Noobie here, can't decide which cooler to buy

Hi, I am planning on building my first rig including overclocking it in the future. For now, I am stuck choosing between a Venomous X and H50. I was leaning towards the Venomous X until I saw people say it won't fit inside a Antec 1200 case without removing the side fan (side fan supposedly drops GPU temps by at least 5 degrees) so I plan on keeping the side fan. For those who have the Antec 1200 case and the Venomous X, did you have to remove your side fan (FYI: I am going to use the ASUS P6X58D motherboard)?

I am also interested in the H50 but I have a few questions:

1) For those who have experience these two coolers, does the H50's performance match the Venomous X?

2) I plan on using the Antec's 1200 exhaust fan for a push-pull but I heard you have have in-taking air from the outside blowing into the radiator.
Or Can I just use the exhaust fans to suck air out?

3) Would using Arctic Silver paste instead of the one included with the H50 be better?

Overall, which one would you guys choose?

j5tar said:

2) I plan on using the Antec's 1200 exhaust fan for a push-pull but I heard you have have in-taking air from the outside blowing into the radiator.
Or Can I just use the exhaust fans to suck air out?

3) Would using Arctic Silver paste instead of the one included with the H50 be better?

Click to expand...

I can offer a suggestion on 2 questions.
Make use of both the intake and exhaust fan so you generate airflow across/through your HS.

Artic silver verses whats included, is it a thermal pad or tube of paste?....it depends on how fussy you are. Ideally you would want to clean the paste off and possibly lap the HS's base to a nice shiny finish for a few extra degrees of cooling....or....if you are like me, just use the included thermal pad/paste and save yourself some time. ive lapped my HS before and used AS in the past...I am just not that fussy anymore about getting that extra bit of cooling for the effort and cost. Its your hobby, if you want to take the extra time go for it.