Best low profile AM3 cooler

tim3003 · 22 Aug 2018 at 15:37

Hi,

I have an AMD FX-8350, but with the standard cooler it runs at 40degrees plus when under any strain (clocked to 4.3ghz). What is the best cooler/fan for it? I have a desktop set-up, so it needs to be low profile - although up to 120mm high is probably fine. Thanks.

My mobo is an Asus M5A78L.

doyll · 22 Aug 2018 at 16:51

So your case specification is 120mm CPU clearance?
Also how tall is your RAM?
Also, what case fans are you using and when was the last time you cleaned fans, grills, fins, etc.?

LuckyBenski · 22 Aug 2018 at 18:51

So it's running at 40 degrees Celsius? Or 40 degrees above ambient? Both sound ok to be honest. 70°C peak isn't bad on a stock air cooler.

tim3003 · 22 Aug 2018 at 19:21

Case height is about 150mm, but allowing for mobo height plus clearance, 120mm seems safe. My RAM is low-profile, in the 2 of 4 slots farthest from the CPU. I measured 60mm+ from CPU centre to the first RAM module, so 120mm fan width should be okay. The CPU and fan are new. I also have a small loose case fan (blades a bit dusty), but pushing it against the CPU heatsink to pull air through seems to make no difference. My PSU is 600w and has a big fan built-in.

The temp measurement is from PC Probe II (running on Win 7 64-bit). I've tried some other measurement software too, and they agree. I assume it's the CPU temperature - not that of the individual cores, which are always far cooler. As I check now it says 36degrees, but running AMD OD stability calcs it reached 54degrees after a couple of minutes. I read on a forum an AMD support guy say the max safe temp for this CPU is 62 degrees.

Re price: I think a gain of 100mhz per £15 is worth it: So £30 for +200mhz, £45 for +300mhz etc..

doyll · 22 Aug 2018 at 19:53

tim3003 said:
Case height is about 150mm, but allowing for mobo height plus clearance, 120mm seems safe. My RAM is low-profile, in the 2 of 4 slots farthest from the CPU. I measured 60mm+ from CPU centre to the first RAM module, so 120mm fan width should be okay. The CPU and fan are new. I also have a small loose case fan (blades a bit dusty), but pushing it against the CPU heatsink to pull air through seems to make no difference. My PSU is 600w and has a big fan built-in.

The temp measurement is from PC Probe II (running on Win 7 64-bit). I've tried some other measurement software too, and they agree. I assume it's the CPU temperature - not that of the individual cores, which are always far cooler. As I check now it says 36degrees, but running AMD OD stability calcs it reached 54degrees after a couple of minutes. I read on a forum an AMD support guy say the max safe temp for this CPU is 62 degrees.

Re price: I think a gain of 100mhz per £15 is worth it: So £30 for +200mhz, £45 for +300mhz etc..

Sorry, but if case CPU clearance specification is 150mm than you have 1500 from top of CPU to case. Top of CPU is 8mm above top of motherboard, and top of motherboard is 8mm above motherboard mounting tray.

Now that we have cleared that up, is the case specificaton for CPU clearance or cooler clearance 150mm? Because there are quite a few good coolers 150mm tall, but only a few 120mm tall.

pastymuncher · 22 Aug 2018 at 20:09

You would be better off telling us which case you have so we can look up the cpu cooler clearance for it.

tim3003 · 22 Aug 2018 at 20:53

My case is eons old, a generic metal job I've used to upgrade for years. From bottom to top of case is 155mm. Clearance from the top of the CPU is max 135mm, not 150mm - I know there are many vertical fan coolers of around this height, but I don't think they will fit safely. Thanks.

doyll · 24 Aug 2018 at 16:47

tim3003 said:
My case is eons old, a generic metal job I've used to upgrade for years. From bottom to top of case is 155mm. Clearance from the top of the CPU is max 135mm, not 150mm - I know there are many vertical fan coolers of around this height, but I don't think they will fit safely. Thanks.

Maybe I'm not understand you, but you are saying you have 135mm CPU clearance but a 135mm cooler won't fit ???
So if there is 135mm of clearance why wouldn't a 135mm tall cooler safely fit ???

I suppose if you have GPU PCIe socket too close to CPU you would need a cooler that will clear GPU .. and if you have very tall RAM you would need a cooler with fan fitting behind RAM .. but that's different from 135mm height clearance

tim3003 · 24 Aug 2018 at 16:59

Maybe a 135mm high cooler would fit. It's hard to know without trying it, and hard to measure exactly with the case top off. I said 120mm to be safe. Are there any of that height anyway? The low profile ones I've seen are all well under 100mm, and the vertical fan coolers at least 150mm..

