I was wondering if someone could provide me with some information on a particular CPU cooler in relation to ones that SPCR have tested in the past. I am building an HTPC based on the Moneaul 320 case and am having some difficultly finding a suitable replacement for the stock CPU cooler.
The SPCR reviews on the Scythe Big Shuriken and Prolimatech Samuel 17 suggest that this is the type of solution I would need, however space in the case is very limited and unfortunaley the I think the Scythe Big Shuriken would protude too far toward the front of the case. The Samuel 17 with its offset configuration is more promising, however when coupled with a noctua fan this becomes expensive. I was wondering how the Scythe Shuriken Rev. B (the smaller cousin of the Scythe Big Shuriken) fares in cooling perforamce and noise level in comparision to the other two?
I would also consider a more modest heat sink and a nice quiet Noctua (NF-S12B perhaps) as my Intel SandyBridge G620 is only 65W TDC, but I haven't come accross any particularly recommended ones - seems people tend to buy H/S and fan combos these days. Does anyone recognise the H/s in this review of the moneaul case: http://www.missingremote.com/review/moneual-moncaso-320?

The rest of my system is as below:

Case: Moneaul Moncaso 320
CPU: Intel SandyBridge G620
M/B: H67MA-E35 (B3)
SSD: Intel 40GB
HDD: 1TB WD Green
RAM: Kingston 2GB
ODD: LiteON Blu Ray
OS: Win 7 32bit


Any help you can provide would be very much appriciated.
Thanks.

Hi, I suspect the G620 CPU you want to cool to be a cool running beast and won't need much of a cooler. If you just need it to be quiet at idle / modest load then the stock cooler maybe quiet enough! Failing that you could just "replace" the fan on the stock cooler. I did this for a friend with E5200 in Micro Fusion case as the (low profile) stock cooler fan was awful (worn out I think) and it worked just fine. Just zip-tied a replacement fan on the top and was great!

If you want a replacement cooler how about Freezer 11 LP? 53mm tall, and that looks to include some fan breathing room. Suspect it could cool G620 with the fan at very low speeds, even under heavy processing load. They say the 92mm fan can be spun down to 900rpm (2000max) which would be quite quiet, and may well be can be slowed more than that. I would think just about every s1155 motherboard will have PWM 4pin CPU fan header that can control the speed.
I suggest whatever you end up with a 4pin PWM fan where you can control the speed is very desirable.

Regards, Seb

I'm pretty sure the Shuriken Rev B will be much to tall for that case (which is a beautiful case, mind you!). My suggestion would be the Scythe Kozuti - 40mm tall for plenty of breathing room, and cools the 2500K in my HTPC adequately under 4x Prime95 + Furmark, and that's a 95W CPU. I strongly doubt your G620 will pull more than half of that under load, so it should stay cooler and even quieter than mine. If 52mm works for that case, you could even remove the stock 80x10mm fan and put a 92-100x12mm Scythe fan on top and get better performance.

I agree on the Scythe Kozuti. Very small, cools well, and has a good stock fan.

I agree. I would stay away from the Scythe Shuriken Rev. B. I have one and in my opinion it is very overrated.

Also take a look at this solution:
Nexus 120mm fan mod to the Stock Intel CPU cooler
viewtopic.php?p=539859#p539859

There is no reason you couldn't do it with a 92mm fan.

P.S. the CPU cooler in the missingremote review looks like a swiftech, probably MCX-VCore
Seb