Help me decide on a CPU cooler

I

iqwertyi

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 4, 2006
Messages
167
Hi,

This will be the very first time I'll be purchasing an after market CPU cooler.
I am not going to be overclocking, I just want a cool and quiet machine.
I have a Lian Li PC-A16 case and an ASUS P5B motherboard.
What's a good cooler anyone may recommend?

I've read that the Thermalright 120 Extreme has had good reviews.
I'm just looking for opinions. Like I said, this will be the first time I'll be spending this much on a cpu fan.

Thanks
 
cpu is single, dual or quad core ?

This might help too, I trust the test methods used. Not recommending any particular one, the results speak for themselves, not OCing you may not need one of the huge heatsinks, something mid range woud more than do the trick and save you some cash. I suggest lprinting out the chart and then looking up the prices of the HS (be sure and include the cost of a fan if one does not come with it) and you can then see pretty quick which gives the best bang for the buck. There should be a review of every heatsink on the list somewhere on the site. I just grabbed the latest as it has all the older results.

http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3068&p=4
 
Thanks Bill,

I was doing a search on anandtech yesterday for such a chart but I couldn't find it.
The chip is a dual core. E4400? Believe it or not, I bought this six months ago but had to go away on business for six months and just now getting to put it together.

Why do some manufacturers not include a fan? Is it suppose to be installed fanless? Like Thermalright?
 
Not an expert on this since I watercool but with a lot of the high end ones my theory is that the manuf realizes that one fan supplied with the heatsink cant please the whole market. There are (in my mind, which is pretty weird so take with a grain of salt) 2 main groups that would go for the larger more costly HS.

Crazy people that want super cooling and thus a high speed fairly noisey fan. And no matter what the manuf included most of them would stilll prefer something they picked out themselves. So fan that might not get used/make all happy gets tossed but still raises the cost of the HS.

Crazy people that want just good cooling but the major concern is noise, They want a quiet fan + big good heatsink for decent performance and whisper quiet.

So manuf cant win and let users pick their own fan based on need. IMO not a bad way to go as only you know what exactly you want.

Only a theory.

Not really, they need a fan, I have seen it (no fan on big heatpipe HS) done in posts with plenty of other case fans to make sure there is good case air movement and an underclocked and undervolted CPU (user was going for a near silent setup) but the even low speed case fans ended up causing as much noise as a med speed fan directly attached to the heatsink. It worked but didnt really meet the design goal.
 
OK, so it looks like, I'm going to go with the Thermalright 120 or 90 with a fan.
Here's another question, besides newegg, any recommendation for a good site that carries the 90? Newegg (my typical site I purchase stuff from) doesn't seem to have it in stock.

oh, and any fan recommendation?

Thanks again.
 
It looks like I want to go with the Extreme 120, the only thing I'm concerned about is, will it fit my LL A16 case.

On a side note, how's the Scythe Ninja Plus Rev B? This will be for my existing system that the CPU fan seems to be dying.
 
The Ninja is about the best you can do for under $45. It's a major improvement over the C2D stock HSF, where as less expensive options like the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro and some of the Zalmans give lackluster results at best.
 
I was looking at the Yate Loon 120 for the heatsink, didn't realize they sell them in different speeds. What speed should I get? Low, Med, High?

I see that they had Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F, but it's out of stock. And for about 4 times the price, is it much better?
 
Get the Ultima-90, it's so light and small but kicks butt. My temps don't reach max around 60 with 1.31 volts to my quad with it and a antec tricool fan on medium. I got the noctura fan for it originally but just not enough airflow for the cpu I thought, so I switched out the antec for it and put the noctua in the blowhole of my case.

Weird thing is, I actually aim that fan INTO the case, this makes no diff on cpu temps but drops the PWM temps by about 14C during load (which run hot on the ip35 pro). I've tested this config in many ways and due to this case that is the best setup despite that it flies in the face of everything you read.
 
Just wanted to say "thanks" for all the advice.
Went with the 120 extreme, some Yate Loom (didn't have the S-Flex in stock) and artic silver. :)

Crossing my fingers that it fits my case.
 
iqwertyi said:
Did you use a 92 or 120mm fan with the ultima 90?
Click to expand...

I went with the Noctua 120mm...it hangs over the top over the cooler a bit but it's no problem (has clips designed for it).

I went from my old thermaltake big typhoon which was so heavy it warped my mobo so I was looking for something just as silent that wouldn't weigh so much. The thermaltake ultima-90 is the king for it's price and performance...google it and you'll see.
 
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