He's right though, overall the U12A does get spanked when taking into consideration the more realistic 120w and 165w noise normalized tests, and the PA120 has an extra gear in non noise normalized tests.
Best air cooler AM4?
- Thread starter Matty8787
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Soldato
I'n lower wattages, it doesn't matter. If your cpu is at 70 or 75 degrees, what difference does it make? High wattages is where you want performance
At lower wattages, the better the cooler the lower you can run the fan for a specific target temperature. Lower fan speeds means lower noise so of course it matters a lot. Unless you're arguing that noise doesn't matter, in which case the PA120 spanks the U12A at 260w when you run the fans at full speed. 260w is such an unrealistic workload though that it can almost be disregarded in my opinion, he even says in the video "You just need to take into account that hardly anyone will be pushing their processor to output this kind of heat".
Soldato
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Soldato
Neither noise or temperature matters. At 150w my 12900k is at 60c with the cooler being whisper quiet. Why the hell would I care if another cooler can lower the temperature to 55c?
I already posted benchmarks with a U12A cooling 330 watts. Unless I see tr doing this, it's noctua for me
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Define "whisper quiet". I like my systems to be completely silent and would rather let them thermal throttle slightly than increase noise. I actually have a Noctua NH-D15 in one of my computers, purchased years ago for around £70 before competition started leaving them for dust in price/performance. I run the fans at a fixed 450 RPM as it is audible at 500 RPM and starts to become annoyingly loud at 650 RPM. It definitely will not cool a 5950x at 450 RPM without thermal throttling, and probably not even at 650 RPM.
So yes, both noise and temperature definitely do matter at 150w.
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Soldato
Whisper quiet is I can't hear it unless my life depended on time.
Im more interested about cooling at high wattage, and the tr fails there. If someone can show me any of their cooler doing 330w without throttling, I have to prefer the U12A over them
In your case I guess it doesn't matter. I assume that is with your ambient temp being about 22c. It's fair to assume if your ambient went up to 32c that your CPU would then be 70c. That's what normally happens when air temp enters cooler has a 10c temp increase. You probably have AC so will never be 32c anyway.
Doesn't change the fact that coolers able to cool 300 watts at same noise level as a cooler able to cool only 200 watts at same noise level will run quieter cooling 200w of heat. The 300w cooler will also remain at lower noise levels cooling 200w with filters getting dirty (restricting airflow), hot summer days, etc.
What Bencher said.
Having 300w of cooling ability on a 150w CPU isn't just for cooling in normal conditions, but also for keeping system quiet when rendering graphics in hot summer weather with dirty filters, etc.
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You being half deaf doesn't invalidate the importance of noise for those of us with good hearing.
Soldato
And you figure out that based on what? Can you actually hear fans running at 500rpm? BS, stop pretending, you are not convincing anyoneYou being half deaf doesn't invalidate the importance of noise for those of us with good hearing.
Soldato
Yes my ambient is between 21 and 25 throughout the year. The point is, a u12a can handle a 13900k at 330w, and unless I see the PA120 doing that as well, i aint convinced.
That depends on the fan, but yes I start to hear the fans on an NH-D15 at around 500 RPM. I think it will also depend on the noise floor of your environment, e.g. if you live in a built up area with a lot of traffic then it might be higher.
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Soldato
Unless you have your case right next to your ear, that's almost impossible. My case is under the desk, about 1.5m away from me. If you care about noise why do you have it 30 cm away from your head?
Anyways, as ive said repeatedly, unless I see a PA120 doing 330watts without throttling, it's off the table. The FC140 might stand a chance at pulling that,, the PA probably not
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It's around the same distance under a desk, clearly not impossible unless I have a ghost making noises at the exact time I adjust the fan speed.
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We know how important good cooling is. We also know how some peeps like to think they know things they don't. We know 500rpm is silent .. well maybe if user has tower case setting right along side of keyboard on desktop it might be audible. We know in a case setting on floor it's inaudible. We know somewhere between 700rpm and 900rpm fan noise starts to become audible.
Depends on many factors. Noise floor of your environment, fan size, fan motor, blade design, what it is mounted on, hearing ability etc. I can say for sure that my NH-D15 is not silent at 500 RPM. It's the point at which it becomes (barely) audible for me in a case under a desk. Very quiet but not silent.
This we can agree on.
The PA120 comfortably beat the U12A in the 260w test so I'm not sure how it fails at high wattage. What 330w test are you referring to here?
You said "why the hell would anyone run beyond 170w besides benchmarking is beyond me" in October, but a cooler that can't do 330w is off the table?
Obviously it depends on many factors. There are many other factors you didn't mention like grill pattern, grill airflow resistance, filter resistance, distance from noise source, distance from noise source etc. are equally valid factors.
Reality is most of our environments have an ambient noise level louder than noise of a 500rpm fan in commonly used case applications .. meaning ambient noise level covers fan noise.
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Soldato
Exactly, cause im running benchmarks. For everything else a 30€ off the shelf cooler is enough,, you don't need huge dual tower coolers.You said "why the hell would anyone run beyond 170w besides benchmarking is beyond me" in October, but a cooler that can't do 330w is off the table?
Hence the "etc".
This is the noise floor that I mentioned earlier. Probably a combination of low ambient noise and good hearing as to why it is audible.