best cooler for i5-2500k

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nelis

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Hi there

I want to know what is the best cooler for my i5-2500k. I have no budget but as cheap as possible without going over R1K. I see the zalman 10x extreme looks cool but the problem is it overlaps with my ram slots so if I want to get more ram I will sit with a probelm.

I also like the Corsair h70 but I also heard some bad stuff from it.


Update:
cooler choices: The Noctua NH-D14/NH-c14 or the Thermalrigh Silver Arrow.
Case: Cooler Master Sniper
 
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Done a lot of research on this recently and would definitely go with either the Thermalright Silver arrow (about R800) or the Noctua DH14 (also about R800). These are the best of the best aircooling wise and outperform all the corsair water cooling options (not sure about the new corsair H100 but that's over R1k). The one fan on the thermalright can be moved to accommodate RAM and the one fan on the DH14 can be moved up to accommodate RAM.

evetech.co.za has the Noctua & landmarkpc.co.za has the Thermalright.
 
I also looked into them but didn't hear anything particularly good. Their performance is also not amazing when compared to the options I gave and the Corsair H60 & H70 are also more expensive.
 
If you're looking for something cheap I'd recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus. It's only R250 and cools quite great! Otherwise for something a little better, definitely the Noctua DH14 for R700.
 
evetech is out of stock in the Noctua DH14 but have stock in the noctua C14
 
Libertas Computers said:
If you're looking for something cheap I'd recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus. It's only R250 and cools quite great! Otherwise for something a little better, definitely the Noctua DH14 for R700.
Click to expand...

I'll second the Hyper 212+, I have 1 on my 2500k and it idles between 28-30 and load is around 40. If I clock it to 4.4ghz, idles at 30-31, load gets up to around 50.
 
How will you guys rate the noctua nh-c14 vs nh-d14.
 
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I was thinking about the Noctua NH-14 myself a while back.
I then decided to rather go with the Hyper 212+ since I really don't understand why someone would want to spend so much cash if they're not going to bother with EXTREME overclocking (as in 5Ghz+).
The Hyper 212+ works absolutely great on my i5 running at 4.5Ghz and the cooler looks great too without filling up your entire case. I used the money I saved to buy 2 x 500GB Western Digital Black HDD's so I can do RAID 0, couldn't be happier with my decision.

Here's some more info on the temps I'm getting (The ambient temp was about 23 degrees).
 
Libertas Computers said:
If you're looking for something cheap I'd recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus. It's only R250 and cools quite great! Otherwise for something a little better, definitely the Noctua DH14 for R700.
Click to expand...
+1000

CMHyper.jpg


:D

EDIT: ASUS P8P67-M Pro with a Core i5 2500K @ 3.3GHz - it was just before 6 in the morning though and ambient was pretty low - I am guessing around 6 or 7 in my room.

They are awesome coolers, my fan speed hovers around 370RPM at idle :)
 
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nelis said:
How will you guys rate the noctua nh-c14 vs nh-d14.
Click to expand...

Seems much of a muchness. Temps almost identical. D14 slightly quieter at low speed (5db), C14 at high speed (2db).

Depending on your motherboard, C14 might be a little better when OC'ing, since it blows down on the motherboard, and so can help to cool VRM/MOSFET/etc... which can get very warm.

You can check good reviews here: D-14 C-14
 
You simply don't need either of the Noctua's, unless you're going for extreme air-oc'ing.
 
That of course also depends what you consider extreme. Considering it's only a couple hundred difference and considering how much a faster CPU costs I think it's well worth it to get a decent one and overclock to the highest you comfortable. the i5 2500K overclocks beautifully as well.
 
So according to that the nh-c14 is better. Still I'm worried that it wont fit in my Cooler master Sniper case with side fan on
 
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atlas3686 said:
That of course also depends what you consider extreme. Considering it's only a couple hundred difference and considering how much a faster CPU costs I think it's well worth it to get a decent one and overclock to the highest you comfortable. the i5 2500K overclocks beautifully as well.
Click to expand...

Those chips simply don't put out enough heat at around 4.5GHz to warrant anything more meaty. We've heard from this very forum that people in that area are getting around 50 deg.'s load with the 212+.

However the NH-D14 is still sweet XP

Fyi Nelis, the NH-D14 is the better of the two:
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/noctua_nh-d14_review/1
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/thermalright_silver_arrow_vs_noctua_nh-d14/1
 
dudewotevr said:
Those chips simply don't put out enough heat at around 4.5GHz to warrant anything more meaty. We've heard from this very forum that people in that area are getting around 50 deg.'s load with the 212+.

However the NH-D14 is still sweet XP

Fyi Nelis, the NH-D14 is the better of the two:
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/noctua_nh-d14_review/1
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/thermalright_silver_arrow_vs_noctua_nh-d14/1
Click to expand...


Can you also comment on the NH-C14. Will that be close to the NH-D14
 
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