What is the best CPU air cooler out now?

[Nvidiaguy07]

I'm considering doing a new build, and im not sure if its worth it to take my old CPU cooler off and use it.

I currently am using the original Tuniq tower on an LGA775 motherboard. I may just sell the whole thing to make it easier on myself (case, board, cpu, fan, and memory) but if the tuniq tower is still one of the best I may just take it off and use it again. I'm also a little worried that im missing parts that came with the cooler that would allow me to use on it a 1156 socket.

I've heard many good things about the Prolimatech Megahalems, and it looks very similar to the tuniq tower.

What do you guys think? Should I keep the cooler, or sell it as a whole and just get a new one?

 

[Krynj]

I don't think there's a "best" out right now, but there are a lot of coolers in the same price range that offer just about the same performance.

Megahalems, Noctua NH-D14, Cooler Master Hyper 212, Corsair H70. There are a lot of excellent CPU coolers right now.

What are your temps with that Q6600?

 

[stahlhart]

There seems to be a lot of discussion online about the Noctua NH-D14 versus the Thermalright Silver Arrow.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Seems like almost all the large H.D.T. tower coolers offer performance within a couple of degrees of each other. I tend to like the Noctua products because I know they'll come with very high quality fans right out of the box.

 

[dpodblood]

Is your new system a SB build? If so save yourself some money and get the Hyper 212. While the noctua products are very good they are unnecessary for SB.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Is your new system a SB build? If so save yourself some money and get the Hyper 212. While the noctua products are very good they are unnecessary for SB.

Yes it will be a sandy bridge build. Why is a noctura unnecessary for sb? I want to oc as much as possible.

 

[zagood]

Tuniq tower is a bit past its prime, and none of the original mounting attachments will make it fit on 1156 without modification. There's a backplate for the Tuniq 120 Extreme but I don't know if it'll work with the original: http://www.crazypc.com/products/1156-backplate-5047L1156.html

That being said, dpod's right, unless you're going to do some very heavy overclocking, a mid-range part like the 212+ will probably be fine.

Seems like almost all the large H.D.T. tower coolers offer performance within a couple of degrees of each other

The "best" air coolers right now are heatpipe, but not HDT (Heatpipe Direct Touch) based. HDT coolers are the ones where the heatpipes are directly exposed. The 212+ mentioned before is an HDT cooler, but the Megahalem, DH-14, Silver Arrow etc. are not.

p.s. take a look at Anand's review for an idea of why people aren't recommending the extreme high end coolers: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/3

If you want to go for one of the big boys, that's great...you'll get excellent performance with very low noise. You just don't "need" to.

 

[Krynj]

Zagood is right. The Noctua coolers are excellent, but the new i7 chips don't run very hot to begin with. Unless you're doing heavy overclocking, a mid-range CPU cooler will keep your i7-xxxx nice and cool.

Also, as a side note: Noctua stands behind their products, and they've got great customer service. Whenever a new socket type is released, they've been known to give out free mounting bracket upgrades for the new socket type (after providing proof of purchase). So in that regard, you'll definitely get your money's worth there.

 

[SZLiao214]

Pretty much even if you run your sb cpu at 4.8, your temps will still be low on a 212+. You will most likely run into voltage vs longevity issues before temp.

 

[dpodblood]

Zagood is right. The Noctua coolers are excellent, but the new i7 chips don't run very hot to begin with. Unless you're doing heavy overclocking, a mid-range CPU cooler will keep your i7-xxxx nice and cool.

This exactly. :thumbsup:

 

[Rubycon]

Best air cooler for heavy loads out of the box would be the Thermalright Silver Arrow. It may trade blows with the Noctua however the fans TR supplies are quieter and move more air. They are so big that most of the motherboard gets cooled better too.

Problem is capacity is so high that many reviews cannot stretch the legs of the super coolers unless they are testing an 980X at 4.4+ GHz with 1.5V or so...

If you have a lesser CPU you don't need such a big cooler. The "big boys" often have other issues such as blocking memory slots, not fitting into cases, etc. All these need to be considered carefully.

 

[SmCaudata]

If you get an ASRock board your 775 cooler will fit. Should be enough for a mild to modest overclock. If you want to bump the voltage you would want something more.

 

[pitz]

I'm liking the Corsair A70. For $30, how can you go wrong?

Just shot a youtube video of my new one, with blue LED fans fitted (Coolermaster 120mm):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hdgfyG_Xbo

 

[dpodblood]

I seem to recall that the Hyper 212 performs a little better than the A70, though not by a huge margin or anything. Still both cost around ~$30 so why not get the one that gives you the most cooling?

 

[Aristotelian]

Best air cooler for heavy loads out of the box would be the Thermalright Silver Arrow. It may trade blows with the Noctua however the fans TR supplies are quieter and move more air. They are so big that most of the motherboard gets cooled better too.

Problem is capacity is so high that many reviews cannot stretch the legs of the super coolers unless they are testing an 980X at 4.4+ GHz with 1.5V or so...

If you have a lesser CPU you don't need such a big cooler. The "big boys" often have other issues such as blocking memory slots, not fitting into cases, etc. All these need to be considered carefully.

Check this one re: stretching the legs of a cpu.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/thermalright_silver_arrow_vs_noctua_nh-d14/2

Seems like the silver arrow loses to the nh-d14 at upper limit testing.

 

[Rubycon]

Check this one re: stretching the legs of a cpu.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/thermalright_silver_arrow_vs_noctua_nh-d14/2

Seems like the silver arrow loses to the nh-d14 at upper limit testing.

Something is seriously wrong with those numbers especially given this:

With 1.45v on the Core i7-950 to achieve 4.4 GHz the Noctua keeps everything cool as before but the Thermalright Silver Arrow hit 100°C after only 15 minutes of Prime and so the test was halted to save damage to the chip. Naturally this counts as a fail.

I was nowhere near that with six cores! Prime95 is also easily a few degrees COOLER than Linpack as well! Either a bad mount, high ambient, restricted (case) airflow or a combination of all of them. Xbit labs is probably the most trusted source and their numbers are completely the opposite - as well as cooler for BOTH sinks.

For comparison this is what my load temps were:

100°C? I don't even think I'd hit that with both fans removed since there is enough flow from the 180mm fan in the bottom of the case!

 

[de8212]

If you get an ASRock board your 775 cooler will fit.

I thought I read that somewhere else as well.

I am in the same boat as the OP. Looking at a SB build in the next month or so. I've never tried ASRock though so I wasn't sure on their reliability.

With that said, I have used the tuniq for the last few builds I've done so I don't know if there are better mounting options. I dislike having to remove the entire motherboard to re-apply AS5 or swap out processors. Seems this is what I have to do with the tuniq so I wouldn't mind getting a new cooler if this issue could be avoided.

 

[Aristotelian]

Something is seriously wrong with those numbers ...



I was nowhere near that with six cores! Prime95 is also easily a few degrees COOLER than Linpack as well! Either a bad mount, high ambient, restricted (case) airflow or a combination of all of them. Xbit labs is probably the most trusted source and their numbers are completely the opposite - as well as cooler for BOTH sinks.

Well, the review I posted showed a similar trend in the first two tests (the Thermalright Silver Arrow won out by a few degrees). Could the difference between xbitlabs' test and the one I posted be that xbitlabs didn't push as hard? Note that the 1.45 volt is significantly higher than yours, perhaps that played a role as well?

Also, since the first two of the three tests support your claim, I'm inclined to think that the errors you suggest aren't really possible.

Either way, both are definitely top tier air coolers.