silent 1156 cooler

romperstomper

hi guys,

i'm looking for a cooler for my i7 socket 1156. biggest aspect should be silent running or as silent as possible (it runs at stock speed of 2.8Ghz)

any recommendations?

thanks, rs

Leman_Russ

romperstomper wrote: »

hi guys,

i'm looking for a cooler for my i7 socket 1156. biggest aspect should be silent running or as silent as possible (it runs at stock speed of 2.8Ghz)

any recommendations?

thanks, rs

Xigmatek Thor's Hammer. Doesn't get much more silent than fanless :pac:
You can also strap on two 120mm case fans of your choice (so you can buy whatever silent fans you want) for even better cooling.

romperstomper

doesn't mention 1156 in the compatiblity stakes:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=441389&cks=ASS&assoc=33B93A9A-5D6F-4008-8B95-5338CC3F2AA6

Leman_Russ

Yeah, forgot that (>.<')

You'll have to get the 1156 mount off ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.ie/Xigmatek-ACK-I5363-Bracket-for-Core-i5-i7-LGA775_W0QQitemZ330377312388QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4cec05b884

To be honest though, I am not using it. I just used nylon bolts with the 775 bracket, but I am nuts :P
I run an LGA 1156 i5 750, so it does fit.

Just a word of warning though, I tend to recommend good products, which apparently is frowned upon here, so take my advice with a pinch of salt as it were.

Venom

Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/cases-power-cooling/prolimatech-mega-shadow-photo-shoot/

Has all the brackets you need without having to **** around on ebay for parts or use it in a unsafe manner like some

Leman_Russ

Venom wrote: »

Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/cases-power-cooling/prolimatech-mega-shadow-photo-shoot/

Has all the brackets you need without having to **** around on ebay for parts or use it in a unsafe manner like some

But it's FUGLY!!!! :(:(:(:(

But yeah, that one will work too. If you are wanting the best cooling, pair it up with IC7 Diamond Thermal Paste. Have Turbo Boost active and the chip will run like a dream (a very chilly dream too)

batman2000

Acrtic Freezer ???

Solitaire

Leman_Russ wrote: »

Just a word of warning though, I tend to recommend good but very expensive products, which apparently is frowned upon here, so take my advice with a pinch of salt as it were.

Childish mood today, eh? :rolleyes:

BTW, FYP :P

leninbenjamin

Umm, a thread about a silent cooler, yet no one mentions the best brand in the market for silent products: Noctua?

Anyway, their entire line is here. Pricey though.

edit: Actually hadn't realised they launched a new cooler the last week, the NH-D14. It beats the Megahalem according to this review. that makes it pretty much the best air cooler on the market at the moment (assuming of course the results are replicated).

Solitaire

The AF7 is still perfectly valid, as the OP doesn't seem to be OCing and may not have the budget to blow €50-80 on a cooler when €20-odd can buy them the silence they crave

leninbenjamin

Solitaire wrote: »

The AF7 is still perfectly valid, as the OP doesn't seem to be OCing and may not have the budget to blow €50-80 on a cooler when €20-odd can buy them the silence they crave

I know I know, but it seems odd to have people mention the megahalems, the thor and not mention the noctua (which destroys both by the way in terms of decibels).

Effluo

OP how silent does it have to be?

You prob have and are listening to the stock fan on now. Any aftermarket cooler would be better.

Also are you sure that the cpu cooler is where the problem is? Like what case do you have, psu and gpu. Sometimes it's hard to determine exactly where the noise is coming from!

Venom

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I know I know, but it seems odd to have people mention the megahalems, the thor and not mention the noctua (which destroys both by the way in terms of decibels).

