Choosing correct cooler.

Mr Bungle · 29 Jan 2021 at 15:05

Hi, I'm new to PC building and I've just built my first PC. My CPU is a Ryzen 5600x and I noticed while playing Warzone the temperature was 90/92° with the stock fan. This seems quite high to me, so looking at an after market cpu cooler and just looking for recommendations? My budget is £100 and was looking at
"NOCTUA NH-D15 CHROMAX PURE BLACK CPU COOLER WITH DUAL 140M FANS"

And

"ARCTIC LIQUID FREEZER II HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU WATER COOLER - 360MM".

Any advice or suggestions appreciated

pp111 · 29 Jan 2021 at 15:26

Personally, I prefer air coolers rather than water. Water have more parts to fail, can cause catastrophic damage when they fail, and have always failed more often for me. A good air cooler can be just as good, unless you are hitting over 200W, which you aren't. I think you could get a significant improvement with a slightly less expensive cooler too, but I will let others make suggestions from OKUK stock. Maybe a Scythe.

philo-sofa · 29 Jan 2021 at 15:35

Mr Bungle said:
Hi, I'm new to PC building and I've just built my first PC. My CPU is a Ryzen 5600x and I noticed while playing Warzone the temperature was 90/92° with the stock fan. This seems quite high to me, so looking at an after market cpu cooler and just looking for recommendations? My budget is £100 and was looking at
"NOCTUA NH-D15 CHROMAX PURE BLACK CPU COOLER WITH DUAL 140M FANS"

And

"ARCTIC LIQUID FREEZER II HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU WATER COOLER - 360MM".

Any advice or suggestions appreciated

AMD have said temps around 90 are normal and within spec. You'll benefit from a better cooler in terms of sounds and frequency boost, but apparently it's not dangerous.

You've selected probably the best air cooler there is, and the best value water cooler there is. Water does have more complications, but stresses the motherboard less as almost all the weight is suspended from the case. Probably the water cooler will lower temps by a few degrees, but the watercooler will only be good for a half decade or so, whereas in theory the air cooler can last forever.

So really it depends on what you'd prefer visually and in terms of longevity, both are fine choices.

Mr Bungle · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:04

pp111 said:
Personally, I prefer air coolers rather than water. Water have more parts to fail, can cause catastrophic damage when they fail, and have always failed more often for me. A good air cooler can be just as good, unless you are hitting over 200W, which you aren't. I think you could get a significant improvement with a slightly less expensive cooler too, but I will let others make suggestions from OKUK stock. Maybe a Scythe.

The The Scythe Mugen 5 ARGB Plus CPU cooler does also look good. Just want to choose from OC stock as I have bought most of my stuff from there, and won't have customs tax when shipping haha. Thank you both for answers.

turbot1984 · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:10

Mr Bungle said:
The The Scythe Mugen 5 ARGB Plus CPU cooler does also look good. Just want to choose from OC stock as I have bought most of my stuff from there, and won't have customs tax when shipping haha. Thank you both for answers.

BeQuiet dark rock pro also in stock I have used on on several OC'd systems + it looks great!

clv101 · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:20

Mr Bungle said:
The The Scythe Mugen 5 ARGB Plus CPU cooler does also look good. Just want to choose from OC stock as I have bought most of my stuff from there, and won't have customs tax when shipping haha. Thank you both for answers.

5600X absolutely doesn't need water. I have the Scythe Mugen 5 on mine, very cool and quiet, easy to fit.

pp111 · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:34

Mr Bungle said:
The The Scythe Mugen 5 ARGB Plus CPU cooler does also look good. Just want to choose from OC stock as I have bought most of my stuff from there, and won't have customs tax when shipping haha. Thank you both for answers.

It's a darned big cooler for the money and very effective. Certainly good enough to bring those temps down a loooong way. What I like about it is the way it is offset so it doesn't have any issues with RAM.

orbitalwalsh · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:41

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x be quiet! Shadow Rock 3 High Performance CPU Cooler= £44.99
1 x Alpenfohn Brocken ECO Advanced CPU Cooler - 120 mm= £29.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 50 Dual Tower Tower ARGB CPU Cooler - Black= £62.99
1 x be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler= £64.99
1 x Noctua NH-U12A High Performance CPU Cooler - 120mm= £94.99

Total: £307.85 (includes shipping: £9.90)

mickyflinn · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:42

Alphenon Brocken 3 virtually silent black edition.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpe...MIw-qB68vt6wIVFWHmCh3B9w6YEAUYASABEgJcqfD_BwE

Mr Bungle · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:44

Thanks for all your replies everyone, I'm gonna throw 1 more cooler into the mix with the other ones I've mentioned and see what you think. The Arctic Freezer 50? I think it looks very smart. How would performance be compared to the Scythe one I mentioned earlier? A post above says the Scytge would bring temps way down which is exactly what im after.

turbot1984 · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:47

Mr Bungle said:
Thanks for all your replies everyone, I'm gonna throw 1 more cooler into the mix with the other ones I've mentioned and see what you think. The Arctic Freezer 50? I think it looks very smart. How would performance be compared to the Scythe one I mentioned earlier? A post above says the Scytge would bring temps way down which is exactly what im after.

certainly got the bling! suspect the Mugen you like cools a bit better?

Mr Bungle · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:50

turbot1984 said:
certainly got the bling! suspect the Mugen you like cools a bit better?

