Best CPU cooler for €100 / under €100?

Brian OH 99

Hey, I'm planning on overclocking my i5 3570k to 4.5ghz soon. I'm wondering if I should buy a whole new CPU cooler or just get 2 new premium CPU fans and attach them onto the current cooler? Any ideas? I really wanna get 4.5GHZ without any rattling/loud sounds or overheating/high temps in the CPU.

Basic specs linked with CPU:
Case: Cooltek Antiphon Black
Motherboard: AsRock Z77 Pro
CPU: i5 3570K
Current CPU cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo w/default single fan
PSU: 500W

Luck100

I have the same cooler and an i7-3770k. Have you tried overclocking yet? What voltage do you need to get to 4.5 GHz (stable)? Would be worth trying it before spending on better cooling.

My cpu turns out to be something of an overclocking dud. I need around 1.35V to be stable at 4.5 GHz. I wouldn't want to run regularly at that voltage no matter how low the temperature. If that's your situation, extra airflow won't really do you much good.

Luck100

Another important issue for ivy bridge cpu's is that they have TIM internally instead of solder. This means that heat tends to get trapped inside as compared with previous cpu generations. Your cooler can only remove heat if it actually gets out to the surface of the heat spreader. That's why some people de-lid their chips to get better thermal transfer.

My impression is that the evo already removes as much heat as can get out from the chip. A bigger cooler won't do much better.

I agree that the fan on the evo can be a bit loud at max rpm's. That would be the main benefit of an upgrade - quieter airflow at max speed.

Brian OH 99

Alright thanks! I have heard of plenty of people with 4.5ghz on i5 3570k so I'm still going for it. I think I'll follow your advice and keep the Hyper 212 EVO, I might just get a new fan for it though for quietness...they only cost like 9.99 anyway.

BloodBath

No point getting anything better than a 212 evo. It will get 4.5ghz on 3570k's most of the time. You will see very little gains past this point with any cooler.

You could add 2 fans to the case. Adding another fan to the cooler will do very little. Stick another intake on the bottom of the case and an exhaust in the rear top.

These are a bargain. Free delivery if you order enough of them.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermalright-X-Silent-120-50000-hours/dp/B002U50YAY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1384447868&sr=8-5&keywords=120mm+fan&tag=fczbkkcom04-21

Brian OH 99

Thanks! Will I need to buy some sort of wire to connect the fans to the motherboard or does it come with that wire?
(sorry im a pc noob )

BloodBath

It depends on how many free 3 pin connections you have left on your board and how many fans you are adding. You can buy a fan controller or a 3 pin fan splitter for the board or a molex to 3 pin splitter but you won't be able to control the speed with that.

One of these should do the trick if you need it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BitFenix-60cm-3-Pin-3x-Adapter/dp/B004J3MHDM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384449363&sr=8-3&keywords=3+pin+fan+splitter&tag=fczbkkcom04-21

Brian OH 99

Cheers!

Brian OH 99

Hey the seller only has 1 of those fans in stock BloodBath and the 2nd seller has expensive delivery and only 2 available and then the other sellers have 15 pounds for delivery.......

Any other silent 120mm case fans I could get instead? I need 4.

BloodBath

Those fans will be back in stock in a week if you can wait.

ED E

[QUOTE=BloodBath;87505623
These are a bargain. Free delivery if you order enough of them.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermalright-X-Silent-120-50000-hours/dp/B002U50YAY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1384447868&sr=8-5&keywords=120mm+fan&tag=fczbkkcom04-21[/QUOTE]

Tht really is a good deal. Must remember them next time Im odering from amazon, push some more air onto my GPUs.

