CPU Air Cooler Roundup: Six Coolers from Noctua, SilverStone, be quiet!, and Cooler Master
by Dustin Sklavos on March 14, 2013 2:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Cooler Master
- SilverStone
- cooling
- Noctua
- be
Conclusions, Part 1
While the Deepcool coolers were unique in their own ways, the conclusions I came to with them were basically the same. Most of them were fairly underwhelming with little to really recommend them, and today's testing pretty much puts the final nail in that coffin. None of them really stand up particularly well to the already widely available Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. The Deepcool Frostwin continues to be the highlight of their lineup, but if you need to go lower clearance than that, Noctua certainly has you covered.
I'm drawing conclusions on the individual coolers because each one arguably has something to offer in its own right that goes beyond absolute performance.
Noctua NH-D14
.jpg)
The Noctua NH-D14 performed admirably, and if for whatever reason a closed loop cooler isn't on your list, the D14 is about as good as it gets on American shores (at least until we get hardware from Prolimatech or Thermalright in for review.) SilverStone's Heligon HE01 can hit the same performance levels, but it produces much higher noise in the process. You'll pay a pretty penny for the NH-D14, but it definitely feels like a quality cooler. Installation is sturdy, and performance and acoustics are very good.
Noctua NH-L12
.jpg)
The Noctua NH-L12's performance isn't exceptional, but it has one very important ace in the hole: it has a fairly low profile. In situations where a tower cooler simply isn't going to be an option, Noctua's NH-L12 offers decent performance and excellent acoustics. With the 120mm fan installed, the cooler's height is 93mm; remove it, and it's down to just 66mm. I also experienced no clearance issues with the NH-L12, even on the fairly crowded mITX board used for testing.
Noctua NH-L9i
.jpg)
While the other coolers definitely have something to offer above and beyond the Intel stock cooler in every way but clearance, the Noctua NH-L9i is a tougher sell. Essentially what you're paying for with this cooler is maximum compatibility and superior acoustics to the stock cooler. For many users that may very well be enough, but I suspect for a lot of people the price tag is going to make it a hard sell. At that point you may very well be better off looking to spend up on the NH-L12 if cooling performance and clearance are going to be sticking points.
SilverStone Heligon HE01
.jpg)
As a longtime fan of SilverStone's stuff, I approached the Heligon HE01 with some trepidation. Reviews for it elsewhere are generally favorable, but none are effusive. That typically means that the reviewer is being diplomatic. SilverStone's entrant doesn't perform poorly, but unfortunately runs into one major problem: nothing about it really recommends it over any of the other options available. If you're going to spend this much on an air cooler, you might as well go whole hog and grab Noctua's solution.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
63 Comments
View All Comments
kmmatney - Saturday, March 16, 2013 - link
The test setup was fine to me, and all coolers are measured under the same conditions, which is what is really important. I have an 212 EVO cooling a Core i5 running at 4.3 Ghz. I can't stand any noise, so only have a single case fan, running very slow. I've been thinking about moving my single exhaust fan to be an intake to get positive pressure.Egg - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
What about a test bench? I can see where Dustin is coming from regarding not wanting the case fans to affect the test result.JeBarr - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
quote " the NH-L12 stands to impress as potentially the most powerful downward-flow cooler on the market."Correction: Noctua NH-C14 or Phanteks PH-TC14CS hold that title.
Thanks again Dustin for another fine air cooler review. Keep 'em comin'!
rhx123 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
I have a NH-L9i and I pretty much got it as a stock cooler replacement, my temps were fine on a i5-3470 but the noise was not.I have a huge phobia of of a large chunk of metal damaging my machine when I move it, but for a multiplier-locked CPU getting a closed loop would be mad.
The NH-L9i is very quiet on idle, and more importantly the fan doesn't have an obvious tonality like some fans do.
jrs77 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
The CM Hyper 212 Evo is still the best cooler, when you take it's price into account. Additionally you can make it even better with a $15-fan like the Akasa Apache PWM, which outperforms the stock-fan in both: noise and airflow. And even with an additional fan you're still paying less then for the other bigger coolers.The AIO-liquid coolers are not really that impressive imho. I've had a Corsair H50 and H60 and an intel AIO-liquid cooler and allthough they showed better temps, the pumps and fans were loud and made irritating high-pitched noises. Not to mention that I had to RMA both Corsair-coolers (the H50 even twice) because the pump made rattling noises.
Also, for the money of them you can get a very good aircooler, performing just as well, especially if you're not overclocking. With regards to that, you should test a Prolimatech Genesis with two silent 140mm fans sometime.
A5 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
To be fair, the H50 and H60 are the two cheapest CLCs on the market. If one is going that route, this testing shows the larger CLCs to be the ones to look at. The "cheap" ones don't really perform appreciably better than the CM 212 EVO and cost 50+% more.HisDivineOrder - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
Pumps fail. That's enough for me right there to stay air. Sure, fans fail, too, but with a CLC you have the fans AND the pump at risk of failure. With air cooling, it's just the fan.The difference between those coolers--air and water--is so small so as to be insignificant in day to day usage. The only reason someone should go for water cooling is if they want to break some speed records, but CLC should stay out of mainstream, every day systems.
Imo.
Rick83 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
Is there an error in the noise chart?How can the PWM L9i be louder than the 100% L9i?
Especially, as in the text it doesn't say so.
Would be great if you could fix that.
DanNeely - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
Thanks for finally reviewing a Coolermaster 212 series unit; because their ubiquity gives lots of people a known reference point to compare performance with.Could you add a YateLoon fan to your next fan roundup for the same purpose since they're one of the most popular budget 120mm fans?
Beenthere - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
Dustin - Again you display a strange and absurd POV on HSFs..."...and if for whatever reason a closed loop cooler isn't on your list..."
Why would any technically astute consumer have a CLC on their "list" of desirable CPU coolers when CLCs are inferior in every typical CPU cooling metric used by consumers, including thermal efficiency, noise, cost and reliability. If you ignore all of the obvious reasons to not buy a CLC and just buy one because you want one or don't know any better, that is fine but no one with a technical clue would buy or recommend a CLC based on merit.