I need an aftermarket cooler for an i5 I overclocked. I'm losing 400 points on my firestrike score after about 4 hours running time. This is not acceptable.
I want heat sinks, cooling tubes, engine looking one for max heat distribution, but the price varies so much. Which one will keep me coolest for less without liquid? Thanks for reading.
Recommend Me an Aftermarket CPU Cooler
[Deactivated] on 29/09/2017 - 00:46
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Thanks, i do have heatfins on my ram, i didnt even think of that!
I got the Noctua D15, agree with the hideous colour scheme, but I have a window-less case so I didn't care, just wanted the best CPU cooler for about $100.
The Noctua DH15 is essentially the best non-liquid cooler you can get. Now there are a heap of closed loop liquid coolers on the market which are dead simple to install and get around the issue of case space and ram fins. I personally like the NZXT Kraken but whichever one floats your boat will do.
If you are like me the the Noctua wouldn't fit in my case i'd recommend the Cryorig H7 Quad Lumi, using mine on my overclocked Ryzen 1700.
I am doing a ryzen build next probably in a smaller case, so I will keep this one in mind too.
Water cooling, 240mm radiator
Your definitely best off getting a high-end water cooler. After you buy it once, you'll never need to buy another cooler.
Unless you want more perchance in which air coolers win in this category.
The only benefit of water coolers are aesthetics and easier to work with regarding size and around ram slots but price wise an air cooler beats a water cooler ever single time.
So if you have a small space then definitely water cooler but if you can fit it and want to save money then air cooler but if you have money and time to blow and want even more leet aesthetics then custom water loop.
Mineral oil submersion.
Please tell me more, if this is not a joke that is. It sounds viable.
mineral oil is non-conductive, so the electronics do not short out.
fish tank + mineral oil + PC = super cooled PC.
ah, its still experimental. I like they way they are thinking, are there oils that take longer to heat than others, could you use a coolant in oil…so many questions!!!!
@stormii: you want to use a viscous & non-conductive oil as you want some circulation in the oil.
mineral oil is relatively inexpensive.
Any particular reason you say no liquid?
I used to run the Noctua NH-D14 but switched to a Corsair H110 when I built my new rig a couple of years back and it's been great, your tradeoff is that instead of needing room for the heat sink(s) you need somewhere to mount the radiator.
I'm giving this rig to my teen to use and encouraging him to upgrade parts as needed with his own savings. Whacking water cooling in at this point is just over-complicating things for him. I just want him to get as much mileage out of this old i5 before he needs to upgrade it, which i do want him to do eventually, after he has creamed himself over specs and saved for a while. I put a 1060 in it, so i had to oc it, and he will be wanting to unlock its full potential soon enough. Its a dastardly plan I know.
Had a Noctua NH-D14 and switched to a Corsair H80i V2, have gone back to the D14 couldn't stand how loud the radiator fans got, sounded like a jet taking off the NH-D14 is silent in comparison.
Probably also cheaper am I right?
Not really, $30 diff…
Had a Noctua NH-D14 and switched to a Corsair H80i V2
No wonder it was loud, with a tiny cooler like that I doubt the fans ever stopped running…
The H110 is way quieter than the NH-D14, they both run 140mm fans but the difference is that the Corsair only has to use them a fraction of the time.
I really doubt the H110 is way quieter. I can't hear my D14 fans over the intake and exhaust fans in my case. Looking at Guru3D review the H110 is 38db at idle same as the D14 and under load it's 39db whereas the D14 is 40db.
ive got a mini-itx, and was running a noctua low profile and it was pretty sweet. i upgraded to a raijintek because it could fit and was a good price. i've never bothered with liquid
Looks like the Noctura D15S wins this round. It seems highly recommended and will clear the huge fins on Cosair Vengence RAM, I'm gonna need every mm of the 45mm clearance. Thanks a bunch guys.
I know my RAM just touched my D15 cooler, so I just moved the fan on the RAM side up a bit. I only attaches to the radiator fins by clips, and you can move it as you please.
I figured i would move the ram to the second set of channels and the curve of each item will give me the clearance. I did a quick sketchup. If not, i might use a thick thermal pad for the extra mms.
Liquid cooling tends to be louder, and performance isn't actually much better than air.
In some cases air actually wins, more-so in high end tests https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr0qLLv3dKc
Noctua D15 is a great high end air cooler, and while some mention RAM height being an issue, the fan clip let me attach mine at any height I wanted. You'd need a very small MB for the heat sync itself to block your RAM.+1 for air cooling.. it's cheaper and gives more performance or effective cooling compared to water coolers according to this linus tech tips video
Only reason to go water cooling would be for aesthetics, smaller work area and preference otherwise air cooling should work out to be more reliable and cheaper with greater or similar performance and reduced sound noise volume.
That's the same video I linked ;)
Haha so it is herpa derp.. I must've posted this half asleep haha sorry man.. well you know what they say great minds.
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO has been recommended by many as the best budget cooler.
+1 for Noctua, i have one thats 8 years old and still as quiet and cool as the day i installed it. my pc has a had a LOT of usage in that time as im a fairly heavy gamer.
How much did you get it for.. I think I did some mathematics and research and working out on it and iirc it was the peak of air cooling efficiency in that adding more fins or heatsinks or changing the design wouldn't change much.
i bought it 8 years ago for $93 brand new. it was a NH-U12P-SE2. probable better performing models these days, but they are amazingly well built and very quiet and efficient. i would go another noctua any day. all my case fans are 120mm noctuas too. NF-s12B.
Yeah definitely remember around that era it was either corsair liquid cooling or noctua air cooling.. many years later and it seems to be noctua master race unless you have a small case or room to work with.
@AlienC: they do some low profile coolers too these days. and if you cant stand their colour scheme, pretty sure they have black fans now too.
So assuming you have decent space in your case pretty much every site out there will recommend the Noctua NH-D15 - excellent cooling, nice and quiet but expensive and comes with these horrible brown/tan fans.
I couldn't stand the fan colours so I personally bought the Cryorig R1 ultimate. IIRC most tests put it a couple of degrees behind the D15 but it's definitely worth it just to avoid that hideous brown/tan colour.
Oh ya also remember to check how tall your ram sticks are otherwise you might be in for a nasty surprise when you try to install.
Cryorig R1 = 35mm max (preferably 30mm)
Noctua D15 = 37mm max (preferably 32mm)
If your ram is taller than these, then consider the noctua D15S or the Cryorig R1 Universal. Both will clear the tallest of ram heatsinks.