Good, quiet cpu cooling

bloodatonement

I'm looking for a quiet way to keep a Core 2 Duo E6700 cool. Any recommendations would be much appreciated. Not really interested in any liquid-cooling, just a really good heat sink and quiet fan.

japan

Arctic Cooling make some good stuff, I have one of their coolers for a Socket A Athlon, which is completely silent.

JWFokker

Zalman has the quietest heatsinks this side of passive cooling. I'd get the CNPS7700 for $33.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118114

VoodooV

Scythe Infinity.

cheaper than lots of "high end" cooling solutions, but still rates higher in the reviews i've read. It is a HUGE cooler though, so take your measurements and make sure it will fit your case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185027

noobert

Noctua NH-U12F for silent.

JWFokker

noobert wrote: »

Noctua NH-U12F for silent.

Silent PC Review would disagree with you on that one.

Besides, why drop $65 on a heatsink when you can get a Thermalright Ultra 120 for $45? It's better than the Noctua in every way. Strap a Nexus 120mm fan on it and you can't get a quieter heatsink unless you go passive.

embrik

JWFokker wrote: »

noobert wrote: »

Noctua NH-U12F for silent.

Silent PC Review would disagree with you on that one.

Besides, why drop $65 on a heatsink when you can get a Thermalright Ultra 120 for $45? It's better than the Noctua in every way. Strap a Nexus 120mm fan on it and you can't get a quieter heatsink unless you go passive.

I helped a friend of mine put together a new pc recently, and he went with the Ultra 120 eXtreme. It is a beast of a heatsink, and he's got a nice, quiet 120mm fan attached. He overclocked his machine big time after installing it with no issues at all. The only problem was fitting it in the case, as it barely clears the side. There was this little plastic nub on the side of this case he picked out that I had to remove to make sure that it didn't get hit when you open the case. Regardless, he's incredibly happy with it, and all of the reviewers seem to agree. (Also, he's a mechanical engineer who designs electronics cooling solutions for a living, so if he's happy, it must be a decent product )

JWFokker

I'm pretty sure Thermalright accounted for minimum case width. PCI cards are all the same height, so that gives you about the maximum for heatsink height as well.

bloodatonement

Wow, that thing is a beast

I went with the Infinity, thanks for all the advice.

wunderbar

One thing I do NOT like about the zalmans(I have one), is that dust gets between the fins on those heatsinks so bloody easily, and it's really hard to remove. I have to blow it out once every 4 months, and once a year I have to take the heatsink off the cpu and spent an hour removing all the dust n' shit that's built up.

I don't dust my room very often, but there is no way that much dust should be getting stuck in there, it's ridiculus. I can actually tell when it's getting bad because my processor runs 5C hotter than it does when it's clean =/

JWFokker

bloodattonment wrote: »

Wow, that thing is a beast

I went with the Infinity, thanks for all the advice.

You're going to be in for a surprise then, because the Scythe Infinity is exactly the same height.

Unfortunately, it's more expensive and doesn't perform as well as the Ultra 120.

Deusfaux

I'd just like to chime in that I have a very briefly used Thermalright Ultra 120 for sale, so mint condition and fully boxed with everything

you COULD run things passive with one, or attach your 120mm fan of choice and go super cool

bloodatonement

JWFokker wrote: »

bloodattonment wrote: »

Wow, that thing is a beast

I went with the Infinity, thanks for all the advice.

You're going to be in for a surprise then, because the Scythe Infinity is exactly the same height.

Unfortunately, it's more expensive and doesn't perform as well as the Ultra 120.

Fuck, i thought I had check it's size and that it was smaller. Fuck.

Though it was cheaper than the Thermalright. Atleast on newegg

Deusfaux

cheaper because it's significantly less good than the thermalright

noobert

JWFokker wrote: »

noobert wrote: »

Noctua NH-U12F for silent.

Silent PC Review would disagree with you on that one.

Besides, why drop $65 on a heatsink when you can get a Thermalright Ultra 120 for $45? It's better than the Noctua in every way. Strap a Nexus 120mm fan on it and you can't get a quieter heatsink unless you go passive.

Where i am from (australia) it is more expensive.

Also, noctua is 59 and the ultra 120 + nexus is over 110.

Also, i'm pretty sure silent pc review rates the noctua fan higher than the nexus anyway.