What is the best air cooler for an intel Core i7 3770k?

[needpcparts]

Hi, i have read many topics about this same problem but they are all outdated. Right now i am cooling with the intel stock cooler. Its loud, and kind of running hot. I have heard many great things about the hyper 212 evo but i have read on a website that overtime newer and better things have came out. I have a Phanteks enthoo pro case. I think i will also start overclocking soon. My question is What is the best cooler for my processor?

 

[synphul]

It's hard to say without knowing your budget, the most expensive is likely to be the noctua nh-d14 or nh-d15 at around $75-$90 usd. There are quite a few good options between the hyper 212 evo and the noctua. The hyper 212 evo has been a really good cooler considering it's performance in relation to how long it's been around and given it's price. I would consider it more of a quiet replacement for the stock cooler. If you plan to overclock anything over a small overclock I'd consider a better peforming cooler. It's not that the cooler master is bad, but it's a $25-30 budget cooler and expecting it to handle any moderate to significant overclocks is pushing it beyond it's design.

 

[needpcparts]

It's hard to say without knowing your budget, the most expensive is likely to be the noctua nh-d14 or nh-d15 at around $75-$90 usd. There are quite a few good options between the hyper 212 evo and the noctua. The hyper 212 evo has been a really good cooler considering it's performance in relation to how long it's been around and given it's price. I would consider it more of a quiet replacement for the stock cooler. If you plan to overclock anything over a small overclock I'd consider a better peforming cooler. It's not that the cooler master is bad, but it's a $25-30 budget cooler and expecting it to handle any moderate to significant overclocks is pushing it beyond it's design.

Thank you for the fast reply! my budget is around $50. I honestly want to future proof my pc and i get a lag here and there when im running lets say far cry 4 etc. That is the reason why i want to overclock. I am clueless at this and i want the best cooler within that price.

 

[davidarad02]

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk013

 

[needpcparts]

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk013

Hi David. I never heard of this cooler at all. Do you have a benchmark comparison of this cooler compared to a hyper 212 evo? It doesn't seem like a known cooler

 

[synphul]

Be quiet makes some good coolers, although for the price the shadow rock 2 might not be the best bet. It does out perform the 212 evo by a couple of degrees, but for the price difference - they're both 180 tdp coolers. The cryorig h5 might be a better deal, a bit less than the shadow rock 2 and better performance than the 212 evo.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h5universal

If you're not dead set on looks of the cooler and you want best performance in that price range, I don't think you'll do better than the thermalright true spirit 140 power. It's a larger (taller) cooler at 170mm but according to phanteks website the enthoo pro can accept coolers up to 193mm so you should be good there (fairly wide case). It has a tdp of 360w vs the 180 of the hyper 212 evo and cryorig h5.

For $55 usd it's probably the best performing (and one of the quietest) coolers in your budget.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermalright-cpu-cooler-truespirit140power

 

[synphul]

In terms of be quiet not being well known, they're more well known in europe (german based) but are becoming more popular/known in the u.s. markets now.

 

[needpcparts]

Be quiet makes some good coolers, although for the price the shadow rock 2 might not be the best bet. It does out perform the 212 evo by a couple of degrees, but for the price difference - they're both 180 tdp coolers. The cryorig h5 might be a better deal, a bit less than the shadow rock 2 and better performance than the 212 evo.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h5universal

If you're not dead set on looks of the cooler and you want best performance in that price range, I don't think you'll do better than the thermalright true spirit 140 power. It's a larger (taller) cooler at 170mm but according to phanteks website the enthoo pro can accept coolers up to 193mm so you should be good there (fairly wide case). It has a tdp of 360w vs the 180 of the hyper 212 evo and cryorig h5.

For $55 usd it's probably the best performing (and one of the quietest) coolers in your budget.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermalright-cpu-cooler-truespirit140power

In terms of be quiet not being well known, they're more well known in europe (german based) but are becoming more popular/known in the u.s. markets now.

Is the thermalright the absolute best cooler for that price range? The thermalright looks good but the h5 looks gorgeous. I just don't know which one is better in performance. Is there something better or is it just this? Also the website for the h5 is so professional which says something about their products. Im completely stuck now as to which one is better.

