Corsair H50 or Other Good CPU Cooler for i7 930?

[gabrielflight7]

I want to purchase a CPU cooler soon, and I've been interested in the Corsair H50. I know that it is an excellent cooler, but would anyone recommend a different unit? Something just as good or even better, and possibly cheaper? I really want to stay around $80 (the price of the H50 on Newegg) or lower.


Antec Nine Hundred (4 stock fans, adding one more)
i7 930
Asus 96X58D-E
MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB
6GB G.Skill 1600
Windows 7 x64
Thermaltake Purepower 600w

 

[WR2]

Hello gabrielflight7;
This review shows the relative performance of the H50 with several of the better air coolers. And it shows the improvement you can get with a dual fan, push/pull setup on the H50 (essentially a H70).
Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Water Cooling Kit Review

 

[gabrielflight7]

Thank you for that link, WR2 - that was a huge help!

I'm still pretty confused about exactly which to get though...there seem to be several great alternatives, and the H50 with the dual fan setup sounds pretty awesome.

I'm such a n00b at all of this, but determined to figure it all out!

 

[WR2]

When you get right down to it ..... the 3C difference isn't going to be a limiting factor.
Most games are GPU limited before they're CPU limited.
And even CPU limited games (like flight and racing sims) have just minimal gains in performance between 3.8Ghz and 4.0Ghz overclocking.

 

[Alfred_i]

my idea is:
noctua nh-d14
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1212/1/
corsair with push/pull is better but is more expensive than noctua nh-d14.and the difference is not very high.
but corsair is smaller than noctua.

 

[oz73942]

if size isnt an issue like alfred said the noctua nh-d14 would be your best bet, but if your put of by the color of the fans, get the thermalright silver arrow. Which is on par with the noctua and beats the h50 at $79.99. (just ordered it my self .)
here's some temps, Best you can get without going to water.(real water)
9

http://www.vortez.co.uk/contentteller/articles_pages/thermalright_silver_arrow_cpu_cooler_review,8.html