Brian OH 99

Alright I'll wait the week, no probs

Brian OH 99

Last question...sorry. What would be a good fan to replace the stock one on my Hyper 212 Evo (not looking to get an extra fan on the heatsink, just to replace the current stock fan on the Hyper 212 Evo) It's quite loud and once I get the new fans and all, it'll keep my PC from being a stealthy ninja. might as well do it now and get it out of the way Budget: shouldn't exceed 20 pounds anyway (from amazon if possible)

p.s: I hear you need a fan with at least the same RPM as your CPU's stock fan or you'll lose cooling performance (duhh) that's why I don't think those case fans would work well on my heatsink as the CM H 212 evo stock fan is 600-1600 RPM while that case fan is 1000 RPM max

Brian OH 99

Could somebody answer me?

Luck100

I'm not sure you can get a replacement fan which will be much quieter than the evo's and still push the same volume of air. The quieter fans with good airflow tend to be bigger (140mm) but those won't fit the evo.

To be honest I don't find the evo fan loud at all. Apparently the U.S. spec evo's run at 2000 rpm top speed so that might impact some of the reviews that call it loud.

You can also just set a custom fan profile or change the fan speed in the bios to keep it below 1200 rpm. I have a 'silent' bios profile like that and then I can't hear it all, even with my case fans turned down to minimum.

Luck100

If you really want to get the most out of you air cooling, go could for something like the Noctua NH-D14. That will be better than any kind of extra fans strapped to the evo. I considered it myself, but it wouldn't fit on my motherboard (it's too wide, and it would have hit my gpu in the first slot). The D14 is also very heavy, it can crack your motherboard if your pc gets jolted while moving.

You'll definitely get lower temps with the D14, but that will probably only buy you another 200 MHz of overclock. The actual overclock you'll get in the end depends on your luck with the chip you got - some need lots more voltage than others.

BloodBath

It's a decent fan but there are better. I couldn't tell you what high end/ high performance fans to go for though tbh.

There's so many variables in tests it's hard to get definitive answers.

Ideally you want something with high static pressure, good airflow and quietness. It's pretty hard to get a good balance of all 3 of these.

The D-14 is total overkill for a 3570k. It will be quieter sure but really not worth it for similar overclock results.

Luck100

To put it in perspective...

IF you have a very good or even 'golden' chip, you might hit 4.7-4.8 GHz with the evo, or 4.9-5 GHz with the big heavy D14.

IF you have an average chip, your looking at 4.5 with evo and maybe 4.6-4.7 with D14.

If you have below average (and it's not uncommon) you might only do 4.3 with evo and 4.4-4.5 with D14.

Those aren't exact numbers but I think it's reasonably accurate.

Brian OH 99

Luck100 wrote: »

I'm not sure you can get a replacement fan which will be much quieter than the evo's and still push the same volume of air. The quieter fans with good airflow tend to be bigger (140mm) but those won't fit the evo.

To be honest I don't find the evo fan loud at all. Apparently the U.S. spec evo's run at 2000 rpm top speed so that might impact some of the reviews that call it loud.

You can also just set a custom fan profile or change the fan speed in the bios to keep it below 1200 rpm. I have a 'silent' bios profile like that and then I can't hear it all, even with my case fans turned down to minimum.

What GHZ is your CPU running at? I'm planning to get at least 4.2GHZ for my 3570k. Is your CPU below 65 degrees under load ?

Also about that heavy Noctua heatsink that 'could crack my motherboard' (:eek:) which would 'be an overkill for the 3570k', I found a fan very similar to the one on it. It has 1600RPM max speed and a 18 decimals (or db whatever) sound rating. That seems fairly solid.

Luck100

My 3770k is definitely below average for overclocking. It needs 1.23V to be stable at 4.3GHz in prime95, with hottest core hitting 83C. Gaming loads are much cooler. Unigine Valley benchmark only hits 52C.

The overclock didn't impact my gaming quality in any perceptible way so I went
back to stock speed with a little undervolting. The hottest it gets is 60C on the hottest core with prime95, everything else is much cooler. I might put the overclock back on if I start feeling the need for more performance.

BloodBath

What are the radiator fans people always recommend on here? Was it the be-quiet silent wings?

If it's good for a rad it will be good for a cpu cooler.

