Cooling for a 8320

[hammerer]

Hey guys,

Just updated my rig with a 8320 and I'm pretty satisfied, but as we all know, the stock cooler just sucks. With a budget of roughly 50$ which cooler would you recommend? I'd eventually like to OC a little, so I'd enjoy one letting me do that. Is it worth looking into liquid cooling in that price range? Up until now, I've mostly seen the Hyper 212 EVO recommended.

Also, when my computer runs full load while gaming for an extended period of time, it has a tendency of crashing. Having only one screen, I haven't had a chance to monitor temps yet, but is it an educated guess to suspect my CPU being the culprit? My GPU is a gtx 660 and I've had it for a while in another build and it never caused me any problems.

Here is my current build: 
 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor  

Motherboard:  Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard  

Memory:  G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory

Storage:  Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Video Card:  Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card

 

 

[DoubleY]

Yes, Hyper212 EVO is just a great value.

[coen113]

NHD14?

NHU14?

to say something different than the 212 evo

[FloRolf]

cooling wise the stock cooler does a decent job but is just very loud. Id go with the 212 evo too and save some money since its already pretty good.

[AMICLG]

XIGMATEK Dark Knight II Night Hawk Edition. 

[Guest GRRigger]

True spirit, Havik, shadow rock 2, GT V6, and some other coolers that are near 50 bucks, but i have no idea how they scale.

[deathjester]

NHD14?

NHU14?

to say something different than the 212 evo

 

 

The have the D on boxing sale at ncix or whatever for 59 bucks? Shoot man....wish I picked up one for that price lol. 

 

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=47090&promoid=1051

 

If you got 60 bucks and that fits in your case? HELL YEAH BUY THAT @#%@. 

 

If you got 30? Evo 212 is best on a budget. 

[tugadude4]

NHD14?

NHU14?

to say something different than the 212 evo

YES nh-d14 for sureeee

[Cyber023]

On Budget: HyperEVO212

Not on budget: Something like a Noctua NHD14 or Dark rock pro 2

[coen113]

the scythe mugen also isnt bad, it keeps my 3570k under 60 celcius at 4 ghz

[Mooshi]

You could also get an Enermax Black Twister if you wanna have something else that isn't a massive Noctua or a Hyper 212+ Evo.

[hammerer]

But will I be able to OC with the Hyper 212 EVO?

[deathjester]

But will I be able to OC with the Hyper 212 EVO?

 

Yup. Can do 4.5 on my hotter then hell Haswell and keep in thermals. It isn't as good as a NH-D14 though. On a NH d-14 I could do 4.6. Past that probably need dual rad water. 

 

NH is also quieter if noise bothers you. If you are going for like 4.4-4.5 on a AMD? The evo is fine. If you want to push past that? NH. You are limited by a motherboard on AMD though, so unless you have a Asus/Gigabyte 990fx board? I would get the Evo. 

[Sequence]

For your price range EVO is  your best bet it will give you the cooling that you need and some oc headroom what more can you ask for ?

[TechFan@ic]

A 212 EVO will not improve your temperatures over the stock cooler, only improve the noise levels so I definitely don't recommend it if you want to overclock.
Get an NZXT Havik 140, it's only between a 1-2c warmer than an NH-D14 but cheaper and smaller.

[deathjester]

A 212 EVO will not improve your temperatures over the stock cooler, only improve the noise levels so I definitely don't recommend it if you want to overclock.

Get an NZXT Havik 140, it's only between a 1-2c warmer than an NH-D14 but cheaper and smaller.

 

Huh? A evo dropped load temps on my stock cooler by 25C. The AMD stock cooler is as bad. It might not be 25 C since the Haswell runs hot as hell, but a evo or any 120mm single tower fan (they are all about the same, the evo fan just pushes a lot of air for a good price) will perform way better then the stock fan.

 

If you didn't see a difference from a stock cooler to a 120mm fan cooler, you either had a broken heatpipe or the cooler wasn't making contact with the CPU. 

 

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/61275-noctua-nh-u14s-nh-u12s-cpu-coolers-review-7.html

 

All 120mm single tower fans are about the same. Even the uber expensive Noctua single tower 120mm isn't any better then a Evo 212 and they are as good as the cheaper single rad water coolers.

 

A NH-D14? Yeah better. Dual rad water? Even better. The only reason the Noctua U-12s scores better then a evo is probably the thermal grease. Noctua grease is fantastic. 

[TechFan@ic]

Huh? A evo dropped load temps on my stock cooler by 25C. The AMD stock cooler is as bad. It might not be 25 C since the Haswell runs hot as hell, but a evo or any 120mm single tower fan (they are all about the same, the evo fan just pushes a lot of air for a good price) will perform way better then the stock fan.

 

If you didn't see a difference from a stock cooler to a 120mm fan cooler, you either had a broken heatpipe or the cooler wasn't making contact with the CPU. 

 

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/61275-noctua-nh-u14s-nh-u12s-cpu-coolers-review-7.html

 

All 120mm single tower fans are about the same. Even the uber expensive Noctua single tower 120mm isn't any better then a Evo 212 and they are as good as the cheaper single rad water coolers.

 

A NH-D14? Yeah better. Dual rad water? Even better. The only reason the Noctua U-12s scores better then a evo is probably the thermal grease. Noctua grease is fantastic. 

I've built an FX 8350 system for one of my friends with a Hyper 212 EVO, the idle temperatures did improve, so did the noise but the load temperatures did not show any tangible improvements, especially after overclocking.

We were able to overclock all 8 cores to 4.3Ghz on the stock cooler and still have a prime95 stable system, the EVO did not give us any additional overclocking headroom.

[deathjester]

I've built an FX 8350 system for one of my friends with a Hyper 212 EVO, the idle temperatures did improve, so did the noise but the load temperatures did not show any tangible improvements, especially after overclocking.

We were able to overclock all 8 cores to 4.3Ghz on the stock cooler and still have a prime95 stable system, the EVO did not give us any additional overclocking headroom.

 

You installed it wrong or had a broken heat pipe. I have had Noctua's (and that is as expensive as you can go on air) with broken heat pipes. The delivery service probably kicked it around like Ace Ventura.

[TechFan@ic]

You installed it wrong or had a broken heat pipe. I have had Noctua's (and that is as expensive as you can go on air) with broken heat pipes. The delivery service probably kicked it around like Ace Ventura.

No the cooler was in perfect working order, we didn't order it online either, we picked it up ourselves from a local shop.

We know it was working perfectly because it showed improvements over a Cooler Master Hyper TX3 that we were previously using.