Advice needed: air cooling 9950X3D

pschweig

pschweig

pschweig

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Hi

I'm looking for some advice on cooling requirements for the pc I'm planning to put together soon. I want to air cool rather than water cool.

Main heat generating components are as below:
Case: Fractal Design 7
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
GPU: Nvidia 5070 Ti
1x Samsung 9100 Pro Pci-e 5
1x Samsung 990 Pro Pci-e 4

I've done a little reading about CPU coolers and the Noctua NH-D15 G2 seems to be recommended even if it is a little more expensive.

The Fractal Design case has 2 front 140 mm fans and 1 rear 140 mm fan. Would those fans along with the CPU cooler fans be sufficient to keep everything sufficiently cool? Or will I need to add more case fans?
 
D15 G2 is fine as a best option, or a Peerless Assassin 120 if you want to save a lot of money for not much worse performance. It will run pretty warm regardless though if you're hammering it with production workloads.
 
I suggest Thermalright cooler as well.

Difference between D15 G2 and D15 at 25dBA noise level on 14900KF OC'ed is 3c. Difference between D15 and Peerless Assassin 140 on same setup is only 1.4c

On 3950X OC'ed 198w @ 35dBA, D15 G2 1.6c cooler than D15. D15 G2 and is only 1.2c cooler than Peerless Assassin 140. On same setup D15 is 0.4c warmer than Peerless Assassin 140.

On 3950X OC'ed 250w @ 25dBA, D15 G2 is 3c cooler than D15 . Peerless Assassin 140 on same setup is only 3.2c warmer than D15 G2, but only 0.4c warmer than D15

Above test results are at same dBA. Increase dBA with PA140 fan at slightly higher speed and temps balance out better.

Above data from TomsHardware reviews

NH-D15 G2 costs £127.99 .. more than 2 1/2 times more money than PA 140 for temp difference that doesn't really make any difference. So what if CPU is 53c instead of 51c? Only time it would make a difference is if system was throttling.

Peerless Assassin 140 is £49.99 but OC shows none in stock at this time. :(
 
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hornetstinger said:
One benefit of Noctua, is they will send you free adapter kit , so for next gen motherboard you can re-use it.

Might have cost me a bit more than budget brand, but I can no re-use it from a 1366 to Am5.
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I don't see any logic in your statement.

Paying two and a-half times more money is hardly "have cost me a bit more than budget brand" .. and what you are calling "budget brand" is one of the best coolers on the market from one of the best brands on Earth!

I don't think the potential of needing a mount update in a few years paying an additional £78 .. and difference in performance is minimal.

I'm buying now is worth £127.99 when a cooler with almost same performance is only £49.99. New mount isn't worth an extra £78.00. I would rather buy one for £50.00 now and another at similar price in a few years. Thermalright mounting kit range from £7-15.00 at present time. Even with inflation a new mount is less than £20 .. instead of paying £78 more now on the chance I'll Puse free mount upgrade.
 
doyll said:
I don't see any logic in your statement.

Paying two and a-half times more money is hardly "have cost me a bit more than budget brand" .. and what you are calling "budget brand" is one of the best coolers on the market from one of the best brands on Earth!

I don't think the potential of needing a mount update in a few years paying an additional £78 .. and difference in performance is minimal.

I'm buying now is worth £127.99 when a cooler with almost same performance is only £49.99. New mount isn't worth an extra £78.00. I would rather buy one for £50.00 now and another at similar price in a few years. Thermalright mounting kit range from £7-15.00 at present time. Even with inflation a new mount is less than £20 .. instead of paying £78 more now on the chance I'll Puse free mount upgrade.
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And when you buy the third or fourth one?

If noctua produce am6 or am7 adapter kit... Then I can keep on using this had.
 
hornetstinger said:
And when you buy the third or fourth one?

If noctua produce am6 or am7 adapter kit... Then I can keep on using this had.
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I've re-used my Thermalright Ultra 120 (from 2007) on many builds, and will continue using it for many more years. I'm also still using IFX-14 which was first twin tower evolving into original Silver Arrow. So far I haven't had much of a problem getting these and a few others re-mounted on newer generation CPUs. I've had to buy a couple new mounting kits (none cost more than £9) and drilled new holes for a couple of mounting updates. Nothing complicated.

