i5 Quiet Cooler with capability for decent OC

Hi all,

Wondering really out of the CPU coolers available which has the best balance between quietness and cooling?

I would like to OC my i5 to around 3.2Ghz with an upper limit of around 4Ghz if i find the time, however having tinnitus, hoover sounding pc's its not something i enjoy.

Considerations so far:

Arctic Cooling Freezer Extreme Rev 2

Can ideally spend upto £60, however at that price point the Corsair H50 becomes available, so would ideally prefer to spend around £30.

What are the rest of you using?

Thanks Yosh

This is what I have :)

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...tall-sort.html

This is what I recommend. And yes, I think it is worth the extra £30 over your budget. Trust me, it's that good. :)

Noctua NH-U12P SE2.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nightkhaos

This is what I recommend. And yes, I think it is worth the extra £30 over your budget. Trust me, it's that good. :)

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It is really what i have been considering. Now i've sold my socket 775 gear i have enough cash in the Paypal account to cover the H50 with the new 1156 bracket, so i guess tommorow this is what i'll be buying :D

The new H2O is highly rated atm, with the prices of top end coolers having gone up quite a bit.

There's still the TRUE but at that's £38+fan

For dirt cheap Play sell the Coolermaster hyper 212+ for £18, it looks ok
I've not got an i5 cpu, so cannot test it yet, I might try it out on my e6600 this weekend if I can be assed to go through the rigmeroll of takeing out the motherboard to swap the back plate.

Scan seem to have a load of coolers by Alpenfohn (a new german company) in atm, they "look" decent
eg Alpenfohn CPAF-005
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Alpen...40-AM2-AM2plus
german review
http://translate.googleusercontent.c...W21lL9PXACwz0w

Any cooler that did a good job on a quad core should be fine on a i5 or i7

I looked further into the H50 and it seems some are not happy with the noise that the pump itself makes.

I reckon i'm going to have to read up on this some more before purchasing anything, ideally i want quiet performance, i'm just afraid if i bought the H50 it might not seem as quiet as i assume it should be, when i could be buying a lower cost fan that is just as quiet/noisy.

Idle + load noise db of peoples coolers would be great, if you can post them, and state the OC you have done, i.e. i5 @ 4Ghz etc