Looking for a good CPU cooler for first HTPC build (1 Viewer)

[singlecut]

Hey everybody, brand new here. I'll make it short, any help is greatly appreciated!


I'm looking for a high quality, silent-as-possible CPU cooler for my first HTPC build, all the rest of the components have been picked out:


Case - Silverstone LC17-B

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

Mobo - MSI 890GXM-G65 (MicroATX)


So basically I need a high quality cooler for the AM3 socket and a mATX motherboard...and the fans on the back of this case are 80mm, not sure if that makes a huge difference. Any suggestions?

 

[CB750]

I have that AMD Phenom II x4 in a PC we built for my wife and run it with the stock CPU cooler and a combination of two 120mm fans in a front back push pull and three 80mm case fans push pull across the sides, in a Raidmax case. This works fine for a general purpose PC. Unless you are planning on over clocking your CPU to do some heavy duty gaming you may not need a larger CPU cooler.

If your case only has two 80mm case fans that may be lean of case cooling for a quad core and may want to add more fans. Where possible you should try to use 120mm case fans as they move more air and run at a lower rpm and which tends to make them quieter than 80mm. While a CPU cooler moves more air over the chip you also want to get that hot air out of the case, and push pull fans in different parts of your case can really help.


The one thing you need to consider is how much space you have in your case and motherboard Their are some large CPU coolers on the market and some of them take up quite a bit of case space.

 

[mattCR]

I'd have to look at the case but for HTPC, I have found absolutely nothing better then a Corsair H50. It is absolutely dead quiet. Yes, its a bit of a contraption, but since switching it has been oh-so-nice. That having been said, if that isn't an option look for something with the largest size fan, 120 is good as they will move slower and thus put out a lot less noise

 

[singlecut]

Thanks for the advice, I looked more into the case Ive picked out and found that it has 2 80mm fans and an additional 2 intake vents on opposite sides of the case (1 80mm and 1 120mm) plus 2 more 80mm at the front of the case for the HDD bays. I guess my question is now:

Is this going to be adequate cooling for the rest of the components ive picked out? I plan on adding a mid-high range graphics card into the mix at some point soon (gtx570?) but I wont be doing any overclocking.

 

[CB750]

Tim


You know how building a computer goes. "How much do you want to spend" I don't think anyone would say a larger than stock CPU cooler is a bad idea. But you have to ask yourself would AMD or Intel want to sell you a CPU with a fan that would not be adequate under normal operating conditions. It sounds that your case has lots of fans in it in a push pull and if you don't plan on over clocking you should be OK.


You can always keep an eye on things and add a larger CPU cooler later. Just make sure it will fit in your case.