best air cooler for Ryzen 9 5950x

chiu

Limp Gawd
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Sep 14, 2011
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Can someone suggest an air cooler/heatsink for Ryzen 9 5950x CPU? Thanks.


Chiu
 
Asking for cooler suggestions without saying what case, motherboard, and RAM will be used is kinda like asking what tire to get without saying what you want to use it on. ;)
Anything from simple 4x 6mm heatpipe cooler using 120mm fan up to biggest will do the job as long as case airflow is supplying cooler with cool air. There are some very good coolers in the $50 range, like TRUE Spirit 140 Power (quite big) and Mugen 5 Rev. B (kinda smallish).
 
^ noctua also has a chromax black version of the DH-15 if you hate the shitty brown/beige.
A secondary option would be the BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 its a negligible difference in cooling and noise, but is slightly cheaper and a lesser warranty (3y vs 6y).

Keep in mind both of these are behemoth coolers and need alot of physical case space (check if you have enough ram heigh clearances for these too).
 
NH-D15 is one of the best but there are many that cool as well at similar noise levels costing less. Good example is Thermalright TRUE Spirit 140 Power cooling a few degrees better and costing about $50 while D15 costs about $90. Le Grand Macho RT, all 8x 6mm heatpipe Silver Arrow varients, Frost Spirit 140, Cryorig R1, Phanteks PH-TC14PE, Scythe Fuma 2, and the list goes on and on of cooler that cool as well and as quiet as D15.

but without knowing case, motherboard and RAM being used we don't know what will fit.
 
Silver arrow ib-e extreme is in stock at frozencpu (I know). They shipped me one pretty quickly. $86 shipped. It's overkill though.

Regarding fan clearance, in normal config forward and rear fans could not clear my VRM heat sink/shroud nor my ram. You can offset the fans higher to remedy, same with the Noctua.
 
Can't you set Silver Arrow fans higher too? I know I can on mine, but it's older with older style fan clips.
 
NH-D15 is one of the best but there are many that cool as well at similar noise levels costing less. Good example is Thermalright TRUE Spirit 140 Power cooling a few degrees better and costing about $50 while D15 costs about $90. Le Grand Macho RT, all 8x 6mm heatpipe Silver Arrow varients, Frost Spirit 140, Cryorig R1, Phanteks PH-TC14PE, Scythe Fuma 2, and the list goes on and on of cooler that cool as well and as quiet as D15.

but without knowing case, motherboard and RAM being used we don't know what will fit.
I like buying air coolers that don't fit most cases.
It's the only reason I kept my Fractal case.

If you play games that spike the hell out of your temps like COD, then an aio or open loop is a good idea.
 
I like buying air coolers that don't fit most cases.
It's the only reason I kept my Fractal case.

If you play games that spike the hell out of your temps like COD, then an aio or open loop is a good idea.
So what do you like for an AIO water cooler? I used to think I would build my own loop, but (1) too expensive, and (2) I don't want the headache of rebuilding the loop every year, and (3) I'm concerned about the extra weight of a custom loop in a heavy metal case that already holds 4 3 1/2" HDDs. I'm not exactly the youngest guy in this forum and I have to be careful about my back.
 
So what do you like for an AIO water cooler? I used to think I would build my own loop, but (1) too expensive, and (2) I don't want the headache of rebuilding the loop every year, and (3) I'm concerned about the extra weight of a custom loop in a heavy metal case that already holds 4 3 1/2" HDDs. I'm not exactly the youngest guy in this forum and I have to be careful about my back.

I'd go for an arctic 360, but again it depends on your case.
280 should be fine, they were testing with a 3950x and clocking.

The issue is less your overall temps and more the time to soak.
I lose clocks with my U14s when it hits its peak temp.
If I added a 2nd fan then I get the 3c my cooler gives up to the DH15 stock.
But with 2 fans ranked, intake fans cranked, my air cooled setup isn't going to drop temps anywhere near the short soak time of my U14s.
You might get a few seconds more with a dh15 given its a dual tower, but an aio will smoke it in this respect.

If maxed out fan noise bugs you, Silent Wings 3 fans would be my choice.

I'm fighting bad gaming builds for the most part with cpu cooling.
It's not like I'm playing tournies for prize $, or making a living gaming as an entertainment stream, so it's ok if I don't maintain peak performance

Professional workloads like monolithic code builds or creative project rendering I'd want to maintain my clocks as best I could.
 
