The best QUIET! CPU cooler

[bumblebee13]

Sorry to add to the endless CPU cooler threads, but not many seem to answer the question i'm very interested in.

I'm about to try and build a near-silent system with a core 2 duo E6600, however at the same time i want to OC it quite a bit.

From looking at wusy's list:

-Scythe Infinity
-Scythe Ninja Plus
-Scythe Mine
-Tuniq Tower 120
-Thermalright Ultra-120 or SI-128 or SI-120
-Noctua NH-U12
-Thermaltake Big Typhoon
-Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
-Zalman CNPS CNPS9500AT
-Zalman CNPS 7700AlCu or 7700Cu

It seems that i probably want to go for one of these, so out of these which would you say is the quietist, and by going for the quietist on that list how much OCing potential would i lose by not going for the best?

And is there a CPU cooler not on this list which is quiet and performs well to?

ATM i'm thinking of the 7700Cu, because i know zalman are quiet and Copper is a better conductor than alluminimum so surely it would have better performance, but i'm open to all suggestions so fire away. Thanks

p.s. though water cooling would be good for quiet and performance i'm not really interested

 

[clue69less]

I'm about to try and build a near-silent system with a core 2 duo E6600, however at the same time i want to OC it quite a bit.

You probably need to give some kind of hint about your interpretation of "near-silent" and "OC quite a bit". For air cooling, those paths diverge pretty quickly. The Ninja Plus is the quietest of the better cooling HSFs that I've had experience with, but on my rigs it is a couple of degrees warmer than the Mine and the big Zalmans. I do not like the big mass of the Mine and NP.

 

[bumblebee13]

I'm about to try and build a near-silent system with a core 2 duo E6600, however at the same time i want to OC it quite a bit.

You probably need to give some kind of hint about your interpretation of "near-silent" and "OC quite a bit". For air cooling, those paths diverge pretty quickly. The Ninja Plus is the quietest of the better cooling HSFs that I've had experience with, but on my rigs it is a couple of degrees warmer than the Mine and the big Zalmans. I do not like the big mass of the Mine and NP.

Well as for noise, it's rather a grey area - personally i would rather keep it in the lowish 20dBas, vague i know, but around there.

I've heard the zalman 9500 is very quiet, with a max dBa of 27.5, but i don't know about it's quality?

That ninja plus does look good, it's in wusy's list, has great reviews it seems, and it also seems quite quiet, apparantly only 23.5dBa (i am doubtful of that though), but if anyone could credit this cooler as being as good as it looks i'd give it serious consideration.

However, like you said it's size does cause concern, it looks MASSIVE! i would be very worried about not knocking my comp or moving it any way whatsoever if i got one of those, nearly a kilo!

edit: as for OC quite a bit, well anything over 3Gig i would be happy with, never OCed before so it's a bit of a starter project for me, not expecting anything too extreme.

 

[clue69less]

Well as for noise, it's rather a grey area - personally i would rather keep it in the lowish 20dBas, vague i know, but around there.

Then you're leaning towards the NPlus or Tunic Tower, something like that. This may not allow much of an OC if the Tunic. When the Zalman kicks up to its top speed, you will hear it. Not an obnoxious tone, but audible.

I've heard the zalman 9500 is very quiet, with a max dBa of 27.5, but i don't know about it's quality?

People dis Zalman for cost and noise but cooling and quality are excellent.

 

[bumblebee13]

That's weird - i always thought Zalman were good for noise, i guess i was wrong

Well it seems i'll probably want to go for the Scythes, just wondering why you don't think the Tunic is any good? From a brief look it seems to have good reviews, and it's in wusy's reccomended list.

As for Scythe, what's the difference between the infinity, ninja plus and mine? I'm tempted to go mine as it's 1.5dBa quieter than the other two plus it weighs 560grams which is a tiny ammount compared to the others.

