Aircooling OCing

[Vizier]

So after reading many reports of people getting easily 4.5GHz and up on OCing a i7-2600K Sandy Bridge chip on Air cooling, this got me wondering a question.

What would be the best Air Cooling Fan&Heatsink one could use to accomplish such a feat? I was planning to simply go up to 4.1 or 4.2GHz at best, but some head room never hurt anyone!

EDIT - This would be on a ASUS P8P67 Pro Motherboard, the Case would be an Antec Lanboy Air Modular Case., and the RAM would be G.SKILL RipJaws X.

 

[ckop11]

This If you have a case with enough room.

And also keep in mind depending on what RAM your planning on using, there could clearance issue with the heatsink/fans and RAM. (usually ram with high heat spreaders/fins)

 

[Vizier]

would a Zalman CNPS9900 MAX 135mm CPU Cooler work for this scenario?

 

[Slaymate]

I recommend avoiding a Zalman cooler. How much money do you want to spend, or how much money are you willing to spend?

 

[Vizier]

I'm willing to spend up to $80 for a cooler, but if I have to go $90, I will. $90 however, is my absolute maximum.

 

[Slaymate]

I would go with this heatsink, but you'll also need to buy a good 140mm fan to go with it.
Prolimatech Super Mega Hybrid CPU Heatsink (LGA 775 / 1156 / 1366)( AM2* / AM2+* / AM3* Optional) Hot Item! - FrozenCPU.com

 

[Vizier]

I would like to be able to buy a heatsink where the fan comes included with the purchase, if all possible.

Also, I am curious as to why a Zalman cooler would not suffice. Still learning here.

 

[Slaymate]

The Zalman would work but other heatsinks will give you more cooling potential per dollar.

Buying a heatsink that comes with a fan is really no different than buying a heatsink and buying a fan separately. And buying your own fan allows you to choose a higher quality of fan.

If I had to buy a heatsink that comes with it own fan/fans I would go with a Noctua heatsink. The Noctua NH-D14 is the King of the Air Coolers (you can read this review of the Corsair H70 as it was tested against the Noctua NH-D14). But the Noctua NH-D14 is very large, monstrous even. The Noctua NH-U12P would be my next choice, Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Heat Sink With 2 Noctua Fans - Socket AM2/AM3/775/1366/1156 - FrozenCPU.com. It's not as large as the NH-D14 and it comes with not 1 but 2 very good fans (quiet ones at that). It should fit in your case with both fans for the best performance, but you can run it with one fan if needed.

 

[corei5]

NH-D14 beats H70.

@Slaymate
Would you recommend NH-D14 for those who have full tower and push and pull set up to have its full potential although its already push and pull. I'm planning to change my H50-1 I don't know how long this pre-built water cooling will last me but I want to test them both at normal speed of my core i5 (2.66 up to 3.7-4). I tried H50-1 it did pretty well and now I want to try air cooling.

Cons of air cooling:
DUSTY!

 

[patonb]

Dust is an issue in w/c too. The dust builds up on the rad.

I have a u12 in a Antec 900. Fits with a tiny bit of extra room.