I don't care if it takes my cooling system 2 minutes or 2 hours to 'soak' up all the heat it can hold. I only care about how well heat from CPU is removed from IHS and dissipated into airflow. While custom loops cool way better than AIO/CLC an air coolers, AIO/CLCs are only marginally better. And that margin goes away as AIO/CLC looses coolant and pumps wear resulting in less coolant flow. Air coolers last for more years than we will ever use one, but AIO/CLC only last as long as pumps are moving coolant at their maximum flow rate. Running pumps wear, and as they wear they move less coolant and coolant evaporates out of system, especially when cooling high heat CPUs. So after a year maybe two years on a high heat CPU their cooling ability is dramatically lower than when new. While we have lots of reviews/testing of new AIO/CLCs. I have seen none over their lifespan. I keep saying AIO/CLC because while all CLCs are AIOs, not all AIOs are CLC. CLCs are factory sealed units with no provision to top up coolant or change components while AIOs that are not CLCs have threaded fittings, copper radiators, fill port and higher flow rate pumps.

AIOs (most are really CLCs) are only marginally better than top tier air cooling when new. But in a couple years are not better, often not near as good as top tier air cooling.

So we have top tier air cooling moving heat very efficiently from CPU IHS to airflow, AiOs about the same and custom loops being the best.
 
I bought the Noctua NH-D15 for it's mounting hardware. Noctua's customer service of sending new mounting hardware quickly to it's customers.
 
I tried the BeQuiet Dark Rock TF on an AMD 3950x and would say a big NO (even at stock speed). Tried the BeQuiet 280 AIO and it worked great even at 4.3 All core.
 
I tried the BeQuiet Dark Rock TF on an AMD 3950x and would say a big NO (even at stock speed). Tried the BeQuiet 280 AIO and it worked great even at 4.3 All core.
My guess is you either had a bad mount or didn't setup case airflow to supply cooler with cool air. Also Dark Rock TF being a flat cooler means it dumps it's own heated air in all directions making it very hard (if not impossible) to be supplied with room ambient air unless case has side vent same size as cooler with duct to cooler.

Many users don't seem to realize air coolers intake air temp to component temp is almost 1:1 ratio. If air entering cooler is 10c hotter than room air than component will also run 10c hotter (at same load & fan speed). Air entering coolers is usually a couple degrees warmer than room in a case with good airflow, but many stock cases can have 15c, 20c, even 30c higher temp air entering cooler than room when CPU and GPU are working hard, If 22c warmer than room and 85c CPU temp, good case airflow lowering it to 2c means CPU will then be 65c instead of 85c.
 
I notice
My guess is you either had a bad mount or didn't setup case airflow to supply cooler with cool air. Also Dark Rock TF being a flat cooler means it dumps it's own heated air in all directions making it very hard (if not impossible) to be supplied with room ambient air unless case has side vent same size as cooler with duct to cooler.

Many users don't seem to realize air coolers intake air temp to component temp is almost 1:1 ratio. If air entering cooler is 10c hotter than room air than component will also run 10c hotter (at same load & fan speed). Air entering coolers is usually a couple degrees warmer than room in a case with good airflow, but many stock cases can have 15c, 20c, even 30c higher temp air entering cooler than room when CPU and GPU are working hard, If 22c warmer than room and 85c CPU temp, good case airflow lowering it to 2c means CPU will then be 65c instead of 85c.
I notice, but again my personal cooling needs are driven by games that'll thermal shutdown my pc on start or I'll get 100fps instead of 120fps on a day that's over 100f ambient.

There was also that studio where I had racks of white box Octane render servers parked in a bathroom bc the fans were cranking at full tilt. Luckily I haven't don't that in a long time.

My U14s and mount kit took a couple months to get here, so ymmw.
 
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I teste NH-U14S years ago and found unable to keep up with top tier coolers like D14, R1, PH-TC14PE, TRUE Spirit 140 Power, Le Grand Macho, Silver Arrow IB-E to name a few.
 
AIOs (most are really CLCs) are only marginally better than top tier air cooling when new. But in a couple years are not better, often not near as good as top tier air cooling.
Not true. In any case since the op is asking for air then i won't comment anything else
 
So what do you like for an AIO water cooler? I used to think I would build my own loop, but (1) too expensive, and (2) I don't want the headache of rebuilding the loop every year, and (3) I'm concerned about the extra weight of a custom loop in a heavy metal case that already holds 4 3 1/2" HDDs. I'm not exactly the youngest guy in this forum and I have to be careful about my back.

