very quiet cooler needed

[Mike341]

hi, i have a i5 3750k with stock cooler atm, and would like to see a colder environment for it. but i also dont want to blow out my ear. there´s only one problem...money. i dont wanna spend more than £40 on amazon.co.uk, but i want the cooler to perform better than stock at least, and be quieter than 30 DBa. if possible, below 25...thats about it...i´ll be using it in a 932 advanced by cooler master

so far, ive looked at 3 main ones

noctua nh-d14...too expensive
hyper evo 212...too loud it seems
hyper 612s...best contender, but does it perform??

thanks

 

[clutchc]

Why do you think the 212 EVO is too loud, have you tried it? Mine is so quiet, I can't hear it over the case fans. The settings in BIOS will allow you to run the CPU fan at very low RPM until more cooling is needed. Mine is running at less than 1200RPM right now.

 

[Mike341]

this says otherwise...it says at 1250rpm the hyper 212 evo will be at 44 DBa...now, i dont know the conditions for this test, but if i have it make
a comfortable amount of noise (less than 30 DBa) , will it still be better than just the stock one?

 

[Mike341]

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-EVO-CPU-Cooler-Review/1407

 

[clutchc]

I guess everyone has a different threshold for what they consider too loud. You'll notice of all those coolers in that list, the EVO was one of the quieter ones.
I think my EVO is quieter than the stock Intel fan that came with my i5-2500K at higher RPMs. At idle, I couldn't hear either one, tho. My 3 x 120mm case fans make a gentle whooshing sound that covers up the sound of my EVO at idle. And when gaming at stressful levels, the fans on my 2 x GTX 570s pick up speed and I still don't detect the EVO. Tbh, when I'm gaming, I don't hear anything but the game anyway ;-)