Funny, I have the 212 evo in my current pc.  Been about 6 months, no problems yet..  bios set to silent fan speed and it's nice and quiet.  My previous PC, I used a corsair h50 closed loop water cooler, the instructions said to tell the bios to run the fan at full speed and it was definitely very noisy.  I also experimented with a couple of gentle typhoon fans on the radiator in push/pull and that was insanely loud but let me overclock pretty well.  The 212 evo is much quieter.  If the fan dies I still have a gentle typhoon I can replace it with

I use a Corsair Hydro Series H80, it's nice and quiet and keeps the cpu really cool.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181031

With the first gen of Corsair closed loop coolers there was more variance between units than the H80i you've linked. With the switch to CoolIT from Asetek they seem to have fewer problems and the pumps are a bit quieter (albeit still audible in some instances) with the H110 being the best of the bunch. I've had the chance to test a few of the newer units out and they perform pretty well. If you have the space and are planning an upgrade in the future (and are still smitten with the all-in-one units), I'd go with the NZXT Krakens as the decision to use 140mm rads yields much better performance. The Silverstone Tundra is also a good choice as the radiator used is pretty darn good (head and shoulders above the Corsair units). If you're after performance that approaches custom loops and have serious cooling needs, the Swiftech H220/H320 are the clear winners in this space.


Large case people: If you've got a decent sized case with reasonable airflow, any of the single 120mm radiator all in one coolers priced over $75 are not the best deal when the Noctua U14S is is priced at 75.99. The performance of that cooler is phenomenal and the noise level is quite low. You really need to move to the dual 120mm or dual 140mm radiator designs to surpass it and even then, managing overall noise is difficult (which may or may not be important to you).


For smaller builds: the two issues I've found with the better performing air units in smaller builds is size in the middle of the case (especially vertical space off the motherboard) and airflow requirements. In order for a heatsink to have the surface area necessary to compete with the newer crop of all in ones, you're looking at a lot of fins and things get huge very quickly. Additionally, I've found it difficult to consistently get the airflow necessary for coolers of that size in the middle of a small case. In some of the smaller performance builds I've done for coworkers, it was easier to mount a single 120mm or 140mm radiator in the case than try to fit something like a Noctua U14S. For my personal builds, I like to mount the radiators outside, but that's not really an option unless you're doing a custom loop. In a small case, water is the only way to effectively get a near silent system without compromising performance. Once you move to the 2x120mm and 2x140mm sized radiator all in ones, you move past the better air cooling if you're looking for the best overclocks.


Fan considerations for water loops: The newest fans they ship with the Corsair units are still just decent, not phenomenal. However, at the lowest setting, they're effectively silent (below ambient from ~3 feet open air in the environments I've tested) and between 5V-12V there is no motor noise. One point that seems to have been missed in threads here is that with radiator fans, you're more interested in static air pressure than CFM. For radiator fans in the current crop that I've personally tested, I'd recommend the Cougar Vortex, the Gentle Typhoon AP-15, the Noiseblocker eLoop, or the Noctua Nf although I'd avoid the Gentle Typhoons if you're running at a full 12V since they exhibit a noticeable hum. I'd also knock the Noctua off the list as it's generally $5-10 more expensive than the competition.

If anyone else needs cooler recommendations at different price points and different applications, please feel free to ask here.

I made the mistake of switching back to an air cooler, the True Spirit 140. It's quieter, but I don't have the room I wanted (my fault for not checking first). It also does a piss poor job cooling an overclock 2500K for some reason. Tried remounting it several times, different paste, etc. Whatever, it's still stable and technically within safe limits.

If you're still using it, check the bottom and see if the paste is evenly spread across the base, or if it seems mostly on one area or another. If the base isn't making good contact, the paste won't spread properly. It's possible that the base wasn't finished properly from the factory. A good tower cooler should be able to basically match a single 120 or 140 closed loop water cooler, and come within maybe 5 degrees C of a dual 120 or 140.

My experience over the years is that the main function of CPU fans is to make a rattling noise...