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Robust Cooling on a Budget

L

LordLeeCH

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 6, 2006
Messages
66
Hey guys! As you can see from my signature, I am a bit behind. The wife has decided to let me do some incremental upgrades. I plan on reusing some of my old parts. I want a robust cooler, on a budget under $120.00, for overclocking a Sandy Bridge cpu. I have heard that the Sandy Bridge overclocks better and produces less heat.

Here's what we're working with, for space constraints and power::


Case::
Thermaltake V9 BlacX Edition with Docking Station

Motherboard::
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155

Ram::
CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)


I am using this power supply, so I don't think power will be an issue.

Power Supply::
Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-900 900W

I also picked up one of these per the review on this site! They have a great deal on these right now and I am TICKLED PINK with mine! It comes with an external enclosure to quickly convert it to a USB drive. I have done this a few times and I am pleased to announce it works flawlessly!

Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3B/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)



So, my question.

What would guys recommend for cooling, with these things in mind::
1.) my space limitations
2.) my needs for overclocking a Sandy Bridge processor
3.) a budget under, say, $100.00


Thanks guys!
 
The 212 is perfectly capable, so you really don't need anywhere near your budget. If you want to go a little higher-end consider the Corsair and Antec sealed water loop systems. It's a shame there's nowhere to mount a 2x120 radiator easily in that case -- a Corsair H100 would be great for you.
 
Its not that SB produces less heat, its that it transfers said heat better because of better thermal interface and a larger die. IVB produces less heat, but because it has a smaller die and shit thermal paste, it can't transfer it out fast enough. Thus its higher temps.

That being said, I really wouldn't recommend anyone build with SB anymore unless they want to try and break 5ghz. PCI-e 3.0 will make a difference at some point, and having it is easy future proofing. If you're just going for a mid 4ghz OC, IVB tends to run cooler the SB anyways. Its only when you crank up the volts that IVB has issues.
 
@IntelEnthusiast - is there enough room on the Extreme 4 for the Noctua? It seems like it would block some of my ram sockets and require low-profile ram?

@Silent-circuit - I was thinking about the H100 - I didn't know if the 240mm Fan slot in the top of the blackx would be sufficient for the radiator or not. Thank you for your input!

@Jorona - I keep seeing horror stories of IVB that run at like 76C under load. My house is extremely hot (thanks to my wife) and 76C sounds like a nightmare. My Wolfdale is running at 50C under load at 4.1ghz
 
The standard Corsair XMS 3 memory with the heatspreader on it stands 25mm tall and the Noctua NH-D14 bottom of the fan is 44mm off the board (that is the bottom of the blades on HSF, that can move a little up and down). So the nornal Corsair Vengeance memory is out but you should be safe with the XMS3 (just run it at 1.5v)(If you havent brought this memory already change it for some Corsair Vengeance low profile DDR 3 1600 or some G. Skill Ares DDR 3 1600.
 
Yea, I ordered the stuff listed above already. It should be arriving tomorrow. I went with motherboard, ram, and a second SSD today and I will be ordering my processor + cooling solution next week.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro was awesome on my previous build. The problem is the foot print of the fins - I had to cut the bottom fin to clear the North Bridge cooler. A friend of mine tried using his AC7 on an 1155 board and it blocked 2 ram sockets. Since the 212 Evo looks similar and is obviously being recommended - it might be a nice option.

Are any of the other H series coolers worth looking at? I know they make a couple of models besides the 100.
 
I used the Corsair H100 on my latest build but you have to be careful with the case selection since you have to have a place to mount a radiator that is over 240mm long.

With the Corsair H80 you just have to mount it in a place that will accept a 120mm fan. For overclocking on the Intel® Core™ i5-3570K and the Intel Core i7-3770K I think this is lowest of the Corsair closest loop coolers that I would use.
 
Sorry, Newegg lists the top fan as 200mm, so I was a bit confused. There are proper mounting holes for a pair of 120mm fans on top? It should be fine then.
 
I love doing case mods - I think I might go with the H80 and mod the rear of the case to accept it.
 
I think you will find that you get better air flow with the H80 on the back then trying to do the H100 mounted to the top.
 
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