I use Zalman coolers, on the lowest setting they're inaudible and have excellent cooling performance.

If I recall they have a few models that cover your CPU and socket.

http://www.zalman.com/

Highend choice: Thermalright IFX-14

Fancy choice: Thermalright Ultra-120 TRUE Black

Cheaper choice: EKL Alpenföhn Brocken

Austrian choice: Noctua NH-U12P

These two are quite cheap and perfectly silent.

EKL Alpenföhn Brocken

EKL Alpenföhn

At least in Europe you can get them here http://geizhals.at/eu/a398435.html and here http://geizhals.at/eu/a324642.html

I think they are even made in Austria so they have decent quality.

But you have to watch ot if your case is big enough.

Even though they use "Großclockner" for one of their coolers, EKL is from Germany. Noctua is from Austria .

how about a Scythe Ninja?? Able to cool most stuff even without the fan installed... If I should choose these days this is > Zalman (got a Zalman myself atm)...

stick a pencil in the one ya got.. shuts um right up..

 J/K.

Spooky offered some decent ones..

-But I wonder, how much will my temp go down if I go for one of those without a separate fan?

-Sadly the Ninja didn't cover my socket.

What do you mean? Those are high end coolers. And of course you will need to buy a fan seperately for them.

when I recently purchased my computer I asked similiar questions and ended up with the coolmaster v-8. I'm very happy with it and the fan speed appears to be adjustable (I haven't messed with it yet). BUT, it's big. I had to change cases to fit the cooler.

-Ok, my friend said that it wasn't needed xD

Well, I have the IFX-14 and 120 in mind, because they seem easy to get around where I live. But there is an updated version of the 120, 120 eXtreme. Do you know if there is a big difference between them?

Well, if you aren't going to do some serious overclocking any of the mentioned coolers will give you excellent performance (and silent, if you have the right fan). Btw. if you feel crazy, you could also get the Thermalright Ultra-120 TRUE Copper, it weighs almost 2 kg .

// edit.. haha, I actually wrote "ways" instead of "weighs"

Yeah, I'm that kind of person that likes to have the best, or as close to the best as possible, even if I don't use it to the maximum xD But when I get this cooler I will try my luck at overclocking, just for fun.

I looked at that one, it's HEAVY! And costs a lot too.

I've checked around, and the Ultra-120 is the biggest candidate, but then I have the airflow problem. I've also checked on another cooler, the Noctua NH-C12P. Do someone have any experience at that one? The 3Dgameman (you know the one that reviews stuff at youtube and his site) recommended it in this review. 

you could just use your glasses as they are super cool.

I used this Thermaltake V1 for the last 2 yrs on an AM2 socket.

variable fan speed, a little loud on high, pretty quite on low-mid fan speed.

kept my my 6400+ 10C cooler than stock AMD HSF.

was a good cooler for 2 yrs than the fan died.

another thing to consider is that most motherboards are only rated for 350 grams of weight for a CPU HSF, ALL the large after market coolers are way above that, most are double, some of the new ones are triple+ that pushing or exceeding 1000 grams.

not saying you can't or shouldn't use the heavy ones, just if you do be EXTREMELY careful if you move the tower or you can crack the motherboard.

Hmm, yeah the weight could be a problem.

The Noctua NH-C12P's weight is 550g, and the 120 eXtreme is 790g, so NH-C12P is a winner there x)

If you want truly silent with good performance water cooling is the way to go but it has heavier pricetag as well as risks if your unlucky/clumpsy

Have you looked into fanless cooling systems or water based cooling?

If I'm not to late on the reply, I just removed my water cooler because I have been testing out the Vigor Monsoon™ III LT CPU Cooling System.  And I must say i am very impressed with this.  For having two 120mm fans this puppy is very quiet.  Runs very smooth and it does a great job at keeping my CPU very cool.  About 30-32C @ idle and with 100% load for 10 minutes I never went over 70C.

My other PC which has the Masscool 7WA002L Liquid Cooler keeps the CPU at a cool 27C and after 5 minutes running full load using Prime95 hit at 42C...  which is very good.

550g is not bad at all, I'd even be comfortable with the 790g provided the tower isn't moved much and is very careful when moving.

~800 is about as heavy as I would personally go though.

Yep...it sure is big....required some hacksawing mods to my nice new Lian Li case...as the MoBo mounting tray would not slide into the case with the cooler attached and thus had to be installed with the tray in situ.

I haven't tested a simulated 'max load' but at 50% fan speed the 'normal use' temps for the i7 are 30c O/A ...cores are 22, 20, 20, 17, 23, 21, 21, and 18. [info via Speedfan] Ambient is 21.