The coolers that Leman and myself mentioned totaly destroy the noctura cooler's on the i5/i7 platforms which all respected sites will concur. Neither of our suggestions come with fans so its up to the user to pick a fan or fans that best suit their needs of silence or performance

Anti

tbh, the stock intel cooler is pretty quiet i must say. Also OP, if you dont mind a bit of water cooling, the corsair h50 hydro is the same price as those top end air coolers mentioned above, and cooling is slightly better, especially if you change their 120mm fan for another one.

leninbenjamin

Venom wrote: »

The coolers that Leman and myself mentioned totaly destroy the noctura cooler's on the i5/i7 platforms which all respected sites will concur. Neither of our suggestions come with fans so its up to the user to pick a fan or fans that best suit their needs of silence or performance

Actually they don't. Just google for review's and you'll find plenty of bench's too the contrary, I know i linked to a couple in a recent thread before to (here). Got links to the sites you're talking about?

Leman_Russ

leninbenjamin wrote: »

I know I know, but it seems odd to have people mention the megahalems, the thor and not mention the noctua (which destroys both by the way in terms of decibels).

Huh? How does a cooler with a fan (which by the laws of physics must make SOME sort of sound/vibration) "destroy" a fanless Thor's Hammer or Megahalems?

leninbenjamin

Leman_Russ wrote: »

Huh? How does a cooler with a fan (which by the laws of physics must make SOME sort of sound/vibration) "destroy" a fanless Thor's Hammer or Megahalems?

Because the Noctua low RPM fans when set to ULN (low noise setting) operate at about 12db. That's considerably quieter than most case fans (i daresay almost all), case fans you would need operating anyway if you haven't got fans on the heatsink. So, with the Noctua you get the acoustic performance of a fanless cooler with good thermal performance (ULN Noctua would perform significantly better than a fanless THOR or Megahalems iirc).

Venom

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Actually they don't. Just google for review's and you'll find plenty of bench's too the contrary, I know i linked to a couple in a recent thread before to (here). Got links to the sites you're talking about?

[H]ardocp and hardwarecanuks would be the main ones but there were some of the smaller sites as well.

leninbenjamin

Venom wrote: »

[H]ardocp and hardwarecanuks would be the main ones but there were some of the smaller sites as well.

had a look at the i7 on hardocp as regards the NH-U12P. In the same review where they diss the Noctua, they say the TRUE beats the Megahalem, which I've never ever seen anyone claim before. I'm not sure i'd read too much into their results.

and hardwarecanucks on the NH-12P:

Honestly, this is one of the best and most refined CPU Cooling solutions we have seen in quite some time; and everything from its best in class manual to its best in class fan just reinforced this opinion. As we saw in literally every single test, this cooler is one of the best out there for both dual and quad core cooling.

although this was over a year ago, so perhaps their opinion has changed, i cannot find anything newer. Still very positive though.

And of course, as I mentioned, the NH-U12P is no longer Noctua's flagship model. Their new one one, the NH-D14 seems to be the new champion, at least according to early reviews, and it's priced less than it cost me to get my NH-U12P 6 months ago...

Anyway, sorry for dragging this out a bit much. To direct this back to the OP, if silence is that important that you don't mind paying extra for it then the Noctua's are definitely worth looking at. The best performers though are the NH-U12P (€60) and NH-D14 (€75), but the downside (apart from price) is that these are massive, a lot of mid-tower cases would struggle to fit them inside. On the low profile side of things you have the NH-U9B (€50) and the NH-C12P (€60). I don't know as much about these. They do seem to come recommended from what little I've read about them (certainly in terms of noise at least), although considering their price is very close to their big brothers they don't look as appealing to me.

youcancallmeal

I'm using the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus myself. I would consider it quiet and very good at cooling. My I5-750 hovers around the 30 degrees mark and under load I havent seen it go above 40 degrees (I havent really put it under a lot of stress so far though). Cheap as well comapred to the likes of Noctua and other high end coolers

ScumLord

It's unlikely your cpu fan is the loudest thing in your case. All I can hear is hard drives and case fans. It is the coolest looking upgrade you can put in your computer though.

romperstomper

should have provided this info before:

case: antec p183
psu: passively cooled
hard drive: intel x-25m SSD

the ONLY fan is on the cpu, passive 5750 ordered, currently using passive 7600GT