simple and good CPU cooler

[HerrKaLeu]

I'm looking to replace the stock cooler for my i3-6700. Mainly to reduce noise and have better cooling. No OC, and the largest future CPU I ever imagine is an i5. I looked all over, but can't find one to meet my criteria. Obviously it should be better than stock. i like to use it for along time on future systems.
I just re-read this Anand stock-cooler review...
Criteria:
- has to fit on may boards, cases etc. A tower cooler or other larger monster is not feasible since my old systems wander from my main rig into smaller cases. I also think a tower cooler puts strain on the board.
- should have screws and backplates. No use for those plastic pins
- should have a copper core to cool better with less noise.
- should have 92 mm fan. 120mm downward fan may get too large for future boards. Fan should be under 2000 rpm at 12 V. The fan ideally can be replaced by standard 92 mm case fans or similar. I saw many are 90, 95, 100 mm etc.
- should not cost much more thna $20. I see some Noctuan etc. would fullfill above criteria, but at close to $40 too expensive. I know the EVO 212 is really great for the $, but it is a tower...

I found this Thermaltake Gravity 2 to fullfill many of my criteria, but it doesn't have a copper core, and i also could not find any reviews with actual testing and comparing. The above Anandtech article clearly states that the coolers with copper core can cool similar to aluminum coolers, but with less noise, which is what I want.

First post and I'm not sure if there is a "system spec option". i have Fractal Design R5 case with four 140 mm fans (Fractal and bequeit), Seasonic fanless PS. So the CPU cooler really is my largest problem. My 2 HDD are relatively silent HGST (still audible when CPU is idle - can't wait for SSd to become mainstream for larger storage), OS is on SSD... so I'm at as little noise as I can. Fans controlled by ASRock fan software at very low speed (under 600 rpm and going up to 800 rpm at full CPU load... then they become relatively audible)

At idle CPU is at 26°C, and with Prime95 at a bit over 60°C (72°C I believe is the limit of Skylark). At 60°F i still run the CPU fan at 50% (1400 rpm), but it gets audible. At 70°C I run it at 100% (1900 rpm per board readout). Overall not bad, stock coolers really are not that bad anymore and with my system the cooling performance of the EVO 212 really would be overkill.

The PC is on my desk and i don't have a good way to place it away for less noise. When I work at night and everyone else sleeps it annoys me to still hear the silent sound.

 

[Ketchup]

Just my thoughts on your criteria:
- No plastic and no tower severely limit your search, and you see why: the only thing you could find was a Thermaltake. Everything with their label is someone else's product, and 90% of their products are made with super cheap materials.
- Arctic Cooling is probably going to be your best performance/noise/size ratio. They are very good coolers. Nothing wrong with the plastic, so don't be afraid of it.
- Unless you are very sure you are going to have something extremely small down the road, the CM 212 is still considered a very good and inexpensive cooler for these chips.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

Thanks for the quick response. The Arctic Freezer 11 LP was one of the "meets ALMOST all criteria I came across. I'm just not sold on those push-pins.
When mounting the stock cooler I realized turning it by 90° would improve cable routing.... only to realize once it is mounted those push-pins probably break when removing the cooler. I know in theory one can reset them, but I know one of mine probably has to be destroyed when I remove the cooler for a new one.
I also read over time the plastic can degrade and they don't press 100% on the heat spreader anymore. it just seems on the long run and when you take the cooler to a new board, having solid screws and plate is better. I gladly pay $20 instead of the $17 the Arctic goes for just to get away from those pins. i realize if I buy a new cooler, I may have to destroy the pins of the stock cooler, but i wouldn't need it anymore. but for he new cooler i don't want to have such 1-way solution.

Another nitpick on the Arctic is it seems to have a proprietary fan and when it fails I can't just screw or clamp a standard 92 mm fan on it. not sure they sell spares, and at what cost.... but fans can fail. that seems to be a theme with all their coolers.

