Best cooler?

Sixsixx

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Feb 7, 2013
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Hey guys, I'm relatively new to overclocking, and I've heard from pretty much everywhere that if I'm interested in getting a serious boost out of my CPU then I should look at a cooler other than the stock cooler.

So I've come to four separate choices, could you guys tell me which one would be best, they're all around the same price.

1. Corsair H100 [Liquid]
2. Noctua NH-D14 [Air]
3. Xigmatek Dark Knight Nighthawk Edition [Air]
4. A custom liquid cooling loop [Obviously Liquid]

So, which would be best? I've done the measurements and all of them will fit fine.

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k
Motherboard: Gigabyte B75M-D3H (Piece of ***, I know, I'm looking to upgrade to a Z77 Extreme4)

Thanks!
- Ryan
 
What cooler to get depends on how far you want to go on your overclock.

If ~4.2Ghz if your goal, then you dont need anything more significant than a Hyper 212 EVO.
More than that, I advise jumping straight to the Noctua, mid-range cooling isn't worth it IMO. The noctua performs the same as a H100i and cheaper.
Custom water-cooling if you want extreme overclocks, want to run a hefty overclock on a daily basis or want it to be quiet when under load.
 

HoboCannibaL

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Jan 17, 2013
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if you upgrade to the extreme4....watch your ram height, you will either have to use the pull config with the hyper 212 evo (assuming you want to use all 4 dimm slots), or offset the push fan a little bit if you're not going to use low profile ram.

Also, with the h100, they are very loud and you'll need to buy 2 more fans if you want to do a push pull config with it. From what i can tell with the h100 is that they have a lot of problems recently having to deal with "fan rattle" "noisy pump" "high pitched whine" and "sounds like a jet engine" complaints when being used. Claims say updating the firmware solves these issues, others say it doesn't.

My suggestion is to upgrade your mobo to something that allows you to overclock, and then decide how much you want to overclock and to what temps you'll be comfortable with, then decide on the cooling.
 

Sixsixx

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Feb 7, 2013
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I'm hoping for 4.6GHz+, but if possible 5GHz.

I've heard that with a P8Z77-V LK Motherboard (ASUS) and the H100i, hitting 5GHz shouldn't be too difficult.

Is this true?
 

HoboCannibaL

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Jan 17, 2013
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to be realistic, if you're wanting to go to 5ghz (if even possible without freezing ambient temp)....you should go the real water cooling route (expensive, complicated to a degree). I've read some posts saying that some people get to 4.5ghz with the h100i and people get similar results from the noctua air cooler.

on another note, if you're new to overclocking, then maybe try a little more gradual approach and not try to set records. I'm not sure how new you are, but a mobo can catch fire if you don't control the temps lol
 
For a goal like 5Ghz, would go with custom water-cooling.

Though you say you are new to overclocking, and 5Ghz isnt exactly an easy feat on an Ivy Bridge chip. I advise you lower your sights a bit to something more realistic.

Also why do you want to clock it that far?
Im running a custom loop on my 3570k, yet I don't bother to run it faster than 4.3Ghz. Quite simply I don't need the performance boost from a bigger overclock, so its not worth the added heat.
 

HoboCannibaL

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the stock ivy bridge does absolutely fine on high end gaming (no better than the i5 cuz games don't support the hyperthreading) the ivy chip has a turbo feature that will boost it to 3.9ghz and overclocking to 4.3 is more than enough juice to do whatever you're going to do.

Maybe he should set a budget on what he's willing to spend for a cooling system, and post the exact components of the system so readers have more of an idea of what he has to work with.