Best air cooler AM4?

[hyperseven]

Well, the u12a can do this, with a 13900k

260w at 85c

330w at 95c

It can score higher, I was just trying to bench the cooler instead of the CPU

Why would you use short workloads to evaluate a cooler

 

[Bencher]

Why would you use short workloads to evaluate a cooler

There is no such thing as short workloads for an air cooler. Aircoolers dont have the thermal mass of aios or custom wc, it takes less than a minute for an aircooler to reach equilibrium. I can run these test 24/7/365 with same temps.

 

[Matty8787]

Ended up with the Noctua u12s Redux, runs idle at 31 celcius and mid 50s at load.

 

[JollyJamma]

Ended up with the Noctua u12s Redux, runs idle at 31 celcius and mid 50s at load.

Honestly, as expensive as Noctua products are and even with other coolers performing close to them for cheaper, it’s hard to say no to buying a Noctua.

I got an Noctua low profile cooler and just unboxing the thing was a joy. So well engineered.

 

[Eddie99]

Honestly, as expensive as Noctua products are and even with other coolers performing close to them for cheaper, it’s hard to say no to buying a Noctua.

I got an Noctua low profile cooler and just unboxing the thing was a joy. So well engineered.

You have to hand it to Noctua, they do an amazing job marketing to get people to pay for a brand. Other coolers don't just perform close to them for cheaper, they usually perform better for cheaper. For example the £22 Thermalright AK120 SE that I recommended is a superior cooler to the £50 NH-U12S Redux.

I can't find a direct comparison, but in this review from GamersNexus you can see it gets beaten in a 35dBA test by a Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120, which is worse than an AK120 SE. Note that the Arctic Freezer Esports Duo is even further ahead, which gets beaten by the AK120 SE in another review.

Spoiler: GamersNexus Comparison

Spoiler: Hardware For Gamers Comparison

Also worth checking this video, the £100 NH-D15 gets beaten in outright performance by a £36 Peerless Assassin 120. The Noctua is substantially bigger too being a 140mm cooler.

 

[JollyJamma]

Ok dude, I think that they are worth the price but that’s up to you.

 

[Eddie99]

Ok dude, I think that they are worth the price but that’s up to you.

Any particular reason other than brand name? I suppose the free mounting kit upgrades could come in useful if you have an Intel platform that frequently changes, but they're certainly not worth the enormous price premium.

 

[JollyJamma]

Any particular reason other than brand name?

Consistency Well engineered, good fan lifespan as their bearings are designed to last, Noctua often will make updated mounting brackets for new CPU sockets for your old cooler, non janky mounting mechanisms, looks, resell value.

I even like the brown and beige fan look.

That Noctua Asus GPU is unironically fantastic looks and performance wise.

I had a cheap and effective cooler before and it worked really well but I never really liked it in the way that I liked the huge Noctua C14S that I replaced it with.

Moved to an ultra low profile Noctua cooler and it’s just really good as well.

Sometimes I just want a product that makes me smile rather than chasing pennies.

 

[Eddie99]

Consistency Well engineered

Do you have some data showing they have better consistency than cheaper coolers, or is this just a result of marketing making them seem more premium?

good fan lifespan as their bearings are designed to last

The fan on the Thermalright AK120 SE has a fluid dynamic bearing which have the best lifespan of all, ranging between 100k to 300k hours.

non janky mounting mechanisms

Mounting on the AK120 SE was a breeze for me, looks very similar to the Noctua mounting system.

 

[JollyJamma]

Do you have some data showing they have better consistency than cheaper coolers, or is this just a result of marketing making them seem more premium?


The fan on the Thermalright AK120 SE has a fluid dynamic bearing which have the best lifespan of all, ranging between 100k to 300k hours.


Mounting on the AK120 SE was a breeze for me, looks very similar to the Noctua mounting system.

Honestly, I don’t care if you don’t like them. I see the value, even if you don’t.

Go buy cheap if you want to and move on.

 

[Eddie99]

Honestly, I don’t care if you don’t like them. I see the value, even if you don’t.

Go buy cheap if you want to and move on.

I was just pointing out that those reasons didn't make any sense in this particular case, didn't mean any offense. If you think it's worth paying more than double for an inferior performing product because the fan is brown and they offer free mounting kit upgrades then that's perfectly valid.

 

[JollyJamma]

I was just pointing out that those reasons didn't make any sense in this particular case, didn't mean any offense. If you think it's worth paying more than double for an inferior performing product because the fan is brown and they offer free mounting kit upgrades then that's perfectly valid.

im just pointing out that I don’t care.

 

[Eddie99]

im just pointing out that I don’t care.

