Best budget CPU cooler in limited width PC case

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The Protagonist

The Protagonist

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Mar 2, 2014
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Hello everyone,
I've asked this in my local forums, but instead of reasonable advices, I've got some offensive posts from intel fanboys, so I hope nobody here wants to start that stupid battle intel vs amd...
So I builded new budget pc a couple weeks ago with fx-6300 and it's getting 65 celcius during gaming. I mounted 120mm side cooler (cm sickleflow) and it cooled down the max temp to 61, but I've read recommendations to keep amd below 60 degrees. I've done some market research and the nr1 price/performance cooler I found is zalman cnps5x performa (~18$ in my country). Should I buy it or it's better to save some money and buy some cheap water cooling system like Seidon 120v (60$ here) or Corsair h60 (~80$) in the future? Any reasonable suggestions and opinions are welcome.
P.S.: stop offering evo 212 :) It's expensive in my country (40$ and higher) and it wouldn't fit in my Zalman T4 case.
 
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The Protagonist

The Protagonist

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Mar 2, 2014
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I'm from EU (Lithuania), and I don't want to spend more than 30$ on air cooler... Also, it would be great, if a new cooler would let met do some overclock... I know my M5A78L-M/USB3 would let me do some, correct me if I'm wrong. But as I said before, I'm also interested in trying one of those cheap water-cooling systems, if it would give a huge performace jump.
 
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Bad_Kitty13

Bad_Kitty13

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Feb 26, 2014
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putting your cpu under water is a better solution as you can reach higher clocks especially since the clearance in your case most likely limits you to 92mm fans on your heatsink. air cooler is cheaper but with height restriction is a poor choice imo.
here are some reviews of each in oc performance
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_h60_2013_review,10.html
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/cooler_master_seidon_120m_review,8.html
it seems as the h60 has better cooling but they are 2 different cpu test beds. it also depends on your chip itself as it is luck of the draw when it comes to overclocking. you may need to raise the voltage more on one chip to achieve a 4.5ghz clock where as a chip in the same series you may only raise the voltage slightly to achieve the same clock in a stable configuration. the voltage dirrectly affects the temp of the cpu and will cause performance loss if it is to high. so imo i would go with the h60.
 
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The Protagonist

The Protagonist

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Mar 2, 2014
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Yeah, i know water cooling is better solution, that's why it's more expensive :) And the better system is, the more expensive it is, it's a law :D But how reliable it is? How long will it last?..
Anyway, I'm on tight budget after new build, so probably I'll take zalman until then, unless someone will suggest a better option in that price range?
 
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Bad_Kitty13

Bad_Kitty13

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Feb 26, 2014
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yea it seems to be that way but there are some exceptions just not here from what iseen. both are entry level but i trust corsair because i have used them, i had a h80i and it never failed on me up intil i sold the system and i had it about 2 years. and it was cooling a 3870k and those things get hot when overclocked. the zalman should be good build quality too i just havent used them. when you get the one you want make sure there is no moisture in the packaging that it is in as that is a sign that there is a leak. hope this helps
 
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