Cooling for i7

[Caudovittatus]

I'm trying to decide what heatsink/fans to get for a core i7 build (ordering the bits tomorrow). I'd appreciate some help/advice on the cooling front.

For heatsinks I'm pretty sure I want either:

# Prolimatech Megahalems
# Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme

By the reviews they seem pretty close but one thing I'm not too sure about is which fans to use (and clips since both only come with one set of clips for one fan). I'd like to set it up for push-pull with two fans; Ideally I'd like it to be as quiet as possible but still providing sufficient cooling for overclocking.

I'm sure I did a search a few weeks back and found a few good matches, but I didn't bookmark them

[TAKTAK]

For silence and high pressure the Noctua NF-P12

also, the Megahalem performs slightly better than the TRUE

[nightkhaos]

For silence and high pressure the Noctua NF-P12

also, the Megahalem performs slightly better than the TRUE

Isa getting slows in my old age.

More specificly, the Megahalems handles better under high load than the TRUE. If you intend to overclock your machine to the eXtreme then you will want a Megahalems, however if you just want to overclock is slightly, or have it rediciously cool on stock settings, then get a TRUE.

Both are pretty big, so remember to consider the clearance area in your case as well. You will need approximately 16 cm above the CPU mount.

And finally, MAKE SURE YOU GET THE 920 D0.

[Caudovittatus]

Thanks!

I just had a thought about these coolers - is there a motherboard that will fit one of these beasties and let me populate all six memory slots (wanna go for 12Gb).?

[pipTheGeek]

I have a Megahalem, and it is working fine. Installation went smoothly, although I had only roughly measured so I was a bit concerned about it fitting and not fouling on the VRM heatsinks. Mine had 2 sets of fan clips in it. Not sure if they all do or if it was fluke.

I should remind you this thing is HUGE. It only just fits in my case, which is a Lian-Li V1000. And it has covered one of my memory slots.

[Jasp]

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/07...y_cpu_coolers/

Features the top 10 i7 coolers and their ratings, i believe the akasa 967 nero comes out on top.

[Caudovittatus]

I have a Megahalem, and it is working fine. Installation went smoothly, although I had only roughly measured so I was a bit concerned about it fitting and not fouling on the VRM heatsinks. Mine had 2 sets of fan clips in it. Not sure if they all do or if it was fluke.

I should remind you this thing is HUGE. It only just fits in my case, which is a Lian-Li V1000. And it has covered one of my memory slots.

Thanks, I was going to go to a ATCS 840 for the case (not ordered yet). Hmm shame it does block the first memory slot though; is yours a Gigabyte EX58 board?

Jasp, yes I saw that review and I'm kind of tempted by the Akasa, but then I did some more searching around and other reviews have the Megahalems and TRUE on top - it seems that whichever review you read, you get slightly different results.

[Grymdawg]

Indeed, the results seem different from test to test. I think the TRUE is a good purchase, even though i have a noctua NH-U12P SE1366. The cooler i have does the job for me and has pretty low temps even with OC, i was tempted to get the TRUE but i am a noctua fanboy so i opted for that instead

[Caudovittatus]

Thanks again all, I ended up going with the TRUE - Megahalems was out of stock at Scan and OCUK (the only ones that have decent prices for it £40 and £45 respectively) and I figured that they're both going to be pretty cool in the end

I also ordered an extra fan (for push-pull) so all coming tomorrow - Just hope I can escape my DIY duties long enough to do the system build this hol