Luck100

Brian OH 99 wrote: »

What GHZ is your CPU running at? I'm planning to get at least 4.2GHZ for my 3570k. Is your CPU below 65 degrees under load ?

Also about that heavy Noctua heatsink that 'could crack my motherboard' (:eek:) which would 'be an overkill for the 3570k', I found a fan very similar to the one on it. It has 1600RPM max speed and a 18 decimals (or db whatever) sound rating. That seems fairly solid.

Like Bloodbath said, it's hard to give precise advice on fans. Those db noise levels are not measured in a consistent way between reviews and manufacturers, so they're not a reliable guide for general comparisons. They're only useful when the same person does the same measurement consistently for several different fans.

BloodBath

Never trust the manufacturers stated specs either

Brian OH 99

I checked it off this website :P they were all put at same % speeds and tested
http://www.quietpc.com/120mmfans

After looking at that again for me this seems like a good fan:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-NF-S12A-PWM-Case-Fan/dp/B00BHCMYIQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1384880228&sr=1-1&keywords=Noctua+NF-S12A

17.8 DBs sound, 1200 max RPM, 107m cubed of wind blown per hour...sounds good

I'm not even sure if my fans anywhere near 1000RPM on idle and it still is loud at idle. At load it's probably around 1000 RPM. It's very loud but definitely good at its price. my idle temps are 23 degrees. I just hate the loudness.

Luck100

Install this, it will show your fan speed and system vital stats live.
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

My cpu fan runs at 600 rpm at idle. Can't hear it even with all the case fans turned down to minimum. It definitely shouldn't be audible at idle.

BloodBath

Brian OH 99 wrote: »

I checked it off this website :P they were all put at same % speeds and tested
http://www.quietpc.com/120mmfans

After looking at that again for me this seems like a good fan:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-NF-S12A-PWM-Case-Fan/dp/B00BHCMYIQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1384880228&sr=1-1&keywords=Noctua+NF-S12A

17.8 DBs sound, 1200 max RPM, 107m cubed of wind blown per hour...sounds good

I'm not even sure if my fans anywhere near 1000RPM on idle and it still is loud at idle. At load it's probably around 1000 RPM. It's very loud but definitely good at its price. my idle temps are 23 degrees. I just hate the loudness.

What about static pressure?

Brian OH 99

BloodBath wrote: »

What about static pressure?

1.19 mm H2O

source: http://www.quietpc.com/nf-s12a-pwm

Brian OH 99

Luck100 wrote: »

Install this, it will show your fan speed and system vital stats live.
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

My cpu fan runs at 600 rpm at idle. Can't hear it even with all the case fans turned down to minimum. It definitely shouldn't be audible at idle.

1445 RPM right now and fairly loud (like a zmmmmmmmmm sound)
When playing Arma 3, a very CPU intensive game. Temps are good.

Hmmm maybe the other fan won't cool as well?

Luck100

So, you're seeing 1445 rpm in Arma. What about at idle? Just wondering if your fan profile is too aggressive.

Are you overclocked now? With my current setting (stock clock, undervolted) I'm running prime95 right now and seeing only 1050 rpm fan speed and 56C peak core. It's still very quiet at that speed, it doesn't get noticable until around 1200 rpm.

Brian OH 99

1440RPM in idle too.....very cool (temp wise) though and even though it's noticable it's still not half as noticable as my GPU when on full load.

Edit; Ugh...GPU isn't scoring too high FPS wise on Ultra and is very loud and hot..going to OC my CPU and see if my FPS improves a lot in Arma 3 and BF4, if not I'll either get a new heatsink+triple fan setup for the GPU or get a new GPU around Christmas - January.

