Cooler for 9800x3d

acs

acs

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Need advice on a good cpu cooler for the 9800x3d. Bought the Antec Flux Pro case so I think I have a lot of room at the top for the radiator.

Needs to be black and no RGB on the fans. Seen reviews on Twitter and YouTube that the Lian Li Galahad II Trinity performance is one of the best performing coolers but not sure if there are any more cost effective options or it’s totally worth it

Any help much appreciated.
 
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Pros and cons for each type really. I have air cooling but watched a few videos. Never used WC before but what I gather..

AIO Pros
Lower tempetures, but really best on very hot CPU's in the first place ie Intels. No point water cooling a 65W CPU for example as good air will be more than capable
Helps with case ventilation as well
Frees up space around CPU so clearence on tall memory modules, more space to fit/remove top NVME and GPU
Has dropped in price a lot ie £100 for triple 420 is a bargain

Cons
If it leaks (rare, but slightly possible) will trash motherboard, GPU and PSU.
Pump can be noisy ie not silent, if it fails CPU will fry as water isn't being moved around.
Need a case suitable for radiator fitting and correct placement ie rad at bottom is worst
Can have a slimmer case as CPU block isn't high (but rad's are still wide though)
VRM fan can be noisy, and non standard fan size type (would like standard 60mm/80mm fan ontop)
No alarms if pump dies
Finite lifespan in AIO, as the coolant evaporates through pipework over time decreasing the amount of liquid
Need to keep rad fins clear of dust, can damage fins etc
Rad can be very big
A single 120mm rad will be no better than decent air cooling.
Performance will degrade over time (years) things like sludge, growth in tubes etc. Ideally want a system you can top up, flush out and change liquid. You can't do that with Artic as they're disposable items after 10 years or so (which is still great value for money)

Air cooling
pros
Affordable, and if your CPU is mediu TDP output, air cooling will be sufficient
Can be quiet if choosing right fans
Can run without fan, as case fans right next to it might be enough for cooling
Basically once fitted there is no maintence apart from checking the CPU fan still works, clearing dust from fins etc

cons
Large and heavy, blocks GPU and NVME slot, fan gets in the way of memory
Makes cable routing a bit more tricky and working in the case
If you're trasporting PC, I'd probably remove HSF in case of damage, ie with some 1KG that's a lot of mass.
The thing is my room gets very dusty so I’m not sure but I wasn’t aware of if an aio fails then the cpu will get fried, is that a likely thing to happen
 
pump failure isn't common, but there is a slim chance. I don't know what the failure rate

Unless you notice it high CPU temps you could be using it with it no longer working. Unless you run coretemp often etc. I've emailed artic to include a buzzer in case of pump failure, that extra feature would be useful.
Your PC dust filters will reduce the amount of dust, so it's probably the same- just that the AIO fins are tighter packed so dust more likely to clog it up. A clean every six months should be fine.

Air cooling is good if you just fit it, leave it and never have to worry about, zero maintence. But WC does offer better temps quick search for that CPU . probably more required for the very hottest Intel i9 etc.

"
My 9800x3d with PBO overclock hits about 83-84 degrees after ~12 minutes of Cinebench Multi Core. I use a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 dual tower/dual fan cooler. I previously had a Deepcool single tower/dual fan cooler and with that one the 9800x3d hit 93 degrees under max load, which was too close to the thermal limit for my liking. So I upgraded.

During gaming sessions I max out at around 61 degrees (72 degrees with the previous Deepcool cooler), but the CPU load is usually well under 40% in the games I play. Idle temps are mid 40s.

All the above is with a room temperature of about 22 degrees."
In the case of pump failure and it were to go all over your PC, how would that fair with warranty etc and all your other parts? Will the whole PC be knackered and have to buy a new one or do artic replace everything for you?

And for air cooled would you put 3 fans at the top since you won’t have a massive radiator at the top for extra fans?
 
If your CPU hits a dangerous temperature your PC will automatically shut down.

I don't know why your room is particularly dusty, however that will result in similar issues with both AIO and traditional air cooling. An AIO is not passive, it still requires fans, warm water isn't cooling a hot CPU. You're going to need to clean the PC frequently regardless given what you said.

The Arctic Freezer 3 is a fantastic AIO if you go that route, however be aware that it uses slightly thicker radiators than traditional AIO's. In terms of cooling that's a positive, but it also means it might not actually fit into your case, so you'll need to research that.

Personally I'd go for air cooling unless you're wanting the aesthetics of an AIO, the 9800X3D, especially if you only really game, is not going to require more than that.
Yeah I’m not sure why my room gets dusty either but it’s very annoying. My siblings rooms all seem to be fine but for some reason the skirting boards and floor desk just get ridiculously dusty.

a few in here have let me know with my particular case that the aio artic would fit but iam leaning towards just air cooling giving me a lot more piece of my mind and yeah I’m only going to be gaming on it and just a bit of work with VMs so nothing major.

As for aesthetics I really don’t care what my PC looks like as long as it runs fine
 
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