

 

[lehtv]

Nah, gaming is fine on a quad core. Heavily hyperthreaded games are still few and far between, and even the ones that do benefit from an i7 can be run fine on an i5. It's also likely that you'll get a better boost from upgrading the graphics card. What graphics card do you have?

Watch Dogs isn't out yet though... will have to wait and see how it performs. Usually you can find performance analyses on major titles from TechSpot, Tom's Hardware and/or HardOCP pertty soon after the game is out.

Funny that they lump the FX-8350 and the i7-3770 in the same category. In overall performance, the FX-8350 is similar to the i5-4670:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/697?vs=837
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/697?vs=836

 

[RageValley]

Nah, gaming is fine on a quad core. Heavily hyperthreaded games are still few and far between, and even the ones that do benefit from an i7 can be run fine on an i5. It's also likely that you'll get a better boost from upgrading the graphics card. What graphics card do you have?

Watch Dogs isn't out yet though... will have to wait and see how it performs. Usually you can find performance analyses on major titles from TechSpot, Tom's Hardware and/or HardOCP pertty soon after the game is out.

Yeah i would be upgrading next year as and when i need it. my GPU is

VTX3D HD 7950 V3 Boost X-Edition 3GB

 

[RageValley]

Funny that they lump the FX-8350 and the i7-3770 in the same category. In overall performance, the FX-8350 is similar to the i5-4670:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/697?vs=837
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/697?vs=836

Clearly lots of work to go then before the game will be finished and optimised so likely a change in recommended specs anyway