New cooler needed...Advice please

[JDawggS316]

So my Corsair H50 is done for and I need a new cooler.

I can't decide between air and a Corsair-like liquid cooler.

Here is what I've been looking at:

1. Megahalems
2. Thermalright Venomous X
3. Corsair H70

I have my 920 overclocked to about 3.3GHz most of the times.

I also now have the Lian Li PC-A05NB mini tower, which supports full ATX boards.

 

[TorqueRanger]

Whats wrong with the h50????

 

[JDawggS316]

I accidently drilled a hole through the radiator fins.

 

[muddocktor]

Of the 3, I would go for the Venomous X. It's a better cooler than the Megahalems and the H70 costs much more for the same basic performance. And if you want to buy a budget cooler that performs within a hair of the Venomous X (and better than the Megahalems), look at the Cogage True Spirit and I would upgrade the mount to the Rev B 1366 mount (linked part is the same as Rev. B 1366 mount). The True Spirit comes with the older Thermalright "X" type original TRUE mount which isn't nearly as good as the Rev. B mount. The performance even with the included fan kicks butt and while it's not necessary, you can also add a second set of these fan clips (which do fit the True Spirit) to run a push pull fan setup. BTW, I do own the True Spirit and can verify all the linked parts work with it. And in case you don't know, Cogage is a subsidiary of Thermalright.

 

[JDawggS316]

So the H70 being water cooled is still not as good?

Also, what about this:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/noctua-nhc14-cpu-cooler-review/

 

[muddocktor]

The H70 is no better than high end air, in my personal experience and it's generally more expensive. It does fit into a tighter socket area than a big old honkin' heatsink such as a NH-D14 so for some folks it's a good choice.

I have no personal experience with that particular Noctua unit. Noctua does build some very good heatsinks. But looking at his results he's showing with a bunch of other heatsinks, I kind of suspect his testing and maybe methodology. Because I see heatsinks rated lower than the Zalman 9900 Max in his testing that I know for a fact beat the Zalman pretty convincingly. For one thing, he's testing at a lower TDP and with a Lynnfield system. I test with a Bloomfield i7 930 @ 4 GHZ, which is a much higher heatload than his Lynnfield.

Take my suggestions as what you will; I don't have to live with your buying decisions.