New cooler woes (h50 almost dead)

[Rissien]

Hey people. My h50 is nearing death (strange sounds, lousy cooling for the last few months) so i decided to buy something new. I'm currently running x6 1075t @ 4.5 with my current cooler but as i said before, h50 started to sound strange, not cooling as good as before.

I might switch to ivy bridge soon so i'm looking for a cooler for overclocking either the cpu i currently have or the new i5/i7 from intel. I could use your suggestions folks cause i'm kinda lost here.

Thank you very much in advance for all the suggestions.


Cheers!

 

[EarthDog]

H100 for a sealed water system, though I dont imagine more than 4.5ghz or so due to heat...

Venomous X I see talked about quite a bit, but Im sure other high end coolers like NH-D14 would be good as well.

 

[mjw21a]

I'd go with the Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BL 140mm UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) CPU Cooler. Some reviews show it to be better than the Noctua NH-D14 and some a little worse. Either way it's cheaper than the NH-D14 and will be more reliable than a Corsair closed loop cooler.

I really can't recommend closed loop coolers to anyone after having owned both a Corsair H50 and still owning a H100 and both failing after less the 5 months use. Stick with decent high end air or go with a proper custom water loop.

 

[muddocktor]

What price range for your cooler and what ram will you be running (as in, does it have tall heatspreaders)?

 

[mjw21a]

^^^ His sig indicates its RipJaws though not which series. Generally the heatspreaders on RipJaws memory isn't that high and gives a few millimetres clearance with coolers such as the Phanteks or Noctua NH-D14 so he should be fine.

 

[muddocktor]

Yeah, I saw that but he might also upgrade to some new ram with the new build. But if he sticks with any of the Ripjaws he should be in pretty decent shape, clearance-wise.

 

[mjw21a]

Ah, true. I didn't think of that. Good thinking.

 

[Rissien]

Hey folks, sorry for a bit late reply from me, was at work till now.

I'm currently using 2x2gb gskill ripjaws (with those stock heatspreaders). I'm looking to upgrade either to 2x4gb sticks or the 2x8gb sticks (not really sure if i should go with 4x4gb though). Ram available for purchase here: gskill, mushkin, corsair, ocz, kingmax...that's about it.

Price range for my new cooler? As high as h100 for example (h100 costs 190usd here btw)

@mjw21a - concerning the cooler you linked...can't buy it here where i live. Noctua nh-d14 is available though (90usd)

I can mostly buy these brands here: noctua, arctic cooling, coolermaster, scythe, zalman, xigmatek, prolimatech (genesis) and the corsair closed loop systems.

Thank you for your responses people, really appreciate it.

 

[mjw21a]

Yeah, the NH-D14 is excellent value for money considering it comes with two of their excellent fans. Highly recommended.

My Corsair H100 cost me $165 when I got it. I've got it back from warranty now and selling to one of the local guys from on here cheap ($60). Just happy to get something back for it. I'm not willing to run a closed loop ever again.

As for your RAM, 8GB modules just tend to work out too expensive when you're looking at decent speeds (DDR2133). I'd go with 4x4GB DDR2133 kit. G.Skill are generally the best value for money and their RipJaws X and Z series will fit under a NH-D14 no worries leaving about 2mm to spare. Just install the RAM before the cooler or you'll never get it in there.

 

[EarthDog]

Good thing there is no point in 2133Mhz speeds outside of benchmarking... so 1600Mhz 8GB sticks are cheaper.

 

[mjw21a]

^^^ True, though I suspect that depends on what's accessing it. My current ATI card is a 1GB model, and with everything set to Ultra in BF3 I see it use an awful lot of system memory while gaming. Video cards are known for liking high bandwidth RAM so I would imagine that it would make a difference here. Especially on AMD rigs where only dual channel is supported.

I've not run any benchies so I don't actually know, I'm just guessing. I've seem over 8GB used once in one gaming session.

 

[EarthDog]

BF3 uses an awful lot of memory with a 3GB GPU. OP also has a 2GB GPU. I wouldnt pay the extra for 2133mhz ram regardless however.

 

[mjw21a]

I guess it is fair to say that I just wanted it.... I already had DDR1600 and the upgrade bug was biting me again..... It's been doing so ever since I started earning more dammit

 

[Rissien]

So i should go and buy the 4x4gb gskills 1600mhz right? Which ones? Ares, ripjaws, sniper? Also back to the topic....of the brands i said i can buy, is the noctua nh-d14 the best choice?

 

[muddocktor]

Rissien, I am partial to the Ripjaws X ram myself because the heatspreaders aren't too tall. Any ram with about it's height footprint will do though.

Of the brands of coolers you say are available where you live, my top 2 choices would be the Noctua NH-D14 and the Prolimatech Genesis. The Genesis is actually easier to mount (IMO) than the D14, but you can't change out ram on it after the heatsink is installed. But, it also gives much more ram clearance than the D14 too and is dead easy to install and remove on systems, especially Intel systems. Either of those should do you very well.

 

[mjw21a]

I'd go with G.Skill RipJaws X or Z memory. Either series will fit underneath a NH-D14 as the heatspreaders aren't very tall. I'm running 4x4GB RipJaws Z myself. The Sniper on the other hand wouldn't fit, the Aries will fit.