Which Cooler for i7 - Moderate Overclock

[mrmeowmix2300]

Hello Tom's Hardware, In June I will be building an i7 PC and was wonder what heatsink I should get to cool the i7. At first I was thinking the Noctua or the TRUE but soon realized that I would only be overclocking to the 3.0-3.2 range. Now I am thinking that for that overclock I would be fine with the Xig Dark Knight. My main priorities are that the chip runs pretty cool (heat that wont shorten its life span) and the heatsink fan is quiet. I would be very thankful if you good people could help me with this decision.


PS: Whats better for a not so hardcore gamer: 20" or 22"?

 

[cjl]

The Xig is a good choice.

Oh, and for a not so hardcore gamer who cares about image quality, I'd go with the Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA.

 

[RetiredChief]

For what it's worth.
www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=25166&PageId=10

 

[rags_20]

TRUE LGA1366 RT. Get no other.
Even if you OC to just 3-3.2, lower temps are better than higher ones. So get better cooler if you can.

As for monitor size, I have a 19" and I'm ABSOLUTELY fine with it. I don't really want to go 22" or 24". And I game a lot. 1440 x 900 is great. I have the Samsung 920NW. Oh, and if you have an Nvidia card, get 3D vision with the 22"

 

[yomamafor1]

TRUE LGA1366 RT. Get no other.
Even if you OC to just 3-3.2, lower temps are better than higher ones. So get better cooler if you can.

As for monitor size, I have a 19" and I'm ABSOLUTELY fine with it. I don't really want to go 22" or 24". And I game a lot. 1440 x 900 is great. I have the Samsung 920NW. Oh, and if you have an Nvidia card, get 3D vision with the 22"

+1

 

[mrmeowmix2300]

But I heard that the Mugen 2 is only like a few degrees hotter than the TRUE. I get what you mean about the heat, but if its like 3 Degrees more for half the price isnt that pretty good? As I said, I just want low noise and good performance.

 

[WR2]

PS: Whats better for a not so hardcore gamer: 20" or 22"?

Since they both have the same on-screen resolution - 1680x1050 - they pretty much "game the same".
Look for other features you may want such as USB ports on the monitor, tilt, swivel and height adjustments if they're features you want. We don't usually recommend monitors with built in speakers but you may want them if de-cluttering your desk is important to you.

Only 3 degrees difference for half the price seems like a no-brainer to me. If it was necessary to get the "best" of everything we'll all be buying i7 965s and GTX 295s.

 

[daship]

For your moderate goal the stock is fine. I run my i7 3.6 on the stock cooler.

 

[rags_20]

^ That's bad. Real bad. You could fry it if you mean i7 920 @ 3.6

 

[TexasRattleSnake]

Polimatech's Megahalem:
http://www.jab-tech.com/Prolimatech-Megahalems-CPU-Cooler-775-1366-pr-4428.html

p.s. benchmarkreviews did a review of this and a few other coolers, and it performed remarkably well. On the split side xbitlabs also did a review that saw the Megahalem being outperformed by several other coolers. Still do a google on the reviews of it, and you shall see that it generally bests the TRUE!

 

[cjl]

^ That's bad. Real bad. You could fry it if you mean i7 920 @ 3.6

It depends on the temps. That having been said, I have a hard time imagining that the temps are good. The i7 runs quite hot, and even with a TRUE, my i7 can hit into the mid 70s full load.

 

[rags_20]

What's the Tj Max of i7?

 

[WR2]

What's the Tj Max of i7?

I think RealTemp 3.0 has been updated to include that.

 

[rags_20]

Why does Intel make such a big fuss about revealing the Tj max values? I mean, i still don't my actual tj max values for my Core 2. Intel and Everest Ultimate say 90C RealTemp and CoreTemp say 100C, don't know what to believe.

 

[halcyon]

I don't know, I got the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 120mm SSO, comes with 2xfans for push-pull and it seems to do quite well. I have an old TRUE that I got for Q9450 last year...could've gotten a 1366 mounting for it I suppose but after lapping and all that I still wasn't overly impressed by the TRUE. Do you still have to lap the new 1366 edition TRUE's for good cooling?

 

[mrmeowmix2300]

Ok well its still a toss up between the dark knight and the mugen 2. I forgot to add my mobo will be the Asus p6t deluxe v2 and my ram with be 6gb (2gbx3) corsair dominator (with heatsinks) so I want to make sure the cooler wont interfere with the ram. I have also heard that the scythe is quieter but I could just get a quiet fan for the DK. Im so confused.

 

[methal]

this is what i've got and it works -20-30c better on 100% after an hour than stock: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233023

as for the monitor you can't get beat:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233023

 

[methal]

Ok well its still a toss up between the dark knight and the mugen 2. I forgot to add my mobo will be the Asus p6t deluxe v2 and my ram with be 6gb (2gbx3) corsair dominator (with heatsinks) so I want to make sure the cooler wont interfere with the ram. I have also heard that the scythe is quieter but I could just get a quiet fan for the DK. Im so confused.

I can personally vouch for the ram. I sell it at work with a life time guarantee. The dark night will do better than the mugen 2, The only problem I see with your build is the motherboard is designed with a downward air flow to keep the chipset cool. Both of those HS's have sideways air flow.

The EVGA board is better than the p6t deluxe v2. I've had both. I've sold many many i7s with both. The EVGA runs cooler, and out of about 120 i've sold i've only had 1 come back bad. out of the 150 asus boards i've sold i've had about 12 come back. The one EVGA came back with a burned bios chip...I know random. It was warrantied by the manufacturer.

If it were me, and it was, I would get the EVGA board, get a thermalright TRUE 120, and keep the dominator ram. or get the XIGMATEK Thors Hammer and put a high performance fan on it.