Going from crappy water to air cooling

[razorseal]

I had it with my water cooling. it started to leak recently (I've had it for so damn long) and leaked water on top of my gfx card. It's toast. I fixed the leak few months ago instead of going to air cooling, and it just started again...

I want to put another cooling system on the CPU. I know they have some impressive stuff out there now, so I'm looking for suggestions.

I might also change my case. it's small and in horrible condition.

any suggestions guys?

I did have this thread from '09 but didn't go with it... now I'm def going through with it. done with this crap!

I think the suggestions from that thread might be obsolete by now so...

 

[Jokochimpa]

well, you dont have to completely go away from wc. I am not sure about your case but I am very pleased with the performance of the corsair h100 and it is very easy to install and you have to love wc without the maintenance. I know that this can't possibly compete with a custom wc setup but it is better than air cooling.

 

[razorseal]

well, you dont have to completely go away from wc. I am not sure about your case but I am very pleased with the performance of the corsair h100 and it is very easy to install and you have to love wc without the maintenance. I know that this can't possibly compete with a custom wc setup but it is better than air cooling.

I saw that. it looks like one contained unit.... kind of cool. but i'm afraid of leaks again, or the water pump taking a crap like last time.

Will this out do a tuniq 120 extreme perhaps? on core 2 duo, frostytech shows some good numbers on it.

 

[Jokochimpa]

Well perhaps a little research may need to be done as far as what corsair warranties if it does happen to leak, but because there is no assemply the only real party at fault would be corsair in my eyes unless you do something stupid. if you are worried about the pump goin bad just set up the thermal warning stuff to shut off if you reach 100 c

If you want to stay on air, a couple of the top performers are the noctua nh d14 or the thermaltake silver arrow

 

[razorseal]

Well perhaps a little research may need to be done as far as what corsair warranties if it does happen to leak, but because there is no assemply the only real party at fault would be corsair in my eyes unless you do something stupid. if you are worried about the pump goin bad just set up the thermal warning stuff to shut off if you reach 100 c

If you want to stay on air, a couple of the top performers are the noctua nh d14 or the thermaltake silver arrow

it's not the overheating. it's the small leaks that drip onto other things, in my case, the graphics card!

I'll check those fans out. How about the Tuniq tower 120 Extreme?

How does your corsair compare to those fans you mention?

 

[Jokochimpa]

well what i recommended arent fans but heatsinks. And the h100 would do slightly better especially when you have the h100 setup push pull. A leak would be tragic though. Here are some is the review on the h100 http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article/2011/07/26/corsair_h100_extreme_perf_liquid_cpu_cooler_review/ I have no idea how the hs you said performs though, do a google search though to see if you can find a review of the one you posted

 

[muddocktor]

Take Frostytech's reviews with a large grain of salt, IMO. They don't test with a real processor for heatload, but rather a synthetic heat load. Plus, they don't test at a high enough heatload either, at 150 watts max. And they don't test inside a case, which can make for different results than what you see in real life (unless you run a tech station). Just looking at their published results, I can call horsefeathers on some of their results as I have also reviewed some of their "top performers" and found them to be ok, but are bested by other premium heatsinks. Specifically, the Transformer 4, the TherMax Eclipse II and the Zalman CNPS9900 Max, which are among their top 10 and which are all handily beaten by the TRUE Rev. C, Cogage True Spirit and the NZXT Havik 140.

As for the Tuniq Extreme, I have no experience with it. It might do pretty good, but I'm not a big fan of heatsinka that have the fan buried inside the middle of them. I did have the TT120 and it was a decent heatsink, but the Thermalright Ultra 120 also bested it back in the day and they were competitor offering at the same time.

As for the Corsair units; I have already reviewed the H50 and H70 units and I am in the process of reviewing the H80. I won't give away much here, but I will say I am pretty impressed with it so far. You do have to have a case with a rear or top mounted 120 mm fan to use it though, unless you are into a bunch of case modding.

For a premium Tier 1 cooling solution, I would recommend the following:

Thermalright TRUE Rev. C
Thermalright Silver Arrow
Thermalright Venomous X
Thermalright MUX120
Thermalright Archon
Thermalright HR-02 Macho
Cogage True Spirit, along with the proper Thermalright mount adapter for your system
Noctua NH-D14
NZXT Havik 140
Prolimatech Megahalems

This is by no means an all-inclusive list, but rather a list of heatsinks that I have had experience with. And if it seems I favor Thermalright; well you can't argue with performance and they have never turned out a crappily engineered product.

