Cooling for Fractal Define Mini mATX

[TaneliForsman]

Hi, so I recently built a new mATX gaming PC, when I had chosen about half the parts I realised I had already blown my budget. So when it came to the CPU cooler I got a cheap CM hyper TX3 EVO... Aand it turns out to be exactly as bad as i expected, and I've also realised that id probably want to overclock my i5 4690k because, well I want to. So I am now asking you guys for help with finding a good CPU cooler that will fit my case (Fractal design Define Mini). My budget is about 100€ and I do not have anything against water cooling..

 

[CaedenV]

that is really not a bad cooling tower, just a crap fan. Find a good quality fan and use the mounting brackets on the current fan on the new fan. Easy mod and turns a crap cooler into a very decent one. I got tired of the fan on the 212Evo and replaced it with 2 120mm Corsair fans that were quieter and prettier and could not be happier with the result.

 

[geofelt]

Clearance for an air cooler is 160mm.
Virtually any cooler will fit.
One could go with an outstanding air cooler like the noctua nh-d14 or Phanteks.
But...
I have become a bit jaded on the subject of haswell cooling for overclocking.
How high you can OC is firstly determined by your luck in the bin lottery.
I had high expectations from the Devil's canyon parts and their better thermals.
I found out that the thermals really do not matter unless, perhaps, you are a competitive overclocker.
Haswell runs quite cool, that is, until you raise the voltage past 1.25v or so.
Once you go past 1.3v, then you really do need very good cooling to keep stress loads under say 85c.
But, the consensus is that voltages higher than 1.30 are not a good thing for 24/7 usage.
I have been unable to find any official Intel recommendation on what is a safe vcore limit.
If you are an enthusiast, you can go higher.
Even if you can handle the heat, how much do you really need that extra multiplier from say 4.4 to 4.6?
My thought is that it is better to use the exotic cooling funds for a quieter and less expensive air cooler.
I suggest a good tower air cooler like noctua or phanteks with 140mm fans.

 

[TaneliForsman]

Thanks guys for the fast answers! Thing is, later last night I started looking at some water cooling options. Mostly because I really really hate all the space that my (small) TX3EVO is already taking up because when I want to check something like my graphics card or do cable management it is a pain in the *ss. Thats why a gigantic noctua or phanteks (that would also probably be overlapping my ram slots (MB MSI Z87M gaming)) Probably isn't a good idea. I know I am being picky, but I really hate when my computer is a big mess (Hate the blue RAM on my black and red MB , and I think i could probably get the cable management done much bettetr if I had the extra space that water cooling would provide. So when I did a little research I found that fractal is shipping its new water coolers right now and the Kelvin T12 fits back in the case perfectly so, what do you goys think? I mean the price is quite ok if the preformance is sufficcient to let me oc to say 4.4?

 

[geofelt]

A simple tower type such as the noctua NH-U12S will be quiet and cool better. You do not need more to get a top conservative OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608040

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

 

[TaneliForsman]

A simple tower type such as the noctua NH-U12S will be quiet and cool better. You do not need more to get a top conservative OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608040

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

Ok, you have successfully convinced me to get a air cooler, and I am pretty sure ill go with the NH-U12S although it is very very ugly.. but what can one do. Thanks for the help anyways!