Best moderately sized cooler for 4790k

[T3chmaN]

Hi!

Could anyone recommend a "moderately sized" cooler for 4790k. I need it to be a bit better than the stock one, and unfortunately I can't install something as big as the 212 Evo. I will not overclock the CPU.

Cheers!

 

[ThatVietGuy]

You can try this one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF2DZ6565

 

[MeteorsRaining]

I assume you need a quieter yet powerful option, and you have a small (Mini-ITX) case. I'd look at the Noctua L9i, which's horizontally fitted, so there are no height issues. It is one of the quieter options around, while still being fine for stock to mild overclocks.

 

[octavecode]

BE QUIET! SHADOW ROCK TOPFLOW SR1
http://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/287

 

[T3chmaN]

That Noctua L9i looks exactly like the thing I need 😀 Thank You 😀

 

[MeteorsRaining]

No worries, glad to help.

 

[The Original Ralph]

That Noctua L9i looks exactly like the thing I need 😀 Thank You 😀

i'm running the NH-L9i right now on a i7-4790(locked or non-K) in a SFF case and to be frank i'm a little dis-appointed - my temps did drop when i removed the intel cooler, but total maybe 6C at idle and 4-5C under load (video rendering). I suspect the fact that it only has two heatpipes is the limiting factor - it is a quiet cooler but i've actually got the cpu fan speed set pretty high in the bios, 85% at 52C, 100% at 60C. I think it's a fine cooler for a lower heat generating cpu, but the 4790k at 88W and 110W at turbo boost, needs a little more efficient cooler. Noctua shows the L9i actually rated for 95W CPUs in some of their spec pages, then 65W in others - i suspect the 65W is the true value

I'd suggest the next model up, the L12 ( http://noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=46&lng=en )

if you still decide you want the L9i, i'll be un-installing mine in a few weeks, and it'll be for sale cheap. I'm moving my computer build to a larger case and going with the noctua NH-U12S

whichever one you go with, most mfgrs have a blueprint of the cooler on their FAQ page (the FAQ specific to each model) - make sure whatever you choose doesn't conflict, space/height wise with ram boards etc. One of the reasons i initially chose that L9i was the fact that it would not violate the "95x95mm" zone around the cpu on my micro-atx mobo and it did that nicely - but the heat exchange or fin area really wasn't that much greater than the intel's
fwiw