My build is going to be:
P183
16Gb DDR3
Asus P8P67
Intel i7 2600K
Gigabyte 5750 silent cell

Please could I have a steer on a quiet heatsink/fan to use with the CPU.

Thanks

This one, with just one fan, set at low:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Noctua_NH-C14_CPU_Cooler

Thanks. Is 140mm fan and heatsink likely to clear the memory modules?

The Noctua NH-C14 referenced above is shorter than most high-end coolers and seems to be designed for cases with not much clearance above the CPU. Clearance above the CPU would not be a problem with P183 case. The Noctua NH-D14 or other more upright design would work fine in a P183.

The Noctua NH-C14 does have an advantage blowing down and getting some air on the chipset and maybe memory, but probably does not exhaust air out the rear of the case as well as the NH-D14.

1. Your board is on their compatibility list:
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=comp ... =35&lng=en

2. Clearing the memory modules is another matter. Memory with those spiky heat sinks can cause a lot of problems with lots of coolers.

If you run into a problem with this cooler, you can choose to forgo the bottom fan. Every situation is different, but despite its low stature, it provides a great deal of clearance to the memory:
There is a picture of it at the bottom of this page that shows how much clearance over memory it has even with the lower fan in place:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1138-page3.html
"There was 46 mm of clearance underneath the bottom fan"

3. By removing the lower fan you will pick up an additional 25mm of clearance. That gives you 71mm of clearance. I am unaware of any memory that needs 71mm of clearance. Probably you will be able to keep the lower fan in place and it will keep your memory very cool whether or not the memory has heat sinks. 46mm is all you will likely need,

4. Currently this model is the "king of the heatsinks", edging out its sibling the Noctua NH-D14 as well as the Prolimatech Megahalems (though reasonable people could differ on this).

see:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c ... 562&page=5
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1138-page6.html

5. Thermalright Venomous, Thermalright HR-01 and HR-02, any Prolimatech tower cooler would all make good choices. Scythe Mugen would also make a good choice. It is arguably half a class below these others... but it is a lot cheaper. The Mugen probably gives you the most bang per buck. In my opinion the NH-C14 gives you the most bank period... unless you are doing some heavy overclocking with dual video cards (in which you might want to explore water cooling).

Part of the NH-C14's "bang' is that it's down wash cools your motherboard components... extending the life of the hotter elements of your motherboard.

Thank you very much for all this information and advice. The Noctua does seem the way to go. I am naturally attracted to the downward blower as the first system I built used a Zalman flower heatsink which incorporated a fan blowing down onto it suspended from a bracket over the heatsink.

The memory module I have in mind is this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMP16GX ... B003KWWGYS

In some pictures of this memory, a memory cooler with 2 small overhead fans is shown. I would want to avoid this at all costs. If there was no option but to use the dedicated memory cooler with the dense 16Gb modules, I'd rather reduce the amount of memory to 8Gb than have the (noisy) cooler. Do you think this memory requires a dedicated cooler?

I am not going to overclock the system - I want it for digital painting and photo manipulation using PSCS5 and Corel Painter.

Does this memory look well suited to my needs? I have chosen Corsair simply because I have always used it and had no problems.

Thanks.

1. If you have not already done this, go to the Asus website and make sure that this memory is on the QVL list for the motherboard. QVL stands for Qualified Vendor List. Don't know where they got that name... but it is a list of the memory that has been tested and approved for your mother board.
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=Q ... templete=2

Corsair is nice memory... I just wouldn't buy any memory, even corsair, that hasn't been tested and approved for the motherboard by the manufacturer. Many people don't bother to do this. Seems to me they are just asking for hard to diagnose trouble.

2. If you have done that, I would go find out how high the memory is. One way you can do that is to go on ebay and ask a vendor there how many mm high the memory is.

Thanks. I went about it in reverse order! I went to Corsair and searched on the motherboard model. I'll double check with the Asus site and have a look at the motherboard's manual.

Asus is not going to list every single module that works in the QVL, because they don't have time or resources to test every single one, and memory models change over time.

If Corsair says it will work, you are probably safe, primarily because they have excellent customer service if there is a problem (at least in the US). You can also read reviews on NewEgg, etc where someone mentions the motherboard they are using.

My understanding is that for Sandy Bridge, that 1.5 V memory is preferred such as these Corsair models:
CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B

Not sure what the difference is between them (B at the end), but they are both sold on NewEgg in USA for $230 USD.

BTW, one of the reviewers of the CMP16GX3M4A1333C9 posted this:
"Had to remove one cooling fin when fitting a Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler."
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145312

What about the Noctua NH-C12P SE14? It seems more or less the same as the C14 if you're just going to use one fan on the top. The SE14 is about $20 cheaper and should provide adequate clearance for most RAM. I use basic DDR3 with no heatspreaders in my system and my SE14 probably has about an inch of clearance above them.

I agree. In fact probably any Noctua will do a fine job.

Just my 2snt's: Prolimatech Armageddon is so slim cooler that even with fan it clear ram modules. But anything from Noctua should fit the bill and you get one of the best attachment methods there is: SecuFirm 2.

1. Who makes securafirm?
2. I see people starting to use mounting kits from one company for heat sinks from another. Are there ever any incompatibilities when you try to do that?
3. Can you just pick one mounting kit such as securafirm and use it on all coolers?
4. What about the 80 pound Thermalright mounting kit? Sounds like it makes a strong seal.
5. How about the the Scythe universal mounting kits?
6. Is there not one mounting kit that works better and perhaps another that is easier to install?

EDIT

I found the Noctua SecuFirm 2: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9750/ ... t_Kit.html

I also found Scythe SCURK-3000 Universal Retention Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835185160

Thermalright has a whole page of mounting kits
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/ ... s_btk.html

I also like the Scythe Mugen 2. In most cases (pun intended) you can run it without a fan, just a large, slow fan nearby if your VRMs have adequate heatsinks on them.

It's cheaper than most Noctua's, but I've used it on 65W C2D, 95W Phenom II X3's, and 125W Phenom II X4's, and never seen one go higher than 45C.