Best air cooler AM4?

[doyll]

I agree "Hardware Canucks noise testing was erroneous". That being said than "Hardware Canucks show the U12A is louder than the NH-D15" is also suspect. PC Jack (YouTube) has D15 louder than U12A.

Seriously, reviews vary about if D15 or U12a is loudest, but all seem to agree they are within a couple each other .. and a couple dB is barely enough if enough for most of use to hear the difference.

 

[Bencher]

How can you tell ambient by "minimum temperature"? If you ae referring to CPU "minimum temperature", please explain how it gives us air temp entering cooler is. I know CPU temp goes up and down with changes in air temp entering cooler, but it does not give us the air temp. Air temp entering cooler is lower than CPU temp, and changes air temp entering cooler effect CPU temp at very close to 1:1 ratio.

Of course I can't tell the exact air temperature, but since I actually have a room thermometer, cpu usually idles 3-4c above ambient. Since the cpu is at 28c ambient is at least 23-24c.

 

[doyll]

Ambient is obviously less that CPU temp, but many CPUs "idle" way more than 3-4c above ambient. All depends on what you mean by "idle". Most of our systems several things running at "idle", for example right now I have firewall, anti-virus, this browser w/ facebook, Skype, outlook running in windows OS all creating some heat. Running lie this my 3600 idles 14-20c warmer than ambient .. 21 ambient with CPU at 35-41c.

 

[Bencher]

Ambient is obviously less that CPU temp, but many CPUs "idle" way more than 3-4c above ambient. All depends on what you mean by "idle". Most of our systems several things running at "idle", for example right now I have firewall, anti-virus, this browser w/ facebook, Skype, outlook running in windows OS all creating some heat. Running lie this my 3600 idles 14-20c warmer than ambient .. 21 ambient with CPU at 35-41c.

On idle my cpus draws 1.7 to 2.2 watts, and temp is just above ambient.

 

[Bencher]

This isn't true, Gamers Nexus review showed that Hardware Canucks noise testing was erroneous or they had a faulty unit. PA120 is likely quite a bit quieter than the U12A at full speed. Gamers Nexus doesn't test the U12A, but at 20" distance they have the PA120 at 42.3 dBA and the NH-D15 at 43.9 dBA. Hardware Canucks show the U12A is louder than the NH-D15.

I'd trust Gamers Nexus much more than Hardware Canucks as it's a technical in-depth sort of channel with excellent attention to detail. If you look at the noise floor, Gamers Nexus is at 26 dBA compared to 35.3 dBA for Hardware Canucks, so they were definitely not testing in a sound proofed room.

Τhat's the best post ive read in a long while. So HWcanucks, whos reviews you were using all this time to prove PA120s superiority, isn't reliable and / or had a faulty unit. But even though they are not reliable, you still use them to prove the u12a is noisier than the D15.

This post is pure gold. Bravo sir, your post is a clear demonstration of what happens when you put your personal opinion / feelings above facts.

 

[Eddie99]

Τhat's the best post ive read in a long while. So HWcanucks, whos reviews you were using all this time to prove PA120s superiority, isn't reliable and / or had a faulty unit. But even though they are not reliable, you still use them to prove the u12a is noisier than the D15.

This post is pure gold. Bravo sir, your post is a clear demonstration of what happens when you put your personal opinion / feelings above facts.

Try reading the thread before you post low effort nonsense like this. In my earlier post I mentioned I have the same fan that is used on the PA120, and it doesn't seem any louder than the fans on my NH-D15. That combined with the Gamers Nexus review confirmed to me that there was some issue with the Hardware Canucks noise testing. That doesn't necessarily invalidate their thermal testing, and both reviews show the PA120 convincingly beating the NH-D15 and U12A overall which is fairly conclusive.

It is ironic that you accuse others of putting their personal opinion / feelings above the facts when that is exactly what you are doing with some of the most blatant Noctua fanboyism I've ever seen.

 

[Bencher]

and both reviews show the PA120 convincingly beating the NH-D15 and U12A overall which is fairly conclusive.

You mean convincingly being beaten ? The only thing it's beating is the users eardrums

 

[Eddie99]

You mean convincingly being beaten ? The only thing it's beating is the users eardrums

You posted the same joke twice, it wasn't very good the first time and especially not now we know the graph is erroneous. I know reading can be hard but you missed a key word, "overall". The NH-D15 beats it by 1 degree (within margin of error) in a largely irrelevant 260w test, which even you said nobody in their right mind would use for any purpose besides benchmarking as neither Intel or AMD scale beyond 150w. The PA120 beats the NH-D15 comfortably in the other two much more relevant tests, and the U12A is so far behind it isn't even in contention. So yes, the reviews do indeed show the PA120 convincingly beating the NH-D15 and U12A in thermal tests overall.

 

[mattyfez]

I don't get why this thread is as long as it is.
The best budget cooler is pretty conclusively the thermalright silent assassin, assuming your case can fit it.
The noctua DH15 is marginally better, in terms of noise but it's also huge and costs twice as much.

