Better water cooler?

willard

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Depends on how much you want to spend.

The Hyper 212 is an awesome low end cooler, which can be had for around $30 after shipping. Going with two fans in push/pull can get the noise level down, since the two fans can move the same amount of air at lower RPMs.

The Noctua NH-D14 is pretty much the best air cooler on the planet, but will set you back $90 and is absolutely massive, which is a problem in a lot of cases and motherboards (memory gets in the way). It's almost as good as the H100 on its highest settings, while being MUCH quieter. If you've got the room and cash to spare, I'd say this is the best thing until you get into building your own water cooling loops.
 

Razec69

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Get the Cooler Master Hyper 212 it works and works very well.

Don't even consider the Noctua anything. I know you will see a lot of people praise these things but don't even waste your money.

You will be better off getting a closed loop water cooling unit.

Are they the best in the world? No, nothing pre-fabricated in bulk is for computers.

But they do run a lot quieter than air coolers.

How do I know this?

I've had 3 sets of different water cooling and 3 sets of air coolers, and have looked at a ludicrous amount of reviews on each.

You will get about the same temperatures, but you don't have 2 fans blowing all the time. And on load water cooling runs just a bit cooler.

So seriously if you want an air cooler don't buy anything more than the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. I still have mine, not used but still have it just in case. And obviously my water cooling installed.
 

willard

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I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Top of the line air coolers will beat any closed loop solution unless the loop is running on max. When on max, the loop will be a hell of a lot louder.

For reference, check out Anandtech's review of the H60/80/100. They found that the Silver Arrow was almost as quiet as the closed loop coolers on their minimum settings, while being within 2 degrees of the H100 on maximum.

Closed loop coolers are for the cool factor only. Top of the line air coolers are cheaper, cool every bit as well and produce much less noise.
 

Razec69

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Hey my water cooling does the job, and I never hear it at all.

Having water cooling for the cool factor is good enough.

And I honestly can't trust the Corsair water cooling units, the block/pump is too thin to actually have good water flow.

If they would have tested an Asetek or can't think of the name right now. Maybe then it could have been a different story.

Oh another thing is I didn't say it would beat a top of the line air cooler. But to me it is just better. why have that huge ass Noctua XXX in your case possibly even blocking your RAM.

That's when problems can come in. Luckily I have a big enough case because if I would have had to position the push/pull config going down to up it could have caused problems. Luckily I have a grill on top of my case to let air out, b ut a lot of people don't have that so it could bring problems.

Luckily as well I just had all the hot air being sucked in from the case and pulled out to the back vents. I had really good cooling but I honestly heard the fan while they aren't noisy I still heard them and it gets a bit annoying.

With my water cooling I really don't hear anything. I have a controllable fan for my graphics card mounted in the front of the case and that makes more noise, hell even my hard drive fan makes more noise than the water cooling fan. Could just be dusty.

Again I wouldn't fully trust those benchmarks because/review because on load playing BF3 mainly Ultra/High settings my water cooling fan never becomes a problem I hear my graphics card fan ramp up more often than not. And the temps go to what maybe 50 C.

Also on Prime 95 that I ran for like 8 hours the other day because I finally got some Patriot Viper Xtreme ram overclocked my CPU went to 70 on load and the fan wasn't much louder than normal.

So just saying. It is true closed loop coolers aren't the best but if he wants it why not. It's worth it imo.

If you are going to waste that much money on a air cooler might as well go with the liquid stuff.
 

willard

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If they would have tested an Asetek or can't think of the name right now. Maybe then it could have been a different story.
Nope. Top of the line closed loop coolers are pretty close in terms of performance. You just can't get good water cooling at that price point. You need to spend at least $200 to get quality parts. Spend half as much, get half as much.

To get the price down closed loop systems use crappy radiators and underpowered, loud pumps. The fans have to work harder to cool the liquid, and as a result are much louder than a decent air cooler. You can certainly make them quiet by running them at their low settings, but then their cooling performance is awful and they aren't noticeably quieter than a good air cooler anyway.

If you want to buy a closed loop system for the cool factor, hey, knock yourself out. Just don't tell people that your closed loop system outperforms good air coolers, because it doesn't. It costs more and makes more noise to do the same job.

To me, if you want the best bang for your buck and just want to cool your system effectively and quietly, the only way to go is with a top of the line air cooler. If you want to use water, go big or go home.

Again I wouldn't fully trust those benchmarks because/review because on load playing BF3 mainly Ultra/High settings my water cooling fan never becomes a problem I hear my graphics card fan ramp up more often than not.
You'll have to forgive me if I trust a respected hardware review site that meticulously benchmarked the equipment in question over the heresay of some random guy on the internet who's contradicting a widely held belief that's been backed up by every benchmark I've ever seen.
 

rubix_1011

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There will always be a lot of misconception with Corsair/Antec units- most people buy them thinking they perform like real watercooling, but in truth, they do not...as many have stated here, they perform on par with typical, good air coolers.

For what you are spending on a Corsair/Antec unit...equal or better cooling can be had for much less. If you want real watercooling, you're really looking at an actual entry level kit, and even those can be bested by custom loops with better hardware.
 
+1 don't worry about it mate another noob or story teller everybody knows the NH-D14 runs circles around any closed loop except the H-100 which can only preform on NH-D14 level when on max which is very noisy but it does out preforms NH-D14 2c it be nice these claims be backed up with benchmarks guess they can't be though since there fairy tales! :lol:
 
+1 finally somebody who knows what they are talking about ;)
 
I regret buying the H80 for my hackintosh :( Truth is it didn't perform as well...
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Personally considering the prices for any of those prepackaged closed loop liquid solution the H-100 is the only one that even preforms well but it's over priced imho i can't figure out why they are selling so well the NH-D14 is better cheaper quieter :??: i suppose the only thing it could be is that they find it ugly or are brainwashed into believing they perform like real water cooling i don't know why it bothers me so bad i guess i shouldn't care so much it's not my money being wasted. :lol: