Cheap Quiet CPU coolers?

Cooler Master Hyper Tx3 or Hyper 212+, I don't know the clearance of the NZXT Vulcan for tower heatsinks, but I think It'll fit. Those 2 coolers are relatively quiet but offers great performance for that price.

Check if the stock cooler is the noisy fan, it can be the PSU fan, the 120 mm exhaust or the 92 mm exhaust.

Boot into BIOS and set the fan speed to the lowest possible.

Just wanted to let you know the TX-3 will probably fit but the hyper 212 is a maybe since your case has a width of 7 inches according to newegg. If that computer case does have cable management (usage of the side behind the motherboard) then I would assume it would not fit.

I doubt that case fans are the issue-all of them except one of the 120mm exhausts is connected to a fan controller set to minimum. The exhaust connected to the mobo is a hydrodynamic, and super quiet. It only gets loud while gaming, also running prime95. The GPU fan has a very distinct whine, and its not the GPU fan.

The Hyper 212+/Evo don't fit with the side intake on, and thats my major intake for the entire case. Also, massive tower style coolers might be a problem, because I only have 2 RAM slots next to the cpu, and the logical way to mount the tower would be facing up towards the top exhausts.

My RAM is 43mm tall.
The GeminII has 47mm clearance, so no problems there. The price is a bit high, $15 more than a Hyper212... However, I've read about some concerns with the cooler blocking the first PCIe slot on mATX motherboards... Its 144 mm wide both ways, and measuring, I have about 4mm of clearance from my GPU. I'm not too comfortable with that...
The Vortex Plus looks pretty good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6648
It has a 92mm fan, and is overall a smaller cooler. Looks like it should fit.
EDIT: However, from this review
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Vo...
The stock intel cooler ran at 48 dBA, while the Vortex ran at 57... Thats a lot louder than the stock, while I'm trying to find a quieter option...

What about this Artic Cooling: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=35-186-...

They say is very quiet and performs well, the bad thing is the ram clearance, because it can get very close to the ram itself.

That looks like a great option, except that there are 2 newegg reviews specifically stating that the Asrock H77 mobo, mine, doesn't fit this.
Edit: the stock intel cooler is about 90mm wide, and there's 5mm clearance to the ram.
The VRM is completely covered by my GPU, so I'm not hoping for a downdraft cooler to cool that... Its really a tossup between finding a tower cooler that fits and a downdraft that fits and isn't loud.
EDIT 2: The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 is only 127mm, which should fit. My only concern is for RAM clearance, which I am not sure about. http://www.codisha.com/reviews/ac/ac_freezer_7_pro_rev2...
That review has a picture of 32mm ram being pretty close to the fan. It also does not look like 40mm ram will fit under the actual fins, in my preferred orientation (exhausting up towards the top exhausts).

Scythe also has some nice downdraft coolers, but newegg/amazon don't stock them...

Best answer selected by valvemin.

Yep the GeminII blocks the first PCIe slot. I have the same case and initially tried the GeminII. With the side fan as I do, you will need to have less than 130mm in height to fit both. You could try the hyper 101, if I recall it wasn't terribly loud when I used it. But with the constraints that you have and I dealt with, I went with my Noctua and although pricey I am extremely pleased. Check out this site.

http://www.frostytech.com/top5_lowprofile_heatsinks.cfm

This topic has been closed by Proximon