Cooler for 2700X that doesn't interfere with DIMM's

LadFromWales

LadFromWales

LadFromWales

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Hey all,

Looking to replace my stock cooler with a tower cooler. The prism performs well enough, I am just not really happy with the noise it makes under full load.

I am eyeing up the Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B which appears to get really good reviews, with it running rings around the big Noctua's.

Are there any other coolers worth consideration? I have tall RAM (8 pack 4000MHz) which makes any cooler or fans that scale over the slots a no-go!

Cheers :)
 
Which motherboard would be the question that the people that could really help you would ask.

Along with which case.
 
My ARO-M14 basically touches ram in the nearest spot, very very close call (it's the fan that actually contacts), but is clear from the ram in the 2nd and 4th slots (which is where my ram is supposed to be anyway). That's on an x370 gigabyte k7. No idea about the clearances on the x470. I also have it in a meshify c, so can confirm that the ARO fits (2-3mm clearance from the window, which should allow for spacer differences in motherboard makes and CPU height on them etc).

At a reasonable guesstimate, the aro-m14 would be OK. Almost as good as the D15, but that's with 1 fan and a quieter too. Made for am4, so no separate mounts etc.
 
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There's mine, you can see the clearance, and how close it is to the glass, but it fits.
 
Hmm there is also the Alpenfohn Brocken 3. Any thoughts on that one?
Would be nice if there were a review comparing all tower coolers that clear DIMM slots!

Was really hoping something like the Scythe Fuma would clear DIMM slots as it's a twin tower cooler.

Looks like the Thermalright is big enough that the uppermost PCI-e slot is blocked (if my board even has one!). I was looking at the Grande Macho RT before, which clears the DIMM slots but is massive and almost touches the backplate of GPU's which is a little un-nerving tbh!

In the review linked by @EsaT the Mugen 5 performs almost as well as a D15 which is impressive considering it's a 800rpm 120mm single fan cooler!

@Unseul how are you finding the ARO-M14? Does the colour look awesome through the window? Is it very audible at full tilt?

EDIT: Your pic isn't loading :(
 
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The ARO is basically a grand macho that's been setup for ryzen I believe.

My top PCI-e slot is a 1x, so not in use, but I think I coudl probably still actually get something in there to be honest, but have no reason to try.

I have the grey top one, so not really coloured. I don't really care about how the internals look, there's red from the motherboard (didn't know it would even be there). Some of it is now blocked by the cooler. I also have the white meshify, so a clear window, rather than the tinted from the black.

Compared to the stock cooler, I think I'm about 5C lower (the stock is blooming good, albeit louder and messier for airflow). However, I suspect if I start to overclock in the future, the ARO will be able to deal with that a lot better.

The biggest change I made for my temperatures was buying two phantek 140mms (there's a two pack at overclockers, very cheap). High pressure fans that overcome the foam at the front. That dropped my internal case temperatures by about 10C, which in turn obviously helped keep everything cooler.
 
I found this: https://www.gamezoom.net/artikel/Thermalright_ARO_M14_Test_Review-41355-3
Conveniently has the ARO-M14, Alpenfohn Brocken 3, and Scythe Mugen 5 all on one chart! Along with the Noctua U14S.
Seems they all fall within a degree or two of each other.

Yeah the stock cooler is too loud under full load, to the point of being a distraction when trying to watch TV on the other side of the room.
I had the Phanteks fans, two 140mm front, one 120mm back and one 120mm top...I didn't like the sound profile of them, ended up changing them for Noctua Redux's which I get on with better!
I just wish there was a way to get the fans to spin up under high GPU load! I don't think Speedfan works with modern boards, but the control in the bios is so good it'd be nice if it extended to the GPU too!
 
That site doesn't seem to really distinguish between any of the coolers though... Game extreme? I think did what appears to be a bit of a better setup, and found it very close to the d15, but slightly quieter.

