Hi,

I am on the hunt for a good(quiet) CPU cooler for a Intel i5 2500K that will be OC a bit. This CPU is placed in a Fractal Design R3 with orginal fans(2). Regular memmory modules is used (no extreme heatsink).

I hade the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on my Q6600 OC that i was vary pleased with but I supose that this will not work that good on a i5.

So I have been looking some alternatives :

Antec Kühler H20 620 : 42,40 EUR
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus : 33,81 EUR
Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM : 42,40 EUR
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 : 54,27 EUR

Any suggestions?

Are there other CPU to choose from? And what is your budget? How much do you intend to OC it?

The CM 212+ combined with a good aftermarked fan is a good combo for the budget-minded customer. The 2500k is also very efficient (i.e. doesn't dissipate much heat), also when overclocked, it doesn't push the thermal envelope that much. Others can confirm this.
If you're not content with the performance of the combo, you can also go for high-end CPU coolers.

Thermalright HR02 Macho $39.99 - is probably atm the best bang for the buck, specially since it includes a nice PWM fan on it. Most websites found the original HR02 good, just the price was not so good compared with what was in the market, now that its been lowered and a fan is includded most websites reviews are placing it as one of the best coolers on the market.

Scythe Mugen 3 $44.99 - A nice tower, comes with a PWM Slipstream that can go from 300rpm to 1600rpm, its good bet for not so much money. The only thing i kidna wished was different is the mounting, a little hard to do it alone as its screwed from the bottom.

Personally havent tested coolermaster 212, seems like a good cheap option, i just always change coolermaster fans on cases and cages, so i would probably go the same if you go this route.

+1 for the HR-02, which seems to be a bit better than the Mugen 3 -which would have been my choice if the HR-02 did not exist.

The 212 is good enough: it is in a different league, though. If you do not mind spending a few extra bucks, go for the HR-02.

Regards

Depends on how much is a bit:
<=4GHz(+-0.2GHz) -> HR-02 (or any of those already mentioned)
>4GHz -> A big twin tower like the Thermalright Silver Arrow, Noctua D-14, EKL Alpenföhn K2 or Phanteks PH-TC14PE.
You will need the second fan. All of these come with good fans, but above 4GHz they're "only" very quiet not completely silent. The Silver Arrow is ~50€ the others are closer to 70€.

All coolers mentioned are good, only the fans that come with the Coolermaster are not and should be replaced.

What should they be replaced with? Just a good case fan?

The Macho HR-02 is capable of overclocks much higher than 4 GHz. Check this review at xbitlabs, which shows overclocks much higher than 4 GHz for a CPU that is a worse overclocker than the 2500K. Or look take a look at this HardOCP review.

The HR-02 is a bit below those others, but not by much. And is much cheaper: the cost/performance&noise ratio is better. That said, all those are great coolers -in fact, I own a Noctua NH-D14 and I'm quite happy with it.

Yea, it will really depend on what your aiming for on the CPU, if you want quiet, go with low rpm Scythe slipstreams are good imo. If you want better performance go with Gentle Typhoon (but wont be as quiet). After testing the mugen 3, i really liked the included Slipstream which is a PWM so it can range from 300rpm to 1600rpm, depending on the mobo it can be set to your personal preference. In the past there were two pwm slipstreams one that went 300/1600 (included on the mugens) and 200/1300 (seems the common now on stores), check your local store for Scythe Slip Stream 120mm x 25mm PWM Mid Speed Fan - (SY1225SL12LM-P). But if you are bothering to change the fan, i would probably just go with mugen 3 or the macho, price will come very similar and the cooler imo are better.

It is quite capable, but the fan will spin up notably when the overclocks are higher. Two slow fans are usually quieter than a single fast one, hence the recommendation of a dual fan tower for higher overclocks.


Either the Scythe PWM fan already mentioned or a be quiet! Silent Wings PWM 120mm. The CPU fan header on the mainboard has four pins for a PWM fan and only a PWM fan can be controlled on that connector (there are very few exceptions where a 3 pin fan will work).

