Quiet CPU air HSF recommends?

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Eyeball Kid

Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2002
Messages
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I'm looking to put a new system together, probably a 6700 but maybe a 6700K. I'm looking for an HSF around the $50 range with an emphasis on low noise instead of huge cooling capabilities. Also, something that I'm not going to have to worry about clearance around the RAM. I won't be overclocking the chip at first (Maybe not ever) so I'm not really looking for anything crazy. I've been using the stock Intel coolers the last couple of builds so I'm a bit out of touch
 
If you we going to spend $50, you are in the price range for a variety of all in one water coolers. You will have plenty of clearance for the RAM and you can keep the fan moving slowly if not overclocking.
 
Scythe Kotetsu nothing can beat that cooler in price/cooling/noise.

scythe.PNG
 
Thanks guys, the Scythe looks great. I'm a bit limited with my shipping options (I live in the Caribbean) so EBay is a bit tricky. I've got a Cooler Master Haf XM case which says the max cooler height is 7.7 inches: the Scythe comes in at 6.3 so I'm good there. Thanks again for everybody's input, much appreciated.
 
cyclone3d said:
If you don't mind buying off of eBay, you can get high end air for around $50 or less.

Noctua NH-D14 - $50 shipped.
Noctua Heatsink / Fan NH-D14 - New / Other

Zalman CNPS14X - $38 shipped
AWAY (may 20 - june 03)Zalman CNPS14X

And there are others. You just have to look.
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I can't say anything about the NH-D14, but the NH-D15 rocks. The only issue you have to be careful of is clearance. Some mid-towers are fine, some aren't. It is a beast of an air cooler, and some people think they are too noisy (I am not one of those people). If you want it quiet, most people replace the fans with the same size and you should be fine. And this thing should work on any CPU upgrade you make. Top it off with a 10-year warranty, it's a great deal.
 
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I did some digging about the Skylake bending issue with Scythe coolers. On their site, they say the Kotetsu isn't affected, however some people online are saying it is. I fired off an email to Scythe to clarify, here's the response

"We have a solution with a washer set(not screws) to reduce the pressure on Skylake. See attached file. All of new coolers(since January) already contain the aluminum washers. With the washer you can use the cooler with Skylake, without worry."

It's good they've been upfront about it but it still makes me a little leery. At least with the stock Intel cooler this isn't a worry.
 

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Well, I decided to spend a bit extra and get the Noctua NH-U12S. It probably performs a bit worse than the Scythe, but I prefer the mounting system. Plus it comes with some NT-H1 compund which I'd been going to buy anyway, so that offsets the cost a bit.
 
Wow I can't believe the1y even bet the original Rev 1 Ninja finally...! They went backwards after that in terms of noise and passive heatsinks (Rev 1 has biggest fin pitch - 5mm or so which is massive compared to anything modern) but that Kotetsu looks like a winner! Will highly consider it when I have to retire my Rev 1 Ninja :)
Back then fan tech wasn't so good though and very few sleeve bearing large diameter fans.

Noctua is amazing stuff too, had a few systems come through with NH14s, 58 degrees at 4.8GHz on a 6700k........
 
I was just looking at the install videos for the Noctua. It's been a LONG time since I've used a third-party cooler, I've been using the stock coolers the last few builds. In the Noctua video, it shows them just plopping on a blob of paste and letting it spread with the pressure of the unit. Last time I used compound, I went through the whole rigmarole of spreading it thinly and uniformly. Is it ok to just squirt on a blob like they show in the video?
 
Eyeball Kid said:
I was just looking at the install videos for the Noctua. It's been a LONG time since I've used a third-party cooler, I've been using the stock coolers the last few builds. In the Noctua video, it shows them just plopping on a blob of paste and letting it spread with the pressure of the unit. Last time I used compound, I went through the whole rigmarole of spreading it thinly and uniformly. Is it ok to just squirt on a blob like they show in the video?
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Yes. That's actually the recommended method in enthusiast communities. The pressure of the heatsink's interface surface against the CPU will spread the heatsink grease out for you.

For my part, though, I don't think it matters much. I sometimes spread the grease out with my finger and it doesn't really make any difference that I can tell.
 
Put together my new system last night, installed the NH-U12S. I'm very pleased with it, very quiet. I did however make a STUPID mistake installing it, I installed one of the mounting bars the wrong way around so I had to lift it off after I'd already made contact. Will this be a problem for the compound? My idle temps on a stock 6700K are around 37 (That's according to the BIOS, Intel tuning app shows between 19-24 degrees for the various cores). Under load its around 65 degrees - do these things temps seem about right?
 
Your temperatures sound about right, to me. You might be able to get it a degree or two cooler if you remove and clean the heatsink, and reapply thermal grease, but by no means do you need to do this - you're well within the expected range as you are.
 
I love my new Noctua NH-D15. It's quite and powerful. I replaced my old Evo 212+ and my 2500k at 4.1 dropped 10 C while being quieter. This thing is massive though. Once it's installed, it makes the first PCIe x1 slot and my RAM inaccessible. If I remove the one fan, I can access my RAM, but the top PCIe x1 slot is completely covered and this thing is within close proximity to my gfx card.
 
RazorWind said:
Your temperatures sound about right, to me. You might be able to get it a degree or two cooler if you remove and clean the heatsink, and reapply thermal grease, but by no means do you need to do this - you're well within the expected range as you are.
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Cool, thanks! What's a good program that can log my temps over a period? I think I'm gonna start obsessing about this for a while now...
 
Speedfan and Corsairlink are two options. I'd use Corsairlink. It should do what you want without the need for complex setup. I don't think you even need any actual Corsair hardware to use it.
 
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