Recommend a 120mm FAN CPU Cooler

Gnome

Gnome

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Hi, as the thread title says.

Need a good 120mm FAN CPU cooler, high performance but shouldn't cost more than R500.

I prefer it doesn't include a fan and IF it does, it SHOULD NOT be a non-standard fan. If the fan fails it should be easy to replace!

Lastly, it absolutely CANNOT be a heat sink that relies on a noisy high-RPM fan. If I wanted that I would have stuck to standard cooling.

Socket 1155, should fit on a Asus P8H67-M LX board.

Thanks :)
 
I'd definitely rather go with the Hyper 212 Plus CPU Fan from Coolermaster.. Everyone is raving about it at the moment as it's up with the top of the line coolers out there at a fraction of the price.

You really can't go wrong there!
 
Wow, it's hard to choose.

The Zalman weighs almost 100grams more which in heat sink land is quite a huge difference. Price difference is not enough for me to discount the Zalman either.

On the other hand weight doesn't make a great cooler. I'm struggling to find reputable benchmarks that compare both coolers.

It also seems the Coolermaster Hyper 212 is out of stock in some stores. Might have to find out if that is the fact. I'm on a very tight budget :p

Thanks overall for the advice, if you know of a benchmark comparing the 2, please post :)
 
Last edited:
NomNom said:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/259332-11-zalman-cnps10x-extreme-hyper-noctua

Try: http://www.wootware.co.za/catalog/product/view/id/345/
Click to expand...

Thanks ;)

I agree with the synopsis in that thread, pretty much the same feeling I got: Zalman Performa > Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus.

I've got an order thus far with many components (CPU,PSU,Fans,case), almost all of them are cheapest when ordered from Prophecy, so seems they are the store I'll be using. Even though wootware are the cheapest on the Cooler Master, I doubt that would still be the case once shipping enters into the equation.

Regardless, the +- R70 extra for the Zalman is still acceptable IMHO.

Think I'll go the Zalman route, I've had good experience with them in the past (before I became a Thermalright fan which is overpriced at the moment IMHO).

Thanks again to everyone that posted :)
 
I got the Performa a week or so ago. I posted in the '2600K something' thread about it. IME it is pretty good on the cooling side. The installation is a bit finicky, though, since it uses one of those 'all-in-one' backplates, and I had to make teeny adjustments to the bolts to get them to fit. If you're going to use the fan that it comes with, then I recommend you run it with the attached resistor cable, since otherwise it will run at 2000rpm max, which is noisy and I found it to be irritating. With the resistor, it is 1500rpm max, which is pretty unobtrusive to me and still good wrt cooling.
 
Rudimental said:
The installation is a bit finicky, though, since it uses one of those 'all-in-one' backplates, and I had to make teeny adjustments to the bolts to get them to fit.
Click to expand...

Sounds ominous. Care to elaborate on what you mean by teeny adjustments? You mean like fit a bolt then move it a little, fit a bolt, move a little, etc. until all fit or was there bending, twisting, etc. involved?

Rudimental said:
then I recommend you run it with the attached resistor cable, since otherwise it will run at 2000rpm max, which is noisy and I found it to be irritating. With the resistor, it is 1500rpm max, which is pretty unobtrusive to me and still good wrt cooling.
Click to expand...
I'm fitting another fan to it, specifically Thermalright X-Silent 120.
 
Gnome said:
Sounds ominous. Care to elaborate on what you mean by teeny adjustments? You mean like fit a bolt then move it a little, fit a bolt, move a little, etc. until all fit or was there bending, twisting, etc. involved?
Click to expand...

The former. You can see on the pictures that you have to use these little caps to hold the bolts in, and getting the bolts properly in line means putting them all on, and then nudging those little guys, which are quite tight, back and forth till it fits. It definitely isn't a deal breaker, just a bit annoying and not a design I would say is very user friendly.

Do be aware that with a fan on the front (push), it was just over the top of my first ram slot (heatsink facing the rear). I have ram with low-profile heatsinks and the fan sits a few mm above that. I'm not sure if the two slots in an H67 board are as close, but you may want to check that if you are going to get ram with tall heatspreaders.
 
Rudimental said:
The former.
Click to expand...
Ah, I've had that before on heat sinks. High performance heat sinks. Think it is because they have tight clearances (eg. minimize movement and keep the heatsink at maximum pressure) , specifically for better cooling.

Rudimental said:
Do be aware that with a fan on the front (push), it was just over the top of my first ram slot (heatsink facing the rear). I have ram with low-profile heatsinks and the fan sits a few mm above that. I'm not sure if the two slots in an H67 board are as close, but you may want to check that if you are going to get ram with tall heatspreaders.
Click to expand...
Using Kingston DDR3-1333 Hyper-X 1333mhz CL9 1.5v 2GB x 2 modules. Pretty much standard DDR3 height. Hopefully it will fit...
 
I just got this baby in like a week ago, and I've been playing around with it and testing it. Just checking how well it handles high temperatures and I was also checking out the fan, for replacing and noise levels.
And for under R200 the quality of the build and materials used it's pretty impressive! I'm testing more of these coolers later this weeks to see how they handle overclocking or just normal cooling. Nice thing about this specific cooler is the fan can be replaced, and you can add another fan to it if you feel like it. Also the fan that comes with it has a thin rubber layer on the fins, so it's really quiet.
https://www.take2.co.za/electronics-deep-cool-ice-wind-fs-cpu-cooler-9650801.html
9650801.jpg
 
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