It's all about case size and what will fit.

The Arctic Liquid Freezer II is the latest fad because the radiator is thicker, it cools slightly better (and the price is relatively decent). I have a mITX NR200 and it would be an extremely tight fit.

That being said, I reused an "old" H100x I had lying around, swapped the fans with some Noctuas, and it runs my 5950x at very reasonable temps. I was looking for a higher end replacement, but now I might not.
 
The Arctic Liquid Freezer II is the latest fad because the radiator is thicker, it cools slightly better (and the price is relatively decent). I have a mITX NR200 and it would be an extremely tight fit.
"It cools slightly better and the price is relatively decent." So what is the problem here?
 
Not true. In any case since the op is asking for air then i won't comment anything else
What I posted is very true, and I posted it because so many others posted about AIOs/CLCs. If you have any data refuting what I said, please post it .. possibly in a new thread.
 
I teste NH-U14S years ago and found unable to keep up with top tier coolers like D14, R1, PH-TC14PE, TRUE Spirit 140 Power, Le Grand Macho, Silver Arrow IB-E to name a few.
Add a 2nd fan and u14s #s aren’t far off a dh15.
Limit a dh15 as an “s” with 1x fan and you’ll see how much a dual tower depends on direct airflow.
Dual tower coolers have an advantage in intake limited cases.
Quick fan curve tune using targeted case zones is mandatory....but you net little over a big 1x tower cooler if you crammed tuned up intake curve and fan complement.
 
Adding a 2nd fan to D15 lowers temps 1-3c, 3c being at or near maximum cooling wattage. That's what Noctua says and I believe what they say about their own products. ;)
When I tested both D15 and U14S on i7 920 @ 4.3Ghz U14S temps were 3-8c higher than other top tier coolers I tested on same test station. D15 was 1-6c warmer than others, with HE01, Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme and Silver Arrow IB-E Extreme being 5-8c lower temp than D15, but they have much higher speed / noisier fans. Only run high performance fans (FHP-141 or TY-143 fans) TRUE Spirit 140 Power which was 2-3c cooler than NH-D14 with same fans at 1200rpm and 2500rpm. In 20-20 hindsight I should have tested D15 with them too. :( Testing NH-D14 against NH-D15 with same fans, surprisingly D14 gave a couple degrees cooler temps. I didn't have any pressure paper to check IHS to cooler base mating on any of above, but using a straight-edge to check them all cooler bases looked to have same slight convex shape.
 
If people don’t care about cpu thermal headroom to accommodate bursty temps, a few C diff btw air coolers isn’t going to warrant the spend on optimal case fans, or upgrading cooler fans.

Ambient temps are a major contributor to temp curve and noise.
Im truly in the idgaf air cooling camp in that the room my pc sits in can swing from freezing to 108f bc primarily I’m relying on an aio cooled gpu to keep itself under thermal shutdown when gaming.

Current builds of the games I’m playing reinforce idgaf bc they’re unstable under anything but stock boost tables.

your environment may vary.
 
If people don’t care about cpu thermal headroom to accommodate bursty temps, a few C diff btw air coolers isn’t going to warrant the spend on optimal case fans, or upgrading cooler fans.

Ambient temps are a major contributor to temp curve and noise.
Im truly in the idgaf air cooling camp in that the room my pc sits in can swing from freezing to 108f bc primarily I’m relying on an aio cooled gpu to keep itself under thermal shutdown when gaming.

Current builds of the games I’m playing reinforce idgaf bc they’re unstable under anything but stock boost tables.

your environment may vary.
The biggest difference between top tier and lower coolers is top tier cool better so run much quieter, especially on lower wattage CPUs.

As you are a kdgaf air cooling camp, you won't pay any attention to hot hot air entering cooler is vs ambient, and will end up with below problem:
As you said ambient temps are definitely a major contributor. But air temp entering cooler is as or more important than ambient air temp because air temp entering cooler and component temps are basically same 1:1 ratio as ambient to component temp (at same load and fan speed). This means you are not only fighting high ambient air temps but if case airflow hasn't been setup properly you are also fighting even higher air temp entering coolers. Air entering coolers in cases that have not had case airflow setup to supply coolers with air they need is 10c, 20c, even 25c higher than ambient components will be running 8, 18, even 23c hotter than if they are getting air a couple degrees warmer than room.

