Looking for CPU cooler advice

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mc962

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Jul 18, 2013
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After rearranging some things in my build I discovered I had about $30 left over to do stuff with if I wanted. I figured, since it's a Haswell build, CPU cooling would be a good decision. The relevant hardware:

i5 4670k
ASUS Z87 Sabertooth
Corsair Low Profile RAM (2x4GB)
Fractal R4 case
I plan to add an MSI GTX 760 later on (and would like the possibility for SLI)

Cooler Master 212 EVO is the current plan I have now for CPU cooling (at $30-ish), but I was wondering if there was anything better in the $50 range (I could do $60 for something that is really worth it)
I believe the R4 case says it can fit coolers up to 160 mm (EVO barely clears this at 159 mm)

The build will be for gaming, and I do want to try overclocking when I learn more about it, but am not looking for any really high overclocks.
 
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Honestly, the 212 EVO is about the best bang for your buck. Unless you live somewhere really hot, or plan on overclocking a lot, there really isn't a need for anything more than that.
If it fits that is.
-Connor
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cdburner5911

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Honestly, the 212 EVO is about the best bang for your buck. Unless you live somewhere really hot, or plan on overclocking a lot, there really isn't a need for anything more than that.
If it fits that is.
-Connor
 
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mc962

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it should fit, or else all those people with their R4+EVO setups have been lying:)

i think i heard something about how you can add fans to the EVO, or replace what it has with a better fan? is this worth it at all or does it not really do much.

if that is the case then i guess the next best place to improve on cooling would be case fans? i think my case comes with 2 fans to start but more never hurts
 
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Sn1992-1361850

Sn1992-1361850

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The best u can get is a cooler master hyper 212 evo cooler
Its a grea cooler which can easily maintain low temps while o.cin
It can even outperform aio liq coolers like h60,h80 antec 620!,seideon 120m

And teh best thing is its for 30$


It would easily fit there
 
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cdburner5911

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Yes, you can replace the fan, it comes with brackets to hold 2 fans. The fan that comes with it works well, but it feels like a cheap fan IMO, but still pushes enough air to keep it well within reasonable temps! It even preforms quite well with a large amount of dust in it!
As great as this cooler is, I did put some tape on top of and below the fan to prevent it sucking a little air right past the fins, so I would recommend that, get maybe 1F cooler =P
 
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mc962

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do you have any specific recommendations? i saw in another thread there is a 2 pack from corsair Corsair Fan, SP120 PWM High Pressure Fan 4 pin, Dual Pack , which i guess i could put those 2 in and then use the old fan in the case

while im sure Noctua NF-F12 PWM Cooling Fan would probably be nice, $20 for one fan is a little much

Cooler Master Blade Master 120mm Computer Case Fan ive hard this is the one that comes with the cooler, are the above choices any better or would this one be fine

and also, how easy is it to put in another fan after the system has been built? could i just pop it into the cooler without taking stuff out all
 
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mc962

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i believe that fan said it used a 3pin connector. ive heard of 4 pin connectors but im not really sure what the difference is, and, in this case do i need it for cpu fan or no?
 
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Calculatron

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There are two coolers I can think up of, off-hand, that may be able to outperform the EVO that are within the $50 bracket.

The first is by Phanteks: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709019

The other being, I think, Thermalright True Spirit 120. (Couldn't find a link in the amount of time I have.)

At worst, both will probably operate within the margin of error of the EVO. The question is, is $20 worth the extra headroom?
 
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mc962

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just to confirm, if i wanted to put these fans in after the computer has been all installed and set-up, all i would have to do is unscrew the old one out of the bracket and then screw the new one back in; no removal of the heatsink or anything like that? i believe that's how they set it up in the youtube video but i just wanted to make sure

 
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mc962

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cdburner5911

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Yes, as far as I can tell the 4 pin one supports PWM, which is what you would want for CPU heat sink, because at full speed those are 35db, which is rather loud. And if your mobo only has 1 4-pin plug there exists proper 4-pin splitters for it I'm sure.

I'm actually not sure what your question was anymore, but I hope that helps. =]
-Connor
 
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