 

[phitat]

I'd definitely go for the Thermalright Silver Arrow, I have it on my 1090T OC'd to 4.00 GHz, and still was still able to keep my core idle temp. at 24 C and max load at 55 C so I would definitely recommend this to you.

 

[razorseal]

Thanks guys, I'll check these fans out when I'm at work

do you have a case you can also reccomend? I need to replace that too. I'm gonna need plenty of space in there

and I'm not looking for a very expensive case. don't need it to look all fancyl. it's tucked in the corner of my room so...

Amazon local like compusa would be nice

How about thermaltake v3

Something sub 40$. (with shipping)

And for the cooling, will my mobo be ok? Not sure what will fit

 

[razorseal]

None of those heatsinks you listed seem to work with my mobo...

Geez. My mobo is not heatsink friendly

I could get that corsair h80 and get a case that'll fit into.

Do you have a case you can recc for that cooling system?

 

[Conumdrum]

Sub $40?

 

[razorseal]

I just read some reviews of the H80. Impressive... And within my 90 dollar budget from amazon with prime shipping. Looks like I'll be going for that. (and itll fit my mobo too!)

Now the next thing I gotta find is a case though. Any suggestions for this H80 and a sub 40 dollar case? I'll do 50 if I must. Again looking for an effective case, not a cool looking (although that's a plus lol)

 

[razorseal]

Sub $40?

Yes. 50 tops.

 

[razorseal]

This one? It does have rear 120mm exhaust...

http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-B...M8KK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313500401&sr=8-2

 

[muddocktor]

No experience with that case, but it looks like a lot of folks have rated it highly at Newegg (take that as you will). Besides Thermaltake, you also might look at Cooler Master for your case too. Cooler Master has more $50 and under choices at Newegg than Thermaltake. I didn't look at Amazon, but generally the 2 places are competitively priced.

 

[razorseal]

Mudd,

I saw this on amazon too...

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...CYMC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313500935&sr=8-1

It's a cooler master, and seems to be highly rated as well. It would be. Nice to have a fan thats on the top though since the rear exhaust becomes intake...

I prefer amazon because of their 4 dollar overnight, or free 2 day shipping. Nobody can top that.

So you'd say that H80 is good to go eh? Reviews seem to show that it's a real bargain. Especially for people like me who are limited to few heatsinks due to mobo.

Kind of excited to have an almost trouble free liquid cooling.

There is always that chance of the pimp going out, or the small possibility of a leak though, which always scares me. I'm lucky I only lost my gfx card, and not the whole thing with my leak yesterday.

 

[razorseal]

Wow, this one seems impressive. Excellent newegg reviews (fwiw) and it does have a top exhaust. I think this is the one.

This one with a H80 should be a good combo. What do you think mudd?

 

[grumperfish]

This one? It does have rear 120mm exhaust...

http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-B...M8KK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313500401&sr=8-2

The V3 has great airflow capability, plenty of fan/drive mounting points, bottom-mounted PSU, and relatively-large vents.

It also has a really nasty flaw: the metal is thin and flimsy, so countering vibration is not at all a simple task. Even with low-speed fans and rubber mounts the one housing my server is still louder than I'd like.

--

CM Elite's a good choice.

 

[razorseal]

How about the roswill challenger? Looks like best in class on newegg. Lots of positive reviews. Huge top fan


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153

The V3 has great airflow capability, plenty of fan/drive mounting points, bottom-mounted PSU, and relatively-large vents.

It also has a really nasty flaw: the metal is thin and flimsy, so countering vibration is not at all a simple task. Even with low-speed fans and rubber mounts the one housing my server is still louder than I'd like.

--

CM Elite's a good choice.

 

[muddocktor]

The thing I don't like about the CM Elite is the top mounted psu, which can interfere with today's heatsinks, especially on an older 775 board. I know the old Giga DS3 boards I used to have had the socket a little bit close to the edge and could let the hsf overhang the side of the mobo a bit. With the H80, you wouldn't have that problem but might have interference issues between the rad and psu.

The Rosewill doesn't look bad at all and I like the fact that the side door is open, which lets the insides get good ventilation. I'm testing the H80 in my Dragon Rider test case and have it set up to exhaust the hot air right now with the H80 rad and temps look really, really good. The biggest drawback to the H80 is that the fans are noisy at full speed, but there is a button on the pump to change fan speeds if you hook the fans into the pump/coldplate assembly. As for this leaking; I wouldn't worry about that a bit. The tubing is strong and doesn't kink and the pump/coldplate seems to be very well engineered.