The top three cooling performers, in order, are Noctua and Zalman, followed by Phanteks. The three coolers with the highest cooling-to-noise ratio are from Thermalright, Zalman, and Noctua. Wouldn’t it be nice if one of these companies could also top our cooling-to-price chart?

Alas, the least-expensive models take that prize. All three of the best cooling-per-dollar contenders use mid-speed fans, and only Corsair needs a pair of fans to achieve this value rating.
If we exclude Enermax from this overclocking-oriented cooler comparison due to its relatively low thermal performance, we’re left with the 31 db Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo battling Corsair’s A70. A temperature difference of only 1° C certainly makes it hard to argue against Cooler Master’s lower noise level, yet price parity will probably push many enthusiasts to take that 1° to the bank.
It’s at this point where we must wonder what would happen if we compare acoustic efficiency to price.

Cooler Master wins this time, and by a wider margin. If we were basing this review on Intel’s upcoming Core i7-3820, we might even hand out a value award and be done with the story.
But we’re not using a low-cost processor, and prices on Intel’s six-core models justify higher standards of cooling and noise. Putting cost aside, we like the low temperature and noise of Zalman’s CNPS12X. But it also doesn’t fit our motherboard in the desired orientation, or even provide proper memory clearance for our 1.55” tall DIMMs. Instead of using the CNPS12X backwards or trying to remove its fans and face them the other way, and then installing shorter memory that we didn’t even want, we’re forced to consider Noctua’s second-place performer as a perennial champion ever since its took the performance lead two years ago.

The problem with “Best of” awards is that the best often changes before we can even get a review published. Determining that something's the best also means we have to test all of its competition. If we trust that Noctua’s competitors put forth their best efforts for this comparison, two years of performance leadership make the NH-D14 deserving of our highest honor.
But how valuable is this award, really? The NH-D14 just earned this editor’s very first “Best of Tom's Hardware” in the award's four-year history!
- LGA 2011: No Boxed Solution, Pick Your Own Instead
- Installing Akasa's Venom Voodoo
- Installing Arctic Cooling's Freezer i30
- Installing Cooler Master's Hyper 212 Evo
- Installing Coolink's Corator DS
- Installing Corsair's Air Series A70
- Installing Deepcool's (Gamerstorm) Assassin
- Installing Enermax's ETS-T40
- Installing Gelid's GX-7
- Installing Noctua's NH-D14
- Installing Phantek's PH-TC14PE
- Installing SilenX's EFZ-120HA5
- Installing Thermalright's Archon SB-E
- Installing Xigmatek's Venus XP-SD1266
- Installing Zalman's CNPS12X
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Cooling And Fan Speed
- Benchmark Results: Noise And Acoustic Efficiency
- Which LGA 2011 Cooler Would We Buy?
By that logic, having no cooler at all is the most efficient... 0g/200c= 0 efficiency ratio. And a dead CPU.
Also, the higher the temperature (Bad), the lower the ratio, which doesn't make sense.
You would also need to use the ambient temperature delta rather than the absolute temperature in any sort of ratio for the results to be meaningful.
I think that the majority of people don't care how heavy their cooler is, only about the price.
On a side note i wish the "ZALMAN CNPS9900MAX-R" was reviewed as well considering on newegg it is compatible with LGA 2011, and I've been eye balling that one since it came out for my next build.
I've heard nothing but great things from CM's Hyper 212+ and Evo variants. Might I add the other powerhouse in affordable cooling, Thermalright's TRUE Spirit 120 for just about the same price. It seems the Hyper 212+ and TRUE Spirit have fallen off in Heatsink/Fan comparison charts despite kicking some serious ass against there competition price rise, and can even hang very well against high-end coolers costing 2-3 times as much.
I realize you have to compare modern products to modern products for the sake of it, but just a FYI for those not familiar with the cooling scene. Don't ever count out a product that first debut 2-3 years ago, they can still hang, the good ones at least.
Water cooling is a lot more expensive and a lot more complicated. Water cooling systems are not maintenance free and always add the risk of a leaking pipe.
$80-$90 is a small price to pay for getting a quieter PC without resorting to water cooling.
Example:
Noctua NH-D14 weighs 900g without fans and it did 45c at full load.
900g/45c= 20.00 efficiency ratio.
Panteck PH-TC14PE weighs 970g without fans, performing at 46c.
970g/46c= 21.09 efficiency ratio.
CM Hyper 212 EVO Weighs 580g with fan, performing at 51c.
580g/51c= 11.37 efficiency ratio.
Ideally, the lower the ratio, the more efficient a cpu cooler is. Other charts count as well when making a final decision.
I checked newegg and amazon
seems like a good replacement for my sunbeam core contact heatsing
By that logic, having no cooler at all is the most efficient... 0g/200c= 0 efficiency ratio. And a dead CPU.
Also, the higher the temperature (Bad), the lower the ratio, which doesn't make sense.
You would also need to use the ambient temperature delta rather than the absolute temperature in any sort of ratio for the results to be meaningful.
I think that the majority of people don't care how heavy their cooler is, only about the price.
I am not saying that i need mass to make my decision. And i agree that surface is important. All i am saying is that i want to see cpu heatsinks to be more efficient or equal at cooling with less metal.
Great cooler and I am happy for the fact I choose it over others in the same price range
Also, controlling fan speeds with A70 is simple with the Asrock MOBO. Just don't plug it into a CPU header--plug it into a 3-in Chassis header and let Speedfan set the speed (with voltage regulation) based on CPU temp. With the inline resisters, I can get RPMs down to 1000-1100, which seems pretty quiet. Seems to have little effect on cooling - weird thing about the A70 is that higher CFMs don't change much unless you hit the 130+ levels. Maybe it doesn't conduct well enough?
Seems like a very biased review all around. If you're gonna give a prize to the Noctua NH-D14 despite its price and size on the basis that it's one of the top performers and it's quiet, you should have also tested the A70 at the lower fan speed and accordingly given it OR the Hyper 212 Evo a prize for being the best bang-for-buck for cooling performance or noise-to-performance-to-value ratio.
People that are gonna buy the i7-3820 probably care a little about value, too, and the money saved from getting a cheaper cooler could go somewhere else--like a faster/higher capacity SSD, more RAM, a more feature-rich motherboard, etc.
Any chance of re-testing this?
Many thanks for the article, very helpful.
I remember them at one time having some of the best coolers around.
No, biased as in "you used a crappy testing methodology (by not using the included inline resistor for the A70 which would in turn lower fan noise)" and gave the top-performer the only award because, according to you, people buying i7s have completely disposable incomes. According to you, the people buying into this platform don't give two craps about performance for the money, and it doesn't matter that they could use the money saved from going with a less expensive cooler for something else like a better SSD or a more feature-rich motherboard.
Again, if you're gonna give the Noctua NH-D14 an award, you need to give one either to the Hyper 212 Evo or the Corsair A70, too, on the basis that they deliver the best bang-for-buck. With the A70 we don't even see an accurate comparison regarding fan noise, so it's impossible to know if it would've been the jack of all trades.
I've been using Thermalright coolers in my builds recently, however on one build, I combined a Thermalright CPU cooler with a quiet Scythe fan, and several quiet Scythe case fans in an NZXT Gamma chasis. The result is much quieter than I expected, however, the system is well cooled.