I'm getting 25-45 FPS + 85*C in Arma 3. Only around 20-35 in Multiplayer... And in BF4 my temps rise to around 85-89 degrees and I get around 40-55 FPS. If I don't find a fix for these temps this card can get pretty badly damaged can't it? I heard you should try to get under 80 degrees at least.. I OCed it and the temps stayed the same and FPS went up in Arma 3 by like 5 FPS or so. (BF4 doesn't support OCed cards yet so it just crashes when your CPU is OCed)
Also I tried removing a bunch of vents in my case to allow maximum air ventilation and put the case fans on 100% to see if the card would cool down. Only got 2-3*C cooler

Luck100

Your evo fan shouldn't be running at 1440 rpm if the cpu temps are low. Make sure it's plugged in to the motherboard fan controller, not some other case fan power connector. Your motherboard should spin the fan down to low rpm when the temps are low. There's also usually a fan profile in the Bios - make sure you didn't set that to run at max speed all the time. You might also have some fan controller software that runs in windows - that might be overriding the Bios and running your fan at max.

Not sure what's the issue with your gpu. What card do you have? Those 85-90 degree temps in Arma and BF are your graphics card, right?

Brian OH 99

I'm OCing my CPU now to check if that'll give my FPS a boost. Yeah it's plugged into the Motherboard and it was set on default to be fast always. I'll change it to auto now if I can. Those temps are on my GPU too, not the CPU.

Brian OH 99

I think I won the silicon lottery big time
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=87589446#post87589446


4.7GHZ on 1.176v with 58*C --- More info there

BloodBath

That's great. Is it stable? How long did you run the benchmark for?

Your actual vcore is around 1.2v, it was as high as 2.16. Your temps were pushing 61c as well on some cores but it's still a great result assuming it's stable. You should be trying to get your voltage setting in windows to match your bios setting. I think the load line calibration deals with this.

Brian OH 99

I ran it overnight for 7 hours 7 mins. I thought the voltage under the motherboard was the motherboard+its other cables voltage and then the one under CPU (1.176v) was the CPU's max voltage...how could I get them to match? Enable of disable that LLC thing?

Luck100

Vcore is the actual voltage going in to your chip. VID is the voltage 'requested' by your chip, based on the current workload. I.e., at idle VID will be low and under load it will pop up to a higher value. At stock, your Vcore should be close to VID at idle and will "droop" below VID at full load. That's perfectly normal. Setting LLC to more aggressive levels will get the Vcore to track VID more tightly.

When you overclock and set the offset voltage, the offset only affects Vcore (not VID). So they won't match, but that's on purpose. If you set offset of 0.01V, that should push Vcore up by 0.01V relative to VID.

Brian OH 99

So if my cpu is only requesting 1.176v then I can make the Vcore be like 1.18v and the CPU will still work the exact same?

Luck100

Yes, that's the whole point of the offset voltage - to increase/decrease the Vcore compared to the VID. At a given clock (say 4.8 GHz), there's some minimum Vcore required for your chip to be stable under load. You should be tuning the offset to find that minimum. Generally you want to run you chip at lowest stable voltage possible - low volts are good for chip health and lifespan, but not enough volts and you're not stable.

Luck100

You can check out what kind of clock/voltages people are using here
http://www.overclock.net/t/1247869/official-the-ivy-bridge-stable-suicide-club-guides-voltages-temps-bios-templates-inc-spreadsheet

Also some good overclocking guides on that forum, look for the one on ivybridge.

Brian OH 99

Thanks. Now I'm going to see how high it can get. If I can get to 4.9 or 5GHZ with like 1.2V or so, would that be bad for my PC? It won't always be at 1.2v and 5GHZ as it has turbo enabled, so I guess it'd be ok? Or am I wrong? How much would my CPU's life lose out? It should still last 2-3 years more right?

Gumbi

Brian OH 99 wrote: »

Thanks. Now I'm going to see how high it can get. If I can get to 4.9 or 5GHZ with like 1.2V or so, would that be bad for my PC? It won't always be at 1.2v and 5GHZ as it has turbo enabled, so I guess it'd be ok? Or am I wrong? How much would my CPU's life lose out? It should still last 2-3 years more right?

