Noctua NH-L12 or Corsair H55 AIO or what?

[ajvilladelrey]

I have a FX8350 running at stock clock speed, planning to overclock it maybe at 4.5Ghz or higher. But i'm having a problem picking a decent cpu cooler for this cpu becuase of the clearance of my casing(158mm w/o side panels) so to be sure and safe I need a cpu cooler that can handle over clocking a 8-core cpu with a height measurement below 140m.

 

[geofelt]

If you have 145mm clearance, look at the cryorig H7.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF2DZ6565

I have used the noctua NH-L12 and it is a very effective and quiet downdraft cooler.

I don't much like liquid coolers:

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--------------------------

And... is your motherboard good for overclocking?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html

 

[ajvilladelrey]

If you have 145mm clearance, look at the cryorig H7.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF2DZ6565

I have used the noctua NH-L12 and it is a very effective and quiet downdraft cooler.

I don't much like liquid coolers:

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--------------------------

And... is your motherboard good for overclocking?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html

I don't think your suggested CPU cooler can freely fit into my computer casing. I have 2 120mm Side panel fans in it, so maybe for a proper air flow inside my case, atleast 130mm, i think?

My motherboard is MSI 970 Gaming.

 

[rubix_1011]

The elephant in the room is whether or not the OP can clock the CPU to those speeds. It takes good components such as motherboard, RAM and power supply as well as having a CPU that has the ability to hold clocks at good voltages. Having 'XYZ CPU' that you see others on the web overclocking does not automatically mean your same labled 'XYZ CPU' also will.

Also - overclocking to the higher end of a CPU's limits requires a lot of manual BIOS changes; not moving a slider in a GUI application. Learning how to do all these adjustments in your BIOS is what you'll need. This will be your limitation far sooner than a cooling solution will be.

 

[Zerk2012]

I dont like the downward blowing of hot air on the motherboard, the h55 is not much of a cooler for a 125 Watt processor with plans to overclock.
I would look at the H80i if it will fit your case.
Watter cooling don't bother me been running my H100 with very good results.