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Low budget, high profile ram, need a cooler!

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rescuetoaster

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Hey all,
So I'm in the process of acquiring parts for a build for the father in law. I'm putting together a low price gaming rig for him, and at the heart of it will be an fx-8310 I got for 110 dollars. I'll be overclocking that hopefully to about 4.4ish at least, and need a cooler for it. I was looking at the 212 evo as it's performance is awesome for the price, but I'm fairly certain it will be blocking one of the DIMM slots on the gigabyte 970a-ud3 which will be an issue if he wants to upgrade to 16 gigs of ram in the future.

My options thus far: The 212 in a pull setup, or push pull if I buy one of these 120 mm slim fans (http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g36/c15/s972/list/p1/Fans-12_Volt_Fans-120mm_x_12mm_Fans-Page1.html).

Are there any coolers you'd recommend for around the same price that maybe don't take up so much space? I was thinking about grabbing another CNPS 9700 (same as mine) as I know it will fit with high profile ram, but it's pretty old at this point and I imagine there are many better options for the same price.
 
What sticks do you have? The good thing about the 212 is the way the fans are mounted, you can just slide the fan up a bit to clear the ram. This will also depend on the sticks used, if they're really tall then you may still have an issue.

I wouldn't buy a slim fan, I actually have one of those Skythe fans you linked. They're great but once they get around 50% fan speed they start to get a bit unpleasant sound wise.

I also wouldn't get a CNPS 9700, it isn't going to cut it on a Oced FX 8XXX chip.
 
Got this nice 1866 kit on sale the other day. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231538
That's a nice feature with the fan repositioning, I hadn't thought of that.

I might be able to get away with a pull setup I suppose - the top of the case will have one intake blowing directly in front of the heatsink, and exhaust out of the back and a second top mounted fan.
 
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Don't bother doubling up the fans on a 212. Just get one good fan for it.
Agreed, unless you get some screamers you will see 2-3c temp difference at best. The Ripjaws aren't that tall the fan will fit over it if you just slide it up the heatsink a few mm's. At least that's how I ran my 212 over Ripjaws. Those are some good timings on that set of sticks, you sure you want to give them to your father in law? I'd give him the 1600's in you sig and keep the 1866's for myself. I'm pretty sure those sticks have Samsung Ic's in them and they're supposedly good Ocers and will also do 1600 around 7-8-8 depending on how good the IMC is on your 960T. :shrug:
 
Thanks Mandrake, that's good to know. Believe me, I have considered keeping these for myself, but the ram I have actually overclocks fairly well, and this system will be carrying me over to DDR4 in its current state, so I can't justify it (plus the wife demands that they be blue for her dad lol).

I think I'll give the 212 a try since it seems like it'll be doable - just wish I had bought one last week when it was on sale for 17 bucks.
 
(plus the wife demands that they be blue for her dad lol).
Paint yours blue ;) Trust me I get it, after 21 years with mine that's dating and married, I've learned to just nod and smile :thup: shh don't tell her :escape: :chair: :D
 
Another quick cooling question - the rosewill blackhawk case we got has a pretty neat feature in that it has the ability to mount a slim 120mm fan right behind the socket. Would it be better to set this up as an exhaust, or would it be better as an intake? My gut tells me it's better to blow air directly on the socket, but I'm not sure how well that hot air is going to escape from behind the motherboard.
 
I've had it as both intake and exhaust in my Blackhawk, it will help drop the socket temps. I have seen around a 8-10 c drop in socket temps accompanied by fans on the VRM section. I don't think there will be much difference with either choice, maybe you'll see another 1-2c as an intake, blowing on the back of the socket.
 
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Wow, I am so unbelievably angry right now. The 212 Evo is BY A WIDE MARGIN the worst cooler I've ever had to install.

I seriously cannot get this f-in thing to mount properly. I screw one part of the mounting bracket down, and begin to work on the other side and the side that I had threaded pops out.

It absolutely refuses to work. It also seems like it wants an absurd amount of pressure, but I have no idea what else to do. I installed the am3 back plate, and have everything lined up properly including the notch on the x bracket lined up with the divet on the heat sink. What the heck am I doing wrong here?
 
Only thread in the screws a turn or two at first, then gradually tighten them in a "cross" order like tightening the nuts on a car tire.
 
That's what I've done - the problem is that one of the stand offs that you screw in to isn't threaded very well (at least as far as I can tell), and so I can't seem to get that one started if I leave it for last. If I start with that one, it pops off immediately when I try to start the opposite side.

When you installed yours, did it seem as though you were putting a hell of a lot off pressure on it? If I manage to get three of the four screws started, the 4th one seems like it's VERY far from the stand off.
 
In fact, if you watch how this guy installs his -
you can see that he doesn't have any issue with one side of the arm popping up, he can just immediately screw in each side.
The moment I get one threaded, the opposite side sits up like half an inch above the standoff. Is something wrong with my mount?
 
Make sure you're using the right standoffs. There's a set of small ones for enterprise (socket 2011/2011-3) CPUs and a set of bigger ones for regular CPUs.
 
After much frustration, I got it to mount. I had to remove and re-mount the backplate. There was some play in it that allowed it to make the alignment of the standoffs a little goofy. After redoing that, the retention plate finally screwed in.
 
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