Question How cool can a NH-D15 keep an i5 8400??

Euroman28

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I know it overkill to use an NH-D15 on i5 8400. But in theory how cool can a NH-D15 keep the i5 8400? Compared to the Intel Stock cooler ?
 

Euroman28

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It should be well within safe temps (<80C), even so with a high ambient (room) temp. IMO it is overkill and you could probably get away with a much cheaper cooler.

What is your ambient temp?

36 - 40 C (CPU) during regular windows use and if I play a game like the latest Call of duty then we are 75 - 83 C (And the fan sounds like an airplane engine). Even though I have recently cleaned it for dust and applied new thermal past. I have 600 watt Corsair PSU, 16 GB DDR4 and a GTX 1060 6GB. Motherboard is an Asus Z370-p.
 

WildCard999

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I don't think it's either, most coolers will run higher at boot then slow down. As for gaming they should only run faster when needed.

For the money the CM EVO 212 Black is a solid choice and should be plenty for that 8400 but this also depends on your case clearance.
 

falcon291

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I know it overkill to use an NH-D15 on i5 8400. But in theory how cool can a NH-D15 keep the i5 8400? Compared to the Intel Stock cooler ?
It is overkill for your CPU. Buy a budget cooler instead. That cooler is rather for high-end CPUs i7 9700K or i7 9900K and for overclocking. But if you need your computer to be silent, not super silent it is something else, you can buy it knowing that you are paying for it.
 

Euroman28

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I don't think it's either, most coolers will run higher at boot then slow down. As for gaming they should only run faster when needed.

For the money the CM EVO 212 Black is a solid choice and should be plenty for that 8400 but this also depends on your case clearance.

Thank you for you reply again. The thing is if I don't engage Asus fan accelerator software (which came with the MB) then the stock cooler runs at over 1200 RPM even during Word and Windows use.

Is that normal?
 

falcon291

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Yes during gaming and strangely during boot too. But during the later when it reaches the Windows login, the cooler throttles from 1500 rpm to 700 rpm. Broken cooler or to weak PSU?
Have you installed AI Suite of Asus or controlling it through BIOS? You can and you should tweak your fan RPM. It is OK that it makes noise when gaming to some extend, but if it makes too much noise think about replacing the fans, or buying a new cooler, not Noctua DH-15 though, it is still an overkill for your CPU.
 

falcon291

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Thank you for you reply again. The thing is if I don't engage Asus fan accelerator software (which came with the MB) then the stock cooler runs at over 1200 RPM even during Word and Windows use.

Is that normal?

What are the settings in BIOS? If it was set in performance in BIOS and AI Suite is not running, yes your fans will run fast and roar. So it is normal. I am now setting the speeds from the BIOS don't use AI Suite. One thing to remind 3 pin fans and 4 pin fans behave differently. If your CPU fan has 3 pins you must set it as so in BIOS. If it is 3 pins it is already old.
 

Euroman28

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What are the settings in BIOS? If it was set in performance in BIOS and AI Suite is not running, yes your fans will run fast and roar. So it is normal. I am now setting the speeds from the BIOS don't use AI Suite. One thing to remind 3 pin fans and 4 pin fans behave differently. If your CPU fan has 3 pins you must set it as so in BIOS. If it is 3 pins it is already old.

4 pin CPU fan connector and default settings for Asus Z370-p.
 

Euroman28

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Can you please check fan settings in your BIOS?

If with AI Suite it runs fine, there should be nothing wrong, with your fans and your mainboard, but it shows that your BIOS settings are for performance.

All bios settings are set to default. But strangely Windows 10 pro says my power scheme is set to balanced and not performance.
 

Euroman28

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Since I came to the conclusion that I need a new CPU too, then I went shopping today. I found NH-D15 on sale for 50 USD here in my country. So now its installed with one fan :)

NH-D15 installed

Only downside is that it can't inside my Coolermaster Silencio 550 completely, so the left lid cannot be closed. So I open with partially open system for a couple of days.

ASUS Dual intelligent processors 5 gives the following DATA.

idle CPU: 238 RPM (one fan installed) and 31 C cpu TEMP.
 

Karadjgne

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The NH-D15 isn't really any different to a NH-U12S for your purposes. Don't confuse capacity to efficiency.

You have an 80 something TDP processor that would be lucky to even get to TDP output when under 100% load.

The NH-U12S is @ 150w capable. The NH-D15 is 250w capable. Either one is far above your TDP cooling needs.

The efficiency of the cooler is what will determine temps in your arena. Because both coolers are higher in TDP, neither one is anywhere close to saturated with wattage output. It's a case where bigger is not better, it's just wasted capacity and will get equitable temps. There's plenty of coolers that can match the NH-D15, even the hyper212 evo can, when wattage is insufficient to require larger capacity.
 
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Phaaze88

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The NH-D15 isn't really any different to a NH-U12S for your purposes. Don't confuse capacity to efficiency.

You have an 80 something TDP processor that would be lucky to even get to TDP output when under 100% load.

The NH-U12S is @ 150w capable. The NH-D15 is 250w capable. Either one is far above your TDP cooling needs.

The efficiency of the cooler is what will determine temps in your arena. Because both coolers are higher in TDP, neither one is anywhere close to saturated with wattage output. It's a case where bigger is not better, it's just wasted capacity and will get equitable temps. There's plenty of coolers that can match the NH-D15, even the hyper212 evo can, when wattage is insufficient to require larger capacity.
And this^right here is the problem I have with some reviewer's cooler comparisons. The coolers don't show their full muscle until you actually push them.
It makes me /sadpanda to see folks comparing performance of an NH-D15 to a Dark Rock Pro 4, or Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT when the test system only consists of something like a 7700K, 8700K, 9600K or 9700K, when none of those really push them to their max.
 

Karadjgne

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I found a review once, was on a Corsair h110 I think (can't find it again, grr) and they did a full on burn, 200, 250w, 300w, 350w artificial heatsource (not a cpu but a dialed in heater pad) just to test the aios limits vrs NH-D15 and a few other aios. Was a great review. Showed how the bigger coolers responded to more believable wattage than a 200-300MHz over stock, wimpy locked core OC.
 
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