As long as you can cool it (max of 90 degrees in small FFTs of Prime over an hour), you're fine all the way up to 1.4v. That being said, with a Hyper 212, you'll start hitting your thermal limits around 1.3v give or take depending on your case cooling.

Also, be aware that Asrock boards are known for reporting lower than actual voltages. But as long as you can cool it you should be fine.

Brian OH 99

I'm on 68*C on prime 95 now on small FFTs test for an hour @ 4.7GHZ. Max voltage of 1.24v and usually 1.185v-->1.2v.
Tried getting 4.8GHZ and it wouldn't be stable even when I was put the voltage as far as 1.3v. When I tried making the voltage 1.8v (because my CPU says it only needs 1.176v) it wasn't stable either. It's at the lowest voltage possible now @ 4.7GHZ to be stable. 1.85-->1.9v average, 1.2v sometimes. (btw I enabled LLC and it kept making my voltage go under the ammount the CPU needs and therefor kept BSODing my CPU. I set it to auto and it is now stable.

This is a good overclock right? Could you rate it out of 10 for me? 1.24v max isn't too high right?

BloodBath

4.7ghz on a 3570k @ 1.24v with a 212 evo is 10/10. It doesn't get much better than that.

Luck100

I really hope 1.8v and the higher numbers are typos....that would electrocute your cpu instantly. Probably you can't even set it that high.

Sounds like 4.7GHz is your sweet spot. Every chip seems to go up to a certain level pretty easily, and then there's a barrier when you need lots more voltage to go any higher. 1.24V and temps under 70C in prime is good from what I hear. Nobody can guarantee safety of any overclock, but those are pretty sane numbers. Just be sure you're reading your max voltages and temps correctly. There's a lot of other voltages/temps in those monitors that are lower but not relevant.

For LLC - usually there are different levels of LLC. I have a gigabyte board, they're called stuff like 'normal', 'turbo', 'extreme'. For Asrock I think they use numbers, with 1 being the most LLC ('extreme' for me) and bigger numbers being less. You can google around and find out easy enough. Anyway, the most extreme LLC should make your load voltage very close to VID+offset. If LLC is off, you should expect load voltage to be quite a bit lower than VID+offset (that's the 'droop'). You can temporarily go back to stock voltage to play with the LLC levels if it's not stable.

Most people seem to use strong levels of LLC when overclocking, but it's a bit of an art as you'll have to shift the offset to compensate different levels of droop. I think the downside of strong LLC is that it makes your VRMs hotter. (Yes, more temps to worry about).

I'd say don't sweat it too much if you're already hitting 4.7GHz at 1.24v and < 70C. I'd be happy with those numbers.

BloodBath

I think it's % on Asrock boards. I have mine at 75% and it keeps the max voltage close to what I have it set to.

100% makes it overvolt and anything less makes it undervolt.

Gumbi

It's def above average man, about 200mhz higher (even 300) than what most people would see at that voltage, you're doing well.

Here's a friend of a friend's golden chip.

Being cooled on a Macho HR02, so only slightly superior to Hyper 212 in cooling performance.

Slutmonkey57b

Going back to the cooler/fans question, silent pc review is your best resource. Testbed sits in an anechoic chamber (soundproofed), he runs all tests at set voltages, and even provides sound recordings so you can judge the profile ofthe sound not just the db reading.

Plenty of excellent air coolers for much less than 100 quid. But the key is actually decent case fans. More important not to let hot air build up in the case than to worry about the minor differences between a good 30 quid cooler and something like a noctua.

Brian OH 99

So not a golden chip or not (I wanna brag to my friend who thought he was better than me with a 4.4GHZ OC >=3)

Also thanks sl*tmonkey. I'm defo getting better case fans (the ones bloodbath recommended) and probs the sapphire r9 280x toxic for 320 euro at Xmas and maybe a better screen resolution in 4 months or so.

p.s : my name says 99 because when I first started using the internet it was 1999 and I just like the 99 at the end of my usernames. I'm not some spoilt teenager born in 1999 lol.

----and so my overclocking tour has concluded - thanks for the help!