Best Reasonably priced water cooler

[jonesi100]

Suggestions for a 4770K. I have a mITX case and only have 65mm about the chip

[theanalyzer]

Whats your budget

[Bonebreaker777]

The height above the socket shouldn't be a issue, as most blocks are shorter that that. What radiators your case supports (120mm or 140mm, single or double)? And what is your budget (from £40ish for a single 120mm up to £120ish for a double 140mm)?

[jonesi100]

Looking for about £40. Hoping to over clock and reduce noise from the stock Intel cooler. That said the GTX760, case and PSU all have fans. I wish they didn't generate so much heat! Sorry, the case in a Coolermaster 130. I has a space to hold a decent sized rad from what I can see.

Would it significantly reduce the humming noise and allow more over clocking?

[Pob255]

Ahh the coolermaster 130 is designed to hold a 120 rad in the front, although you cannot put a hard drive on the floor of the case as well.

First thing to ask is have you got the 80x15mm fan on the side plugged in? That fan was a major noise issue on the 120 and it's the same setup as the 130
http://forums.hexus.net/chassis-mods...ni-review.html
I found that flipping the fan from in take to exhaust reduced the noise, but cutting out the bad side vent and putting in some mesh dropped all the noise
If you've got the side fan running then I'd be surprised if the cpu cooler is the thing making the noise

Back to the water cooling, a refurb H80 is going to be the best cheap and easy solution http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsa...1-all-am2-am3-

[jonesi100]

That's brilliant advice. I only went for the 130 because the front USB ports are 2 x USB3 and only 1 x USB2 which is the reverse on the 120. Case wise, it has a small fan on the side and a very large front fan. I might take them out completely because all I have in the case is the GTX760 (which is well cooled and quiet) then an SSD and Optical DVD drive with a 7440K i7 currently with stock cooler. I may want to over clock in the future and also keep sound right down, so I'm looking at ways to keep it cool but keep noise down. But then isn't everyone.
Do you think it would make a big difference if I disabled the side and front fans? Or can you recommend good quiet replacement case fans?
I'll look into some mesh too.
Also, is the H80 going to be much more efficient and quieter than a really good air cooler? With my small case I cannot fit a massively tall heatsink. Not sure how good the low profile air coolers are? I suspect the fans spin a lot quicker to dissipate the heat.
Any help appreciated

[Pob255]

Do you think it would make a big difference if I disabled the side and front fans? Or can you recommend good quiet replacement case fans?
I'll look into some mesh too.

I found that the side fan + the bad case vents was the major source of noise by a long way in the 120, start simply by doing some investigation.
Do it get less noisy when you remove the cover?
Unplug the 80mm fan and see what it's like with the cover back on.
Try flipping the 80mm fan over so it's exhausting rather than intake. (I found it was quieter that way, still the loudest fan though)

[quite]Also, is the H80 going to be much more efficient and quieter than a really good air cooler? With my small case I cannot fit a massively tall heatsink. Not sure how good the low profile air coolers are? I suspect the fans spin a lot quicker to dissipate the heat.
Any help appreciated[/QUOTE]Some of the top end air coolers can match the H80 but nothing (no air cooler) you can fit in the small space because of the psu will be as good.
Your cooler height is limited to 72mm which vastly reduces the possible air coolers you can fit, on top of that most mITX intel boards have the cpu socket down in the corner next to the gpu and ram slots which again limits cpu cooler size.
If you mount your psu with the fan facing down then you could be creating a conflict between the psu fan and cooler fan as they will be very close and both pulling air in opposite directions.

A 120 rad base all-in-one cooler is the simplest option, the H80 is one of the better ones and comes with two fan so you can replace the from fan with that.

[Bonebreaker777]

All-in-one water coolers can be pretty good in terms of both noise generation and heat dissipation. I have pretty awesome experience with Thermaltake Performer 2.0, the amount of heat dissipated versus the noise generated especially with today's intelligent FAN controllers on motherboards. Too bad it is outside of your (desired) budget range.

If case FANs are as trouble, simply slowing them down could go a long way to reduce noise while not really compromising on the amount of air moved. And it is always cheaper, even so if you might to happen know somebody who could do the soldering plus supply the resistors for a pint or two as a friendly favor (reused countless industrial grade FANs in PC systems while keeping the system quiet).

In terms of comparing the cheapest AIO water cooler vs. low height air coolers, the water cooler will always win in terms of performance and/or noise.

Get the cheapest AIO cooler you can get, modify the case FANs if you have to and you will be satisfied with a cool and quiet system on which you didn't had to spend much.

[jonesi100]

So I've heard the H80 is very noisy unless you change the fans. So I was planning on getting a H80 with two "Silverstone Air Penetrator SST-AP122 120mm Case Fan Quiet 9 Blade" fans.
Or , the alternative is just try isolating the noise and fitting quieter case fans. If I didn't buy the H80 and the case fan was the issue, would I still replace it with "Silverstone Air Penetrator SST-AP122 120mm Case Fan Quiet 9 Blade" or would I use a less directional fan like "Silverstone Air Penetrator SST-AP122 120mm Case Fan Quiet 9 Blade", which seems noisier due to air turbulence I guess. What would you recommend as a case fan - I don't want to spend loads on something like a Noctua NF-F12.
Second, if I fitted the H80, would I fit it at the front where the case fan is, but would I then have to remove the SSD hard drive mounted to the base of the case and fit it on the side and also remove the hard drive cage on my Coolermaster 130 case?

[Bonebreaker777]

How much would the cooling performance degrade if the stock FANs would spin @ 7v/5v (in order to reduce noise).

[jonesi100]

good question. I think the Silverstone Air Penetrator SST-AP122 120mm Case Fan Quiet 9 Blade come with a voltage reduction cable to run them at 7.5V. Are you saying that could be done on the H80's stock fans too?

[Pob255]

You you should beable to use the H80 in the front of the case with an ssd on the floor, here's part of a build with just that http://www.overclock.net/t/1416252/c...#post_20833372 and another here https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/b/GqJ
as you can see space is tight and you have to take your time with cabling to get it neat (both of those are very messy and you can do far better if you take your time)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-x-Natu...item27df446700 this type is very good and easy to work with as you can remove and adjust them easily.

On the subject of fans, that's more tricky
The big problem here is that sound is subjective, what you call loud someone else might call quiet, and there are so many factors involved, from the fan's themselves, the case and the other components used, the position of the case relative to you and the rest environment around you.

I'd always say the first step is to test the current fans, I really cannot stress that enough, find out what is causing your exact problem first.
http://hexus.net/tv/show/2008/10/Pac...re_s_the_noise
One of the best things on Hexus TV

Test your system, if you get the H80 test the stock fans before replacing them, no point in buying 2 new fans if you're happy with the stock ones.

The way the H80 works is that it has a built in fan controller, you plug the fans into the block and you can then adjust the speed by pressing on the button on the top of the block.
This should work with any fan, it's a simple voltage control speed controller, so be aware it reduces the speed thus reducing noise and air flow.

A quick note about the air penetrator fans, these fans don't do a massive amount on a radiator, the thing they are good at is throwing a focused cone of air over a long distance, so it's not a bad idea for a fan for the front of the elite 130.
But they are not that good on a radiator especially on push, the special vent on the back of the fan does nothing when it flat against a radiator infact it add air flow restriction actually slightly reducing the fan performance.