Going to overclock my i7, Which aftermarket heatsink to buy!?!?!

[oneshot1]

thanks for the input guys

 

[Mutant Corn]

The Megahalems is in stock right now, FYI:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242001

That's a Rev. B model, so 1156 is supported.

 

[foothead]

Actually, the Tuniq cools better than a Megahalem. Read that link I put up.

EDIT: It wasn't on there. Newer than tuniq. http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2481&page=6 Tuniq is #1, its #2. It appears to be considerably taller though, so it almost definitely will not fit in a mid tower.

 

[sniperviper21]

IMHO i think the V8 looks the best for such a good performer, though the Tuniq does do better

 

[Cabbs]

From what I've read, it seems like the Noctua NH-D14 is possibly the best. The thing is enormous though.

 

[foothead]

Noctua is pretty over-hyped actually. You have a link to a comparison where it does better?

 

[woody84]

I have the Noctura, it was the best in reviews I saw at the time. (about a month ago)

I have a i7 920 OCed to 3.5 and it never goes above 70C with prime 95 running. It's in an Antec 1200.

It is ugly and huge though.

Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U12P-SE1366-Heat-Pipe-Bearing/dp/B001QFCVE6/ref=pd_cp_e_1
I have the one with two fans like shown here

 

[wol-va-rine]

Noctua is pretty over-hyped actually. You have a link to a comparison where it does better?

actually it is better, that list with the Tuniq as the best was for 775 cpus, i7 have a higher TDM IIRC and I also doubt the TRUE in that review was lapped, lapped TRUEs are really tough to beat when talking air cooling...

the Noctua NH-D14 is the most recommended (from what I've seen) by a pretty good margin, and beat the Tuniq by about 6 degrees at full load with the stock fan and by 5 degrees with a custom fan (I'm assuming they used the same custom fan for all of them)...

review with i7-870 at 4.0GHz 1.388v

if $$ is an issue or you just want to be frugal the Kingwin XT-1264 (a Xigmatek 1283 clone) is about $30 at some stores and is roughly 8 degrees worse than the TRUE, not bad for a "cheap" cooler, it'll top out at about 80 degrees in Prime95 with an overclocked i7, but pretty much stabalizes at that point and doesn't go much higher...

 

[Kage]

All those benchmarks are at 100% fan though which is terribly noisy.

I have a 9700, and wow is it loud at 100%, for me at least.
If its on low, its ultra quiet however.

But, performance would certainly make a difference when set to low.

Performance may have an impact between coolers when all set to low also, and that is what I guess most people would run at. I don't want a turbine engine sounding thing in my computer

It only shows one low setting, and that is with the Tuniq Extreme 120

 

[wol-va-rine]

All those benchmarks are at 100% fan though which is terribly noisy.

I have a 9700, and wow is it loud at 100%, for me at least.
If its on low, its ultra quiet however.

But, performance would certainly make a difference when set to low.

Performance may have an impact between coolers when all set to low also, and that is what I guess most people would run at. I don't want a turbine engine sounding thing in my computer

but the computer wouldn't be at 100% load all the time, but yeah, it'll get noisy when that extra "umph" is needed...