Thread: Case Questions.....

Originally Posted by finc.hairy

So now, I'm looking at 2 fans:
The V8 CM: http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product ... ct_id=2869
&
The Noctua core i7 Fan: http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=prod ... =24&lng=en

And have narrowed the Cases down to the Lian Li PA70B and the HAF

Neither. When I built my i7 rig I had the Noctua very briefly. It was a good fan, but I read so much better things about the Prolimatech Megahalems that I had to get one. My load temps dropped about 8C when I made the switch. The two top dog air coolers without a doubt are the TRUE and the Megahalems... anything else and you will not be as cool as you could be. I read almost a dozen different reviews and scoured 5 or 6 different overclocking communities to come to this conclusion. The Noctua is much better than the V8, but still not as good as the two options I mentioned.

The Megahalems may still be hard to get ahold of, it is relatively new and in high demand. I got mine from Jabtech (which looks to be out of stock now) for $60 (less than anywhere else).

The TRUE will probably perform just about as good as the Megahalems and should be much easier to find (TRUE = Thermalright Ultra Extreme).

Case = Antec 1200... I posted some pics of it recently here:

http://www.texasteamplayers.com/index.php?topic=64373.0

The autobot logo is cool, yeh. The TRUE is huge and the Mega is just slightly bigger... you will need a big case, some with the 900 (slightly smaller than 1200) have had a small interference with the side panel 120mm fan, but they fixed it by trimming the fan housing. With my mobo's VREG I can't quite fit a fan on the back of the Mega for a push/pull... but if I carve a small notch out of the fan I can... just haven't done it yet since temps are pretty damn good with just push.

And yes the Noctua fans excel at being quiet (that is one thing nobody can beat Noctua at). But if you really wanted to you could buy them separately and put them on a better HS (I know some people who want ultra quiet do this... Noctua fans on a TRUE for example). But they are damn ugly (beige/tan almost pink looking). The fans I have in the picture I linked actually aren't in my case any more, I am now using these:

http://www.svc.com/r4-l2r-20ac-gp.html

They are louder than the Noctua fans for sure but push much more air. I compared them to several Yate Loon fans and the Antec Tri-Cools (pictured in my linked post) and they push about the same air as a Yate Loon High (a VERY respected fan) or the Antec on High Setting, but it is quieter than both.

I'm not even sure the TRUE comes with a fan, but I think some versions of it might come with a Thermalright fan. But yes you are right, the TRUE is a very efficient heatsink, but that doesn't mean that any fan they ship with it will be the most efficient fan. What makes a heatsink good is totally different from what makes a fan good.

A fan really only has to do two things: push air and be quiet. And the second one is purely aesthetic. The more air you push over a TRUE, the cooler your CPU will be... most people probably want more air (or less noise) than whatever "stock" Thermalright fan it ships with, if it does come with a fan at all.