CPU heat sink that wont overhang ram

[Stoic Muffins]

I need to buy a cpu heat sink to replace the stock cooler and was wondering if anybody had any recommendations that would allow for cpu overclocks and preferably not be too loud. So far from what I have seen the high quality and high end heat sinks are massive and over hang the ram significantly, does anybody know of a sufficient cooler that will not cover my ram?

note:
I have an i7 4770k, gskill trident x ram and a gigabyte g1 sniper 5 motherboard

 

[IInuyasha74]

You should go for a water cooler closed-loop model. You can find them for maybe $50 on sale. You need space on your case for mounting it but it will give good performance and not block RAM.

There is also Silent-X and other sub 100mm standing coolers you could use. When they get up to about 100mm they really start to get over the RAM, but 92mm and 80mm ones are fairly common too and don't get over the RAM as much. The performance isn't as good, but it should still allow for some moderate overclocking.

 

[synphul]

You could try the cryorig h5. It's got more meat to the heatsink than most single tower coolers but comes with a slim fan (still performs well in cooling). It's designed so there are no clearance issues with ram.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/cryorig_h5_universal_review,6.html

Goes for $44.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h5universal

 

[LucoTF]

You could also try removing the heat spreader from the ram stick nearest your CPU

 

[synphul]

That too. I believe the trident have pretty tall headspreaders and if I'm not mistaken there is a small screw at either end near the base of the ram sink that allows you to remove the decorative fins rather easily.

 

[Stoic Muffins]

That too. I believe the trident have pretty tall headspreaders and if I'm not mistaken there is a small screw at either end near the base of the ram sink that allows you to remove the decorative fins rather easily.

I would do that but I had previously painted the heatfins green and rather enjoy how they look in my case

 

[Stoic Muffins]

does the hyper 212 evo overhang the ram?

 

[synphul]

The 212 evo doesn't overhang the ram, no. Although with the fan in 'push' (on the right side) it comes really close and can be a minor pain to get the fan on with ram in the first dimm. You have to take the fan off to get to the heatsink mounts. If you're wanting a good visual of the ram, then for looks I might go with an aio closed loop liquid cooler. Whether the 212 evo or any other tower style cooler like the cryorig h5, even if they don't cover the ram the ram will be slightly obscured and only visible looking at it directly head on because of the height of the coolers. The ram gets kind of 'lost' next to them. It sounds like you want to show your ram off.

 

[synphul]

Here's an image (sorry, rather large) I found showing a closeup of the 212 evo and the close proximity to the ram. Also shows ram with taller heat spreaders and given the fan is a 120mm you might be able to get an idea of how far 'back' the ram will be situated compared to the front of the cooler tower (facing the window of your case).

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5788/imag0102k.jpg