Help me choose a new cooler

jhatfie

jhatfie

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 19, 2003
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My wife is asking for sub $100 Christmas ideas for me. Well I pretty much have most everything I want at the moment (at least until 6900 series cards and Sandy Bridge come out and SSD's drop in price for decent capacity), but I was trying to figure out something new for me to play with that would fit the sub $100 requirements. I thought a premium air cooler would be fun to try and will get me prepped for the new platforms coming out this next year.

What will it cool? i5-750 @ 4.0Ghz in a Cooler Master Storm Sniper Case
What is current cooler? Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

What coolers am I initially looking at? Thermalright Silver Arrow, Noctua NH-D14 or maybe the Thermalright Archon. Not looking at the Corsair H70 as I understand that the stock fans are loud and I prefer more sedated acoustics.

Questions: Will these coolers actually fit in my case? The Hyper 212 is about 159mm tall so I would think that the Arrow and D14 should fit since they are only a couple mm taller. The Archon looks to be 170mm tall though and I am not sure if that will fit.

Open to suggestions as well.
 
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That Hyper 212+ is a pretty good cooler in its own right, if I remember correctly. Not sure how much benefit you'll see in moving up just for the sake of moving up. Hopefully Sandy Bridge will run cooler than current i7s on the new process, so if it was me, I'd stick with what you have. Are you having temp issues now?
 
Get a 40-64GB small SSD? Would be a very nice visible boost for your OS and games. (I agree that a cooler upgrade isn't noticeable, and can't think of anything better)
 
The Hyper 212 is indeed a pretty decent cooler and I am having no temp issues with it at my current settings although heat ramps up a lot beyond my 1.3v. I just need give my wife some Christmas gift ideas or I'll end up with some stupid socks, designer jeans I'll never wear, knight and day on blu-ray or something else equally retarded.

Only complaints about the Hyper 212 is I do not like the harmonics of the stock fan and adding a second really ramps up the noise. Not horrible, but somewhat annoying to me. I could add a aftermarket 120mm I suppose. Cooling wise I have not complaints for the cost invested however 4Ghz is about the limit I can do 24/7 with it.

I would love a SSD, but under 250GB I think would be to small. I currently have 400GB used up on my gaming rig right now and that is pretty much just games, OS and a few other programs. All my media is on my home server, so that is located elsewhere. I could remove a few games I do not play that often, but I do not want to re-download and install stuff all the time. Of course I could do the SSD just for the OS for now and put games on my HD I suppose.

Plus as enthusiasts, don't we sometimes desire things that give us little in the way of tangible benefits, just so we have an excuse to try something new and get that small 5-10% performance boost? I know I personally have few hobbies left these days with so little free time, so I like to indulge a tiny bit from time to time.
 
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You can make a decent job of it with a 120-128GB SSD. Install the OS and most commonly used apps on it, and then use symbolic links to seamlessly store the rest on the HDD. Pretty good bang for the buck there.

I know what you mean about the desire to tweak though - the wait for Sandy Bridge is killing me.
 
If you haven't picked one yet, I suggest taking a look at the Zalman CNPS10X Performa.

It's pretty much a step up from the Hyper 212+ in terms of cooling performance while still being considered a bang for buck at $40-$50 depending on where you order from.

I was dead set on getting the Hyper 212+ until I did more research and found out the Performa can compete with the top tier air coolers (Venomous X, Megahalems, Noctua 140mm version) without breaking the bank.

edit:: Didn't realize you wanted a quiet cooler, so the Performa may not be for you as it is on the louder than usual side. But with the money you'll be saving compared to the $60+ HSF's, you can get a fan more suited to your liking.
 
jhatfie said:
The Hyper 212 is about 159mm tall so I would think that the Arrow and D14 should fit since they are only a couple mm taller. The Archon looks to be 170mm tall though and I am not sure if that will fit.
Click to expand...

measure the space with a ruler/tape measure, just to be sure.
it would be a lot of hassle to pick a cooler out thinking it would fit but actually wouldn't.
the difference between fitting or not is only 1mm. ;):):)
 
I would suggest the Megahalems. I found my Rev. B and AM3 mounting kit for right about $70.
 
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