The layout of my new motherboard has forced me to rethink my cooling situation as the sheer size of the heat sink I'm using now blocks access to some of the critical ports on the board including the CPU fan and the 4-pin power connector. And my system temps are through the roof with it idle at 45'C (my SB build idles at 21'C) and on full use generates a lot of heat at 55'C (SB heats at 30'C).
I chose the EVGA and Noctua coolers because they're significantly smaller than the one I'm using now and way more efficient, and they both perform the same as a single 120mm radiator like the H80 would.
I really want to get a smaller air cooler, or possibly go H100 (my case is a Corsair and has the mounts for it), what would be my best course of action here? Cooler must be AM3 compatible.
------------------------------Corsair Graphite 600T | PC Power & Cooling Silencer 950 | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H | Core i5-3570K | EVGA Supercooler M020 | 16GB Corsair RAM | Intel 320 SSD | 1TB Caviar Green | Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB | Plextor B940 | Vizio 42" Reply to g-unit1111
Personally I think the Corsair is the best, I have used Corsair alot in the past and use it in most of my other rigs, as do my friends.
I don't think you will see much difference in temps between the 3 and as you have Corsair case, the cooler will mount better and probably look better.
My biggest question with a liquid block would be long-term reliability. I've been considering all options and am leaning toward this one but that's my biggest issue with it.
------------------------------Corsair Graphite 600T | PC Power & Cooling Silencer 950 | Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H | Core i5-3570K | EVGA Supercooler M020 | 16GB Corsair RAM | Intel 320 SSD | 1TB Caviar Green | Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB | Plextor B940 | Vizio 42" Reply to g-unit1111