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Question I might go back to using an air cooler

gasolin

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Aug 6, 2012
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I now have tuned,oced, under clocked my i5 11600k cpu (mb is a Nzxt N7 Z590) but i have a delima,problem with cooling

215 watt long term power limit, short is set to 251 watt, i need to do that or else it throttles

avx 4.6ghz, turbo 4.7ghz (all cores,threads it can do 24/7), 4.9ghz max boost speed

My 30 day old (15 of may) cooler master aio i noticed today half an hour to an hour ago is noisy

I know many aio's are noisy BUT when i first have started to notice something, i want to do something about it

Can try my 120mm corsair aio,mabye not power full enough but despite also not being 100% silent,quiet from the pump, it's much more comfortable to listen to, no high pitch sounds and no (knock on wood) air noise from the pump, just a nicer deep rumble.

I really really like aio's with there ability to handle more power full cpu's compared to air coolers, not so much a noisy pump

Air coolers no pump noise but can't handle high end cpu's as good as an aio

I have had a be quiet dark rock pro 4, hate that you have to mount the middle fan without the gpu on the mb and the hassle of not seen the clips trying to mount the fans when the rest is in the case (fuma 2 is much better but cooler like that are hard to find,the fumna 2 is very hard to find, mine needs the middle fan (it's not just a regular fan), performance is not amongst the best but not bad either)

I might need an air cooler with a high tdp, which ?

I don't want something that is less then super easy to mount also the fan(s)
 
If your case is wide enough to take a Dark Pro 4, it should be wide enough to take almost any air cooler.

Noctua D15 is easy to mount. It should perform as well as the Dark Pro, but I'm not sure if it is much "better" in performance alone. Do you need "better" or just easier to mount?
 
The problem with my cooler master aio is that it's somewhat noisy,not extreme but once you notice it, you kind of want get rid of it

My cpu is hot at high loads like aida64 fpu and latest prime 95, so i need a high performance cpu cooler, my cpu needs to get those high power limits i have mentioned or else it will throttle

Im very happy with the dark rock pro 4's performance, temps and noise but pain in the...to mount (i don't have it anymore)
 
Noctua D15 is about as good as you can get in an air cooler.

Quite easy to mount.

Quiet fans that you should be able to control in BIOS to get them down under 1000 rpm if you like.

There is more than one variant of the D15. I think one of them is designed specifically to clear certain RAM configurations.

Not cheap. Widely available.
 
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There's a couple of air coolers out there that cool nearly as well as the D15 and I think are around 60 bucks. Don't know how much in your area. I think DeepCool Assassin is one of them.

Nor do I know if they are fussy to mount or a pain in any way.

The Noctua will come with good paste, mounts for both Intel and AMD, and low noise adapters if you want to slow the fans down to a VERY low speed.

Don't know how fussy you are about temps. Some folks just decide to worry less. Maybe that is impossible for you.
 
I think it's the $40 Thermalright Peerless Assassin that's comparable to the D15, at least at 200w.

Now there's a reputable name from the past, but they no longer come in a plain cardboard-colored box like the old days.
Yeah, I think you've got it right.

There is a well-regarded DeepCool model, but I can't recall the name offhand.

Maybe this:

 
That test I linked to also had the Deepcool Assassin III which also did well, but was louder than the D15 or Peerless Assassin. So the Thermalright was pretty impressive as it's only 120mm compared to those 140mm competitors, and $40! But no idea on how hard it is to mount, and in general dual-tower coolers are pretty bulky and awkward to install. In any case it's rated for 245w by the manufacturer.
 
215 watt long term power limit, short is set to 251 watt, i need to do that or else it throttles
Just saying but 251W is the official limit for the 11600k so if it runs at that power then you can't call it throttling. It can't boost to higher than stock power would be the correct thing to say.


The 11600K comes with a 125W PL1 rating, the same as the previous-gen 10600K, but has a 251W PL2, a whopping 69W increase compared to the previous 182W limit.

My cpu is hot at high loads like aida64 fpu and latest prime 95, so i need a high performance cpu cooler, my cpu needs to get those high power limits i have mentioned or else it will throttle
Do you run similarly heavy workloads all of the time?! If it is quiet during anything you do on a daily basis...
Also what is "hot" for you?! These CPUs are made to run up to 100 degrees to give you as much performance as possible.
 
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Noctua D15 is my first air cooler... and also my last. Never gonna need to upgrade it because it's the best there is.

