150mm maximum Tall Air Cooler recs?

DWD1961

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 30, 2019
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I'm in the process of putting my new rig together. I need a Cooler for the AMD R5 3600 CPU - I will not use that shitty stealth cooler AMD ships with it. My case has a maximum limit of 150mm for the cooler.

I can't seem to find a decent looking cooler for a decent price that actully cools decently - lol.

Any ideas?

(I don't want to use the AMD Prism cooler either -too noisey)
 
I'm in the process of putting my new rig together. I need a Cooler for the AMD R5 3600 CPU - I will not use that shitty stealth cooler AMD ships with it. My case has a maximum limit of 150mm for the cooler.

I can't seem to find a decent looking cooler for a decent price that actully cools decently - lol.

Any ideas?

(I don't want to use the AMD Prism cooler either -too noisey)
I assume your case has 150mm CPU clearance, and most new AMD motherboards have plenty of clearance between x16 PCIe sockets and CPU socket, but still what mohterboard and RAM you are using impacts what coolers will fit.
 
Noctua U9S or C14S
I did consider that Fugly Fugger, but at 75 USD it's just not going to happen. I can go liquid for the same price:
I assume your case has 150mm CPU clearance, and most new AMD motherboards have plenty of clearance between x16 PCIe sockets and CPU socket, but still what mohterboard and RAM you are using impacts what coolers will fit.

He thanks for that.
CASE:
Corsair Crystal 280x mATX/ITX
Specs:
Case Dimensions
398mm x 276mm x 351mm
Maximum GPU Length
300mm
Maximum PSU Length
180mm
Maximum CPU Cooler Height
150mm

RAM:
Gskill Trident Z RGB
Hieght: 44 mm / 1.73 inch

I'd like to us a downdraft cooler if possible. But if I found a decentlooking and functioning tower that can actually cool, I'd be ok wth that too. Price is an object.

PS: The Scythe Big Shuriken 3 seems to be a poor performer.
 
Thermalright TRUE Spirit 120M Rev.B would be good if you can find on:
http://thermalright.com/product/true-spirit-120-rev-b/

Thermalright Macho 120 SBM
http://thermalright.com/product/macho120-sbm/

Silver Arrow 130
http://thermalright.com/product/silver-arrow-130/

I'm trying to find tower coolers 150mm tall or less that use 120mm fansWhere on Earth are you located? Give us a few links to sites you can buy from or maybe your country might be helpful.
That True Spirit is way to tall. I need it 150mm or less!
 
That True Spirit is way to tall. I need it 150mm or less!
TRUE Spirit 120M Rev.B is 145mm tall!
By my kind of math and measuring makes that 5mm shorter than 150mm!

TS-120M-BW-Rev.B-Model-1.jpg
 
Not on Amazon or any other main stream site, and I'm not giving my credit card information to Ajeet's Computers in India.
LOL Fair enough.
Can you post a link or two of websites you can buy from? That way I might find coolers you can get.

TRUE Spirit 120i is 150.15mm tall. 0.15mm is 0.0059inch .. a piece of paper is 0.0039 inches thick.

Many 90mm fanned coolers are 150mm or less, but 120mm usually have more heatpipes and 120mm fan are generally quieter than 90mm.

Edit:
Alpenfohn Brocken ECO is 150mm tall (150x126x88.5mm (HxWxD)
 
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The Cryorig H7 was really the go to for this criteria of a short budget/value 120mm tower with no clearance issues (due to the heavy offset design), but it's price has shot up in the last year or so along with spotty availability.

Nothing has really come onto the market to replace it. All the other budget 120mm towers are closer to 160mm (eg. Coolermaster 212 variants, Deepcool Gammaxx, etc).
 
Indeed, Cryorig H7was a very good, short cooler, but like you say most places they are now hard to find and often quite expensive. H7 Quad Lumi is even better with an additional heatpipe, so 4x 6mm heatpipes while H7 has 3x 6mm heatpipes .. both use 'U' shaped heatpipes with bottom of 'U" in cooler base .. which perform much better than single end heatpipe design used in top down coolers.

Alpenfohn Atlas is a little beast twin tower with 5x 6mm heatpipes using 90mm fans, but not likely to find one as they have been discontinued. :(
 
The Cryorig H7 was really the go to for this criteria of a short budget/value 120mm tower with no clearance issues (due to the heavy offset design), but it's price has shot up in the last year or so along with spotty availability.

Nothing has really come onto the market to replace it. All the other budget 120mm towers are closer to 160mm (eg. Coolermaster 212 variants, Deepcool Gammaxx, etc).
Yeah tell me about it! I'd jsut like to get a real 10-15% better cooling than the stock cooler wiith less noise, and I'd be golden.
 
