What is the quietest closed-loop CPU cooler?

[harryderouich]

As the title reads, I am in the market for a closed loop CPU cooler, as I need to get an OC on my processor as I have recently been doing quite a lot of video editing.

I have an i7 4770k (1150) and my case is the Corsair 650d. I believe I can fit up to a 280mm radiator.

The thing that I need most is for it to be as quiet as possible. Also if it could stay sub-£100ish that would be great!

So to sum it up, closed loop cpu cooler, quiet as possible that can get a fairly decent OC, but quietness is the main thing!

In also in the UK so UK prices would be great

Thanks in advance

 

[unksol]

If you are mainly concerned about noise an air cooler would be better

 

[harryderouich]

If you are mainly concerned about noise an air cooler would be better

Any recommendations for a quiet one>?

 

[unksol]

This is just to illustrate my point.
www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h100i-elc240-seidon-240m-lq320,3380-14.html

Air coolers are also cheaper. CLLC tend to to be slighly better on cooling but louder. That being said closed loop coolers have improved a bit since then.

What you have to recognize is that no matter what the cooler must transfer the heat to the ambient air. and no matter what that will be done with fans which are the part that makes the noise. And you can always pick or control your own fans. A CLLC just changes the location exhausting the heat and adds pump noise. but it MAY give more surface area which could let you run more fans at a slower RPM. and it MAY more directly remove the heat.

Lower heat in the case might mean GPU fans running slower. But most CLLC install guides tell you too pull in outside air and exhaust heat into the case. (personally I think they only say to do this cause marketing makes the lower temps look better. you should always exhaust heat out)

There are all sorts of "roundups" on this. you will find then on toms with a tiny bit of searching. CPU cooling is covered by a ton of technical sites. Just as an example here is a great round up of CLLCs from anandtech early this year.
www.anandtech.com/show/7738/closed-loop-aio-liquid-coolers

 

[harryderouich]

This is just to illustrate my point.
www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h100i-elc240-seidon-240m-lq320,3380-14.html

Air coolers are also cheaper. CLLC tend to to be slighly better on cooling but louder. That being said closed loop coolers have improved a bit since then.

What you have to recognize is that no matter what the cooler must transfer the heat to the ambient air. and no matter what that will be done with fans which are the part that makes the noise. And you can always pick or control your own fans. A CLLC just changes the location exhausting the heat and adds pump noise. but it MAY give more surface area which could let you run more fans at a slower RPM. and it MAY more directly remove the heat.

Lower heat in the case might mean GPU fans running slower. But most CLLC install guides tell you too pull in outside air and exhaust heat into the case. (personally I think they only say to do this cause marketing makes the lower temps look better. you should always exhaust heat out)

There are all sorts of "roundups" on this. you will find then on toms with a tiny bit of searching. CPU cooling is covered by a ton of technical sites. Just as an example here is a great round up of CLLCs from anandtech early this year.
www.anandtech.com/show/7738/closed-loop-aio-liquid-coolers

Thanks for the reply. I will look into it more in depth. Any recommendations from personal experience?

 

[harryderouich]

I just need to find a balance between getting a pretty good OC, and it being (for the most part) quieter than my stock intel fan.

 

[unksol]

The generally base recommendation to replace a stock cooler is the cooler master hyper 212 which is a good cheap air cooler. however if you were looking at a CLLC you were already planning on spending quite a bit more. As to the noise and what is acceptable to you/your use case I would defer to the pro reviews.

My personal philosophy on cooling is that if its quiet at idle I don't care about noise at full load. At full load I care about performance first as I will be in a game which will drown out any noise or not in the room. If you are running you CPU hard for work with professional software though your best bet is probably a huge air cooler with controllable fans. as sited in the first link.

 

[unksol]

Some good air cooler round ups

www.anandtech.com/show/6830/cpu-air-cooler-roundup-six-coolers-from-noctua-silverstone-and-cooler-master

www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-heat-sink-haswell,3554.html
The above is a good read about haswells heat problems too. Intel really screwed haswell up for overclocking.

plus a database of them.
www.techpowerup.com/reviewdb/Cooling/Air/Roundup/