Best Value For Money Air CPU Cooler

edifice

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Feb 19, 2010
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Hi Guy's,


I am going to be overclocking my i7 930 CPU from stock @ 2.8ghz to hopefully somewhere in the region of 3.5 maybe 4mhz so as to be able to get the most out of my Sapphire 7970 and to not have to hold back the FPS my monitor ties it down to in vsync at 60fps.

Can anyone with a similar if not the same CPU offer their recommendations?!


 

edifice

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I was actually told by a friend to opt for the Thermalright Silver Arrow?! But the problem I think I would have with any cooler that size is I have just installed Corsair Vengeance RAM 12gb with the large heatsinks and I don't think that either the Silver Arrow or the Noctua NH-D14 which is what I was aiming for would now fit?!

 

atari 2600

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You might have to get one of them cheapo all for one liquid units and I never recommend my clients to use designer ram it makes absolutely no difference but now you cant use a good air cooler.
 

atari 2600

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I rather keep the 5 bucks they can keep there 3c plus good thermal compound application technique will make up the difference and then some.
 

edifice

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Thanks for the info, but would my case dimensions make any difference? I use a Cooler Master 830 Stacker that I have had for a few years, and it is quite big. I have tried as best I can to see where the 147mm depth of the Thermalright comes to in relation to the first slot of RAM in my Gigabyte X58-UD3R and it looks as though it would fit? Although I don't want to order one and it be of no use once I get it?!

:fou:
 

atari 2600

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Cause of your ram clearance issue I would recommend a Corsair H80 or Antec Kuhler 920
 

rolo swaggins

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The evo actually is diffirent than the 212+ because the base of the heat sink is flatter therefore creating less room for air which is something you want even though you probably wont notice a big difference
 
I've recently tried out a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO ($35 - Unlapped - 1 fan) on an FX 8350 (lapped).

It is within 2c of a high end Phanteks TC14PE ($80 - lapped - 2 fans) at 4.4GHz, all 8 cores, on stock voltages.

Fans and TIM used were identical and high quality. CPU and HSF were copper-to-copper contact for best performance.

Temps were in the 55-56c range under load on the Phanteks cooler, 56-58c on the Hyper 212 EVO.

So for moderate overclocking, my recommendation is the Hyper 212 EVO. The 212+ is also good but will run about 1-2c warmer.