 

[wstcoaster07]

I am currently running the 9500 and I would recommend it to anyone else who asked. I have my e6600 OCed to 3.2 and as far as i can tell, heat is not an issue (nor noise level) I am running at idle around 50C on cpuTemp (asus posts it as 31C but i hear that they always display "not true" core temps.
The noise level is very low and deffinitely not louder than my OCed 1900xt with its fan runnin full.

 

[clue69less]

That's weird - i always thought Zalman were good for noise, i guess i was wrong

Well it seems i'll probably want to go for the Scythes, just wondering why you don't think the Tunic is any good? From a brief look it seems to have good reviews, and it's in wusy's reccomended list.

I'm not saying the Zalman is bad for noise. It's just not as quiet as the NPlus. And the Tunic is good but many people use it fanless and in that configuration, I wouldn't plan on a big OC.

 

[jaguarskx]

As for Scythe, what's the difference between the infinity, ninja plus and mine? I'm tempted to go mine as it's 1.5dBa quieter than the other two plus it weighs 560grams which is a tiny ammount compared to the others.

Both the Scythe Infinity and Ninja are designed to be passive heatsinks that's why the fins are relatively far apart from each other. The Scythe Mine is designed to be an active cooler, that's why the fins are closer together and the fan fits in middle of the cooling planes.

There have been some mixed reviews about the Scythe Infinity. It appears that the Infinity is edged out ever so slightly by the Scythe Ninja.

 

[clue69less]

As for Scythe, what's the difference between the infinity, ninja plus and mine? I'm tempted to go mine as it's 1.5dBa quieter than the other two plus it weighs 560grams which is a tiny ammount compared to the others.

Both the Scythe Infinity and Ninja are designed to be passive heatsinks that's why the fins are relatively far apart from each other. The Scythe Mine is designed to be an active cooler, that's why the fins are closer together and the fan fits in middle of the cooling planes.

There have been some mixed reviews about the Scythe Infinity. It appears that the Infinity is edged out ever so slightly by the Scythe Ninja.

He asked about the Ninja Plus - it has the wide fin separation of the Ninja but includes a fan, so I'm assuming they mean it to be actively cooled.

 

[bumblebee13]

Well thanks for the help so far i've not made up my mind yet, but i've been having a look around and it seems the Ninja Plus is very highly recommended, and very quiet too (and if it's not quiet enough for me i can just go out and buy a quieter fan for it) - plus a new, lighter revision of it is benig released in about a week which is good

 

[gm0n3y]

I have that Zalman 7700cu and it seems pretty quite to me. My 120mm exhaust fan is louder.

 

[DaveUK]

Scythe Ninja Plus, with a Nexus 120mm fan, and an in-line voltage regulator set to 5v (7v will cool better, 12v better still but loudest) is generally regarded as being the quietest HSF setup available.

HOWEVER it should also be apparent that

Low fan speed = low noise but low CFM air being pushed = worse cooling

High fan speed = high noise and high CFM air being pushed = best cooling

So, in reality you really have conflicting requirements. When it comes to air cooling, Silence and Overclocking capability are pulling in opposite directions.

At the end of the day, the Scythe Ninja is a very good cooling solution due to its heatsink design (and the fact it can be used fanless in some systems), but the decibel volume will be largely dependent on which fan you use and at which voltage.

Simply put: Buy the Scythe Ninja, the Nexus fan, and a voltage regulator such as Zalman FanMate. Adjust the voltage between 5v and 12v until you get suitable temps at an overclock you are happy with.

If it's too noisy at 12v you will need to concede some overclocking headroom. If you are as happy with the volume at 7v as the volume at 5v then run it as 7. Experiment!

I hope this helps.

 

[tmodel1937]

Well! I think the Zalman 9500 is quiet, some of my other case fans make more noise, however, it may not cool as well as you like. I was running a stock AMD cooler at 54C (overclocked to 2.7) at idle. With the Zalman it now idles at 58C. I just re-installed it to make sure I didnt do something wrong, like apply too much AS5, but no, its still at 58C! Bummer!

