is there a better cooler than evo cooler master 212?

plrbear1028

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I get 36 degrees idle and 45 on full load, it never hits 50.
 


What is are your system specs and what are you running when you are at "full load"?
 

plrbear1028

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Asrock h97 mobo
gtx 980 ti GPU
i5 4460 CPU
Corsair CX 750 W PSU
250 GB SSD Samsung
8 GB vengeance RAM
2 1 TB Black Western Digital HDD
Phantom 410 case with 1 140 mm intake fan in the front, 2 120 fans at the top of the case exhaust, 1 120 in the back as exhaust, 1 140 mm as side fan as intake, 1 120 mm fan in the bottom of the case as intake and it's up on a file cabinet next to my desk, away from the carpet.
 

plrbear1028

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what would be a better CPU cooler? I live in the room in which the sun comes in and goes.
 

DaronMal

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Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-D3H
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K @ 3.4GHz
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
RAM: G.Skill Sniper Series (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB Twin Frozr
Hard Disk: Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 ATA Device (1TB)
Hard Disk: Seagate ST2000DM001-1ER164 ATA Device (2TB)
Hard Disk: Seagate ST3160828AS ATA Device (160GB)
Monitor: BenQ RL2455 (24")

R9 290 is one of the hottest cards if not the hottest card on the market, and it's never shut down from heavy load, even playing stuff like BF4, Skyrim, Dota 2, it performs perfectly, the CM Hyper 212 EVO is the best CPU cooler for the money 2nd to none. If you want water cooling, go with the Corsair H100i.

Right now under idle (a few tabs of Chome, Skype, iTunes) it's at 104-105F or 40C
 
Different cpus have different cooling needs. There are better coolers than the 212 evo, though it's not a bad cooler. It's pretty decent for the price even if it's an aging design. The scythe kotetsu, raijintek themis evo, cryorig h7 are all good coolers (the last two for sure have a bit better cooling than the 212 evo) within the same price range. Being that it's a locked core i5, it won't need as much cooling as an unlocked i5 or i7 that's been overclocked. Not all but just about every aftermarket cooler starting around the $20-25 range is likely better than the intel stock cooler. They use heatpipes and cooling fins vs a large solid chunk of metal which isn't nearly as efficient at removing heat. Any of the coolers mentioned including the 212 evo should be plenty to cool a cpu that will only get so hot.

Coolers like the cryorig h7 have an updated design with offset (angled) heat pipes that allows it to fit lga1150 motherboards (h97 falls under this category) with no chance of interfering with the ram. The 212 evo isn't designed this way and was designed/built before the lga1150 came about, the fan placement has a tendency to require either low profile ram in the dimm closest to the cpu socket or will slightly push against it if the ram has taller heatsinks.

I have a 4690k oc'd to 4.2ghz in a room that sees temps of 33c+ at times and the 212 evo keeps it plenty cool under normal workloads. It's not a gaming pc though. Thankfully I had some low profile ram for it since it's running 16gb of ram using all 4 ram slots. In order to attach the 212 evo the cooler has to be installed first, then the fan attached. It was a bit awkward getting the fan clipped on even with a low profile stick in the first dimm slot. Had the cryorig h7 been on the market when I built it, I would have opted to use it instead. Ambient temps (room temp) would be good to know beyond the room just being in direct sun once in awhile. Since the 4460 doesn't overclock, it won't be seeing temps as hot as an oc'd cpu will.
 

plrbear1028

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should I switch to the cryorig h7? is the temp drops dramatic ?
 
Should you switch to the h7 - from, a 212 evo? If you already have the 212 evo, keep it. The difference wouldn't be enough to warrant spending on a whole new cooler like the h7. Unless you're having heat issues, then I would consider a better class of cooler like the phanteks tc14pe, cryorig r1, noctua nh-d14/15 - the big air coolers. The h7 is a better budget cooler to get for someone who is shopping for a cooler say to replace the stock cooler and is choosing between the h7 and 212 evo, rather than a replacement for a 212. It would be more of a sidegrade than an upgrade.

The 212 evo isn't a 'bad' cooler, just an older design and improvements have been made over the last several years since the 212 evo was introduced. Better mounting, improved orientation to reduce ram clearance issues etc. I have a 212 evo on a 4690k running a low overclock at 4.2ghz and it's in a hotter room of the house that gets a lot of sun. It cools it just fine. Unfortunately I bought it and a few months later cryorig introduced the h7. If the h7 had been out I would have gone with it instead but it's not enough of an upgrade to warrant fiddling with removing the 212, buying and installing the h7 in its place. It's in now. I don't personally care for the 212 evo's mounting, it's a bit flimsy but it does the job. The system it's on is running 4 sticks of ram so the ram fitment was a bit of an issue. Thankfully 2 of the sticks were low profile, I was able to insert the low profile stick closest to the cooler so it fits below the fan. Even with a normal height ram stick in the 2nd dimm slot from the cooler, snapping the fan in place was a little fiddly. Not impossible, just more tinkering than was necessary.

Despite its massive size by comparison, the dark rock pro 3 installed much easier in my opinion. No center knurled nut to try and tighten with my fingers, no scissor action X shaped mounting bracket. Just install the backplate with the standoffs, place the cooler face down, rest the motherboard on top and screw it down. Rock solid. Also something to keep in mind, pain in the rear or not a cooler doesn't typically get taken out and installed over and over so once it's in it's in. For me it was just a minor gripe but if there are easier coolers to deal with why struggle if you don't have to right?