Recommend a CPU Cooler: Cheap, Silent, Cool

Now I know this is a fairly impossible task, as the more silent and the more cool you get, generally the more expensive you also get.

I'm hoping to spend less than £20 (delivered), a lot less if possible. I'm a little out of touch with the heatsink market, so I need some help plz :)

My current cooler is an (old) Coolermaster XDream heatsink with an Antec 80mm fan on it. Id estimate my current cooler puts out about 30dBA (judging by the fan specs), possibly a bit more. From running SiSoft Sandra its got a thermal resistance of 0.41C/W. My cpu gets to about 52C full load, 48C idle.

Any suggestions would be great. I've seen the following heatsinks which look like they could be good runners:

Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2L Rev2 (not the temp controlled editions) - £10
Sharkoon HPS2 - £18

guessing its socket A ,what about

http://www.thecoolingshop.com/produc...roducts_id/735

yep, i got one of these on my xp3200 @ standard clock 2.2ghz, can't say i noticed a huge temp drop when my system is idle, but under load it knocked of a good 8 degrees, which ain't bad for a cheap hsf. Recommend one of these if you have a budget.

I had a Taisol 26db on my old Athlon 2400. Dirt cheap and relatively quiet. Running a twice-the-price Zalman copper on my P4@3.6 these days and it's silent. Well worth the extra cash, if you really do treasure quietness.

Nomadd

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by [R4A]Bigman

Now I know this is a fairly impossible task, as the more silent and the more cool you get, generally the more expensive you also get.

I'm hoping to spend less than £20 (delivered), a lot less if possible. I'm a little out of touch with the heatsink market, so I need some help plz :)

My current cooler is an (old) Coolermaster XDream heatsink with an Antec 80mm fan on it. Id estimate my current cooler puts out about 30dBA (judging by the fan specs), possibly a bit more. From running SiSoft Sandra its got a thermal resistance of 0.41C/W. My cpu gets to about 52C full load, 48C idle.

Any suggestions would be great. I've seen the following heatsinks which look like they could be good runners:

Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2L Rev2 (not the temp controlled editions) - £10
Sharkoon HPS2 - £18

---

Nah...you don't want a SilentBoost. If you do that you may as well get a Volcano 12 and turn the RPMs down. They make the same noise on low and with the Volcano you have the option to turn the fan up if you want a lot more cooling for gaming or benching.

If silent is what you're after and yo don't want to spend a lot the Zalman 7000 Cu is the best there is without going to water or something better which is way out of the budget you proposed. :)

[QUOTE=Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2L Rev2 (not the temp controlled editions) - £10[/QUOTE]

These are very, very quiet btw. I have one running a xp2500 and it works fine if not overclocking.

Tip: You can remove, then turn around the fan and mounting, on these by prising off with a screw diver. I made the mistake of thinking the fan was glued onto the heatsink and spent 30 mins "sculpting" with a knife, the fan mount to fit with a ducted case fan to get a better cable run- D'oh!!

On ebuyer people seem to have good results with the blue led version.

I forgot to mention my CPU oops :)

XP1700+ @ 2GHz. This is why it can get slightly warm. Its not a particularly cool running core anyway, and its also overclocked.

The Silent Boost looks a real good bet, cheapest retailer for them anyone?

I don't fancy getting the Volcano Extreme, coz I'd never have it turned up, my cpu can hack being hot if need be, the silence is what I'm after.

Bit noisy at 35dB tho.

As it happens I have now replaced the Antec fan with a NoiseBlocker S4 running at a stupidly slow speed, software controlled (SpeedFan) to allow the greatest cooling performance with as little noise as possible.

You do realise this thread is like 4 months old right? :shocked2: :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by [R4A]Bigman

Bit noisy at 35dB tho.

As it happens I have now replaced the Antec fan with a NoiseBlocker S4 running at a stupidly slow speed, software controlled (SpeedFan) to allow the greatest cooling performance with as little noise as possible.

You do realise this thread is like 4 months old right? :shocked2: :p

---

He's spamming