cpu cooler looks bent

Tray said:
Temperature is few degrees higher now I have noticed as I
Have disturbed the paste I imagine when I loosened retighten the cooler again.
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Heatpipes might have twisted from their position in base.
Normal coolers sandwich/solder heatpipes between base plates, but direct touch (cost cutting measure) might just have them pressed into grooves in bottom of the base and even with solder are certainly less firmly attached:
https://www.tweaktown.com/image.php...zer-34-esports-duo-cpu-cooler-review_full.jpg
Heatpipes should be there perfectly flat to have proper contact with CPU.

And especially now after loosening any stresses could have twisted some heatpipes slightly askew.
While heatpipes are rather thin walled and made from soft copper, what ever caused that bending likely left some residual stresses.

Instead of single bump it could have been also serie of smaller bumbs bending and wiggling fin stack to that position.
Single bump should leave at least uppermost fan attached and it would need more like some shaking to detach both fans.
Or then first drop front of the case downward and then 180 degree turn.
Direction of bending toward back of the case is such that graphics card would have been secured against it by case.
Again impacts in normal position of the case would certainly try bend graphics card and PCIe slot.
 
"Thank you i will order this cooler and thermal paste now, you say temps are high thats me done with gaming until my parts arrive."

just test and if gaming stays below 75 degrees you should be ok short term until the new items arrive, but if over 80 degrees i'd hold off just to air on the side of caution.
 
EsaT and wookiee you guys have been absolutely brilliant with your in depth replies and advice, at this moment i feel a little drained but its only because i have had a very informative lesson i feel and gained a lot more knowledge than what i had from the begining
thank you both so much
 
Had a late night last night as I set up msi afterburner to show cpu temps in game as I’m curious seeing what cpu temps and gpu temps are doing.
Call of duty warzone and multi player my cpu temps stayed at 70/72 Celsius in game but while loading after dying temps spiked for less than a second to 78 Celsius.
Battle field 5 on the other hand which is a older game my temps was at 74 Celsius in all game play but while loading new maps my temps jumped up to 86 Celsius? Bf5 is a older game but uses more cpu power which is odd.
Another thing that I have noticed since day one and only just figured it out is in bf5 while the map is loading my screen has a slight very very minute flicker of light and dark it’s hardly noticeable but this only happens when my cpu is above 80 Celsius and beyond.
Bf5 is out the question while I’m running this cooler, I expect I shall receive my new cooler end of next week I hope, would it be a good idea to install the stock cooler for now the original cooler that came with the cpu?
 
if you have the original cooler that came with the cpu, then go ahead and install that, just to note though temps wont be a great deal better as the coolers AMD provide just about do the job. on the upside you'll know the cooler will make proper contact with the cpu and it should have a layer of thermal paste already applied.

regarding your gaming temps they are ok but the spikes up to 80 and over aren't really where you want to be, may be worth setting up a custom fan curve for the stock cooler and the new heatsink when it arrives, there are numerous other things that can be done to drop temps if the coolers aren't able to keep the cpu under control, but for now see how the other coolers do, if all's well perfect.

you did say earlier that you had loosened your cooler which would have disturbed the applied thermal paste, thus making temps go as high as you've said, try the AMD stock cooler and see what happens, put your mind at ease a bit and you'll get better results with a better cooler (did you opt for the 212 i said about?)

keep us updated on your progress :)

edit - the 3600 has a wraith steath cooler which is pretty bad, temps under load will be in the upper 70's so in that case it's up to you, if you set an aggressive fan profile it will do the job until your new cooler arrives.
 
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So i took out this cooler and replaced it with the stock cooler, temps are not great but they are better
Warzone loading 67/76 Celsius plays at 67 /70 Celsius parachute into world or driving max temps 78 celsius
battle field 5,loading 82 peaks for split second drops to 72 celsius game runs at 74/76 celsius max
not great temps but deff better on such a small stock cooler and the weathers been roasting today
used cindebench 20 max temps was 82 celsius 4 passes not great again but is cooler.
inspected old cooler and took the brackets off and put it on a table and the base of it wobbles a lot and on one side you can see a gap as its not level period, makes me think if this is how it was machined from factory?
even the base plate brackets one of these is bent.


