What are your specs, what is your current problem and what are your goals?

Check your temps vs how much you want to OC. If you're already high and have barely or not even OCed, get a better cooling system. If you've already maxed your OC and are still running cool, then no need to spend any more money on it. I personally use a $20-30 Coolermaster fan on mine and have my Phenom II x6 1100T overclocked from 3.2 to 3.8. I could get even more out of it, but I keep my ambient temperature ~7F higher than normal to save on my electricity bill, and I see no reason to run my CPU hotter than it needs to be when it performs well enough.

I've got a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ I bought a few years ago, it was 15 dollars I added a second fan for a push/pull. After I had upgraded from a Phenom II x2 550 to a 3770k I now want to look into a Corsair h100i but restricted to a 240 rad than a 280 like the h110 I'd prefer. I'd only am willing to use a closed loop water cooler that has a manufacturer guarantee against flaws that will result in hardware loss due to leaking. Dealing with the hot summer 100+ degree F weather simple cooling solution is causing me to sweat over these temps I see.

I thought about trying a liquid cooled setup on my latest build but in the end the thought of having liquid running around inside and around $1500 worth of electronics doesn't seem like an appealing idea at all. One single leak and I could have what amounts to $1500 worth of trash.

So I used a coolermaster storm sniper case (it's a lot like yours as far as number of fans and amount of air flow) and one of their big ass CPU coolers, and it never gets up over 40 degrees celcius even under full load in a burn test. Which is WELL under the temperature threshold of what a CPU can handle. This is an i7 2600K oc'd to 4.0 GHz.

A simple $30 Hyper 212 EVO keeps my i5 3570k chill @ 4.4ghz.

I aim for quiet fans, positive case pressure and airflow as close to laminar as possible (minimal turbulence or fans working against each other). So I avoid side fans or vents, and my current case (like this one: link) works a charm, 3 big fans pushing air upwards through the case. Put a big heatsink on the CPU preferably with its heatpipes in direct contact (as many do now, the 212 I think does this) and then the fan on it doesn't need to be much at all. A push pull setup (2 fans) on the cpu heatsink is probably unnecessary unless going for a serious OC.

I aim for quiet cooling systems as the main goal when setting up a pc, so I use www.silentpcreview.com for advice when considering a new build.

I've never bothered with liquid cooling. Seems too expensive and more hassle than what it's worth. Well thought out airflow with fans does the job already.

Coolermaster V6 GT!

1000 rpm exhaust, 500 rpm CPU, ~500 PSU (variable, can't be bothered to run any monitoring apps).

Next build is definitely going to be positive pressure, because I have too much cat hair inside the PC.

Thermaltake Sonic Tower It's made for P4s but I use it on my Athlon II X2 250 @3,8Ghz with a fan in the middle of it. :)

STOCK FAN ! <3

I use this one, keeps my CPU cool, but its only good for CPUs for under 100w TDP I think. Temps dropped by 8 to 9 degrees compared to stock cooler.

Noctua nh-d14 or silverarrow :F

If you overclock then u need monster cooler, if not then stock is fine.

This should do

I use water cooling on my CPU and to be honest it's complete overkill. Plus I'm not one of those guys that overclocks everything, so if you're like me just go for a fan.

I use a Noctua D14. Can be a bit expensive though, but I highly recommend it.

I personally recommend cleaning the dust because once my video card temperature was over 94 temperature heat and after cleaning the dust that was stuck behind the fan, everything was a bit normal but better then it was on high temperature. Because of it the cool wind could not get inside and dust just blocked it, but remember to have a thermo paste whit you, it will protect the microchip from more heat. (possible to check youtube how to do it if you don't know. some videos are truth but some may not so better watch more videos to be sure). some fans can be weakened or broken, maybe there is a problem whit a driver program or something. you can add another cooler or fan, but it might take more electricity.
I'm not sure if programs or outdated drivers could cause computer heating problems, but activity will (example playing modern game on realistic graphics may rise the temperature).

My desktop uses an ASUS Isolated Watercooling system for the CPU but it's noisy so I'm not a fan of it, although it does keep the CPU itself cool.

My new ITX build (with a GTX 660 TI OC and i5-3570) uses a 140mm intake on the front, 120mm exhaust (the PSU fan) and has a Noctua low profile fan on the CPU. It's silent except for when the CPU is maxed out, then there's a quiet wind sound, nothing annoying and barely noticable.

For my next build i will settle on Corsair H100i and Fractal Design Arc Midi R2, in fact i'm receiving case today (yeay!).

I'm little bit sick of conventional air coolers because of weight and aesthetics.

I simply refuse to use any water cooling because there is the small possibility of leaking. I'm happy with my Noctua NH-D14.

It mostly depends on what you're aiming for, the cable routing, and the case fans.

If you're planning to go for some heavy overclocking, you could go for a high-end air cooler. If you just want a quieter system, you can get yourself an aftermarket cooler, or a water cooler that is known for its quietness.

In the long run, if you're not planning to spend much money on your computer, it's safer to get yourself a good aftermarket air cooler (again, one that suits your needs), as water coolers (i'm talking about pre-filled ones) have a life-span of around 5 years, that plus the slim, yet possible chance of leaking.

Currently I use a H100i by corsair because I was going to upgrade to a 3570K but that didnt happen so just running stock 955BE (can't overclock with 4 dims filled)

Zalman drops the mic