I need some advice on air cooling components for a new box.

[vespa]

I need some advice on which components to purchase for air cooling. The last time I built a complete box was a while ago (before Prescott was released) and I did not OC, so cooling was not an issue at the time. I purchased the components for a new rig last night (minus the monitor and the cooling components).

This is the hardware that I chose:

Case: Lian Li PC-9F-B (Mid-Tower)
PSU: Corsair HX1000W (I could have gone with an 850, but I would like some room to OC and the calculator gave me an estimate of 891W without OC).
Mobo: ASUS P6X58D-E
CPU: Intel Core i7-930 (I would like to get this up to ~3.6-4.0 GHz)
RAM: 2x3GB Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D
GPU: 2x EVGA GeForce GTX 470 SuperClocked+ 012-P3-1475-AR (I chose this over the 1470 or 1472 for the High Flow Bracket + Backplate)
SSD : OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G
HDD : Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX (I might add another of these into r0)
DVD : Samsung SH-S243N

So, that is the configuration. The two cooling components that I know I am going to purchase are a Yate Loon 140mm x 25mm Fan (optional slot on the top of the case) and Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (unless someone has a better suggestion).

What I would appreciate help with is choosing the replacement for the stock CPU fan/heatsink and advice on other components that might be needed. I do not want to watercool (for now). Feel free to use technical language.

Thanks!

P.S. I cross-posted this on one other forum because I love both sites

 

[Petey!]

Looks like a pretty good system!

Top fan is a good idea.

There are lots of good thermal pastes out now. MX-3, Shin Etsu and a few others seem to be a bit better then AS5 and don't need curing time, but AS5 should be fine, and really we're talking a couple degrees at the most.

As far as coolers go, the CM Hyper 212+ is the best bang for buck, usually around $30. The Corsair H50/H70 are 2 good closed loop options. The mehahelms and Noctua are the 2 other big heatsinks others will recommend. All will do the job fine for what your looking at. the Hx0s might be a good option in a midtower, since they'll give you a bit more room to work around things.

 

[vespa]

Thanks, I appreciate the response. I ended up purchasing the Corsair H70 (just restocked at Newegg). I am curious as to whether the pre-applied TIM should be replaced with Arctic Cooling MX-3. I am most concerned about the thermal signature of the 2x GTX 470s, but would the Corsair CMXAF1 fans help out for the RAM?. Could someone recommend a decent fan controller, too?

 

[Petey!]

The thermal paste that came on the H50 was really good top of the line stuff, so I assume the H70 is the same, corsair doesnt cheap out.

 

[Petey!]

Oh, and your Case has 8 PCI expansion slots, so make sure you run your cards with the space in between. THis won't affect performance having one in the top 16x slot and one in the lower 8x slot. Will help out a ton with cooling too!