No PCI cards are near the CPU, there's a mobo heatsink - about 30mm high, about 60mm from the CPU centre. The nearest DIMM is also 60+mm from the CPU centre. Hopefully a heatsink which is narrow where it sits on the CPU and widens higher up should clear them.

Unseul · 24 Aug 2018 at 17:02

This is 125mm. Gives you wiggle room for a poor measurement. Not cheap, and there are definitely other towers that short (and slightly shorter I believe), that one should be a good one.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 CPU Cooler - 92mm= £64.99

Total: £73.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)

doyll · 24 Aug 2018 at 17:09

If you measure from surfaced of motherboard to a straightedge over where case cover fits and subtract 10mm that distance is at least 2mm less than from top of CPU to case cover.

Motherboard surface to top of CPU is about 8mm.

Motherboard mounting tray behind motherboard is about 8mm below top of motherboard.

RAM height +3mm is how tall RAM is above surface of motherboard.

Maybe this drawing will help

Add a couple 3 quid and we can buy a pint.

Alpenfohn Atlas is 126mm to top of cooler for £32.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpe...emium-twin-heatsink-cpu-cooler-hs-052-al.html

Really need to know what motherboard you have and what your RAM height is so we don't run into not having enough room for fan over RAM.

Unseul · 24 Aug 2018 at 17:17

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Noctua NH-D9L CPU Cooler - 92mm= £47.99

Total: £56.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)

110mm, even safer. Was looking at lower tower coolers recently, but for a daft project rather than anything else.

doyll · 24 Aug 2018 at 17:58

While the Noctua are good coolers they are quite expensive.

Unseul · 24 Aug 2018 at 18:30

They are, but he asked for the best, and they're probably good. They seemed to be the beefiest I could find in my small search but then i don't know if I'm really looking in the right places.

doyll · 24 Aug 2018 at 19:37

While I haven't used the Atlas those that have say it's very good, especially for it's small size.

Unseul · 24 Aug 2018 at 19:58

It does look serious! Just seen it's rated at 200W as well, even if slightly fudging the truth that's impressive.

tim3003 · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:02

Okay, the motherboard is Asus M5A78L. I took the measurement up from the mobo floor, and clearance from there is 140mm, less the height of CPU and socket = 124mm if I understand you correct. My DIMMs are Kingston low profile 4gbs, they top out at 12mm above the DIMM slots. I've used the 2 slots furthest from the CPU, about 65mm form CPU centre. Distance from CPU centre to the back of the case is about 70mm, more above 20mm above the mobo, as external socket mounts sit there.

The 1st 2 you suggest are right on the limit for height. The NH-D9L would be okay, but isn't 2 fans better than 1? It says you can add a 2nd NF-A9 fan - another £15.95.

Roughly what gain in overclocking limits am I going to get for the money?

Unseul · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:07

You can add a second fan to the D9L, and lets be honest, if you had a top down cooler, that would only have 1 fan as well.

tim3003 · 25 Aug 2018 at 10:56

I thought I'd best measure clearance direct from the CPU - pain though it is - and find clearance from it is 131mm - not 124 as supposed, so maybe noctua-nh-u9-tr4-sp3 would fit. But is that for AM3 sockets? It doesn't say so.. What about Noctua NH-U9S PU Cooler - 92mm with a 2nd fan added?

doyll · 25 Aug 2018 at 15:41

tim3003 said:
Okay, the motherboard is Asus M5A78L. I took the measurement up from the mobo floor, and clearance from there is 140mm, less the height of CPU and socket = 124mm if I understand you correct. My DIMMs are Kingston low profile 4gbs, they top out at 12mm above the DIMM slots. I've used the 2 slots furthest from the CPU, about 65mm form CPU centre. Distance from CPU centre to the back of the case is about 70mm, more above 20mm above the mobo, as external socket mounts sit there.

The 1st 2 you suggest are right on the limit for height. The NH-D9L would be okay, but isn't 2 fans better than 1? It says you can add a 2nd NF-A9 fan - another £15.95.

Roughly what gain in overclocking limits am I going to get for the money?

Distance from top of CPU to top of motherboard is about 8mm. So if you have 140mm from top of motherboard to case you have 132mm cooler clearance.

Top of motherboard is also 8mm above motherboard mounting surface. Thickness of motherboard plus standoffs is 8mm .. So from motherboard tray to case minus 16mm is cooler clearance.

I don't know the depth of RAM socket or how high it is above motherboard. I will guess top of your is RAM is 17-18mm above surface of motherboard meaning the 132mm cooler clearance minus 8-10mm for RAM height above CPU leave you about 122-124mm for fan over RAM.

And now we get serious .. how much do you want to spend for a cooler and how much is the maximum you will spend for a cooler?

Here is Alpenfohn Atlas dimensional drawing: