[SOLVED] Best 70$ 120mm Liquid Cooler For I5-9600KF?

[yullbarez]

I've built new Mini-ITX PC. I thought that CPU came with stock cooler but it didn't came with stock cooler. Now i'm only have 70$ for the cooler and it probably be 120mm Liquid Cooling one. I can't use my new PC right now. There's too many coolers in market so i don't know which one is the best.

The Setup:

CPU: Intel Core(TM) I5-9600KF @ 4.6 GHz Turbo
Mobo: Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Mini-ITX
RAM: G Skill Trident-Z RGB 16 GB (8GBX2) DDR4 3200 MHz CL16
GPU: Nvidia Quadro K4200 4GB GDDR5 256 Bit Workstation
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 250 GB Nvme M.2 SSD
HDD: WD Black 1TB 7200 RPM
Case: Xigmatek CCD-14ABW-U01 Aquila
PSU: Corsair VS650 Builder 650W 80+ Bronze

 

[Darkbreeze]

What country are you in? That is necessary information so we know WHAT coolers are actually available to you. And if you HAVE to order through a specific retailer, knowing that would be helpful too.

Are you dead set on an AIO cooler, because honestly for that price you can only get a pretty crappy AIO while you could likely get a VERY good air cooler.

 

[yullbarez]

What country are you in? That is necessary information so we know WHAT coolers are actually available to you. And if you HAVE to order through a specific retailer, knowing that would be helpful too.

Are you dead set on an AIO cooler, because honestly for that price you can only get a pretty crappy AIO while you could likely get a VERY good air cooler.

I'm living in Turkey. Almost every PC components are expensive there. If there's a good Air Cooler, i could buy that. Personally i want to buy water cooling one. It will be a workstation PC. I can get maximum Cooler Master MA410P model Air Cooler, Cooler Master MasterLiquid M120L RGB TUF Gaming Edition Water Cooler. Like i said i'll use PC for 3D rendering.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, Turkey is tough. Hard to get quality PC hardware there and it's expensive.

So, where can you order from or do you have to purchase through local shops?

For air coolers, where available, these are the models that I generally recommend, but I fear most of them might not be available to you there.

Spoiler: Preferred CPU coolers

Below is my list of preferred CPU AIR coolers, also known as Heatsink fans (HSF).

Do not look here for recommendations on water/liquid cooling solutions. There are none to be found.

They are basically listed in order of preference, from top to bottom. To some degree that preference is based on known performance on similarly overclocked configurations, but not entirely. There are likely a couple of units that are placed closer to the top not because they offer purely better performance than another cooler which is below it, but potentially due to a variety of reasons.

One model might be placed higher than another with the same or similar performance, but has quieter or higher quality fans. It may have the same performance but a better warranty. Long term quality may be higher. It may be less expensive in some cases. Maybe it performs slightly worse, but has quieter fans and a better "fan pitch". Some fans with equal decibel levels do not "sound" like they are the same as the specific pitch heard from one fan might be less annoying than another.

In any case, these are not "tiered" and are not a 100% be all, end all ranking. They are simply MY preference when looking at coolers for a build or when making recommendations. Often, which HSF gets chosen depends on what is on this list and fits the budget or is priced right at the time due to a sale or rebate. Hopefully it will help you and you can rest assured that every cooler listed here is a model that to some degree or other is generally a quality unit which is a lot more likely to be worth the money spent on it than on many other models out there that might look to be a similarly worthwhile investment.

Certainly there are a great many other very good coolers out there, but these are models which are usually available to most anybody building a system or looking for a cooler, regardless of what part of the world they might live in. As always, professional reviews are usually an absolutely essential part of the process of finding a cooler so if you are looking at a model not listed here, I would highly recommend looking at at least two or three professional reviews first.

If you cannot find two reviews of any given cooler, it is likely either too new to have been reviewed yet or it sucked, and nobody wanted to buy one in order to review it plus the manufacturer refused to send samples out to the sites that perform reviews because they knew it would likely get bad publicity.

IMO, nobody out there is making better fans, overall, than Noctua, followed pretty closely by Thermalright. So if you intend to match case fans to the same brand on your HSF, those are pretty hard to beat. Of course, Corsair has it's Maglev fans, and those are pretty damn good too, but since they don't make CPU air cooling products, only AIO water coolers, they cannot join the party.


