GA-EP35-DS4 Which CPU coolers are supported and recommended?

[Campaigner]

Gotted the board and an E8400 in 2007 or 2008 and now with StarCraft II it's time to overclock.

So as the topic goes, which CPU coolers are supported?    Of those, which are recommended?        I'm in Sweden and use will use Prisjakt as that site is the biggest & best priceagent in Sweden.

 

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte forum.

It really depends on your budget and how much noise you are prepared to stand also of course how big your case is.

The top of the range has to be the Noctua NH-D14, huge but extremely powerfull and fairly quiet even at speed. There are several others in the Noctua range which perform almost as well.

The other one that I have always been impressed with and can be used with or without a fan is the Xigmatek Thors Hammer.

Below these are many others similar in performance.

[Campaigner]

I thought the 775 coolers would be really cheap now that the 2nd generation iCores are out but alas, they're not

I'll make a list

• Approx. 50$
• Antec P182
• Quiet

The Antec P182 is very tight and I believe it was a mistake to get this case. It will be Fulltowers from now on.
But I know that it is the motherboards that limit what cooler you can get so I would need a list. But is that up to every single cooler manufacturer?

[Dark Mantis]

I would say the best thing is to make a drawing of your motherboard around the CPU area with some dimensions of critical things like the height of the RAM distance from the CPU etc and then compare that to the specs for the heatsinks. I would think that one of the smaller Noctua models is probably what you need.

[Wonderwrench]

I had the case size limitation on my previous build using a Q6600 on a MSI P35 Neo2-FR. I ended up using a AC Freezer 7 Pro and it handled overclocking my Q6600 to 3 Ghz no problem. Using the bios or a program like Speedfan to lower fan speed its silent at low CPU loads and acceptable at full speed IMO. My Q6600 running 3 Ghz never gets over 55C at full load when testing with OCCT or IntelBurnTest at 80% fan speed controlled by Speedfan. My room temp is between 20C and 25C year round. I would say this cooler would have problems keeping a overclocked CPU cool if room temps were much higher than mine. Since you are using a dual core you should have more head room for overclocking than I do. I did some testing at 3.5 Ghz and temps were around 60C under full load. I settled on 3 Ghz because my Q6600 ran 100% stable at stock voltage.

AC makes every high quality coolers  IMO. They are not the ultimate cooling solutions but in smaller cases they get the job done. AC now has the Freezer 13 which should perform better than the Freezer 7 Pro that I have. Both should be available well within your price range. Before you make any buying decisions I'd do some testing to see how well the bios CPU fan speed control works  on your board and how configurable it is. I'd also see how well Speedfan works on your board. Many coolers that are not silent can be made near silent at idle and low loads if the motherboard has the proper support.
Link to AC http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/assistant/cpu/chip/55
Freezer 13 review http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2558&page=1

Other coolers I'd take a look at, in no particular order. Noctua NH-C14, Scythe Rasetsu, Zerotherm Core 92 and BTF92 OC edition.

Bill

[Campaigner]

I know about Arctic Cooling. Like them.

I'm gonna ask on my local forum since the build I use was that sites recommended gamerPC back in May 2007 and many have or have had that build and will definetly know what I should get. I wanted a list from you to narrow down my choices but I'll keep your recommendations in mind. Thanks for the input!