What CPU cooler should I buy?...

[Stark]

I recently swapped to the stock cooler from my crappy LC unit. While the stock cooler actually lowered temps the noise kinda drives me nuts if I'm not using my headset. May look into a quiet unit like that one.

Swap it out for an all-in-one liquid cooler, those things are way more quiet than most air-cooled solutions.

[elmagicochrisg]

I recently swapped to the stock cooler from my crappy LC unit. While the stock cooler actually lowered temps the noise kinda drives me nuts if I'm not using my headset. May look into a quiet unit like that one.

Swap it out for an all-in-one liquid cooler, those things are way more quiet than most air-cooled solutions.

I did look into all-in-one water cooling too, but they still work with a fan which is not always that quiet. I don't think they are quieter than the cooler I bought which does not exceed 18.8 dB on max fan speed...

Then again, there are different water cooling solutions. So I guess the really hardcore ones will be just as quiet if not more quiet. And definitely more expensive...

[Stark]

I did look into water cooling too, but they still work with a fan which is not always that quiet. I don't think they are quieter than the cooler I bought which does not exceed 18.8 dB on max fan speed...

Then again, there are different water cooling solutions. So I guess the really hardcore ones will be just as quiet if not more quiet...

This is true, it just seems to me that the fan doesn't have to work as hard to cool the heatsink when it's not on the CPU. I noticed a huge difference when I went to the Corsair H60. I don't know exact dB, but it was quite noticeable.