So if your room is 100f/37.8c in case that hasn't been setup properly the air entering cool could easily be 136f/57c. If your GPU when gaming is now 80c in case with bad airflow in 100f room and you lower air temp entering cooler 20c your GPU will be about 60c .

What you are doing using a CLC (because almost all AIOs are CLC) is supplying cooler with room temp air instead of the overheated air in case with bad airflow. CLCs even improve case airflow because they add more fans moving air though case.

Just in case you decide to change your big idgaf attitude I'm including a link to basic guide to how airflow works and how to optimizce case airflow:
https://hardforum.com/threads/basic-guide-to-improving-case-airflow.1987938/
 
No, the big difference is throttle ceiling and overall capacity.
Fan quality isn't it.
Heatpipe position matters, whether gapped or side by side.
Finstack size and density expressed in fan size matters.
Cold plate now matters with distributed chiplet design.

What I do with a gaming box doesn't matter.
What I do with my Thinkpad does.
 
My Thermalright Le Grand Macho cools my 3900X fantastically after a -.1v offset. They have the same TDP so its probably more than good enough for a 5950X.

Before the offset it was hitting around 80-85C at load (this was also during the middle of summer) and now it gets to about 75C during a sustained AVX workload (transcoding) for hours.

Mounting it on AM4 is a bit of a pain though.
 
No, the big difference is throttle ceiling and overall capacity.
Fan quality isn't it.
Heatpipe position matters, whether gapped or side by side.
Finstack size and density expressed in fan size matters.
Cold plate now matters with distributed chiplet design.

What I do with a gaming box doesn't matter.
What I do with my Thinkpad does.
You agree ambient temp makes a big difference, then argue air temp entering cooler doesn't. Only difference is where temp is monitored, so if higher temp ambient makes a huge difference so does higher temp entering cooler. Only difference is air in room isn't getting hotter near as fans as air inside of case with poor airflow.

Fan quality is not what makes a difference. Fan's ability to overcome airflow resistance and number of fans flowing air into and through case does. If you have a 140mm fan on CPU cooler and 2-3x 80-90mm fans on GPU cooler case need at least 2x 140mm or 3x 140mm high pressure rated intake fans to move at least a little more air though case than cooler fans are moving through coolers. If case fans don't move more air than cooler fans heated exhaust off of coolers has to make up the difference in airflow .. end result is hotter and hotter air entering cooler so high and higher component temps until they start throttling.

Sure heatpipe orientation, position, finstack, size and density all come into play, same as how good the waterblock on liquid cooling effect ablity to transfer heat from component to air. But regardless of air cooler being used, all of last paragraph is as important or more so than what cooler is used. Even the best cooler can't cool if the air going through it is too hot .. and that includes your CLC.

So yes, what you do with cooling on a "gaming box" does matter, at least as much as with Thinkpad.

As TheSlySyl points out, his LGM RT is doing the job. So will at least 8 other coolers with similar TDP ability. But they need air as close to ambient as reasonably possible, and that means setting up case airflow so air entering coolers is 3c or less warmer than ambient. That is something very, very few stock cases can do. ;)
 
Problem with the Big Macho is the same as any 140mm Noctua or Be Quiet cooler is overall height of its era clashing with the skinny jeans mid tower design ethic.

Start having to look at the 120mm coolers and those give up capability for compatibility. Yes mesh front panels are coming back ala the HAF era, they still sit on skinny cases.
 
Problem with the Big Macho is the same as any 140mm Noctua or Be Quiet cooler is overall height of its era clashing with the skinny jeans mid tower design ethic.

Start having to look at the 120mm coolers and those give up capability for compatibility. Yes mesh front panels are coming back ala the HAF era, they still sit on skinny cases.
That's a problem with many 120mm fanned coolers as well.

There are some very good shorter coolers. NH-U12A is good example, but even it is 158mm tall. Scythe Fuma 2 is good and 154.5mm tall. Old and very hard to find now but extremely good small cooler is Thermalright Ultima 115x55x138mm with 6x 6mm heatpipes. If case has vent over CPU it can be ducted to flat cooler either flowing room ambient air to cooler or heated exhaust from cooler to vent.

I choose cases to fit cooler sizes I might use and hopefully with decent fans, then place all fans as intakes moving air through, usually flowing front to back. That way I don't run into cooler clearance issues. I still have lots of good fans from years of testing. so if case doesn't have good fans I can easily replace them.
 
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