CPU Heatsink :~

[AdamB]

Water Cooling is a no go - i cant be dealing with potential leaks and stuff, the noctunu (or what ever) looks to be too big for my case, i have a med. tower xigmatek asgard

to test for airflow i saw that detaching the side of the case and blowing a fan into the inside should tell me if is airflow rather than the cpu heating up, is this true or will it damage my components, like static with dust and all that crap.

Thanks for all the suggestions, but can any of you give pros and cons against the Thermaltake Frio. It looks cool and might just about fit in the case.

Thanks again,

AdamB

[335th_GRAthos]

Originally Posted by AdamB

i have a med. tower xigmatek asgard

Like this one?


This one has a fan exactly where it should be. THIS fan should be blowing air OUT of your case. This way any heat produced by your CPU fan will be quickly taken out of the case (and fresh air will be sucked in from the bottom).

Originally Posted by AdamB

to test for airflow i saw that detaching the side of the case and blowing a fan into the inside should tell me if is airflow rather than the cpu heating up, is this true or will it damage my components, like static with dust and all that crap.

#1. No risk of damaging components

#2. It will not tell you anything.
It is very very rare that a CPU-fan is insufficient for the CPU (unless it is damaged from long usage or badly connected onto the CPU).

Depending on your motherboard, you may look at the temperature information (motherboard temp).

There is also another check to do: Look how warm the air is that is getting out of your power supply. If it is too hot then you know you need to add fans to extract more air.

You have an i7
The stock fan from Intel is on the low side. Just about to keep the temperatures to a level, provided you did not overclock your CPU.
IF you have overclocked it then the Intel stock CPU cooler is not enough, you need something better.

It also depends on your GPU (the other major "heater" inside your case. Which model do you have and what kin of GPU fan does it have? Does it throw all the warm air outside of the case like this:


or does it throw part of the hot air out of the case and part inside the case like this:


If you have the second, then you have a lot of warm air inside your case (CPU fan, GPU fan, hard disk) and too little air getting out of the case (in order to get fresh air in).


So, an new CPU fan will only part of the job, you need to ensure that the case-fans are doing their job as well.


~S~

[NedLynch]

Noctua makes a number of coolers, go to their website, they have a compatability list so you can see if your components fit with their coolers.

I was for a long time undecided if I should buy the Noctua NH D14, but I am more than happy I did.

It fits in my HAF922 (large mid tower case) with room to spare.

Good luck .

I have a Noctua too. When I saw the box it comes in I thought no way in hell am I going to fit it in the case with everything else. It's massive but I have about 5mm gap between this and the 6950. It all fits well , and keeps everything cool. My ambient air temp is over 30 degrees Celsius in summer so I need a good cooler. When under load it only goes to about 40 which is great.

[jimbop]

I had the NH D14 for a while and it kept the CPU almost as cool as my current water cooling setup does. Impressive piece of kit. The box got noisy under load, though, with all the fans!

[louisv]

I cool a 980X with a Megahelem (Prolimatech) and playing CoD never reaches more than 47C.

[Jaws2002]

One more thumbs up for Noctua.
I have the Noctua NH-D14 on top of my I7 2600K. It's running at 4.5Gigs for about nine months now with zero isues.
Unless I'm gaming heavilly the processor stays cooler than the motherboard.

Just remember. It's huge! Most solid CPU coolers are. I had to look around for memory that would fit under it. I managed to squize it inside my mid size Antec 900, but you better have good case cooling, because that thing is going to take a lot of space. My older Antec 900 has a lot of good fans and a huge one to the rear top that sucks the hot air out of the case and creates low pressure inside.
I'm very happy with Noctua.

[jimbop]

Yes, you have to be careful with the space. I had to rip the fins off my RAM before they fit.

[AdamB]

Thanks for the help, i have a gts 450 which im planning on upgrading when the new kepler gpus come out. My psu is a 650w tx corsiar. My case has a fan pulling air in but does not have a fan pushing air out. That might be something to consider. Well thanks anyway

AdamB

[335th_GRAthos]

Originally Posted by AdamB

My case has a fan pulling air in

Where is this fan placed? There as in the picture I posted?
Then this is your problem, it destroys the airflow.

Easy fix, just pull the fan out, reverse it and place it back again. pronto!

~S~