Best high end CPU coolers

[Alesek]

I am looking for a high end CPU cooler so I can over clock a bit more and so far I came into this 3 picks

Noctua nh-d15

Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3

Cryorig R1 ultimate

 

I can't decide which one. Is any of them better  than the others? So far I've seen that noctua had the best cooling, but most expensive. Be quiet is the quietest, but real pain in the pooper to mount. Cryorig is the loudest I think. They have the same ish RAM clearance so that won't help me decide either. I was also thinking about upgrading to AMD Zen FX in January if it is worth it and Noctua and Be Quiet said that they will send the mounting kit for AM4 for free if necessary. I didn't get a reply on this from cryorig yet. I want to be for it as quiet as possible with great cooling. But I am also kinda afraid of the Be Quiet mounting procedure 

 

Edit: Cryorig just emailed me that they will provide the AM4 mounting kit for free in case it changes 

[RZeroX]

I would go with the D15.

[Narnash]

If you have a affinity for a blackish color sheme go with the Dark Rock otherwise I would go with the D15.

 

[Cyracus]

this may give you an extra cooler or two to look at, and also show that the noise difference isn't all that much http://www.anandtech.com/show/9415/top-tier-cpu-air-coolers-9way-roundup-review/12

[Alesek]

10 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

this may give you an extra cooler or two to look at, and also show that the noise difference isn't all that much http://www.anandtech.com/show/9415/top-tier-cpu-air-coolers-9way-roundup-review/12

yeah, I was looking at this: http://us.hardware.info/reviews/5629/39-cpu-coolers-review-what-is-the-best-choice

I will probably go for Noctua as it always performs great, i dont need to spend half of my life trying to put it together, and it has a great support

[Alesek]

I just read reviews on the NH-D15S at is performs exactly the same as NH-D15 and it is cheaper. Is there actually a reason to get NH-D15 and not the D15S version?

[Heesleemer]

4 hours ago, Alesek said:

I just read reviews on the NH-D15S at is performs exactly the same as NH-D15 and it is cheaper. Is there actually a reason to get NH-D15 and not the D15S version?

its cheaper and performs slightly worse becuase it only comes with one fan 

[Alesek]

9 minutes ago, Heesleemer said:

its cheaper and performs slightly worse becuase it only comes with one fan 

from all the tests I have seen, there is usually only about 1 degree difference 

[WoodenMarker]

35 minutes ago, Alesek said:

from all the tests I have seen, there is usually only about 1 degree difference 

The difference is more pronounced with higher voltages or lower fan speeds. 

[Alesek]

29 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

The difference is more pronounced with higher voltages or lower fan speeds. 

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Noctua/NH-D15S/6.html I guess both because even oc it has 2 degrees difference. I haven't seen any tests where the difference would be higher than just margin of error

[WoodenMarker]

20 minutes ago, Alesek said:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Noctua/NH-D15S/6.html I guess both because even oc it has 2 degrees difference. I haven't seen any tests where the difference would be higher than just margin of error

The fans are running at 100% in these tests which would show the smallest possible difference in temps. At lower speeds, having the extra fan makes a large difference towards maintaining airflow and cooling better. 

[Alesek]

2 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

The fans are running at 100% in these tests which would show the smallest possible difference in temps. At lower speeds, having the extra fan makes a large difference towards maintaining airflow and cooling better. 

How is 2 fans on D15 vs 1 fan different from push-pull vs one fan in any other cooler? Because it has been proven that there is almost no temp difference. I am not trying to be a butthole, I really wanna know. And i am gonna go with the original D15 because you seem confident

[WoodenMarker]

1 hour ago, Alesek said:

How is 2 fans on D15 vs 1 fan different from push-pull vs one fan in any other cooler? Because it has been proven that there is almost no temp difference. I am not trying to be a butthole, I really wanna know. And i am gonna go with the original D15 because you seem confident

The NH-D15 uses two towers. Extra thick and two tower heatsinks will benefit from more than one fan and especially at lower speeds. Single tower and thinner heatsinks still benefit from the additional fan but not as much. It has never been proven that an extra fan doesn't benefit cooling because it's not true. 

Here's an example from SPCR's review: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1020-page7.html

Quote

Even a single Nexus 120 fan does a fine cooling job on the NH-D14, very quietly. The temperature with one fan at 12V is the same as two fans at 7V, suggesting that the second fan "doubles" cooling effectiveness

Similar results with the NH-D15: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1395-page5.html

Quote

Single fan performance wasn't much worse except when the fan voltage was lowered to 5V (720 RPM). Despite this, the noise reduction wasn't great enough to make it more efficient overall. Replacing the NF-A15's with our reference NF-P14's produced nearly identical results, except in the one fan configuration, which greatly favored the NF-A15, especially at higher speeds.

At higher speeds, adding a second fan makes little to no difference but that is changed when running the fans at lower rpm. Especially if you're running the fans at ~90rpm like me, the second fan makes a huge difference. 

[chrisMLGpro720noscope]

Choose the NHD14 as it is as cool as the 15 and doesn't cost as much.

[WoodenMarker]

2 minutes ago, chrisMLGpro720noscope said:

Choose the NHD14 as it is as cool as the 15 and doesn't cost as much.

It's not as quiet and the mounting clips for the fans suck. 

[chrisMLGpro720noscope]

You can buy a new Fan from the money you save, so you Profit.

[Alesek]

53 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

The NH-D15 uses two towers. Extra thick and two tower heatsinks will benefit from more than one fan and especially at lower speeds. Single tower and thinner heatsinks still benefit from the additional fan but not as much. It has never been proven that an extra fan doesn't benefit cooling because it's not true. 

Here's an example from SPCR's review: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1020-page7.html

Similar results with the NH-D15: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1395-page5.html

At higher speeds, adding a second fan makes little to no difference but that is changed when running the fans at lower rpm. Especially if you're running the fans at ~90rpm like me, the second fan makes a huge difference. 

The difference is 3 degrees in the first link but i get your point how can you even run it at 90rpm?

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, Alesek said:

The difference is 3 degrees in the first link but i get your point how can you even run it at 90rpm?

They run that low at 7% using pwm. 

The difference between 1 and 2 fans with the Nexus Basic was 1c, 6c, and 8c at 12v, 9v, and 7v respectively. 

 

[WillThePlank]

Nh-D15 keeps my system nice and cool under full whack with a moderate overclock and fans set for quiet acoustics!

Only downside is it's really MASSIVE so I would make sure it clears your case, ram and your 1st PCI express slot properly.