Noctua NH-D14 (Replace stock fans with NF-A14 industrialPPC 2000rpm)
Noctua NH-D15/D15 SE-AM4
Noctua NH-D14 (With original fans)
Thermalright Silver arrow IB-E Extreme
Phanteks PH-TC14PE (BK,BL, OR or RD)
Cryorig R1 Ultimate or Universal
Thermalright Legrand Macho RT
Deepcool Assassin III
Scythe Ninja 5
Thermalright Macho rev. C
Thermalright Macho rev.B
Scythe Mugen 5 rev.B
Be Quiet Dark rock Pro 4
Noctua NH-U14S
FSP Windale 6
Thermalright Macho (Direct, 120)
Scythe Mugen max
BeQuiet dark rock (3 or 4)
Deepcool Assassin II
Thermalright true spirit 140 (Direct, Power, BW)
Cryorig H5
Noctua NH-U12S
Phanteks PH-TC12DX (Any)
Phanteks PH-TC14S
Cryorig H7
Deepcool Gammaxx 400
Cooler Master Hyper 212 (EVO, X, RGB. I'd only recommend this cooler if no other good aftermarket models are available to you.)


It may not be obvious, but is probably worth mentioning, that not all cooler models will fit all CPU sockets as aftermarket coolers generally require an adapter intended for use with that socket. Some coolers that fit an AMD platform might not fit a later AMD platform, or an Intel platform. Often these coolers come with adapters for multiple types of platforms but be sure to verify that a specific cooler WILL work with your platform before purchasing one and finding out later that it will not.

 

[yullbarez]

Yeah, Turkey is tough. Hard to get quality PC hardware there and it's expensive.

So, where can you order from or do you have to purchase through local shops?

For air coolers, where available, these are the models that I generally recommend, but I fear most of them might not be available to you there.

Spoiler: Preferred CPU coolers

Below is my list of preferred CPU AIR coolers, also known as Heatsink fans (HSF).

Do not look here for recommendations on water/liquid cooling solutions. There are none to be found.

They are basically listed in order of preference, from top to bottom. To some degree that preference is based on known performance on similarly overclocked configurations, but not entirely. There are likely a couple of units that are placed closer to the top not because they offer purely better performance than another cooler which is below it, but potentially due to a variety of reasons.

One model might be placed higher than another with the same or similar performance, but has quieter or higher quality fans. It may have the same performance but a better warranty. Long term quality may be higher. It may be less expensive in some cases. Maybe it performs slightly worse, but has quieter fans and a better "fan pitch". Some fans with equal decibel levels do not "sound" like they are the same as the specific pitch heard from one fan might be less annoying than another.

In any case, these are not "tiered" and are not a 100% be all, end all ranking. They are simply MY preference when looking at coolers for a build or when making recommendations. Often, which HSF gets chosen depends on what is on this list and fits the budget or is priced right at the time due to a sale or rebate. Hopefully it will help you and you can rest assured that every cooler listed here is a model that to some degree or other is generally a quality unit which is a lot more likely to be worth the money spent on it than on many other models out there that might look to be a similarly worthwhile investment.

Certainly there are a great many other very good coolers out there, but these are models which are usually available to most anybody building a system or looking for a cooler, regardless of what part of the world they might live in. As always, professional reviews are usually an absolutely essential part of the process of finding a cooler so if you are looking at a model not listed here, I would highly recommend looking at at least two or three professional reviews first.

If you cannot find two reviews of any given cooler, it is likely either too new to have been reviewed yet or it sucked, and nobody wanted to buy one in order to review it plus the manufacturer refused to send samples out to the sites that perform reviews because they knew it would likely get bad publicity.

IMO, nobody out there is making better fans, overall, than Noctua, followed pretty closely by Thermalright. So if you intend to match case fans to the same brand on your HSF, those are pretty hard to beat. Of course, Corsair has it's Maglev fans, and those are pretty damn good too, but since they don't make CPU air cooling products, only AIO water coolers, they cannot join the party.


Noctua NH-D14 (Replace stock fans with NF-A14 industrialPPC 2000rpm)
Noctua NH-D15/D15 SE-AM4
Noctua NH-D14 (With original fans)
Thermalright Silver arrow IB-E Extreme
Phanteks PH-TC14PE (BK,BL, OR or RD)
Cryorig R1 Ultimate or Universal
Thermalright Legrand Macho RT
Deepcool Assassin III
Scythe Ninja 5
Thermalright Macho rev. C
Thermalright Macho rev.B
Scythe Mugen 5 rev.B
Be Quiet Dark rock Pro 4
Noctua NH-U14S
FSP Windale 6
Thermalright Macho (Direct, 120)
Scythe Mugen max
BeQuiet dark rock (3 or 4)
Deepcool Assassin II
Thermalright true spirit 140 (Direct, Power, BW)
Cryorig H5
Noctua NH-U12S
Phanteks PH-TC12DX (Any)
Phanteks PH-TC14S
Cryorig H7
Deepcool Gammaxx 400
Cooler Master Hyper 212 (EVO, X, RGB. I'd only recommend this cooler if no other good aftermarket models are available to you.)


