Best Ryzen 1st Gen Cooler ?

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So ive just been given a 1800x and now need a decent cooler on a budget of £35 or thereabouts, i wouldn't mind seeing about overclocking aswwell at some point so what's the best option that provides the actual lowest temperatures really ?
 
You're best off looking at reviews. Chips are different and honestly utilize different settings chip to chip. Voltage floor/voltage ceiling can legitimately differ from cpu to cpu. My cpu seems to take voltages and frequencies typically impossible while still maintaining better temps than what others claim to have at lower power settings and requirements so honestly you're better off starting out with either what you've got for a cooler and feeling out the thermal character of your specific cpu. My 1600 hits 4ghz with 85c Max temp so far at about 1.43 volts. Higher than anyone will suggest you run daily but heat has to be taken into account for daily parameters, if all other factors outside your thermals are unadvised I'd go ahead and give those outstanding factors a try. All advice I saw before taking my Max oc daily told me it was a bad idea because of the voltage and the increased stress unforeseen in manufacturing, but when dialing in my absolute Max clock and powers required for it my temps stay tolerable, which means yes my chip has a slight Delta between heat produced and heat transferred, but if willing to sacrifice certain luxuries like a "silent" cooler it's clearly more than possible to push 1gen ryzen to it's Max even on barely adequate componentry. Watch a buldzoid vid, you'll see the guy breakdown things hardly anyone in the industry pays attention to. Literally that one man will give enough info to tell if both board and chip are adequate on a hardware level. Anything beyond that is legitimately up to cpu characteristics and seeing if your chip runs at the better half of the batch or the worst.
 
You're best off looking at reviews. Chips are different and honestly utilize different settings chip to chip. Voltage floor/voltage ceiling can legitimately differ from cpu to cpu. My cpu seems to take voltages and frequencies typically impossible while still maintaining better temps than what others claim to have at lower power settings and requirements so honestly you're better off starting out with either what you've got for a cooler and feeling out the thermal character of your specific cpu. My 1600 hits 4ghz with 85c Max temp so far at about 1.43 volts. Higher than anyone will suggest you run daily but heat has to be taken into account for daily parameters, if all other factors outside your thermals are unadvised I'd go ahead and give those outstanding factors a try. All advice I saw before taking my Max oc daily told me it was a bad idea because of the voltage and the increased stress unforeseen in manufacturing, but when dialing in my absolute Max clock and powers required for it my temps stay tolerable, which means yes my chip has a slight Delta between heat produced and heat transferred, but if willing to sacrifice certain luxuries like a "silent" cooler it's clearly more than possible to push 1gen ryzen to it's Max even on barely adequate componentry. Watch a buldzoid vid, you'll see the guy breakdown things hardly anyone in the industry pays attention to. Literally that one man will give enough info to tell if both board and chip are adequate on a hardware level. Anything beyond that is legitimately up to cpu characteristics and seeing if your chip runs at the better half of the batch or the worst.

Pretty much this ^^^^ although with some paragraph separation lol.
 
Mugen 5 is a good cooler and not bad priced either. But you might want to take a look at Alpenfohn Matterhorn which is almost as good and much lower priced. On i7 6700 @ 4.2GHz 1.2v Matterhorn is only a couple degrees warmer than Mugen .. only 4c warmer than NH-D15.
Alpenfohn Matterhorn Pure is £33.95 and AM4 mount another £2.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpenfohn-matterhorn-pure-edition-cpu-cooler-120mm-hs-037-al.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpe...mp-atlas-and-matterhorn-series-hs-059-al.html

There is a **B Grade** Alpenfohn Matterhorn Black for £26.99 pluss £2.99 for mount.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-grade-alpenfoehn-matterhorn-black-cpu-cooler-bg-016-al.html
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £26.98 (includes shipping: £0.00)

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6706/alpenfoehn-brocken-2-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

The review is of the version with a single fan, the store-linked version (PCGH) comes with an extra, so it should cool a little better than the version in the review. That's close to Noctua NH-D14 cooling performance with less noise for a third of the price.

Unless you've a Hyper 212 sat around spare I wouldn't invest in one at this point in time, there's simply much better cooling solutions in the price range (such as what I've just linked).
 
