The "very best" air cooler?

[ambam]

I was wondering what the current "holy grail" of air coolers was. I've read about the coolermaster V10 and a few other coolers. But whats the real deal? Which heat sink and cooler has the absolute most cooling power?

 

[sportsfanboy]

Here's a run down on the best air cooler out there.

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

 

[jimmyzline]

There are a multitude of opinions out there. I can only give my opinion. I recently installed the CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ and my temps dropped 10C idle and 20C under load. Linx running for an hour and temps never went above 42C on my 1055T Idles at 19C. For <$30.00 you cannot beat it.

 

[Ubrales]

^1 to jimmyzline comments.

When looking at the V10 cooler, please be aware that it interferes with tall RAM. Check the clearances first.

Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler is also a great product. Please compare prices - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242001

Allow adequate clearances for "push-pull" fans if you decide to go that route (one fan is a must). Also, take into consideration Horizontal Vs North-South configurations, and make sure that it will fit inside your case.

 

[aznshinobi]

It all depends on the price you want to spend. Like Jimmy, the Hyper 212+ is a good budget heatsink for only 30$. It's not the best, but certainly one of the best budget ones.

The Thermalright Silver Arrow or Cogage arrow for that matter is one of the, and probably is, the best possible air hsf you can get right now. However it is one of the largest as well.

Review: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-silver-arrow_5.html#sect0

The Megahalems ubrales said is actually a great heatsink as well, but I would just go with the Silver Arrow, of course both are good hsf.

 

[abully]

well ambam said Holy Grail!!!

So the list of the top coolers would be Thermalright Silver Arrow and followed closely by the bigger Noctua NH D14. There are a lot of other good coolers which come close to them but nothing at the moment bests them yet...

 

[Twoboxer]

I'll third the motion . . . the Silver Arrow appears to be the best atm.

 

[duk3]

Yes, the Silver Arrow is smaller, better cooling and quieter than the NH D14 at the same price. I would go for that if you have the money and case space, however a hyper 212+ can overclock to 4ghz at a third of the price, making it the better deal if you don't have the inclination to spend $90 on a Silver Arrow or Super Mega+Fans.