Recommend me a cooler

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mosquito5

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Hi all.

I play a lot of Battlefield 3 and my performance is very slow during and when exiting the game which I think is because of the stock cooler that i use. Here are my specs:

*intel core i5 2500k- not overclocked and using the stock cooler from intel
*4gb ram running at 1600mhz
*1.5TB hdd
*Gigabyte Sumo Alpha chassis
*Sapphire Radeon HD 6950

I recently checked my temps whilst playing and i found that my cpu was reaching temps of about 90+°C. I am looking for an aftermarket cooler for +- R800. I had my eye on the cooler master hyper 212 evo and the corsair H60. What cooler would you guys recommend and Is the high cpu temps causing this slow performance or is it something else?

Thanks
 
Hi There

I would say 90+ºC will definitely cause some CPU crunching and fps issues. I recently bought the Thermal Take Water 2.0 Pro . Absolutely amazing at cooling the CPU. Watch out though, I had to buy a case to fit the huge radiator/fan combo. I bought the Aerocool Xpredator Case, very impressed.

Hope you come right
 
I have the hyper 212 and it does the job just great. But doesn't cost close to R800 so rather use the savings to grab and extra 4GB RAM.
 
I'd guess that more RAM would help more for BF3. 6GB is like the ideal spot for BF3.

The Hyper 212 Evo should do just fine for even some serious overclocking (4.5GHz). If you're going to be running that high clock speeds 24/7, then perhaps look at a watercooling solution.
 
Idle is 25ºC and the most I've seen is 39ºC with the Thermaltake Water Cooler and Aero Cool Case. I was getting 75ºC before the stock cooler and no overclock in a Thermaltake V3 case with all the fan spots filled and correctly positioned.

Maybe your case needs a blow out and CPU re-thermalpaste? Maybe some new/better fans? Is your case in a small corner by any chance? I know some of my friends just buy a standard house fan and open the side case up and put the fan blowing on there :)
 
Murlin said:
Idle is 25ºC and the most I've seen is 39ºC with the Thermaltake Water Cooler and Aero Cool Case. I was getting 75ºC before the stock cooler and no overclock in a Thermaltake V3 case with all the fan spots filled and correctly positioned.

Maybe your case needs a blow out and CPU re-thermalpaste? Maybe some new/better fans? Is your case in a small corner by any chance? I know some of my friends just buy a standard house fan and open the side case up and put the fan blowing on there :)
Click to expand...
Yeah it is in a small corner. Btw do u play bf? if u do what temps do u get during gameplay
 
I installed a Corsair H100 liquid cooler on my Core i7 3.4GHz permanently overclocked to 4.2GHz. Temps range from 20ºC to 53ºC max.

I had to modify the Cooler Master case for the radiator to fit and the price was about R 1100 for the H100 from FrontoSA.
 
mosquito5 said:
Yeah it is in a small corner. Btw do u play bf? if u do what temps do u get during gameplay
Click to expand...

I play Diablo 3, CS:GO and Dota 2 at the moment. I watch my CPU usage/temps via my G15 Keyboard display. The CPU usage is quite high, about 70 - 80 % per core.

Have you checked your fans? Do you have a negative pressure going. Eg : Suck in air at the bottom and a hard pull out the case at the top/rear?
 
You should not be seeing 90c+ on the CPU, not even with a stock fan. Either you screwed up the installation of the cooler or your case has really *** airflow. And yes you'll be seeing stuttering because of thermal throttling kicking in.

You can usually shave a couple of degrees off a configuration (stock & no OC) for free by undervolting the CPU. Research it - compared to OC its pretty low risk. Once you fix the real temp problem you should be able to pull off an undervolt *and* a mild OC (say 10%) at the same time all on stock cooler.

Also, what are you BF3 settings like...if those are set too high then naturally it will not be a smooth experience.
 
I have the Hyper 212 evo cooling my i7 2600K running at 4.4GHz 24/7, and crunching at 100% with folding@home 24/7 as well, and I must admit the cooler is amazing. My CPU temps never rise above 65 degrees (and that's without any air-conditioning in my room). If you're still concerned, you can get a second fan to run in a push-pull configuration for better performance, but I haven't needed it.

I'd also strongly suggest getting more RAM and making sure all the fans in your system are a) working and b) not clogged with dust.
 
Well first things first, 90 degrees on a stock fan isn't anywhere near what you should be getting. I'd recommend getting some thermal paste and clean out and re-seat the CPU fan - its possible that one side isn't contacting with the CPU properly.

Secondly, the Sumo Alpha isn't the best chassis design to work with - heat gets trapped in the top and if you're using it in a corner, the hot air might escape out the back and get sucked back in through the mesh grille. I'd recommend giving everything a clean and see if your fans are working properly.

Of course, if you've ruled out other culprits, perhaps a new cooler would be a good idea - the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo would be a good choice, as others here have already mentioned.
 
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