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/8371/MoOu2S.png
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/7910/hWH0hg.png
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/8206/Rmtatp.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/1480/XEKwMz.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/9143/LscvtZ.jpg

The fins on this cooler are not that bad not bent like i imagined lol
base plate and that big gap and it wobbles a lot when you stand it up is not good, but is this how coolers are??
makes me think do i really want to buy another cooler in this price range now as i would much rather spend a little more and buy a descent one as my plan is in maybe a year half is buy a 3700x cpu at a good price and just plop it in this build .
looking at nzxt aio cooler as 1st gen with 5 years warranty and base plate looks to be 1 whole piece of copper rather than 4 copper pipes thats been roughly made smooth with 1 pass of a lathe machine of some sort....
be quite shadow rock 3 looks well built but it only has 1 fan i think, dark pro 4 looks descent but only 1 fan again and for extra 35 pounds why not get aio with 5 year warranty....
 
Tray said:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/7910/hWH0hg.png
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There's the problem.
Like I guessed heatpipes have twisted out of their position and aren't making much of contact with CPU.

There's no need for super expensive cooler.
Shadow Rock 3 is already more than enough for 3700X and certainly good for gaming with 12 core.
Arctic Freezer 34 is also good for 3700X, which is very frugal CPU compared to Intel's 8 cores.
 
your very right in saying that a aio would be the best option, if you plan to update to a 3700x then a water cooler will defiantly help, if you wanted to keep it simple sick to air cooling and buy a nocuta type cooler for the same money as a aio, these days air coolers and just as good as aio's and air is better if anything was to fail, as temperatures wouldn't immediately spike.

i'd say stick with a air cooler to keep things nice and simple
 
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Amazing that a twisted heat pipe has made the base plate so uneven, shocked to think these cooler pipes are just hollow copper as i thought these are solid metal, makes me want to cut this up just to see how thick the metal is.

Yes I understand I rather keep it simple and running cool and I don’t mind spending more on a quality cooler just to put my mind at ease Wookiee
I shall look for a Noctua double fan cooler as I’ve heard these are quality coolers and in black I think just to stick with the theme of this build.
 
Was on the verge of posting a recommendation on a good Noctua cooler Wookiee and this is perfect and will Look good in my mainly black theme build and quality product that will put my mind at rest.I’ll order this 1 and keep it simple.
Big thank you for the recommendation I was actually on part picker trying to find a suitable Noctua cooler for this case but only found brown beige ones ty
 
your very welcome :), as above keep us updated on your progress.

my fans are the beige and baby poo color XD ,don't look the best but for performance they cannot be beat, i only hope nocuta release black versions :)

edit - don't forget to order some thermal paste too
 
Tray said:
Amazing that a twisted heat pipe has made the base plate so uneven, shocked to think these cooler pipes are just hollow copper as i thought these are solid metal, makes me want to cut this up just to see how thick the metal is.
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This is what (in this case flattened for thin device use) heatpipe looks:
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/201197-new-fujitsu-heat-pipe-could-cool-your-next-smartphone

Solid metal is bad at conducting heat longer distances in sense making amounts of material.
Phase changes are lot better for moving heat from one place to other.

Heatpipe coolers could be really called as phase change coolers with no more dishonesty than calling coolers with pipes filled with water as "water cooler".



wookiee87 said:
chromax pure black is what you'd be wanting then, something like this

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noctua-nh-u12s-chromax-pure-black-cpu-cooler-hs-03n-nc.html

don't worry that it has one fan, noctua make some if not the best fans in the business
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Noctua makes many of the worst overpriced mediocre fans with most marketing BS.
NF-F12 bundled with that NH-U12S is completely mediocre and that's putting it gently.
Because of marketing BS design noise profile is rough and restless with frequency spikes in it at all speeds.
And motor vibrates like internal combustion engine with broken balancing.
At least predecessor NH-U12P's NF-P12 was only crap in that horrible vibration with noise profile being mostly good.
(marketing notches causing some distant airplane noise at some speeds)

And here's one user's recordings of NF-A14 PWM making airplane like noise at certain speed from its motor:
https://streamable.com/0tc4qu
https://streamable.com/q5rono
He was literally going through fans one by one to find, if it was some interaction between fans, or what in PC was causing that noise.
To crown it answer he got from Noctua's support when asking about noise was basically that you should avoid those RPMs!
Guess that means it's common "feature" of them just like that vibrating roller motor of 12cm models.


As for heatsink itself BeQuiet's Shadow Rock 3 is fully same level cooler for over £20 less.
And Scythe Mugen 5 is step beefier cooler for same amount less.
Though for best fit for especially chipset design Ryzens likely needs lapping of base because of amount of convexity designed for Intels with often concave heatspreader.
 