While Brocken is a nice cooler TT testing is not simply comparing coolers, but comparing how coolers perform in their open case test system .. which is better than closed case, but air temp into cooler is not going to be the same for all coolers. They need to be recording air temp into cooler at same time they record CPU to imorove accuracy. Unless your system is the same as theirs you will likely get different results. Easy way to see how skewed their results are is look at how much better CLCs cool in their setup than air coolers .. when in reality CLCs cool about the same as top tier air, with air often being quieter. In accurate testing I would expect Brocken to be 3-5c warmer than D15 and similar .. which is still plenty of cooling for most of our needs.

I believe results in link below are more representative.
https://www.eteknix.com/alpenfohn-brocken-eco-cpu-cooler-review/5/
 
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It's an old skool classic. Absolute whopper of a cooler but handles a fair amount of heat because of it.
I have a cooler master 212 evo on an OC 8 core FX (OC from 4.0 to 4.4) and it is great. Cooler master now do the black one that is meant to be a bit quieter and looks better being black apparently.
 
If you need to strictly stick to your budget, then you can consider this, but as suggested earlier you might as well just try your stock cooler to see if that suits your needs:
Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo White CPU Cooler - 2 x 120mm

But if you can stretch that budget a bit, these are highly recommended as they'd still be useful even if you upgraded your CPU:
Scythe SCMG-5100 Mugen 5 Rev.B CPU Cooler= £42.95
Scythe SCMG-5PCGH Mugen 5 "PCGH Edition" CPU Cooler= £46.99


I have seen good reviews for that Artic Freezer 34 eSports and it has two fans for a bargain price of £30. I am happy with my single fan Cooler master 212 evo (which is £28) but if I had to choose between a decent but not expensive cooler I would try the Artic Freezer eSports.
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £26.98 (includes shipping: £0.00)

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6706/alpenfoehn-brocken-2-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

The review is of the version with a single fan, the store-linked version (PCGH) comes with an extra, so it should cool a little better than the version in the review. That's close to Noctua NH-D14 cooling performance with less noise for a third of the price.

Unless you've a Hyper 212 sat around spare I wouldn't invest in one at this point in time, there's simply much better cooling solutions in the price range (such as what I've just linked).
£24 for a twin 140mm fan cooler is a great bargain - perhaps grab this one quick before it goes back up in price.
 
On one of my PC's I didnt take into account of the height of the sapphire dual fan CPU cooler and I have to run the PC with the case side off! Just be aware of the coolers height and dimensions.
 
While Brocken is a nice cooler TT testing is not simply comparing coolers, but comparing how coolers perform in their open case test system .. which is better than closed case, but air temp into cooler is not going to be the same for all coolers. They need to be recording air temp into cooler at same time they record CPU to imorove accuracy. Unless your system is the same as theirs you will likely get different results. Easy way to see how skewed their results are is look at how much better CLCs cool in their setup than air coolers .. when in reality CLCs cool about the same as top tier air, with air often being quieter. In accurate testing I would expect Brocken to be 3-5c warmer than D15 and similar .. which is still plenty of cooling for most of our needs.

I believe results in link below are more representative.
https://www.eteknix.com/alpenfohn-brocken-eco-cpu-cooler-review/5/

I totally agree in that the test environment could be better for their reviews, and believe me I've been telling people for years now (often to deaf ears) that AIO/closed loop liquid coolers are usually no better than high end air (worse in many respects). I was more using the review as an example of what the cooler could do comparatively, and I'm confident as you say yourself that it's within a few degrees of the likes of the D14 or even D15, as I mentioned myself. I've used the Brocken 2 and D14 personally which is why I brought them up specifically, but I didn't want to simply use anecdotal evidence.

Regardless, I don't think it's possible to do better at the moment than the Brocken 2 PCGH without spending upward of £50-60. It's hugely underlooked and is a stellar bit of kit, especially for £24 (+ 3 for the bracket if needed).
 
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NH-D14 and NH-D15 cool near identical with same fans. In theory it shouldn't be as good, but it is. ;)

Decent air coolers are £35-50 with top tier being £70-90 .. Thermalright TRUE Spirit 140 Power is 2/3rds the cost of top tier with as good or better cooling.

There are definitely some good coolers below £35, but not many.
 
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