Needing 'third or fourth one' is many many years of system evolution. What Noctua coolers have you used that needed 3 or 4 mounting updates? AMD has only had 2 different mount updates in 10 years. Intel has had 1 significant change in same 10 years. Socket AM2 was replaced with AM3 in 2009, but all AM2, AM2+, AM3 & AM3+ use same mount. LGA 2011 came out in 2011. LGA 1150 in 2013. LGA 115x, LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA 1155 & LGA 1156 all use same mount.

How many times have you re-used Noctua and needed to get their updated mount?
re-using a coolers and how many of them needed mount upgrades? More than a couple new mounts means it's what what .. 15 years old or older??
 
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Phantom Spirit (SE version has RGB) is slightly better than the Peerless Assassin as it has an extra heatpipe for around the same price. The Noctua is not worth it if you look up some comparison reviews - very little difference but it costs £100 more and it's really noisy.

Might be worth getting an additional 140mm intake case fan (Arctic)
 
Hardware Canucks just released a test with most CPU coolers.
For any intense 24/7 use, unless fine tuning or undervolt, AIO is recommended.
 
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doyll said:
Thermalright's Phantom Spirit 120 EVO is one of the very best out there. Several Thermalright coolers are within a few degrees of NH-D15 at similar same noise level .. for 1/3rd to 1/2 the price.

Problem is OC's stock is extremely limited at the moment.
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I have one as spare. Only using AIO for the aesthetics as the 7800x3D doesn’t run hot at all. The fans used on the Evo version are very good and some subtle RGB. I don’t think any cooler can do much better, on air, unless getting way too loud.
 
Drumroll said:
I have one as spare. Only using AIO for the aesthetics as the 7800x3D doesn’t run hot at all. The fans used on the Evo version are very good and some subtle RGB. I don’t think any cooler can do much better, on air, unless getting way too loud.
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Yeah, most stock cooler fans are not all that great.

Many users with high CPU temps blame cooler when culprit is case airflow. For some crazy reason they don't seem to understand case has to be flowing more air thu case (cases flow same amount of air in as out) and have 2x 140mm front intake and maybe 1 bottom intake. They expect those 2/3 fans to supply as much air as GPU cooler (2-4x 80-90mm fans) and CPU cooler (120/140mm fan) are flowing thru their coolers .. and case fans need to flow not just that much air but enough additional airflow so they can push heated air coming out of CPU & GPU cooler out of case without it mixing into and warming up air going to coolers .. because every degree warmer than room air is entering cooler make CPU & GPU the same degrees hotter (at same load and fan speed).

This problem is compounded by fact computer fans are super wimpy weak little things.
Airflow is generated by higher pressure air moving into lower pressure area. Fan impellers create low pressure area on intake side drawing air to fan and higher pressure area on exhaust side moving air away from fan.
But this "Positive pressure" airflow ability of our computer fans is almost nothing.

Standing at sea level we have about 1.836 mm H2O less pressure on your chest (5' above sea level) than is on our feet. So a fan rated at 1.836 mm H2O can build 1.836 mm H2O more pressure on it's exhaust side than on it's intake side at full speed. But that's only at full speed.
Most fans are rated at less than 1.836 mm H2O at full speed and make significantly less at lower speed.
Hope that helps peeps understand how little air our fans are capable of moving. ;)
 
The Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 for £32 (not from here) is a bargain for the performance it offers. If you want even more than the Thermalright Phantom Spirit Evo 120 (uprated fans) is on offer at £42 right now but reviews say the fans are noisy at full chat.
 
pastymuncher said:
The Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 for £32 (not from here) is a bargain for the performance it offers. If you want even more than the Thermalright Phantom Spirit Evo 120 (uprated fans) is on offer at £42 right now but reviews say the fans are noisy at full chat.
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Yeah, prices, availability, service and customer support vary with source. Still good coolers even if stock fans are not the best.
To be fair, almost all fans are "noisy" at full chat. :)
 
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