Later on i may re-use that cooler in a smaller case (also have a Fractal Design 1100 and maybe get an ITX some time). Especially in small cases with smaller case fans a good cooler is important. So the tower is out. Also the stress on the board of over 500 g bending it with a large lever is not good. It is just not good engineering - unless you really need the cooling power, which I don't. Just want 10% better cooling and 50% less noise...

I'm really surprised that there is a cottage industry of such small coolers (all aluminum coolers with 2,500+ rpm fans)... many of those coolers and fans are worse or at least not better than the "free" stock coolers that come with CPUs. who buys a bad $10 cooler to replace a probably better stock cooler?

 

[Valantar]

Can you please define "tower cooler"? My thoughts when I hear that term are oversized, humongous coolers, not just "anything with a fan mounted perpendicular to the motherboard". If that's your definition, your choice of low-cost HSF solutions quickly shrinks to zero.

I use a Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo in my HTPC (cooling an AMD A8-7600, 65W APU). Even while running OCCT, I've never seen it above 55 degrees, with the fan below 1500rpm (and barely audible at that). Sure, it uses push-pins (well, the standard AMD bracket thingy in my case), but it's solid enough. I guess it goes as a "tower" in your book, but good luck finding a case it won't fit in. It's quite small, only 136mm tall - 16mm taller than a PCIe bracket. Unless your case is some sort of compact desktop, it will fit, and it weighs little enough to not put any noticeable stress on your motherboard at 306g. It's currently $22.99 at Newegg.

If you insist on a low-profile cooler, check out this roundup from Tom's Hardware. As you can see, though, nearly everything there is $40 or more. Low-profile coolers aren't cheap, as it's a niche, low-volume market.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

good point on the definition of "tower". i guess anything that creates more torque (moment bending the board) than I'm comfortable with. I looked at the TX3, and with 92 mm tower it likely is not so bad regarding torque and height. however, the push-pins I'm not comfortable with.
I actually like the tower idea from a thermal point since i think having the fan blow warm air to the rear case fan gives it less chance to recirculate back into the case and increasing ambient (ambient from the point of CPU cooler).
On an old PC I used to have a 92 mm tower (OCZ I believe) and it worked will with OC (and an old Core2 Duo, which has higher TDP than Skylark).

I found a ID-Cooling SE-913i tha tis a 92 mm tower with screws. but didn't find any reviews. any idea if that is a good cooler / brand?
they also seem to have decent 92 mm and 120 mm low profile coolers. This is a test I found, but nothing else.

One of my "favorite" small cases is the Fractal Design 1000. It limits coolers to 148 mm. So ~140 mm is my limit.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

for some reason the response by " Clockhound" doesn't show in this thread (i saw the response in the email - pasted below)

Clockhound: " The Cryorig M9i is the best sub $20, sub 130mm tall cooler available. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF39E2338 In many reviews it bests the 212 and is far easier to install. TPU review: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CRYORIG/M9i/ TweakTown review: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7426/cryorig-m9i-cpu-cooler-review/index.html"

I read the Cryorig reviews, and they seem to make really great coolers. I also read some of their other coolers' reviews and they all seem impressive from a noise and cooling point of view. I'm a mechanical engineer, so I appreciate the design. they only have a handfull of coolers, but all of them seem to be very good and very throught through. i like that, wish other manufacturers would focus on a few models and get them right. I went ahead and ordered the M9i from Newegg for $18.99. I'll post CPU temps before and after.

for ITX systems they also have a C7 (which also cools very well at low noise) and a C1 (more powerful). but they are more expensive (the cost of smallness...). So if I ever need an ITX case, those are on top of my list.

I was a bit skeptical about noise, but according to the reviews those M9i are quieter than most 120 mm fans. I shall hear....