Of course, if he wants silence, he should control the fan speeds through the motherboard and limit the max speed: I assume he will be willing to do this -hey, this is spcr! No "normal" fan at its maximum speed is gonna be silent. As a point in case, all my case fans run at 600 rpms max speed, and the CPU fans max speed is exceptionally set to 800 rpms at full load (i.e., running stability testing programs): I will refuse to overclock to anything that can't run in complete silence. The Macho fans are PWM, so good for this.

The 14 cm fan included with the Macho, the TY-140, is quite good with respect to noise. In fact, it was reported to be one of the best in last xbitlabs 14 cm fan roundup, see the conclusions here. That's why I choose the Macho over the Mugen 3: given the same CPU temperature, the Macho will be a bit quieter. Just check the Mugen 3 review at xbitlabs and compare it with their Macho review: in this page of the Mugen 3 review they say "Scythe Mugen 3 maintains steady position in the very center of the pack. Its closest rivals are the Thermalright HR-02 Macho (a little more efficient and much quieter) and Thermalright True Spirit (a little less efficient and noisy).".

That said, the Mugen 3 will serve you well too if you choose it

...

If you are willing to spend more money in cooling, then go for the Silver Arrow, or the Archon: if you choose the Archon, you might try buying an additional fan for it and lower the rpms to get even more silence at the same temperature, as suggested in a prior post.

Besides, if you really, really want to get the quietest fans , I would recommend you get 14 or 12 cm BeQuiet Silentwings USC, and a 3 pin to 4 pins adapter that allows you to feed a PWM signal to a 3 pins fan. I have four 14 cms USCs, and they are a dream come true with respect to noise. The PWM version is good too, but some samples have developed a little ticking, according to some friend of mine who runs the best "silent pc" site in my home country -though he is very, very picky. Unfortunately I don't know whether this is common nor whether it is fixed now.

Lastly, you will have to accept limiting your overclock if you want silence: all I could get out of my i7 2600k was 4.4 GHz, more MHz just meant I had to push the fans beyond the "no noise" threshold. Your mileage might vary.

Regards

I wont dispute your information, very well presented and almost agree with everything. I find the TY140 a great fan, very quiet at 700rpm as i run it on my MiniMi build, probably paired with HR02 is more efficient than the Mugen3, that said, new cpus are very easy to cool off, and is my personal impression that this heatsinks (heatpipes) dont do incredible well at low temps, i think the heatpipes perform better at higher temps/loads, this is where the mugen slipstream might have an advantage, as it can drop down to 300rpm, while the TY140 the lowest i been able is the 700rpm (i think i saw someone dropping it to 600rpm), personally i don't have much difference between idle temps on a Mugen 3 (server, but about to be replaced with AXP140 ), HR02 with Noiseblocker NB-BlackSilentPro PLPS (micromi build), and HR02 with TY140 (minimi build), all idle around the same 30C with ambient of 23C give or take, they all are on different cases with different components so its not completely fair assumption, but the end result for me its the same.

Now if i had a choice of only one, would be the macho, out of price, my hr02 are not machos, but at $40 even the mugen3 is more expensive and harder to mount, also the HR02 has the advantage of being asymmetrical favoring more the mounting of higher heatsinks memory. But the Macho is not fully compatible with all mobos, specially Asus n AsRock, according to the PDF of thermalright you need a special bracket, not sure why, as my HR02 mounted fine, but i guess the mounting is different on the macho. So at the end i do find Mugen 3 a good close second option, for certain scenarios, specially with the fan that can drop to 300rpm

Wow. So much over the top advice.

A Megahelems with any slow 120mm fan will cool any i5 at any clock.

Good point, I forgot the relatively high low speed limit . If he does not have a good case, some noise might leak at such speed, even though the fan is quite good in that respect.

I think that, unless he plans to overclock as much as possible *while* trying to keep his system dead silent, any 30$+ cooler will do: nowadays CPUS are easier to cool. I tend to split hairs because...well, because it is fun, and one gets to learn new things. Besides, I have an overclocked system with two crossfired graphic cards and still want complete silence with full loads, so I tend to be very, very careful with noise & components.


Completely agree

Regards

Got the thermalright silver arrow on a 2500k @4600 Mhz.

Only time those fans went to full spin was in the middle of the Japanese summer heat wave. And I was running the heat stress test on Prime95 just for kicks.

Any other day, don't hear it.