LOL Fair enough.
Can you post a link or two of websites you can buy from? That way I might find coolers you can get.

TRUE Spirit 120i is 150.15mm tall. 0.15mm is 0.0059inch .. a piece of paper is 0.0039 inches thick.

Many 90mm fanned coolers are 150mm or less, but 120mm usually have more heatpipes and 120mm fan are generally quieter than 90mm.

Edit:
Alpenfohn Brocken ECO is 150mm tall (150x126x88.5mm (HxWxD)
Amazon. I'm looking at 92mm fan coolers now. Found aCryorg that looks pretty good, although it's only available from a 3rd party on Amazon. I don't like doing that because of returns, etc. Sold or shipped by Amazon is instant returns no questions asked. https://www.amazon.com/CRYORIG-Cool...177GTUE6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8#
 
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Amazon. I'm looking at 92mm fan coolers now. Found aCryorg that looks pretty good, although it's only available from a 3rd party on Amazon. I don't like doing that because of returns, etc. Sold or shipped by Amazon is instant returns no questions asked. https://www.amazon.com/CRYORIG-Cool...177GTUE6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8#

Be careful with 92mm fan coolers -- if the AMD Prism is too noisy for you then a 92mm fan cooler is likely to be too noisy as well.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Be careful with 92mm fan coolers -- if the AMD Prism is too noisy for you then a 92mm fan cooler is likely to be too noisy as well.
If I'm calculating correctly, I can use a lower RPM really quite fan with a mini 92mm tower, cool better than the Prism with a lot less noise. Noctua makes a very quite fan that is ultra cooling efficient. beQuite offers a very quite 92mm fan, but with less CFM and pressure.

Noctua
NF-A9 92x25mm
Rotational speed (+/- 10%)
2000 RPM
Min. rotational speed 400 RPM
Airflow 78,9 m³/h
Acoustical noise 22,8 dB(A)
Static pressure 2,28 mm H₂O

Now that's some serious performance for a 92mm fan, and only 23DB wide open
 
If I'm calculating correctly, I can use a lower RPM really quite fan with a mini 92mm tower, cool better than the Prism with a lot less noise. Noctua makes a very quite fan that is ultra cooling efficient. beQuite offers a very quite 92mm fan, but with less CFM and pressure.

Noctua
NF-A9 92x25mm
Rotational speed (+/- 10%)
2000 RPM
Min. rotational speed 400 RPM
Airflow 78,9 m³/h
Acoustical noise 22,8 dB(A)
Static pressure 2,28 mm H₂O

Now that's some serious performance for a 92mm fan, and only 23DB wide open
thats 47cfm, not bad and quiet.
 
Sorry, I should have said Amazon has Cryorig H7 for $38.73
https://www.amazon.com/Cryorig-CR-H...1_1?keywords=cryorig+h7&qid=1582931820&sr=8-1

So if you are in USA you can get one for good price. ;)
That's 63.00 USD. Fat chance. Cryorig can cry. Plus it's just your basic tower cooler that's been around for a couple decades. Noctua needs to step up its aesthetic game too. It's coolers are fugly as hell. The exceptions are both of these:

Noctua NH-L9a

71%2BKhStFPZL._SL1500_.jpg

Noctua NH-L9x65
This one doesn't come in black:
81OzpWhMNkL._SL1500_.jpg

Those are nice, tight looking coolers. Here're the pros and cons with both of them.

Noctua NH-L9a
+Comes with longer fan screws to use their 92x25mm fan, which puts out 56 m³/h vs 79 m³/h. I don't know if that would increase cooling efficiency or not. I can't find any tests. If it could improve cooling by 10C at 100% CPU load, I'd be done with my search.
+Comes with screws, instead of clips, to mount either the slim or regular fan.
+Looks great, fits all systems as it confirms to AMD's stay out guidelines.
-Doesn't cool any better than the stock AMD stealth cooler using the slim fan. (Although, it is much quieter.)
-No tests with fat fan.
-No fat fan option, so you have to buy it, increasing cooler price into high end price level.

Noctua NH-L9x65
+Looks good
+Marginal cooling, but cools better than the AMD Spire by 4C, but worse than the AMD MAX/Prism by 2C. Test
+Much quieter than the AMD stock coolers (30dbs at 20CMs) vs 36 for the AMD MAX (every 3 decibels increases sound x2)
-No black version of the cooler. (Color of the regular Noc fans reminds me of my dentist office.)
-No fan screw mounting, relying on clips.
-Supposedly no alternate clips for the fatter fan, but you can get the 92mm black version of the fan in either 14 or 25mm version. I'm pretty sure teh fatter fan would increase cooling efficiency. But if they do not offer the clips to use the fatter fan, then it's zip tie time.
-No fat fan option, so you have to buy it, increasing cooler price into high end price level.