 

[deviantdave]

 

[Lottie]

It's an underperforming gimmick HSF.
Just look at reviews when compared with other cheaper & superior coolers.

Vapochill Micro doesn't even stand a chance against any of the HSFs listed in Wuzy's guide.

Bragging, recommending and trying to justify your mistake will not be allowed here.

 

[bumblebee13]

Well thanks for all the advice so far guys it's great when you get this many replies...

But after quite a bit of reading i'm 70-80% sure now that i'm going to go for the new Sycthe Ninja - i've been reading a lot of reviews on it, especially the one on SPCR (people i respect greatly when it comes to knowing about silence), and they gave it an 8.5/10 saying it's the second best cooler they've come across - performing excellently and quiet.

I'll probably see how loud it is with the stock fan at first as that allready seems to be pretty quiet, but if it's not quiet enough i might get a SilenX for it (ooo the controversey :lol: ), i know they're not the most reputable of companies and are widley criticised for their marketing techniques, but all reviews say their products are actually great, if unforunatly expensive.

 

[deviantdave]

It's an underperforming gimmick HSF.
Just look at reviews when compared with other cheaper & superior coolers.

Vapochill Micro doesn't even stand a chance against any of the HSFs listed in Wuzy's guide.

Bragging, recommending and trying to justify your mistake will not be allowed here.

My A64 x2 doesn't get above 29*c and it's completely silent.

 

[bumblebee13]

Excuse my noobness, but how do i run two instances of prime 95? I assume by saying dual you mean running the program twice at the same time.

 

[Onus]

I have that Zalman 7700cu and it seems pretty quite to me. My 120mm exhaust fan is louder.

Same. My 7700cu is only barely audible, but a 120mm intake I've got starts to howl when I crank it up.

 

[gm0n3y]

I have that Zalman 7700cu and it seems pretty quite to me. My 120mm exhaust fan is louder.

Same. My 7700cu is only barely audible, but a 120mm intake I've got starts to howl when I crank it up.

Yeah, I swapped out my stock 23 CFM fan for an AeroCool fan:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835129246

I moved my stock fan to the front for intake. Has anybody ever used this fan:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835220014

110 CFM @ 39.5 dBA. Its pretty loud, but it moves a lot of air! The only downside I can see (other than the noise) is that it only comes in white (WTF?).

 

[bumblebee13]

True, the 7700Cu does seem to be very quiet but at the end of the day the ninja, from reviews, seems simply to be better.

And thanks wusy, running it right now, panicking as (on coretemp) my core near 60c, argh 58c

 

[clue69less]

I have that Zalman 7700cu and it seems pretty quite to me. My 120mm exhaust fan is louder.

Same. My 7700cu is only barely audible, but a 120mm intake I've got starts to howl when I crank it up.

Is it a stock case fan? If so, you could try one of the quiet fans like Scythe or Yate Loon. I've used those and SilenX but the SilenX is so expensive, you've got to really want quiet to fork over for them.

 

[Grated]

I have an Zalman CNPS CNPS9500AT (with E6600) and it's working great!
I don't hear the cooler and it cools great to

 

[bumblebee13]

Speaking of SilenX, i'm going to be getting three of them two - two 120x25 and one 120-38... luckily it's my birthday coming up so i've got an excuse to get them, but are they as quiet as they are made out to be? Everyone seems to have a different opinion on them.

And if so, what is their CFM like? Due to me planning on OCing i want quite a good CFM though i don't mind sacrifycing a bit for silence

 

[clue69less]

Speaking of SilenX, i'm going to be getting three of them two - two 120x25 and one 120-38... luckily it's my birthday coming up so i've got an excuse to get them, but are they as quiet as they are made out to be? Everyone seems to have a different opinion on them.

And if so, what is their CFM like? Due to me planning on OCing i want quite a good CFM though i don't mind sacrifycing a bit for silence

There was another thread on SilenX fans recently so check it out. I'll just summarize by saying that there seem to be more skeptics than believers in SilenX. I'm a believer but admit that they are horribly overpriced.