EsaT said:
Noctua makes many of the worst overpriced mediocre fans with most marketing BS.
NF-F12 bundled with that NH-U12S is completely mediocre and that's putting it gently.
Because of marketing BS design noise profile is rough and restless with frequency spikes in it at all speeds.
And motor vibrates like internal combustion engine with broken balancing.
At least predecessor NH-U12P's NF-P12 was only crap in that horrible vibration with noise profile being mostly good.
(marketing notches causing some distant airplane noise at some speeds)

And here's one user's recordings of NF-A14 PWM making airplane like noise at certain speed from its motor:
https://streamable.com/0tc4qu
https://streamable.com/q5rono
He was literally going through fans one by one to find, if it was some interaction between fans, or what in PC was causing that noise.
To crown it answer he got from Noctua's support when asking about noise was basically that you should avoid those RPMs!
Guess that means it's common "feature" of them just like that vibrating roller motor of 12cm models.


As for heatsink itself BeQuiet's Shadow Rock 3 is fully same level cooler for over £20 less.
And Scythe Mugen 5 is step beefier cooler for same amount less.
Though for best fit for especially chipset design Ryzens likely needs lapping of base because of amount of convexity designed for Intels with often concave heatspreader.
Click to expand...


i still stand by Noctua they are a quality company with some truly amazing products, my only complaint is the nf-12*25 fans why oh why in the hell didn't they do them in black, instead they are beige and brown which is a real shame, as above i really hope they change their minds and release black versions.

i choose the noctua cooler as its 158mm tall, correct me if I'm wrong but don't most atx cases have clearance of around 165ish mm, and its black, your choices have silver heatsinks which the op isn't looking for, they wanted something that would match the rest of their build

i understand that most 3rd gen ryzens have a convex ihs but the pressure of the cooler combined with a good quality application of thermal paste will negate that issue, if your not familiar with lapping a cpu i wouldn't recommend at all doing such a thing, it all very well following guides but if you go too far your screwed.

i was only trying to keep things as simple as possible, the op mentioned a good quality aio option but these days a good quality air cooler can almost match a aio, and we all know a air cooler is far the most safer option of the two IF your new to watercooling
 
Amazing that you can just hold 1 of these copper cooler pipes in your hand and with your own body heat it will cut through ice!
It’s only a copper pipe with added water and sealed , how basic it that.
So from my understanding copper draws heat from cpu the water heats up and rises to the fins of the cooler and the fans cools the fins and the water cools down lowers and process starts all over again again and again, how simple but so affective is that.

Arctic freezer emailed my friend saying they will send another cooler out as this one is under warranty and is damaged as we both 1st thought that the cooler was faulty from the very beginning
But the cooler is being sent to my mate who lives in Belgium and for him to send to me it will cost £15 so we agreed that he sells it as that will help pay for my gpu that he brought out of his own money.
He know wants to sell me his aio cooler Corsair I think with all rgb fans fo, it would look descent in my build he wants £70 as its a year old and has 4 years warranty remaining but tbh it is best to keep my build simple and efficient as possible so i refused the offer..
The coolers recommended look descent I don’t mind having a beefy cooler on show as it reminds me of a old fashioned carburetor on top of a engine lol
With mostly black but white rgb on my led lights and msi mystic making my gpu logo white and white rgb Ballistix ram I think a plain black cooler would match it with out being 2 out there if you know what I mean.
Any more recommendations on a cooler that would suit NZXT 400i is most welcome lol
Great informative replies you guys have been a big help ty
 
depends which corsair aio your friend is offering, find out and if it's a fairly recent model if so snap his hand and take it, as if you upgrade to a 3700x the aio will help out no end, find out which model it is and have a look online at reviews and make a choice thats best for you
 
Tray said:
It’s a Corsair h100 pro for £75.
Ok I spend the day reading up
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I wouldn't get AIO/CLC. Most are CLC. CLCs are the sub-group of AIOs that have no threaded fittings, not fill port, no provision for servicing or replacing any parts that go bad except fan. They generally cost more, definitely will not last as long and often make more noise than a decent air cooler. As long a case airflow is setup decently a now cost air cooler will more than do the job for you.

Your Nzxt 400i has 164mm cpu clearance, enough for many very good cooler to fit. Stock case fans are also decent fans. I would get something like Alpenfohn Brocken Evo for £29.99 would work fine.
 
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As I was making this post my friend got in contact with the seller and sent them photo of the cooler and now they are sending out a warranty cooler in replacement which I think is really good customer service by them as at the time we both (thought) the cooler was faulty from the beginning.
Only added cost will be £15 postage from Belgium to uk and I’m
Hoping to receive it next week.
Air coolers the way to go I was offered aio cheap but why bother when a descent air cooler will do the same job..
 
Decent air cooler will last longer than most users will ever us them. I still have one of the first Thermalright heatpipe coolers (IFX-14 w/ IFX-10 back of CPU cooler) on an old I7-920 still running strong. I think I got them in like 2007-08.
 
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