One last concern i have a p8z77-m which is a micro atx motherboard. http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P8Z77M/ I have a gtx 760 evga in the express slot. Would those massive coolers interfere with any components?

 

[needpcparts]

In terms of be quiet not being well known, they're more well known in europe (german based) but are becoming more popular/known in the u.s. markets now.

Synphul please look at my motherboard. I dont know if the coolers are going to interfere with the gpu or the ram

 

[synphul]

I took a look at pics to try and tell best I could of the true spirit 140 power, honestly I think it might conflict with your gpu. It's a large cooler (has 140mm fan) vs a 120mm. It also stands tall (170mm, 10mm taller than the large noctua nh-d14). I see your concern, on my motherboard I have a small pcie x1 slot first so it gives me a little additional room below the cpu socket where your pcie x16 comes first. The cryorig h5 should fit without issue, it's a 120mm fan and it's been designed with a slim fan so it doesn't overhang the ram avoiding clearance issues.

Another option you may check into is the phanteks PH-TC12DX. It has a smaller 120mm fan and looks like it will fit with a gpu in the first slot (some people using the larger ts140 power were resorting to putting their gpu's in the second slot for clearance on certain motherboards). Here are some benchmarks to give an idea of cooling performance.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Phanteks/PH-TC12DX/6.html
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phanteks_phtc12dx/4.htm
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/02/26/phanteks_phtc12dx_cpu_air_cooler_review/3#.VLqP4UfF-30

It might not be the biggest air cooler, but according to hardocp's testing it was just as good as an h80i under max load on a i7-3770k oc'd to 4.5ghz using prime 95.

It's $50 on newegg right now - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dx

They also have them in colors if that matters to you.
Red - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dxrd
Black ($60) - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dxbk
Blue ($60) - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dxbl

Sorry for the delay in answering, I didn't see this post updated with a response until just now. Didn't mean to take so long answering back.

Added: Here's another review showing it on a similar motherboard (asus p8z77-v) and there's no ram clearance issue at all. Even being a different sub model, being the same brand and chipset series the dimm slots for the ram will be in the same relation to the cpu socket which is what matters for ram clearance.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/luke-hill/phanteks-ph-tc12dx-cpu-cooler-review/4/

 

[needpcparts]

I took a look at pics to try and tell best I could of the true spirit 140 power, honestly I think it might conflict with your gpu. It's a large cooler (has 140mm fan) vs a 120mm. It also stands tall (170mm, 10mm taller than the large noctua nh-d14). I see your concern, on my motherboard I have a small pcie x1 slot first so it gives me a little additional room below the cpu socket where your pcie x16 comes first. The cryorig h5 should fit without issue, it's a 120mm fan and it's been designed with a slim fan so it doesn't overhang the ram avoiding clearance issues.

Another option you may check into is the phanteks PH-TC12DX. It has a smaller 120mm fan and looks like it will fit with a gpu in the first slot (some people using the larger ts140 power were resorting to putting their gpu's in the second slot for clearance on certain motherboards). Here are some benchmarks to give an idea of cooling performance.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Phanteks/PH-TC12DX/6.html
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phanteks_phtc12dx/4.htm
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/02/26/phanteks_phtc12dx_cpu_air_cooler_review/3#.VLqP4UfF-30

It might not be the biggest air cooler, but according to hardocp's testing it was just as good as an h80i under max load on a i7-3770k oc'd to 4.5ghz using prime 95.

It's $50 on newegg right now - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dx

They also have them in colors if that matters to you.
Red - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dxrd
Black ($60) - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dxbk
Blue ($60) - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/phanteks-cpu-cooler-phtc12dxbl

Sorry for the delay in answering, I didn't see this post updated with a response until just now. Didn't mean to take so long answering back.

Added: Here's another review showing it on a similar motherboard (asus p8z77-v) and there's no ram clearance issue at all. Even being a different sub model, being the same brand and chipset series the dimm slots for the ram will be in the same relation to the cpu socket which is what matters for ram clearance.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/luke-hill/phanteks-ph-tc12dx-cpu-cooler-review/4/

Thank you so much for your help. I decided to buy the h5. Seems like an awesome cooler for an awesome price.