Best air cooler for i5-8600k

[Geotropism]

Looking for a CPU cooler under £75 for my i5 8600k so I can mildly overclock it to around 4.7GHz. I'm planning on buying the Fractal Design Meshify C and it has a clearance of 172mm. I've been looking at the NH-U14S for $57. 

[Glennieboyyy007]

the bequiet dark rock (pro) 3 or 4 are all 4 nice options, that cool good and look nice

[Geotropism]

1 hour ago, Glennieboyyy007 said:

the bequiet dark rock (pro) 3 or 4 are all 4 nice options, that cool good and look nice

I absolutely hate Be Quiet!'s mounting system.

[imreloadin]

2 hours ago, Geotropism said:

Looking for a CPU cooler under £75 for my i5 8600k so I can mildly overclock it to around 4.7GHz. I'm planning on buying the Fractal Design Meshify C and it has a clearance of 172mm. I've been looking at the NH-U14S for $57. 

The Noctua NH-D15 is only 165mm with the fans mounted if you want to get the best Noctua model.

[Geotropism]

The performance difference between the NH-U14S and NH-D15 is too minimal to justify the price difference. If I buy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-PWM-Controlled-Cooler-Replacement/dp/B00KF7QO2G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518982804&sr=8-1&keywords=NF-P14r&dpID=51M0e4pgOvL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch&th=1 and put it on my NH-U14s would it work? Is it better or worse than the stock fan? I prefer the grey color over the ugly stock one.

[imreloadin]

3 hours ago, Geotropism said:

The performance difference between the NH-U14S and NH-D15 is too minimal to justify the price difference. If I buy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-PWM-Controlled-Cooler-Replacement/dp/B00KF7QO2G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518982804&sr=8-1&keywords=NF-P14r&dpID=51M0e4pgOvL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch&th=1 and put it on my NH-U14s would it work? Is it better or worse than the stock fan? I prefer the grey color over the ugly stock one.

When you said you wanted the best I figured that meant the best not "best price to performance"

Yeah though that fan should work fine with the NH-U14S as it's got the same mounting hole dimension and also has higher static pressure (which is good for heatsink fans), spec pages for both fans are below:

Fan on the NH-U14S: https://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a15-pwm/specification

Fan in from Amazon: https://noctua.at/en/products/product-line-redux/nf-p14r-redux-1500-pwm/specification

[WoodenMarker]

5 hours ago, Geotropism said:

The performance difference between the NH-U14S and NH-D15 is too minimal to justify the price difference. If I buy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noctua-PWM-Controlled-Cooler-Replacement/dp/B00KF7QO2G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518982804&sr=8-1&keywords=NF-P14r&dpID=51M0e4pgOvL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch&th=1 and put it on my NH-U14s would it work? Is it better or worse than the stock fan? I prefer the grey color over the ugly stock one.

It's worse than the original fan. The NF-A15 is an update to the NF-P14. If you don't want to stick with the stock fan, you might as well not get a noctua cooler in the first place.

The Mugen 5 Rev. B is a good alternative: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/8GBrxr/scythe-mugen-5-rev-b-512-cfm-cpu-cooler-scmg-5100

[Glennieboyyy007]

12 hours ago, Geotropism said:

I absolutely hate Be Quiet!'s mounting system.

the 4th gen has a new mounting system, maybe take a look at it

[Geotropism]

15 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

It's worse than the original fan. The NF-A15 is an update to the NF-P14. If you don't want to stick with the stock fan, you might as well not get a noctua cooler in the first place.

The Mugen 5 Rev. B is a good alternative: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/8GBrxr/scythe-mugen-5-rev-b-512-cfm-cpu-cooler-scmg-5100

How does that compare to the NH-U14S? I've decided to go against getting an aftermarket fan and instead just focus on my case fans.

[WoodenMarker]

3 hours ago, Geotropism said:

How does that compare to the NH-U14S? I've decided to go against getting an aftermarket fan and instead just focus on my case fans.

The Mugen 5 Rev. B is pretty quiet but a bit less so than the NH-U14S. It's also not as slim but still completely clears the dimm slots and performs a bit better. The mounting hardware is very good but technically a bit worse than the golden standard that's Noctua. The NH-U14S has a longer lasting fan and has a longer warranty at 6yrs vs the Mugen's 2yrs. 

If you're not being nitpicky, the biggest difference boils down to the Noctua's fan and customer support being probably more more reliable.

[Geotropism]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

The Mugen 5 Rev. B is pretty quiet but a bit less so than the NH-U14S. It's also not as slim but still completely clears the dimm slots and performs a bit better. The mounting hardware is very good but technically a bit worse than the golden standard that's Noctua. The NH-U14S has a longer lasting fan and has a longer warranty at 6yrs vs the Mugen's 2yrs. 

If you're not being nitpicky, the biggest difference boils down to the Noctua's fan and customer support being probably more more reliable.

Thanks for that, I guess I'll just spend the extra £10 and get myself the Noctua. As for my case fans, would 2x Corsair SP140 fans be good for front intakes since the Meshify C is... mesh.

[WoodenMarker]

6 minutes ago, Geotropism said:

Thanks for that, I guess I'll just spend the extra £10 and get myself the Noctua. As for my case fans, would 2x Corsair SP140 fans be good for front intakes since the Meshify C is... mesh.

Why did you decide to go with the Noctua?

SP140's perform alright but aren't as good as the stock GP-12 X2's if you're aiming for quiet operation. 

PW2's are quieter: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wj8H99/be-quiet-pure-wings-2-140-612-cfm-140mm-fan-bl040

For a bit more performance, you could go with NF-P14S': https://pcpartpicker.com/product/8r9KHx/noctua-case-fan-nfp14sredux1500pwm

[Geotropism]

9 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

Why did you decide to go with the Noctua?

SP140's perform alright but aren't as good as the stock GP-12 X2's if you're aiming for quiet operation. 

PW2's are quieter: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wj8H99/be-quiet-pure-wings-2-140-612-cfm-140mm-fan-bl040

For a bit more performance, you could go with NF-P14S': https://pcpartpicker.com/product/8r9KHx/noctua-case-fan-nfp14sredux1500pwm

From what you said, I gathered that the Noctua is better than the Mugen 5 so I went with it. I don't mind the noise level as long as it's not overly loud and unbearable- I play with noise cancelling headphones most of the time. With that in mind, do you still recommend the PW2's? I mainly went with the SP140 because of the white LED which I think would make my case look much sexier. Are static pressure fans good for front intakes if it's mesh?

[WoodenMarker]

1 minute ago, Geotropism said:

From what you said, I gathered that the Noctua is better than the Mugen 5 so I went with it. I don't mind the noise level as long as it's not overly loud and unbearable- I play with noise cancelling headphones most of the time. With that in mind, do you still recommend the PW2's? I mainly went with the SP140 because of the white LED which I think would make my case look much sexier. Are static pressure fans good for front intakes if it's mesh?

They're both quiet coolers and you won't notice a difference if you're not aiming for a very quiet system. If you just want something that performs well, SP140's are fine. That being said, the same reasoning would make the Mugen 5 the better buy. PW2's and NF-P14S' both have the advantage of being quieter and having a longer warranty than the SP140's 2yrs at 3yrs and 6yrs respectively.

What's considered a static pressure oriented fan is arbitrary. All fans have some degree of both static pressure and airflow and you generally want as much airflow as possible while having enough static pressure to overcome any obstructions in the way. If you're asking for which would perform the best, from best to worst: NF-P14S, SP140, PW2