Thank you all for pointing me in the right direction. Good you did, since I was set to get a down-blow cooler

 

[Valantar]

for some reason the response by " Clockhound" doesn't show in this thread (i saw the response in the email - pasted below)

The forum was down for a short time earlier today, seems like whatever caused it took quite a few posts with it, unfortunately :/

 

[ClockHound]

It's the internet's grand conspiracy to make all my comments go away. But, cheap sarcasm is so easy to replace on the cheap, isn't it Mr. Purch? ;-)

@HerrKaLeun - will be good to hear your experiences with the little M9i - expect it will tower over any stock down blower in performance and noise. As well as puns.

I've used Cryorig R1 and H5 and they compare well to other top tier coolers, like Noctua, Thermalright, Phanteks.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

I got the cooler and re-tested. All temps are read from ASrock tuning in windows. Idle meant me just watching a movie (CPU at 1-10%). Case fan in both cases were at 20% (~380 rpm). three 140 mm fans blowing in front, one 140 mm fan exhausting at rear.
Stock cooler can operate from 1020 to 1950 rpm. Cryoirig can operate from 515 - 2066 rpm. I made the Cryo run at same rpm as the Intel.Since my room temps differed by 1 °F I calculated the dT to room.
With prime 95 and 1020 rpm: Stock 73°C (53°C above room); M9 33°C above room (20°C improvement)
With prime 95 and 1950 rpm: Stock 62°C (42°C above room); M9 28°C above room (14°C improvement)
With idle and 1950 rpm: Stock 27°C (10°C above room); M9 4°C above room (3°C improvement)

I also ran the fan at 515 rpm. With Prime 95 thsi still beats the Intel stock cooler at 1045 rpm by 6°C.

I also monitored MB temp. that hovers around 30-35°C. when running prime 95 and 1045 rpm the temp seemed to be 2°C lower for the Cryorig. When running at 1950 rpm there was no difference. thsi may hbe a fluke, but my theory is the fan blowing hot air directly to the rear exhaust fan gives the warm air less chance to recirculate. In my well-ventilated case this may not matter, though.

For sound both the Intel and Cryorig at 1045 rpm are not audible. I have a passive PS and my 2 HGST HDD are the only noisy part (they are very quiet, but I sit here at night with no noise around and can hear them). I found my case fans at 40% (~450 rpm) and the CPU fan at 1050 rpm makes them to be audible with the HDD. When applying those fan speeds Prime 95 gives me 54°C for the CPU and 34 °C for the MB.

Overall the Stock cooler is not that bad, just not good enough for enthusiasts. I think for people that have noisy graphics etc it may not matter. but if you care about noise, and/or have many more heat sources in the case, you need a better cooler. Also if you don't have a good case (I have Fractal Design R5 with 140 mm fans...). When removing the stock cooler I only could remove 2 of the 4 pins easily. I ended up cutting off part of the pin at the back of the MB. that released pin #3. The 4th I had to work quite a bit to then be able to destroy that plastic pin. fortunately I didn't damage my board. If you ever want to replace the CPU or want to get a better cooler later, get a better cooler right away to have decent screw-on cooler that you can remove. Needless to say i have to throw away the stock cooler after my surgical removal. Only use stock cooler if you really never want to take it off.

The M9 is very well built and mounting was easy (not the 4 minutes they claim, but close). At least easier than removing the stock cooler... I also like they only include Intel parts (or AMD). This saves money, and causes less confusion since you don't have to decide which part to use. I also doubt someone will go from Intel to MAD and use the same cooler (since AMD has twice the TDP at given computing power - I say that as a former AMD fanboy). Very solid screws, good manual, and QED code to installation videos. Really solid built.
My only (maybe unrealistic) wish for improvement would be to find a way to screw it without taking off the fan. It was a bit tricky to get the fan bracket back on and it barely clears the RAM. I don't have heat spreaders, but you could not have fans with spreaders when you have the fan pushing into the cooler and back to the rear of the case. not a big deal to me, but if i need to repalce RAM, i need to take off the fan first. I doubt this will ever be a problem - but may be a problem for enthusiasts that upgrade RAM often or have spreaders.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the advice you gave me and pointed me there. For $19 (even the original $25) this is a great cooler. My estimate is you could use it for an i7 if you don't OC. You could OC an i5 or i3 if you can live with the noise of high fan speed.
For my next cooler need I definitely will look at Cryorig again and recommend it to friends.

