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CPU Cooler for gaming rig? Noctua vs CM

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  • Overclocking
  • Gaming
  • Cooling
  • CPUs
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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November 16, 2013 10:41:42 AM

So I need a new cpu cooler for my recently built gaming rig. I rather stupidly rushed into being sold a cm hyper evo tx3 and it runs too warm with a 4.3 ghz overclock on my i7 3770k. Voltage is 1.21 so not an overly high voltage, and I don't really want to drop below 4.3ghz - as the cpu will run at 4.5ghz with a voltage of just under 1.25 - the only thing holding it back is the cpu cooler.

It idles O.K ish at around 35c but under load it goes to 80 in under 20 minutes so it's obvious to me that I need a new cooler.

I have read so so much hype about the hyper 212 plus and what a great bargain it is - I'm just sort of in disbelief that it can perform only 3 - 5c worse than a Noctua DH-14 on an overclocked i7 at full load. It just doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much heatsink potential or fan power.

So my question is this - is it a bit hit and miss as to whether a hyper 212 plus will keep a 4.5ghz oc'd i7 at under 65 - 68c at load?

65c at full load is my goal, is it achievable with the 212 or is an nh - d14 the way forward?

More about : cpu cooler gaming rig noctua

a b K Overclocking
a c 207 4 Gaming
a c 161 à CPUs
November 16, 2013 10:45:54 AM

I would opt for the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO instead. About the same price and performs a tad better. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO can handle an overclock upwards of 4.5GHz. Any higher, I would advice you get the Noctua NH-D14 or a Phanteks PH-TC14PE. Then latter has better color schemes than the ugly Noctua so that's worth considering if colors matter to you.
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November 16, 2013 2:54:27 PM

What sort of temp reduction would I see realistically with the 212 evo? Will it run a 4.5ghz overclock at 65c or there abouts?

The case btw is a coolermaster k350 with two 120mm coolermaster fans as exhaust, 1 side mounted blowing onto gpu two in the front of the case and a 120mm fan blowing air up from the bottom of the case too.

TX3 currently has a coolermaster 120mm fan blowing into it and an akasa 92mm amber fan pulling air through it - then the rear exhaust fan directly behind that pulling air out also.

Is it possible that the case is limiting the cooler?
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a b K Overclocking
a c 207 4 Gaming
a c 161 à CPUs
November 16, 2013 3:20:39 PM

Can't say. On my i5-4670K @4.5GHz with the 212 EVO, I get average 67.4C at full load. I think max I got was 69.4C - 69.7C. Can't remember. It was around that range. Though, it's not usually at full load so I don't have a lot of data on it. It's just a bench I ran when I first got the chip to see how far I could push it.

But know that not all chips are created equal. Even if I had a i7-3770K, my numbers may not match yours. You may have a really good chip that can go 4.5GHz at lower temps or have a really hard time getting to 4.5GHz. It just really depends.
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November 16, 2013 3:23:02 PM

Cheers for that - very useful. As far as my chip is concerned it seems OK. It reaches 4.5ghz stable at less than 1.25 volts so I'm pretty happy with that. Think it's being held back by the current cooler.

I will give the 212 evo a go and if it doesn't manage Ill then get a noctua I guess.
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