If I could find some fat fan specs on the Noctua NH-L9a, and it could do 5-10C better than the stock fan, I would go with that option. I'd probably go with teh L9x65 if I could find more cooling information on that, too. I'd just buy the black fan and be done with it.

--Another problem: Availability of the black 92mm fan in 92x25mm !!!
 
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That's 63.00 USD. Fat chance. Cryorig can cry. Plus it's just your basic tower cooler that's been around for a couple decades.
..................
Get your head out of your pocket!
Amazon.com is USA Amazon website and the $38.73 is in US dollars. If you are an Amazon member you get free shipping to USA addresses, so not even an addtional shipping cost to add on.

As for "being around a couple of decades" it make no difference. The very first top tier twin tower (and single tower) coolers like Thermalright IFX-14 / Cogage Arrow / Silver Arrow, NH-D14, Ultra 120, etc. cool as well as any new top tier coolers do. In fact the original Silver Arrow and NH-D14 are still 2 of the very best coolers ever made.

Granted, that $38.73 is a used cooler. But reality is as long as all the mounting hardware is included the only thing missing will maybe be the TIM packet it comes with .. and if you are like 99.999% of forum members you have TIM.

I've explained by tower coolers perform better than top down and given you good performance options. I've lead the proverbial horse to water, but I can't make it drink. What you do is up to you.
 
Get your head out of your pocket!
Amazon.com is USA Amazon website and the $38.73 is in US dollars. If you are an Amazon member you get free shipping to USA addresses, so not even an addtional shipping cost to add on.

As for "being around a couple of decades" it make no difference. The very first top tier twin tower (and single tower) coolers like Thermalright IFX-14 / Cogage Arrow / Silver Arrow, NH-D14, Ultra 120, etc. cool as well as any new top tier coolers do. In fact the original Silver Arrow and NH-D14 are still 2 of the very best coolers ever made.

Granted, that $38.73 is a used cooler. But reality is as long as all the mounting hardware is included the only thing missing will maybe be the TIM packet it comes with .. and if you are like 99.999% of forum members you have TIM.

I've explained by tower coolers perform better than top down and given you good performance options. I've lead the proverbial horse to water, but I can't make it drink. What you do is up to you.
I appreciate your help. If you think top down can't cool as well as tower, you should look up the NOCTUA NH-C14S. Sure, generally you are correct, but there are top down coolers that would work very well for my system, such as the Noctua NH-L12S.

I'm not buying used anything for something as critical as a CPU cooler. I have no way of knowing what the previous owner did wiith the cooler.

I'm looking at several right now that will probably work well, but as stated above, there are complications. The Noctua NH-L12S would be perfect, except I want to change the fan to a 120x25mm, but it doesn't look like Noc supplies a mounting bracket/clip for the 25mm fan. If this build were just a shit and get build, I'd just use nyties and strap fans that I want on that way. But it's not that type of build.

I'm also looking at this:
CRYORIG M9a Mini Tower (92mm)
Great reviews and cools almost as well as a 120mm unit. $29.00, but only from a 3rd party.
51IQuHAyElL.jpg

The only thing I do not like about non Noctua fans is mounting systems. Some ofthem are total bullshit, whereas teh Noc system is the best out there (Secure Firm). Beleive me, I've had my share of shitty fan mounting systems and I don't care to repeat them.

I may go with the below setup as soon as I hear back from Noc about clearance. I think it will work fine, but might cover up my RAM. I'll customize the fan mounting if I have to to run my choice of fan on it.

Noctua NH-L12S, Premium Low Profile CPU Cooler with Quiet 120mm PWM Fan
81OVcJxFTXL._SL1500_.jpg
 
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Are you OK with the Snowman T4 from AliExpress (or other Chinese importers)?
Nope, and the fan on that cheap ass knock off wobbles. Check Youtube reviews. I'm into quality, especially tight tolerances when mounting mechanical devices to expensive CPUs/computer equipment. I have no idea how no name knock off brands seal their cooling pipes, etc. Cryorig but especially Noctua ahve a reputation for quality. Yeah, Noctua fans and the 2001 silver air coolers are by today's standards, ugly, but they are machined with great precision. I'll be putting a nicer looking and quality 25mm fan on top of the cooler so it won't show too much. I wish they had a black or white version, and same for the Cryorig too. It is what it is.
 
