Any idea on which cooler to get for the i7 Gen 2 (LGA1155)?
I'm buying the overclock version so might knock it up a bit but not too much.
You have a lot to choose from, if your budget can cover a maximum of about $80.
Personally, I think if you got one of the "K" chips -- obviously the 2600K -- then you're looking to tweak your system and get some extra speed out of it. And if you're going to replace the stock cooler, you're already of a mind to spend a little money.
The heatpipe cooler industry has been very competitive, the manufacturers know that the customers are looking carefully at the products. So prices reflect the old saying "You get what you pay for."
For air-cooling with heatpipes (which is really water-cooling in a standalone sealed unit with no other radiator than the cooler itself) -- there are some three or four I'd recommend.
The old tried and proven ThermalRight Ultra-120 Extreme is still good for these CPUs. But no longer "the best." Not that I recommend the following reseller for their prices, but they're a sort of catalog of many of the coolers I'll mention here:
www.heatsinkfactory.com
A new one I haven't tried myself -- but recommended in one web-poster's over-clocking guide to the Sandy Bridge "K" chips -- is a unit called the Gemini 6 DT by Spire. That's about $63 clams, then add shipping/handling/tax unless you can get a break on any of it. Note in the specs reported at heatsinkfactory, it supposedly has a thermal resistance of 0.09 C/W. Usually, even the best heatpipe makers don't report their thermal resistance, even if their product has among the lowest. And that's not too bad for a good heatpipe cooler.
Anandtech had done a very thorough review of heatpipe coolers back in 2007, when ThermalRight was taking all the prizes. While they didn't report thermal resistance, their test-bed was well controlled as were room-ambients, thermal grease and so forth. Usually in those types of reviews, the spread between idle temperature and load temperature is a proxy for thermal resistance.
Noctua and Prolimatech edged out the TRUE (TR Ultra 120 Extreme) the following year with the Noctua NH-U12P (still as high as $80 with the extra fan), and the Megahalem by Prolimatech now comes in a couple models, both around $60.
At one time there was a frenzy over "direct-touch" coolers which exposed copper heatpipes directly to the CPU heat-spreader. I think Xigmatek made one of them, but the direct-touch phenomenon was probably less than it was cracked up to be.
Now Noctua is producing a cooler that seems very similar to the old ThermalRight IFX-14. The Noctua NH-D14 is also similar to two other current TR models -- the Silver Arrow and the CoGage Arrow. These coolers are all a bit bulky, but offer various options about hanging fans, ducting with fans attached to the case, etc. They should be at the top end on the thermal-resistance factor (meaning that thermal-resistance is among the lowest.)
If not a direct-touch cooler, most or all of these mentioned have a metal base that is plated with nickel (over copper). Some have a slight convexity in the base surface, and we'd determined this was more a by-product of manufacture than an intention.
So some of us lap the cooler base with sandpaper to make it flat and get rid of the nickel-plate. The nickel has a higher thermal-resistance than the underlying copper, is added to the product to protect against corrosion, but since the plating is done in one step, the manufacturers apparently deem it too costly to remove it from the bottom of the heatsink base.
Of course, you could also lap the integrated heat-spreader of the processor. Either way, you will void your warranty for either product by doing so. But voiding the warranty of a $60 item is less risk exposure than doing the same with a $300 item. . . .
And if you want a recommendation at this point among the coolers I mentioned, I'd probably point you at the Prolimatech or Noctua D14. But I'd look more carefully at that Gemini cooler. That's probably a good bet as well. . . .
