Which cooler should I take?

[MeihanMike]

So while building my computer yesterday, I discovered that the threads on my all in ones' rad had gotten a little out of shape, not really secure enough for me to be happy still using it (guessing its just through age / a lot of remounting)

Anywho, I'm in need of a new cooler and maybe a little advice. I want to have something that is fairly quiet and I'm willing to spend up to about £70. (Was looking at noctua NH-D14)

Was also wondering, if I got fans for the top, would I want to orient them as intake or exhaust, and whether blower type GPU coolers are better in this config.

Computer as it stands now:

TL;DR

1. Can you recommend a CPU cooler? (max £70)
2. SHould I orient top fans as intake or exhaust?
3. Are blower type GPU cooers better in this config? (for example stock 780 cooler)

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Feronix]

1: I'd go for one of these; Slightly above your budget but it will look good and be fairly quiet. NH-D14 will be quieter and would be a good purchase too, if you don't mind the looks:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/cool...ith-12cm-quiet-fan-for-all-intel-and-amd-cpus

2: With an aircooler I'd just not place any fans there. The heat will passively rise out of the top of your case. If you have more exhaust fans than intakes, your build will get pretty dusty and heat rises, so using intakes in the top is just not a good idea.

With an AIO watercooler, you should use the rad + fans as an exhaust in the top. You can then get a dust filter for the back and flip the rear fan around so you have positive air pressure.

3: You mean SLI? I'd say yes. They push the warm air out the back of your case instead of spreading it around inside your case.

 

[JR23]

Are blower type GPU cooers better in this config? (for example stock 780 cooler)

Going from two GTX570's with Phantom 3 coolers to two GTX780's with the reference Titan cooler I would say the blowers are definitely better, but they are also far better coolers. Basically before my top card would always be 10c higher but now its perhaps only 2 or 3c BUT when they hit 80c where they like to run the bottom will boost itself just a little bit more, maybe another 25mhz. They seem to be very happy and very quiet, the Titan cooler is a well refined design and makes the card a very elegant solution. I didn't notice a drastic effect on the temperatures of other components in my case really. I've since changed other things round a bit so its hard for me to make a direct comparison. Personally I don't think it's a huge deal on blowers vs fans for SLI but more of how good is each particular cooler.

 

[Remmy]

+1 on getting an AIO, they offer better cooling than typical air heatsinks. I'd have the top fans in exhaust, and if that causes you to have negative pressure (more exhaust than intake), I'd swap the rear exhaust to an extra intake, which should give you positive pressure.

 

[tinytomlogan]

+1 on getting an AIO, they offer better cooling than typical air heatsinks. I'd have the top fans in exhaust, and if that causes you to have negative pressure (more exhaust than intake), I'd swap the rear exhaust to an extra intake, which should give you positive pressure.

^^^^ +1 this

 

[MeihanMike]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not overly convinced by AIO, to get them to be as quiet as I want them to be I will end up spending a lot more than just getting a tower heatsink with a good set of fans, and its not like I'm going to be overclocking this too far.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not overly convinced by AIO, to get them to be as quiet as I want them to be I will end up spending a lot more than just getting a tower heatsink with a good set of fans, and its not like I'm going to be overclocking this too far.

H100i can be silent if you change it to silent in the link software

 

[NeverBackDown]

Could even just go for a h75/80i if overclocking is not a big prioirty/budget is lower and run them on lower fans speeds to get more silence.

 

[Feronix]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not overly convinced by AIO, to get them to be as quiet as I want them to be I will end up spending a lot more than just getting a tower heatsink with a good set of fans, and its not like I'm going to be overclocking this too far.

Well that depends. You can always have the fans run at a fixed RPM by running them at 5-7 volts. If you're not overclocking that far anyway, it shouldn't be a huge problem.

Your GPUs will probably also be louder.

H100i can be silent if you change it to silent in the link software

This. Although an H100i costs around £90 so it's a fair bit over your budget.

 

[NeverBackDown]

This. Although an H100i costs around £90 so it's a fair bit over your budget.

That is why I recommended a h75/80i