Well you are looking for a unicorn.
Heatsinks can be:
  • Cheap
  • Quiet
  • Quality
Pick 2
It was going to be a 92mm tower, most likely, but the 92mm leaves a lot to be desired. I bought my first AIO unit and started installing it today. Any suggestions are welcome, i.e., installation tips, placement, etc.

Enermax Aquafuson 240:
aquafusion_240_white_gallery_02.jpg
I really wish Noctua would make an AIO.
 
Why? It would just be either an Asetek or CoolIT rebadged cooler like everyone else. You can already get those and put Noctua fans on it.
Good point! Noc fans are really the best. When you actually hold one of them, even the REDUX models, and compare them to other fans, they are jsut so much better, bigger hubs, spins more freely, fan is dead center true when spun- very high quality and tolerances.

However, the radiator, hoses, wiring could be purely Noctua - not that Noctua has any really nice sleeving.
 
Best to keep radiator above pump/waterblock. This allows air to collect in radiator instead of in pump where it will eventually damage pump. Also a good idea to keep an air cooler on the shelf because 99.999% of the time when CLCs fail it's the pump so system has no cooler, so can't be used until cooler is replaced.
 
Best to keep radiator above pump/waterblock. This allows air to collect in radiator instead of in pump where it will eventually damage pump. Also a good idea to keep an air cooler on the shelf because 99.999% of the time when CLCs fail it's the pump so system has no cooler, so can't be used until cooler is replaced.
Good point and I did mount it in the top. Everything is hooked up. I jsut have to turn on the system and see what happens.
 
I suggest running CLC before powering up system. That way you are sure there are no coolant leaks. ;)
They don't often leak, but sometimes they do. ;)
 
I suggest running CLC before powering up system. That way you are sure there are no coolant leaks. ;)
They don't often leak, but sometimes they do. ;)
Oh Gawd I didn't event think about that. Very good advice! I already turned it on and ran it with the rad mounted. No leaks, thankfully.
 
Oh Gawd I didn't event think about that. Very good advice! I already turned it on and ran it with the rad mounted. No leaks, thankfully.
We all go through learning processes. ;) I learned about leaks years ago when water cooling was done with hand made waterblocks, pond or aquarium pumps and compact car or heater radiators. We had lots of leak problems back then. :p
 
We all go through learning processes. ;) I learned about leaks years ago when water cooling was done with hand made waterblocks, pond or aquarium pumps and compact car or heater radiators. We had lots of leak problems back then. :p

It's nice. On the Noctua L`12S, my BIOS idle temp was 36C. It's 30 now. I like it. I'd like to try a custom water loop next. I'm very familiar with compression fittings and water dynamics. (I ran a custom cannibus hydroponics grow system in Northern California for years. :) ). Except, back then, I was using a shollow well jet pump on 120VAC at 40 PSI, so yeah, if you had a water leak, it filled the room up before you could ever catch it. I had that happen once back in my early stages, but not from a leak. It was a miscalculation about water flowing into a sump, the irrigation total water flow, and the extraction pumps ability to keep up with inflow. It looked fine after 5-10 minutes, but what I miscalculated was that running wide open for 30 minutes, the incoming water very gradually exceeded the pump's flow. So, yeah, woke up one morning to water everywhere, 20 gallons of it. Never made that mistake again - lol (Two pumps from then on, either one capable of keeping up witih outflow, and a back up just in case one failed.) Ahh, I digress. I mentioned that because you were talking about before water cooling, and back then, there was no "for pot growing equipment" and we made our own light fixtures out of the internals of 400 watt street lights and custom timers we wired together to work on small time increments conducive to hydroponic needs, while finding ways to keep whining squrrel cage fans quite by putting them in what we called "muffler boxes" we custom made to dampen fan noise.
 
Does it matter? I assume your CLC is doing fine for now. They usually last a few years. Beyond that is a crap shoot. A few last 5-6 years. Some less than a year.

Thermalright's new Assassin Kin 120 Mini is 120x71x135mm (WxDxH) with 5x 6mm heatpipes so should cool quite will. Problem is it's new only showing in Asia. It's not even listed on their English and German websites yet. I've only seen info about them on Asian sites.
 
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Does it matter? I assume your CLC is doing fine for now. They usually last a few years. Beyond that is a crap shoot. A few last 5-6 years. Some less than a year.

Thermalright's new Assassin Kin 120 Mini is 120x71x135mm (WxDxH) with 5x 6mm heatpipes so should cool quite will. Problem is it's new only showing in Asia. It's not even listed on their English and German websites yet. I've only seen info about them on Asian sites.
Grrrr. I really wanted to go air cooling, but the CLC has been interesting. I'll keep an eye on that Thermalright. Thanks for the heads up.
 
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