I'm torn between these two heatsinks - the seem pretty much identical (or maybe i'm missing something?!) Anyway, anyone got any suggestions?!
I would avoid the Infinity if you're on Intel lga775, due to the push-pin retention... I had probs, especially when trying to remove it! Other than that, there's probably very little difference between them, apart from price maybe.....
If you want a really good overclock thats really silent, the Noctua. If you want to put on a high CFM fan and get the best overclock you can at all costs, the infinity. Thing with the noctua is that its silent and cools with the best of them, but CFM doesnt really raise the performance much because its designed for the noctua fan.
Thanks for that - think i'll go with the Noctua then - its an extra £5 and i'm trying to cut costs where i can, but it does get good reviews and i'm trying to keep my build as quiet as possible! Think my problem is going to be the graphics card mind...
What? the Infinity has been a better cooler than the Noctua. If your worried about silence then dont as the stock Scythe fan is only 1200rpm. even then i run my hsf passive. I have a ninja and the infinity easily beats it. Also the LGA design is only push pins, unless the hsf has a backing plate for the hsf to screw on. Go to quietpc.com and have a look at what they have.
sorry, so you're saying i should go for the infinity? If it helps, i plan to use it on a Q6600 overclocked to 3ghz...
Atanum, why wouldn't you trust the noctua? You seem to be basing your opinion of it on thin air to be honest. I've never read a review of the noctua thats had anything bad to say about it.
Thin air? Maybe with the help of Google you can find out urself. Why you ask? Personal choice. I know how well first hand at how good Scythe and Thermalright products are. I personally own a Scythe Ninja, before that all my HSF's were Thermalright. These two makes are well known and get high scores in every review around. Its simple, Noctua is the new boy, the other two are the old skool. Sure it maybe good but people like to stick to what they know. And my choices would be Scythe and Thermalright and im sure im not the only one with those options.
So basically you're saying that what you use, is best for him. Gotcha. Pretty closed minded there, tbh. As for scythe and thermalright, they're decent no doubt, but scythe have never appealed to me. Their designs seem to be very 'brute force' and not very refined. Thermalright I love, but they're not for silent cooling, and you really dont wanna use a low CFM fan with them because as I explained in another thread, they're not built for low CFM, and they perform comparitively poorly with it compared to coolers like the noctua. As for noctua being 'the new boy', I think you're forgetting the fact that only the name is actually new to this. Noctua is pretty much a coming together of some of the worlds best cooling experts, to create a company focused on silent PC cooling products. They're very experienced in this kind of work and it shows in the dozens upon dozens of excellent reviews they get.
Both the NH-U12F and the Infinity are good coolers but both have time-consuming mounting mechanisms. The Noctua is designed to run optimally at 800 RPM (the same speed as the fan it comes with) and you don't get much more performance with higher-flow fans. Depends what you're after ultimately but having used both, they're about as good as each other.
I never say noctua was bad, i just said the other two are try ed and tested. Scythe maybe "brute force" in your mind but there aren't many HSF's that can cool most of the cpu's avail passive or give full support to mostly all types of sockets. OT might be worth you searching a thread i did in the hardware section about a little mishap i had this February. its called "welcome back gift" or something similar. And maybe ur right about Thermalright and the fans issue. But same can be said about noctua, tho their fans are v.good.
Actually it can't. I explained this in another thread. The ridged leading edge of the noctua cooler presents much less of a barrier to airflow than the flat edges on the Thermalright and Scythe coolers, allowing a low CFM fan to push air over the fins as efficiently as a high CFM fan, the noctua sees excellent performance with low flow fans, and almost no performance icrease from high flow fans.
Thanks for all your comments guys - appreciate the 'debate' I'm not fussed about the time it takes to mount in all honesty - as once it's there it'll be staying there for a fair amount of time! I want good cooling as quiet as possible, and i think i'm now decided on the Noctua as it seems to come out really well in all the tests. I'm also not one for buying something because of a brand name!
Well, after reading the latest round-up, i'm leaning towards the Infinity now... Saying that, the Katana CU seems to be slightly quieter, less huge, and not much loss on the temp front... (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Scythe/Infinity/4) Hmm... EDIT: Cant seem to find anywhere to buy the CU, so i guess that solves that one...
