Worth upgrading from an Ultra-120?

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Rajveer

Limp Gawd
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Aug 9, 2005
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I'm upgrading my i7 930@4GHz to an x5670 and looking for at least a 4GHz clock. I currently have a Megahalems Rev B with 2 Akasa Apache 120mm fans and was wondering if it was worth me upgrading my heatsink?

At one point I was thinking of going for an AIO cooler (something like the H80i) but I've read that they generally are louder than air coolers and I don't want to go any louder than I currently am, and they seem to receive mixed opinions.
 
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FWIW you can find a used Noctua nh-d14 for usually around $50-60 and that should keep your x5670 quiet and cool. I have the new, expensive nh-d15 cooler and it only shaves off about 2-3c.
 
I think what you've got is nearly as good as it gets. Noctuas are nice but those Akasa fans are probably similar in acoustics so that would end up more of a sidegrade. They and AiO's are not going to get any better clocks I would say. What turned me off of the AiOs is what you found out; all of the tests are conducted with higher RPMs so suddenly those temps don't look that great and there is a risk of leakage and pump whine. Having high end air coolers, if you seek higher clocks the only way to go is a custom loop and instead of dropping 400-500 on a good setup, I keep buying guns instead, a repeating habit if you will. I am doomed to air cooling.
 
I went from a TRUE to a AIO, noticed no change in temps, noise levels about the same. I wanted to upgrade so bad as the TRUE had gone through 3 builds and I was going into my 4th and just had the upgrade bug, ended up realizing it was NOT worth it and would have been better spent on a better CPU/GPU, I now have the switftech unit and it is a beast, less noise and temps are much much lower.
 
Would you say multiple-slot AIOs are a better comparison against air cooling in general, and single-slot aren't worth considering?
 
For an upgrade? Not really, single AIO work GREAT for small cases, most will not fit a large tower cooler, but noise for cooling there is not much if any gain from my personal experience.
 
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