[JohnnyG01]

Hi guys and gals,

I am looking to buy a budget cooler around the 30-35e max range.
After the first few hour of googling, i thought Arctic Freezer i11/A11 for 25e would be nice, with the claimed 150W max dissipation (130 max TDP recommended).
Then its bigger bother the Freezer 13 was only 7e more and 200W rated (but 'only' 140 max recommended) and was better in reviews, so i thought that i could go a couple of euros over my 30 max budget.

And then this thread led me to this review that has the Freezer 13 but not the CNPS10X Optima, but is has the Akasa Venom, that destroys the Freezer 13 (19.4c vs 24.8c at the 150W load test). And this review on the same site, has the Zalman and the Akasa, and Zalman CNPS10X Optima wins (17.0 vs 19.4 on the same test).

So Zalman CNPS10X Optima > Akasa Venom > Arctic Freezer 13 is what i take from this...
Am i right?
Is there some other obvious (to you guys) option that i am missing in this price range (i am searching the coolers on this site up to page7)?

Thank you for your time people!

 

[tashcz]

Cooler Master 212 Evo?

 

[tashcz]

Or this from your site: http://www.e-shop.gr/coolermaster-rr-h6v2-13pk-r1-hyper-612v2-revision-2-cpu-cooler-p-PER.642528

It's a no brainer - the 612 is 100g more heavy, 139 x 102 x 160.4 mm vs 132(L) x 85(W) x 152(H)mm on Zalman it's pretty bigger. And this CM series is known to be one of the best cooling solutions price-wise around.

 

[JohnnyG01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tashcz

Or this from your site: http://www.e-shop.gr/coolermaster-rr-h6v2-13pk-r1-hyper-612v2-revision-2-cpu-cooler-p-PER.642528

It's a no brainer - the 612 is 100g more heavy, 139 x 102 x 160.4 mm vs 132(L) x 85(W) x 152(H)mm on Zalman it's pretty bigger. And this CM series is known to be one of the best cooling solutions price-wise around.

And still lower watt rated than the Arctic 13: 180W according to this site, the official page gives no such rating...
Also Arctic 13 is 700g, in papers 200W/700g should perform better but in tests its always lower than others, maybe it has bad fins design or fan or something.

But the Coolermaster Hyper 612 Ver.2 is 39.90 and that is way out of my budget unfortunately

I know that 7-8eruos is not a big amount of money, but times are tough and also i prefer to keep to the budget limit(s) when i set them unless its a very rare case in which something like a 10-20% increase in price makes a HUGE difference in the value-for-maney rating.
A 20e cooler can be beaten by a 30e one, that is beaten by a 40e one and so on, that is a fact. Best value for money for a certain price range is the way to search IMHO

Also the reason i am asking here for your opinion on this, is because reviews are not gods, a community sometimes can have different opinions/data than the ones advertised... In that sense, the "...this CM series is known to be one of the best cooling solutions price-wise around..." might worth the 30% over budget price?

 

[Gilles3000]

If things are that tight I'd go with the Raijintek Themis, performs well enough and is very affordable.
http://www.e-shop.gr/raijintek-themis-p-PER.811685

And on the subject of the Hyper 612, its hardly worth it considering you can get the Cryorig H7 for about the same price.
http://www.e-shop.gr/cryorig-h7-hive-fin-cooler-p-PER.642758

 

[JohnnyG01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilles3000

If things are that tight I'd go with the Raijintek Themis, performs well enough and is very affordable.
http://www.e-shop.gr/raijintek-themis-p-PER.811685

And on the subject of the Hyper 612, its hardly worth it considering you can get the Cryorig H7 for about the same price.
http://www.e-shop.gr/cryorig-h7-hive-fin-cooler-p-PER.642758

Hmmmm, the Themis is doing better than the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo (that beats all my previous options at the frostytech.com tests i quoted before) according to this test, even while having less heatpipes for the ball-park same amount of cooler weight...

I wish the companies had a bit more standardized specs, like choose the weight rating: with or without fan, or mandatory Watts ratings or something. Yes the ratings would not be a 100% accurate representation of the products performance, but at least you could compare some stats right away :/

 

[JohnnyG01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilles3000

If things are that tight I'd go with the Raijintek Themis, performs well enough and is very affordable.
http://www.e-shop.gr/raijintek-themis-p-PER.811685

And on the subject of the Hyper 612, its hardly worth it considering you can get the Cryorig H7 for about the same price.
http://www.e-shop.gr/cryorig-h7-hive-fin-cooler-p-PER.642758

Hmmmm, the Themis is doing better than the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo (that beats all my previous options at the frostytech.com tests i quoted before) according to this test, even while having less heatpipes for the ball-park same amount of cooler weight...
EDIT: But Themis has a 12cm fan instead of the 9cm most in that price range have...

I wish the companies had a bit more standardized specs, like choose the weight rating: with or without fan, or mandatory Watts ratings or something. Yes the ratings would not be a 100% accurate representation of the products performance, but at least you could compare some stats right away :/

 

[JohnnyG01]

Actually that same site has a Themis test also, and although its performing about the same as the Hyper 612 at the 125W test (0.3c cooler actually), it loses on the 150W test by ~1.2c which is not a big difference and i consider it within the "testers margin of error", ie another test on another site can give the opposite result in temperatures...
Also it loses to the CM Hyper 212 EVO in the 150W test by about 0.5c but on the other site's test i linked on the previous post, it does 3c better than the 212 EVO

So it seems like Raijintek Themis is the best option so far.

 

[JohnnyG01]

Double posted, sorry

 

[psyclum]

general rule of thumb on a budget cooler. you want at least 4 heat pipes and at least 120mm fan. everything else would be gravy.

 

[doyll]

What psyclum said is not untrue, but not as true now as it was in the past then now. In the last couple of years several very good 3-pipe coolers have been released .. some perform better than 4x pipe coolers. Cryorig H7 and Themis are good examples of 3x pipe coolers with better performance than most 4x pipe coolers have.

Reasons are many, and include 4x 6mm pipes have same surface area as 3x 8mm pipes, but 3x 8mm have more volume to move vapor from heat source to ends of pipes. Design and quality of cooler often mean a smaller cooler with less pipes will cool as well or better than bigger ones with more pipes. Mounting, base shape, fan airflow rate, etc. all play a part.

 

[JohnnyG01]

I already made the order, Themis is on the way!

I had some doubts because of the mixed metals base it uses, more so because its a hybrid 'direct contact' type in which both the heatpipes and the aluminum plate come in contact with the CPU: different metals expand differently when heat applied and that is not good for channeling that heat (when heated tiny gaps may will be formed that add thermal resistance). Not to mention that Aluminium is worst than cooper at transferring heat...
The other coolers i looked into, either have only the copper heatpipes pressed together and flattened directly contacting the CPU (Cooler Master 212 Evo and 612 V2), or have a cooper-only plate in between the heatpipes and CPU (Arctic Freezer 13).

But the Themis seems to be on par or slightly better than those options and the cherry on top is that (~5mm?) "groove" it has cut into it for mounting the fan via a anti-vibrations rubber thingy. I have sinister thoughts about that groove and the ways that it can be beneficial to my dark plans...