 

[ClockHound]

Great to hear your happy results.

Fan clips, other than some later Noctua models, are the devil's design. That's why I like to make my own zip-tie screws or twist-tie screws for builds where things get swapped out on a whim.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

I wanted to update on this. i bought an i7 7700K (91 W TDP). i didn't do the same comparison as above, but when using handbrake (use 3 instances) to convert 3 videos at once (2 instances already put CPU on 100%) I get about 72°C with fan at 1,330 rpm (case fans at ~600 rpm). It is slightly audible at full load, but this is also because i ran case fans a bit higher because the MB goes to 34°C. room temperature around 20.5°C.
so yes it can cool an i& silently (running an i7k at 100% load isn't something you do all day....). If you want it very silent at 100% load, or OC, you probably need the 120 mm version. but for normal i7K use this cooler is good.

Edit: all my research tells me 80°C is still acceptable temp for permanent use. I set the fan controller to go to 100% on all fans at 80°C. but unless my room gets warm, this won't happen.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

As much as other options we always discuss, the Cryorig seems a good fit for the OP. I'm wondering how the Kaby Lake compares to the 6700K in the thermal behavior. I don't yet have a feel for it. I thought the TDP specs were close, though.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

the 6700K has 95W TDP, 7700K has 91W. in real life probably not much difference. I think the Cryorig M9 can handle all CPUs under 100w silently.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

the 6700K has 95W TDP, 7700K has 91W. in real life probably not much difference. I think the Cryorig M9 can handle all CPUs under 100w silently.

I'm going to look for a voltage profile in a web-search, although it's a bit early to expect a lot turning up. Only thing to do is find out . . . . [coming back later]

OK . . . There's an Anandtech review:

7700K review

For the same voltage, you can get another 100 Mhz. But you would have to delid and CLU relid to keep the temperatures down. Then, maybe 4.8 is feasible. If the delid/TIM-replacement earns you 12C, Anand's bench-test might heat up to 83C. If it earns 20C, then 75C. I thought everyone was saying it would do 5.0 Ghz, but it depends on your standards for a "stress-test of total stability."

And it shouldn't prove much different from Skylake that temperatures in the 80's will cross the stability threshold. I thought I'd read that the higher temperatures are causing noise, and limits the OC.

I didn't read the review closely enough to take note of their cooling solution. Wait a minute . . .

OK. Nepton 140XL. You can see why the temperatures for some tests and clocks went up into the 90s. What does the Cryorig M9 show in a comparison with the Nepton 140 in a review? It should give you a good idea of what you can achieve with that and what you can't.

 

[StefanR5R]

For sound both the Intel and Cryorig at 1045 rpm are not audible. I have a passive PS and my 2 HGST HDD are the only noisy part (they are very quiet, but I sit here at night with no noise around and can hear them).

For a long time now I have relegated 3.5" HDDs to backup duty (switched off when not in use) and have been using only 2.5" HDDs as data storage, plus SSD for system, applications, and home directory. (That's at home; in my workplace there are only SSDs at the desks nowadays.)

For a long time I was into passive PSUs too. But then I was disappointed by several SeaSonic PSUs all emitting more or less prominent coil hiss. Now I am mostly back to PSUs with superslow quality fans, either out of the box or through replacement.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

I have a Seasonic passive PSU and don't hear capacitor hissing, at least not with the HDDs.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have a Seasonic passive PSU and don't hear capacitor hissing, at least not with the HDDs.

The Seasonics I've purchased lately have a "Hybrid" switch on them to moderate any fan noise. I don't use it. They seem quiet enough anyway.