Thanks. Looks like I'll be ordering the Mugen. Cheers everyone.

turbot1984 · 29 Jan 2021 at 16:59

Mr Bungle said:
Thanks. Looks like I'll be ordering the Mugen. Cheers everyone.

good luck and hope your temps come well down

venomx · 29 Jan 2021 at 17:02

I would always go with Noctua. But the guys on here know their stuff so i'm sure most aftermarkets will do the job

lee32uk · 29 Jan 2021 at 17:08

Have a read through this thread before deciding on a Scythe cooler:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/foru...-matching-or-beating-scythe-mugen-5.18902588/

Mr Bungle · 29 Jan 2021 at 17:25

lee32uk said:
Have a read through this thread before deciding on a Scythe cooler:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/foru...-matching-or-beating-scythe-mugen-5.18902588/

Well thats put me off slightly. As a novice I was hoping just to fit a cooler and get better temps haha

clv101 · 29 Jan 2021 at 17:28

clv101 said:
My 5600X idles at around 25C in a 19C room, and peaks to 55C running Cinebench R20 multicore (all core 4.3GHz), 56C CPU-Z stress (all core 4.5GHz) and around 52C running Prime95 (all core 4.6GHz).
Using a Scythe Mugen 5.

venomx · 29 Jan 2021 at 17:57

Mr Bungle said:
Well thats put me off slightly. As a novice I was hoping just to fit a cooler and get better temps haha

The Noctua NHU12S was the first aftermarket cooler i've ever fitted and it was fairly easy to install. I now run a push/pull configuration so thats one fan on the right and one on the left, both blowing to the rear of the case.
Idle temps about 32c and about 55c when gaming. ( Ryzen 5 3600 )

EsaT · 30 Jan 2021 at 13:04

Mr Bungle said:
Thanks for all your replies everyone, I'm gonna throw 1 more cooler into the mix with the other ones I've mentioned and see what you think. The Arctic Freezer 50? I think it looks very smart. How would performance be compared to the Scythe one I mentioned earlier? A post above says the Scytge would bring temps way down which is exactly what im after.

While weight of Freezer 50 look impressive, three fans and all that plastic crud make quite a lots of it:
Single Arctic P12 fan itself weights 140 grams.
So with all the extra crud it's safe to assume half+ kilogram of the weight is other than actual heatsink.
And suddenly we have less heatsink weight than in best single towers.
(though obviously airflow over fins is going to be very good)
Also with that huge size DIMM clearance is going suck.

With shape of AMD's heatspreaders being toward convex would recommend flat based heatsink for best cooling per money.
Igor's lab has done accurate heatspreader shape measurements using very high end equipment:
https://www.igorslab.de/en/cpu-heat...measures-now-at-amd-and-intel-rethink-basics/
https://www.igorslab.de/en/amd-heatspreader-as-time-changes-measure-data-radiation-and-surface/

So Intel optimized convex base heatsink has risk of "rocking" on top of CPU with only small area of good contact.
Because of manufacturing process direct touch heatpipe coolers have flat base making better fit.
Possibly because of that in one Youtube video Arctic Freezer 34 achieved nearly as good results with 5600X as quite big Scythe Fuma 2.

Though if you're willing to spend some effort and time in grinding/lapping base of the heatsink flat, best contact can also be achieved with Intel optimized coolers.

From in stock cooler Alpenfohn Brocken Eco Advanced would certainly be good for frugal 5600X.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpenfohn-brocken-eco-advanced-cpu-cooler-120-mm-hs-05j-al.html
(high temps are caused by stock cooler being sized for playing MS Word)

Brocken 3 would be then example of quite high end cooler... If your case can fit it.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpenfohn-brocken-3-cpu-cooler-140mm-hs-05a-al.html

EsaT · 30 Jan 2021 at 13:23

lee32uk said:
Have a read through this thread before deciding on a Scythe cooler:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/foru...-matching-or-beating-scythe-mugen-5.18902588/

Chance of sub optimal cooling applies to any Intel optimized convex base heatsink.
In Finnish PC forum one user just yesterday commented about curiously high temperatures he used to have with Cryorig H7 on Ryzen 2600.
(even if clocked to 3,9GHz @1,3V)
After grinding/lapping base of the cooler flat, temperature decreased from 74C to 66C with 300RPM lower max fan speed.
And that Zen+ CPU has single monolithic die under center of the heatspreader, instead of off center chiplets like in modern Ryzens...

So flat based coolers are definitely recommendable for Ryzens.
Even if high enough mounting pressure coolers deform heatspreader pressing it down over time possibly below edges in case of conve base cooler.

Igor's lab measured such change after some hours of use:

But what happens after warming up and the first hard hours of operation? The IHS deforms extremely, the solder seems to be pushed away and the shape changes from convex almost to concave! So it is easy to squeeze and proves once again that a smooth and above all very stable radiator bottom is actually the best solution.

But what you can see well in the measurements in the gallery: the IHS of the CPU curves upwards more clearly at the edges at the top and bottom. I could not reproduce this in all cases, but a test with a straight edge shows that this effect depends mainly on the cooler used. It does not occur when the flat and stable cooler bottom significantly overlaps the IHS on the sides, but usually only with circular AiO coolers, which also come with a convex Intel curvature. That, in turn, deforms such a Ryzen in a rather unpurposeful way.
https://www.igorslab.de/en/cpu-heat...asures-now-at-amd-and-intel-rethink-basics/2/