 

[Bencher]

You posted the same joke twice, it wasn't very good the first time and especially not now we know the graph is erroneous. I know reading can be hard but you missed a key word, "overall". The NH-D15 beats it by 1 degree (within margin of error) in a largely irrelevant 260w test, which even you said nobody in their right mind would use for any purpose besides benchmarking as neither Intel or AMD scale beyond 150w. The PA120 beats the NH-D15 comfortably in the other two much more relevant tests, and the U12A is so far behind it isn't even in contention. So yes, the reviews do indeed show the PA120 convincingly beating the NH-D15 and U12A in thermal tests overall.

What? The d15 is 6c ahead and the u12 1c behind noise normalized. For the size of the u12,, that's insanely impressive.

EG1. Nevermind,, you are talking about full fanspeeds results? Those are meaningless. Anyone can install a delta 6000 rpm fan and win that chart. For that reason only normalized results are relevant.

 

[Bencher]

I don't get why this thread is as long as it is.
The best budget cooler is pretty conclusively the thermalright silent assassin, assuming your case can fit it.
The noctua DH15 is marginally better, in terms of noise but it's also huge and costs twice as much.

Agreed. PA is the best budget option, not the best option. Noctua is pure quality for people willing to pay for it.

 

[Eddie99]

I don't get why this thread is as long as it is.
The best budget cooler is pretty conclusively the thermalright silent assassin, assuming your case can fit it.
The noctua DH15 is marginally better, in terms of noise but it's also huge and costs twice as much.

I assume you mean the peerless assassin? Gamers Nexus showed it beats the NH-D15 in both noise and temperature in every test. There was some sort of issue with the Hardware Canucks noise testing, either a faulty unit or an issue with how they measured it.

 

[ak22]

I have noctua nh-12s not the redux version, it has been great for my 3600. But once I upgraded to 5800x3d I noticed a lot more noise. It could be the fan curve I still need to play around with it, only had the CPU for few hours.

Would a peerless assassin 120 se be a big improvement and less noisy than nh-12s?

 

[Twinz]

I have noctua nh-12s not the redux version, it has been great for my 3600. But once I upgraded to 5800x3d I noticed a lot more noise. It could be the fan curve I still need to play around with it, only had the CPU for few hours.

Would a peerless assassin 120 se be a big improvement and less noisy than nh-12s?

While I really like the PA 120, I don't know that it would fix your issue because the 5800X3D just runs hot regardless of cooler.

The difference between my 280mm aio and the Noctua D15S on the 5800X3D is only how long it takes to get to max temp, not the max temp itself. (I tested by looping CBR23)

It's a chip that lives under a blanket of cache...a heated blanket of cache no less.

A larger heat sink area can help absorb brief spikes in load better, but that's about it.

 

[Bencher]

I have noctua nh-12s not the redux version, it has been great for my 3600. But once I upgraded to 5800x3d I noticed a lot more noise. It could be the fan curve I still need to play around with it, only had the CPU for few hours.

Would a peerless assassin 120 se be a big improvement and less noisy than nh-12s?

The problem is the 3d, not your cooler. Heat transfer and heat density are pretty bad, your cooler is already very adequate, but nothing it can do when the ihs just isn't good in transferring heat to it.

So, play around with the fan curve. FYI even with a 280 arctic aio I was hitting 80+ on the 5800x 3d during gaming.

 

[ak22]

Thanks for the replies I may have wasted £25 on the assassin pro ... Ow well I will put it in and see what the difference is.

 

[ChocAndGray]

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

What case is that in?

Also are your fans running at 2000rpm for those temps?

I have a U12A and have been very impressed with the performance for its size but I can’t get anywhere near that score with those temps but I’d say it’s likely my case (define 7 XL)

 

[doyll]

I have noctua nh-12s not the redux version, it has been great for my 3600. But once I upgraded to 5800x3d I noticed a lot more noise. It could be the fan curve I still need to play around with it, only had the CPU for few hours.

Would a peerless assassin 120 se be a big improvement and less noisy than nh-12s?

Assume you have NH-U12S which has 5x 6mm heatpipes in single 120mm tower. While it's not bad it's not near as good as Peerless Assassin 120 (6x 6mm heatpipes in 2x 120mm towers) which is a few degrees warmer than Peerless Assassin 120 SE (7x 6mm heatpipes in 2x 120mm towers).

Below test results is not great because there are too many variables not accounted for, like noise level and actual air temp entering cooler. Even with this and other unknowns it does show PA120SE is significantly better than NH-U12S.

 

[Eddie99]

I have noctua nh-12s not the redux version, it has been great for my 3600. But once I upgraded to 5800x3d I noticed a lot more noise. It could be the fan curve I still need to play around with it, only had the CPU for few hours.

Would a peerless assassin 120 se be a big improvement and less noisy than nh-12s?

A PA120 SE wouldn't necessarily solve the issue but it would make a difference. Whichever cooler you use I would set a manual fan curve to an acceptable noise level and just let it thermal throttle if necessary.

 

[ak22]

Yeah I need to setup some curves I had them set up on my 3600 and it ran silent and cool. This CPU runs hotter so I need to change the curves only tested it for few hours but very impressed with the upgrade.