Question Any recommendation for a reasonably-priced, yet quiet and effective cooler? Ryzen 5600X

[King_V]

I've decided that, instead of putting on the stock cooler and changing it later, if I'm going to get a better one, I should just do it right out of the gate.

I know that I can spend hefty money and get a brutally awesome cooler, but... the theme is still that this is mostly a budget system. So, I'm looking for effective and quiet, but not too pricey. I don't really know what to say for a budget because I haven't ever bought an aftermarket cooler before. The closest I came is my son's 1600AF, where a friend gave me a Wraith Spire that he didn't use for his 1700X.

The case specs claim a CPU cooler height of up to 165mm will fit.

Thoughts/recommendations/advice-for-the-cooler-clueless? With recommendations, also knowing why you like it would be helpful.

 

[Lutfij]

Vetroo V5 comes to mind as the new budget king, if you don't want to overclock on it. However, if I were you, I'd just stick with the stock cooler and see how it goes from there. Just from my observation, that case looks like it's going to just cook whatever's going to be inside it.

 

[King_V]

It does look that way, but it has more ventilation from the front than it appears. In addition to the vertical side vents, the bottom of the front has a pretty large opening.

I can't speak to this exact model, but it seems to be a variant of the Antec P82, which, when reviewed on Tom's, demonstrated pretty good cooling along with keeping things quiet.

The reason I'm considering an aftermarket CPU cooler is because I'm told the Wraith Stealth is a bit noisy - then again, that might be muffled by this case. No overclocking is planned.

 

[Phaaze88]

How much is too pricey?

 

[Lafong]

Most single tower coolers are under 165mm in height, so you have a large variety to choose from.

I guess it depends on where you draw the line on expense and how nervous you would be with moderate temperatures. You can drive temps lower for 90 dollars rather than 60, but maybe you say can't spend 90. Likewise, you may not care whether temps in a given situation are 68 rather than 58.

 

[King_V]

I guess about $50 would be where I say "this system is a bit less 'budget' than the word implies" I suppose.

I don't mind a few degrees higher, as long as it's well below the throttling level. If 68 is still well below the threshold of anything to be concerned about, then I don't really need to drive the temperatures down to 58.

 

[Phaaze88]

Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct. 140mm fan, just 1300rpm at 21dBA(or so is claimed by the mfg), and doesn't interfere with ram.
The Vetroo V5 is a good low cost cooler, but the biggest con appears to be the mounting hardware; not very user-friendly, apparently... but it may not be that big a con unless you move the cooler frequently.

 

[King_V]

Well, uh, after I posted, I kinda went on a YouTube frenzy trying to get solid reviews of coolers, comparisons with others, and wound up ordering this surprising little thing... almost missed it in the reviews (Hardware Canucks descriptions, graphs, etc).

But that Thermalright looks pretty impressive.. probably on my list for the AM5 system that'll be (theoretically) bought and built end of this year or early-ish next year.

EDIT: forgot the link - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0874512QH
Chose the white one literally because it was $1 less, and my case is solid black all over. No glass/acrylic side panel.