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Need cooling recommendation

N

nlkc

n00b
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
47
Just got the i7 930, and Asus P6X58D Premium on its way. I'm planning to oc it to around 4ghz. What cpu cooling do you recommend?
 
I love my TRUE but if I were looking for a new cooler I would probably go with an H50 at this point. I have heard nothing but good things and you could always throw it into a smaller case at some point which I really can't do with the True.
 
Well you can't just ask a question like that without saying what you're looking for and some idea of your circumstances/requirements.

For example, I could recommend a proper watercooling setup with a 4x120 quad rad (fans at 850rpm) and would be confident that this cooling solution would be superior to any of the previous recommendations, in terms of overall cooling and noise, and especially for people who want a fully prime stable 24/7/365 overclock on a high end machine. Of course, given your circumstances and requirements, that might be the entirely wrong recommendation.

As H50 verses True, well, they both give similar performance, so don't base decisions on just that (and many reviews give the H50 lower performance than high end air, but for the sake of this discussion, let's just assume they're equal). Main advantage of the H50 over the True seems to be that [1] novelty factor (with less work than full W/C'ing) and [2] low profile and compact. Nothing wrong with the H50, just nothing that really stands out. See the review on this site if you want. Personally if I wanted air cooling, I'd get a proper high end air cooler like the Prolimatech Megahalems or True or similar, and if I wanted watercooling, I'd get proper high end watercooling, rather than a compromise solution like the H50 because it offers no real advantages over air cooling. But's that's just me, and based on my circumstances. (and also because the H50 is not ideal for silence enthusiasts given the pump and fan noise for it's performance level; on a site like [H] that's not an issue though.)
 
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H50

I have a 930 and an asus rampage 3 and I hit 4Ghz on the first try by just upping the FSB. I have it with push pull fans and it cools extremely well
 
Just because the H50 allows you to get to 4Ghz is a pretty poor reason to recommend it if everything else does the same. Now if it cools "better", then that makes sense, but it does not. You get the H50 for the coolness factor (and not refering to temps here) or compactness - that's it.
 
echn111 said:
Just because the H50 allows you to get to 4Ghz is a pretty poor reason to recommend it if everything else does the same. Now if it cools "better", then that makes sense, but it does not. You get the H50 for the coolness factor (and not refering to temps here) or compactness - that's it.
Click to expand...

agreed. H50 will get you to 4ghz but temps won't be awesome.

Best air coolers (which in my experience beat the H50 by a good 5-10c)

Prolimatech Megahalems
Noctua ND-H14
Theralright Venemous-X

Budget but great:

Xigmatek Dark Knight
Coolermaster Hyper 212
Scythe Mugen 2

All of those will get you to 4ghz assuming your chip and board are up to it.
 
Best HUGE as hell air-coolers: Noctua NH-D14, Cogage Arrow
Best HUGE, but manageable air-coolers: Venomous-X, Megahalems, Armageddon
Best budget coolers: Cogage True spirit, Thermolab baram, scythe mugen 2

Where does the H50 fit in there? I'm not sure... I don't have any experience with the H50, whereas I've now installed every cooler on that list above with the exception of the Armageddon (which is probably slightly better than the megahalems).

I think any of those solutions will get a capable chip+mobo to 4Ghz, but the budget coolers (and probably the H50) will begin to be overwhelmed sooner than the larger coolers (past about the equivalent heat output of 4.1Ghz @ 1.3v, the pack will begin to separate).
 
imo the budget coolers are the way to go, scythe and xigmatek that where recommended are just such great coolers for the price. going better is like paying a premium. i like that the fin spacing is wider then others too, means lower speed silent fans work better. if price is no object by all means get the best.
 
I upgraded from the Xigmatek S1283V Dark Knight (TT's "test box" showed it only a few °C higher than the Megahalems, for what that's worth) to the CoolIT ECO (H50 clone) for the space and weight savings. It did improve my temps some too (though the DK had built up a little dust in it, so it probably wasn't quite at 100% for the comparison). The CoolIT guys seemed pretty confident that the ECO should be a little cooler than the H50 across the board, but I haven't seen any good direct comparisons of the two posted.

Think of the ECO/H50 as a good 120mm air cooler, but with a remote heatsink. There are other high-end air coolers that beat it, and it's not really watercooling like you'd get with a custom loop. That said, it's much more flexible for mounting than those huge chunks of metal. I got my ECO for $65 shipped, so it's even comparable in price (i.e. not insanely expensive). If you have good exhaust fans, you can set it up to pull in cool outside air, which will drop your CPU temps more. Any air cooler in the middle of your system is pretty much never going to be able to pull in outside air directly, unless you set up some fancy ducting or something.

The Hyper 212 has been really cheap lately. That's probably the best value. If you want the best performance (short of real watercooling), get one of the top air coolers and do a push-pull setup on it. If you want pretty good performance and prefer not to have a huge chunk of metal on the CPU (or it won't fit in your case), the ECO/H50 is a good option.
 
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