My k7 came with 2 thermal sensors, I've shoved one into the GPU and it goes up and down quite well, and I can use that in the bios to setup the lower 140mm fan.
 
My board will accept probes, maybe I should order some of them too! Perhaps put one in the exhaust path.

Can you sort your pic above so I can see it? :)
I think I'll have a look at reviews of all of these coolers and try and choose from those! They appear to work as well as each other, just looks/size/price in it it seems!
 
You can get the aro for around £45 I believe, cheaper than pretty much anything else. I'll try and get a photo.
 
I've shoved the probe between the board and the heatsink. GPU gets to about 75-80C I believe, but the probe gets to about 55C, not important though, since it's a clear enough temp difference to everything else to be able to set a fan curve to it.
 
LadFromWales said:
I found this: https://www.gamezoom.net/artikel/Thermalright_ARO_M14_Test_Review-41355-3
Conveniently has the ARO-M14, Alpenfohn Brocken 3, and Scythe Mugen 5 all on one chart! Along with the Noctua U14S.
Seems they all fall within a degree or two of each other.

I just wish there was a way to get the fans to spin up under high GPU load! I don't think Speedfan works with modern boards, but the control in the bios is so good it'd be nice if it extended to the GPU too!
Click to expand...
Roughly same weight tells there's about as much "metal"/surface area.
Mugen 5 just has average dense fins instead of very loosely spaced ones, giving excellent performance for size.
Though for passive/case fan airflow based CPU cooling very loose fin spacing of Alpenfohn/Thermalright would be better...
At the expense of huge space requirements.
In this test on LGA2011 it literally blocked main PCI-e x16 slot:
https://www.hardwaremax.net/reviews/kuehler/1421-test-alpenfoehn-brocken-3?showall=&start=2

So Scythe did darn fine job in Mugen 5.

Aquaero could use also GPU temperature reported by software as base of controls.
Though simply using physical sensor to measure temperature inside case would be more smoother control.
Aquare also gives option of adding sensor to base of CPU heatsink and combining that with software reading for control of CPU heatsink fan.
And running on its own hardware it doesn't care if Windows has frozen.
This is good review of its features/control capabilities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQcNl2ZE1Lk
 
EsaT said:
Roughly same weight tells there's about as much "metal"/surface area.
Mugen 5 just has average dense fins instead of very loosely spaced ones, giving excellent performance for size.
Though for passive/case fan airflow based CPU cooling very loose fin spacing of Alpenfohn/Thermalright would be better...
At the expense of huge space requirements.
In this test on LGA2011 it literally blocked main PCI-e x16 slot:
https://www.hardwaremax.net/reviews/kuehler/1421-test-alpenfoehn-brocken-3?showall=&start=2

So Scythe did darn fine job in Mugen 5.
Click to expand...

First you say the Alpenfohn/Thermalright would be better in an airflow based case but are larger, then say Scythe did a darn fine job...! Sounds so contradictory :p Which do you prefer? :)

Unseul good to see that it doesn't block the first PCI slot on your case! I think it's based on the Macho rather than the Grande Macho, as the latter pretty much touches the GPU!
 
LadFromWales said:
First you say the Alpenfohn/Thermalright would be better in an airflow based case but are larger, then say Scythe did a darn fine job...! Sounds so contradictory :p Which do you prefer? :)
Click to expand...
Use without own fan on heatsink needs loose fin spacing and very low airflow impedance.
In that use Mugen 5's mid dense fin spacing wouldn't work well.
For fanned use it seems to be pretty good compromise for giving high performance in reasonably compact size and without need for high speed fan.
Though it's possible to attach another fan (clips included) for push-pull config.
Like PCGH Edition does with two slow 800rpm fans, without suffering that much in performance compared to single fan at 1200rpm.

Any bigger size heatsinks have fast increasing challenges in installing owrk, covering for example CPU's 8-pin power cable that would take Mugen 5.
 
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