The BEST Air Cooler with RAM Clearance Considerations

[bioprez]

Folks,

I am looking for the absolute best air cooler for my current rig that won't get in the way of my Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR 1600 RAM.

I posted last november about the rig i was building here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2209240&highlight=

My setup is as follows:

Case: Thermaltake Armor VA8000B (its huge and should fit any heatsink)
CPU: Core i7 2600k @ 4.4GHz (lowered from 4.6 due to heat concerns)
Mobo: ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR 1600
Current Heatsink: Corsair H80 CWCH80 Liquid CPU Cooler

I am looking to replace my H80, as i am not satisfied with its performance. I do alot of heavy computing, my temps are not satisfactory, and the fans are constantly revving up on my H80. Should have listened to the advice in my post on building my rig on not getting the H80, but i already bought it before i posted that. Oh well, in any case, i'm looking for an upgrade, and looking for the best, not really concerned with the price.

I am considering the following:

Noctua NH-D14
Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E

My main concern is whether these will fit considering the large heatsinks i have on my Corsair Vengeance DDR1600 RAM.

So here's my questions:

1) Does anyone have any experience using these coolers with this RAM? Will either fit?
2) Which of the above two would you recommend?
2) Are there any other top-notch heatsinks that you would recommend over the above two?

Any feedback and help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

-Mark

 

[MoInSTL]

I don't have tall RAM heat sinks, but regardless, I went with the Thermalright Macho HR-02. The heat sink is offset allowing clearance. Just Google it as there are a lot of images. Just make sure you have enough clearance. It comes with a very quiet TY-140 fan.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-hr-02-macho.html There are a lot of other reviews out there.

I considered the Noctua as it's the best IMO, but didn't want to limit access. I ordered mine via an Amazon vendor: Nan's Computers. It was also less than the Noctua @ around $52 IIRC.

Btw, we have the same CPU.

 

[Piano Man]

Can we see pic/specs (height) of the RAM?

 

[fffblackmage]

I don't have tall RAM heat sinks, but regardless, I went with the Thermalright Macho HR-02. The heat sink is offset allowing clearance.

:thumbsup:
I have one as well, though I got it off their main site instead. It's like $40 +$12 shipping or something like that (I think you recall correctly MoInSTL ). Pretty good price for an awesome high-end cooler.

 

[NickelPlate]

You could always do a pull config on the cooler. It's usually the fan in a push setup that gets close to the memory slots.