It may not be obvious, but is probably worth mentioning, that not all cooler models will fit all CPU sockets as aftermarket coolers generally require an adapter intended for use with that socket. Some coolers that fit an AMD platform might not fit a later AMD platform, or an Intel platform. Often these coolers come with adapters for multiple types of platforms but be sure to verify that a specific cooler WILL work with your platform before purchasing one and finding out later that it will not.

Some of these models are exceeds my budget. Some of these models are out of the stock. I've found Be Quiet Dark Rock 4 (Not Pro). Do you recommend that model? I can only buy these coolers from local shops.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, the Dark rock 4 would be fine for that CPU.

If you look, the Dark rock 3 and 4 are both on my list of preferred CPU coolers. Should be plenty good for the 9600kf.

 

[yullbarez]

Yes, the Dark rock 4 would be fine for that CPU.

If you look, the Dark rock 3 and 4 are both on my list of preferred CPU coolers. Should be plenty good for the 9600kf.

Is that cooler enough to overclocking? I thinking the overclock the CPU to 5.0 GHz. Also thanks for the help.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You know, if you want something high end, you have to be willing AND able, to pay for it. That cooler MIGHT be capable of supporting a 5Ghz overclock on that CPU, and it might not. Really, there are too many other factors involved such as the quality of the motherboard, the luck of the draw as far as how well the CPU is binned and the quality of the chip you get by way of the silicon lottery, and other factors such as you ambient temperatures. Since you are in Turkey, I'll assume the ambient temperatures there, at least when it's not winter, are relatively high, so you will be further limited by that.

If you want high end overclocking, you WILL pay for high end overclocking. Getting 5Ghz out of that CPU is probably going to require a 75-100 dollar (US) air cooler or a 100-140 dollar 280mm AIO cooler, which your case does not support. In fact, on the product page for that case I don't see that is indicates support for ANY water cooler internally so it's likely that it only supports external water cooling and that means a custom loop, not an AIO.

It does support up to a 180mm air cooler though so that is your best option really. If you were in a cooler region I'd say the Dark rock 4 could probably do what you want to do, but I think you will need a cooler that is a little better than that one during the warmer months where you are to be honest.

Now, if it was the Dark rock PRO 4, then probably you'd be good. If that Dark rock 4 is the best you can get, then get it, and then work with the overclock step by step to see where it can go. It might do what you want, but be a bit louder than some other coolers and that could be ok for you, or it might only be able to take you to 4.8Ghz and if that's the case it might be more a limitation of the specific CPU sample than the cooler. It's very hard for anybody to EVER say THIS cooler with THAT cpu will able to do THIS specific overclock. All you can do is get the best cooling you can afford and then be happy with whatever the results are.

 

[yullbarez]

You know, if you want something high end, you have to be willing AND able, to pay for it. That cooler MIGHT be capable of supporting a 5Ghz overclock on that CPU, and it might not. Really, there are too many other factors involved such as the quality of the motherboard, the luck of the draw as far as how well the CPU is binned and the quality of the chip you get by way of the silicon lottery, and other factors such as you ambient temperatures. Since you are in Turkey, I'll assume the ambient temperatures there, at least when it's not winter, are relatively high, so you will be further limited by that.

If you want high end overclocking, you WILL pay for high end overclocking. Getting 5Ghz out of that CPU is probably going to require a 75-100 dollar (US) air cooler or a 100-140 dollar 280mm AIO cooler, which your case does not support. In fact, on the product page for that case I don't see that is indicates support for ANY water cooler internally so it's likely that it only supports external water cooling and that means a custom loop, not an AIO.

It does support up to a 180mm air cooler though so that is your best option really. If you were in a cooler region I'd say the Dark rock 4 could probably do what you want to do, but I think you will need a cooler that is a little better than that one during the warmer months where you are to be honest.

Now, if it was the Dark rock PRO 4, then probably you'd be good. If that Dark rock 4 is the best you can get, then get it, and then work with the overclock step by step to see where it can go. It might do what you want, but be a bit louder than some other coolers and that could be ok for you, or it might only be able to take you to 4.8Ghz and if that's the case it might be more a limitation of the specific CPU sample than the cooler. It's very hard for anybody to EVER say THIS cooler with THAT cpu will able to do THIS specific overclock. All you can do is get the best cooling you can afford and then be happy with whatever the results are.

You right. I didn't thought the Cooler-Case compatibility. The silicon lottery the main factor the overclock capable. 4.8 GHz will enough OC for me. I'll try to get Rock 4 PRO model if i can. It probably be the best choice for my PC. Thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You are certainly welcome. Anytime.