Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Feb 2009
- Posts
- 3,829
I am using the stock cooler with my 2600X and it's been reasonably okay until this week. I was planning to upgrade the cooler at some point, but a few days ago I had a thermal shutdown during Pillars of Eternity 2 (!!), so I think that point might be now!
It was a bit surprising, but monitoring temps in that game, every session sees max temps up in the mid-80s, and obviously one scene with lots of enemies, effects and sigilis pushed it over the thermal edge. Not good.
So, what is the best option for AM4 cooling - an AIO or a traditional air cooler. I've never used anything but air coolers in the past, but I gather the AIOs have come along some in recent years.
I (think I) know the pros and cons of each and still can't decide.
It seems air coolers are still cheaper, still perform pretty much as well as AIOs, are longer-lasting, but the good ones are huge and heavy and at max speeds can get noisy.
I gather AIOs are generally quieter at load, but perhaps louder at idle due to pump noise (is this right?), it seems they are easier to fit and you don't have to worry about 1.5kg of metal hanging off your motherboard when you move your PC, but they're more expensive, unlikely to last as long and pumps are prone to failure - and there's still the possibility of leaks.
Is that about the size of it? Any recent developments that are noteworthy?
With air coolers it looks like the options are fairly straightforward and haven't changed in years - a huge Noctua or BeQuiet cooler likely the best options. With AIOs, though, there now seem to be dozens! So many it would take days to even begin to get a handle on the relative merits of each. Am I outdated to still be worrying about a pump failure leading to heat death of my CPU or leaks destroying my system?
So - what say the OcUK forums? AIOs worth the extra? If so, which ones? Or is a NH-D15 for around £70ish still the best option?
It was a bit surprising, but monitoring temps in that game, every session sees max temps up in the mid-80s, and obviously one scene with lots of enemies, effects and sigilis pushed it over the thermal edge. Not good.
So, what is the best option for AM4 cooling - an AIO or a traditional air cooler. I've never used anything but air coolers in the past, but I gather the AIOs have come along some in recent years.
I (think I) know the pros and cons of each and still can't decide.
It seems air coolers are still cheaper, still perform pretty much as well as AIOs, are longer-lasting, but the good ones are huge and heavy and at max speeds can get noisy.
I gather AIOs are generally quieter at load, but perhaps louder at idle due to pump noise (is this right?), it seems they are easier to fit and you don't have to worry about 1.5kg of metal hanging off your motherboard when you move your PC, but they're more expensive, unlikely to last as long and pumps are prone to failure - and there's still the possibility of leaks.
Is that about the size of it? Any recent developments that are noteworthy?
With air coolers it looks like the options are fairly straightforward and haven't changed in years - a huge Noctua or BeQuiet cooler likely the best options. With AIOs, though, there now seem to be dozens! So many it would take days to even begin to get a handle on the relative merits of each. Am I outdated to still be worrying about a pump failure leading to heat death of my CPU or leaks destroying my system?
So - what say the OcUK forums? AIOs worth the extra? If so, which ones? Or is a NH-D15 for around £70ish still the best option?