Best air cooler?

[Gregz The Great]

So, I am stuck between choosing liquid, or air cooling. I am leaning towards air cooling as I will not be overclocking my system at all, and by the looks of things, air cooling is cheaper so I'll save a lot of money. The last thing I want to do is get a H100i and 2 corsair fans just to see I've gone completely overkill. Cosmetics are not worth £50+

I am getting a Phantom 410 case. I will be removing the drive bays to fit in my Gigabyte GTX 780ti Windforce GPU. I know that everything will fit that I've planned so far, including a H100i, but what air cooler can do a decent job too?

Since my computer will only be used for gaming and the occasional music - making session here and there, I'm hardly going to be overloading the system, and I am NOT overclocking, that must be made apparent as I know how much of a large difference that'll make, so I assume a good air cooler will do the job just fine.

So, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Here's my current plan if I was to go with Liquid Cooling:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3CAAn

PLEASE NOTE: There is NO PSU or GPU listed as I already own both of them, the card I mentioned earlier, and a Corsair CS750M PSU.

Thank you for any help you may provide.

 

[flibberdipper]

The NH-D14/D15 are great, as is the Dark Rock Pro 2/3. For budget the Hyper 212 EVO is nice.

[HeathCliff]

Dark Rock Pro 3 or the NH-D14 are both around the £60 mark. They are probably the best ones to consider. Not sure if the Noctua NH-D15 has been released in the UK yet.

 

EDIT: (You can pre-order it on Overclockers.co.uk)

[othertomperson]

The NH-D14/D15 are great

 

Be careful with either of these though. The D14 has ram compatibility issues and the D15 blocks the top pci slot.

[flibberdipper]

Be careful with either of these though. The D14 has ram compatibility issues and the D15 blocks the top pci slot.

Good point... Should have mentioned that, but it slipped my mind. :rolleyes:

[Gregz The Great]

Good point... Should have mentioned that, but it slipped my mind. :rolleyes:

What about the "Cooler Master V8 GTS"?

[flibberdipper]

What about the "Cooler Master V8 GTS"?

It will probably perform well, but I like the ones I posted more (mainly for looks).

[SSOB]

What about the "Cooler Master V8 GTS"?

Really not near the performance of a NH-D15 or Bequiet Dark Rock Pro 3

[Guest]

Er, he said he wasn't overclocking, so I don't really know why you all are suggesting high end coolers that he really doesn't need.

 

Makes me wonder also why he's buying a K series processor (Maybe for the future?) What I did was simply buy the cheapest cooler that looked good. I found that enermax had an all-black heatsink,

so I went with that to cool my i7-3770 (I didn't have the stock cooler anyways). 

 

Here it is if you're interested (I replaced the fan because I hate LED fans)

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214023

[hawthorne]

if you are not overclocking there is no point going for a dual tower design, one tower would be fine, so i would say HN D14S or a dark rock 3

[Dredgy]

Nocuta NH-U14S in dual fan mode is what I have been testing recently and it is awesome. I also think its really good looking with the two noctua fans on it, but its the performance I get for the low noise that impresses me. For your use, running it in single fan mode will more than suffice so you don't have to splurge on an extra cooler.

 The Noctua NH-C14 is also a vert impressive cooler but probably insane amount of overkill. Looks awesome though.

 

A stock cooler will probably hold up alright so just choose anything mid range and you should do better than that.

[Gregz The Great]

Really not near the performance of a NH-D15 or Bequiet Dark Rock Pro 3

Apparently the Dark Rock 2 is better, or just as good?

[SSOB]

Apparently the Dark Rock 2 is better, or just as good?

What are you comparing it to?

[hawthorne]

Dark Rock Pro 3 or the NH-D14 are both around the £60 mark. They are probably the best ones to consider. Not sure if the Noctua NH-D15 has been released in the UK yet.

 

EDIT: (You can pre-order it on Overclockers.co.uk)

it is available on scan.co.uk

[Gregz The Great]

What are you comparing it to?

Dark Rock 3.

[SSOB]

Dark Rock 3.

Here are some benchmarks/reviews  so decide for yourself i guess:

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/bequiet_dark_rock_pro_3_review/5

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3960/33-cpu-cooler-group-test-cool-quiet-and-both

[Gregz The Great]

Here are some benchmarks/reviews  so decide for yourself i guess:

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/bequiet_dark_rock_pro_3_review/5

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3960/33-cpu-cooler-group-test-cool-quiet-and-both

Nevermind about the Dark Rock, I have just learned it would block my RAM slots.

I have come to two final options:

 

Cooler Master 

Hyper 212 EVO sleeve bearing

or the

Cooler Master V8 GTS

Thoughts?

[SSOB]

 

Nevermind about the Dark Rock, I have just learned it would block my RAM slots.

I have come to two final options:

 

Cooler Master 

Hyper 212 EVO sleeve bearing

or the

Cooler Master V8 GTS

Thoughts?

 

Get low profile ram, problem solved:

[Gregz The Great]

Get low profile ram, problem solved:

Isn't low profile RAM a sacrifice of quality and reliability?

[SSOB]

Isn't low profile RAM a sacrifice of quality and reliability?

Nope