Nobody asked, but if you didn't care you wouldn't have posted

 

[Drumroll]

Noise profile too, but for those really picky, pay the price for the cooler you like.
Not everyone will like the same fan. And choosing a cooler, as long clearance is fine, and looks is a personal choice, but noise is down to fan.
Tried few Noctua before, didn't like the fans. Tried the new Silent Wings 4 High Speed, didn't like them either.
Using a NH-U12A Chromax now and the new 120mm fans are fantastic, very quiet, but haven't tried them as case fan.
For case fans, as the extra thickness of the T30 doesn't cause any issues for me, is the best fan I have tried so far. I can't recommend highly enough for those who are happy to pay £80 for three fans and no RGB, just performance.
At high rpm there is no miracle: every fan will be noticeable, or annoying. But for me, personal taste, I prefer a muffed sound of the T30s (when over 1000rpm, as 10 x T30s at 800ish rpm can't be heard) rather than the very decent P12s and their 1000-1200 rpm but humming.
When comes down to noise, the 1C or 2C difference in performance becomes irrelevant, as most decent coolers will perform very close, but as those who are picky knows, choosing a cooler (and the fan supplied with it) is like choosing a headphone or a speaker. May sound good or even pleasant for one person, but poor for another person.
Despite the performance of the AIOs, specially the 360mm and 420mm, most AIOs I would simply pass because of the high pitch noise from the pump. Not the loudest part of the AIO, but is the most annoying one.
Speaking of AIOs, every time I tried the Corsair Capellix, the supplied fans are noisy, but can be tamed if capped at 30 to 35% max, but the pump, even on silent is annoying. Not noticeable, annoying. Some people don't notice, some people don't care, but I'm the kind of person who can't drive a car if there's a loose object rattling somewhere.
As choice for coolers, I'm sure there's a lot of good ones cheaper, but mainly you get recommendation for NH-D15/15S or the new NH-U12A because they do perform well, are reasonably quiet and very easy to install. Dark Rock Pro 4 is a beast of a cooler, quieter, but can be a pain to install. I personally only avoid the NH-D15 and the Dark Rock Pro 4 because they seat too close to the PCI-E slot, making it a pain to unlock the GPU and overhang the RAM, causing some clearance issues.
The value is with the AK620, but is louder than both. And not cheap, only cheaper.

 

[Bragmister]

Excuse me, I have a 5800x3D with a Deepcool AK620 and it is performing nicely.

Also, Kindly run the benchmark for more than 10 mins to reach temperature equilibrium Nothing reaches equilibrium with ambient temperatures except maybe a laser.

P.S. Trust me I am a Mechanical Engineer.

 

[doyll]

Consistency Well engineered, good fan lifespan as their bearings are designed to last, Noctua often will make updated mounting brackets for new CPU sockets for your old cooler, non janky mounting mechanisms, looks, resell value.

I even like the brown and beige fan look.

That Noctua Asus GPU is unironically fantastic looks and performance wise.

I had a cheap and effective cooler before and it worked really well but I never really liked it in the way that I liked the huge Noctua C14S that I replaced it with.

Moved to an ultra low profile Noctua cooler and it’s just really good as well.

Sometimes I just want a product that makes me smile rather than chasing pennies.

Many other companies have similar (sometimes better) engineeriing, fan lifespan, mounting hardware, etc. Only thing Noctua does better is updating mounts as new systems come out.

Some call their colors "baby poo". My guess is you call it "desert tan.

NH-C14S has some serious mounting orientation issue as well as being a rather mediocre cooler.

ID-Cooling IS series and Thermalright SI and AXP series are very good low / ultra-low profile coolers .. all as good or better than Nocutas'.

It's chasing pounds, not pennies.
NH-L9 x65 37mm tall 4x 6mm heatpipes = £40-50.
AXP-90x36 36mm tall 4x 6mm heatpipes is half as much
IS-30 36mm tall, 4x 6mm heatpipes is half as much

 

[wiill]

You have to hand it to Noctua, they do an amazing job marketing to get people to pay for a brand. Other coolers don't just perform close to them for cheaper, they usually perform better for cheaper. For example the £22 Thermalright AK120 SE that I recommended is a superior cooler to the £50 NH-U12S Redux.

Dude why are you hardcore shilling Thermalright in this thread?

It would suggest Thermalright don't do an amazing job marketing if they are using salty forum members to do it for them

 

[gpuerrilla]

I did post on this topic when I was doing my homework ages ago. Since that post GN did review the esports and gave it a decent review, showing it was actually a fantastic cooler (regardless of who was testing and reviewing etc) so not sure what doyll was inferring when that post was made at the time. Lots of decent options out there, I dont think you need to spend a lot particularly if you have good case airflow optimising your setup.

 

[doyll]

I did post on this topic when I was doing my homework ages ago. Since that post GN did review the esports and gave it a decent review, showing it was actually a fantastic cooler (regardless of who was testing and reviewing etc) so not sure what doyll was inferring when that post was made at the time. Lots of decent options out there, I dont think you need to spend a lot particularly if you have good case airflow optimising your setup.

I didn't say anything about cooler, only that many of us don't think reviewer does good testing.

In conclusion GN says it's good up to about 200w, suggesting others for 200w and higher. Also said "it's a worth competitor in $40-60 price slot". Reality is Thermalright has many better cooling coolers in that price range.

There are so many good cooler out there now to choose from that it's become more of a pricing search than cooling search.

 

[Eddie99]

Dude why are you hardcore shilling Thermalright in this thread?

It would suggest Thermalright don't do an amazing job marketing if they are using salty forum members to do it for them

I'm not "shilling" them as you put it, I made a recommendation because they currently make the best air coolers which is a fact. In the other posts you'll see that recommendation was based on actual testing data from numerous reviews, or do you reckon they're all thermalright shills?