Great support... future brackets freely available as needed... silent running... I don't hear a thing coming from my case even under max fan rpms.

I have offset mounting brackets arriving tomorrow (free, just paid $5 shipping) that Noctua just came out with for the x3D CPUs. Temps are already amazing but this should save me 1-3C on top.

What's not to like? Oh... the price. Feeling frugal? If so the Peerless Assassin is that way. ------>

There's 2 components I won't go cheap on... the PSU and CPU cooling. 👍
 
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There's a couple of air coolers out there that cool nearly as well as the D15 and I think are around 60 bucks. Don't know how much in your area. I think DeepCool Assassin is one of them.

Nor do I know if they are fussy to mount or a pain in any way.

The Noctua will come with good paste, mounts for both Intel and AMD, and low noise adapters if you want to slow the fans down to a VERY low speed.

Don't know how fussy you are about temps. Some folks just decide to worry less. Maybe that is impossible for you.
Not in europe, it's premium price, atm over 100 euros and it only the nh-d15 not the new one that comes out 2024
 
I think it's the $40 Thermalright Peerless Assassin that's the cheapest cooler comparable to the D15, at least at 200w.

Now there's a reputable name from the past, but they no longer come in a plain cardboard-colored box like the old days.
I tried the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE, i had noise from one fan, not smooth sounding, atm i don't know the between the regular and se version .

Clearance issues on a msi amd mb now using nzxt intel mb
 
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Just saying but 251W is the official limit for the 11600k so if it runs at that power then you can't call it throttling. It can't boost to higher than stock power would be the correct thing to say.





Do you run similarly heavy workloads all of the time?! If it is quiet during anything you do on a daily basis...
Also what is "hot" for you?! These CPUs are made to run up to 100 degrees to give you as much performance as possible.
im doing Aida64 fpu and prime 95 to test how much heat my cpu cooler can handle, often that time of day when it's hot and optimize according to temps cpu/cooler performance so both match not just stock with optimized power limits

I just don't want to have barley enough cooling in worst case senario (noise)
 
If you didn't like the sound of the fan, why not try a different fan on the heatsink? I mean unlike your FUMA 2 they are completely standard sized fans, which are way easier and cheaper to change out than entire coolers. By this point you have probably gone through enough heatsinks and AIOs to buy at least two NH-D15s!

I bought my first NH-D15 8 years ago (yup, they have finally decided to change it next year, although they have regularly been updating the supplied fans). But before that, I had the NH-D14 and there was no temperature difference at the heat loads I used them for--I could even use a cheap Arctic F-series fan on them and they would still work about as well, so I suppose even these cheapie heatsinks nowadays are about as good as the current model, and what mostly varies is airflow vs. noise from their fans. Understandably at such a low pricepoint those can vary in quality some, and you might've just got a bum one with a growly bearing.

Also, the problem with just engineering a fan to have high airflow at low measured noise to win those comparison tests, is that some noises are way more annoying than other noise at the same dB.

If you like your Corsair AIO it may be worth trying one of their 360mm+ models to see if its pump is as quiet. That's the main thing that matters, since you can't change that part out like the radiator fans. Water might be preferable for modern >250w Intel (which is some 100w more than 7950X3D so the fans are going to be loud at full tilt no matter what--the trick is getting an acceptably quiet idle) but of course it does cost as much as two or three NH-D15s

Have you tried turning/tilting your running case in the air to help move any air bubble out of the Cooler Master's pump? Probably won't do anything for the high pitched noise but may fix the burbling.
 
Fuma 2 it's not a standard fan, the fan blades are different positioned and spins the other way

I havn't found one that is not super expensive, more then the phanteks t30 and the noctua NF-A12z25

The fuma 2 latest version is super hard to find (some suggest theres a new fuma cooler on it's way)

One of the best budget cooler that sometimes is better then the
NH-U12A and NH-D15S

I will go for that if my 120mm Corsair H60x RGB ELITE isn't better overall


I have tried different pump speed and tilting it , no difference, how ever it did do something for my corsair aio when i connected the pump
 
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Update i bought a new cpu air cooler

noisy 240mm aio cooles okay (tdp with artic p12 max ?)

less noisy 120mm corsair aio, also with artic p12 max fan, not as efficient as a 240mm aio but pretty god for the size

Be quiet dark rock slim im using atm 120mm be quiet fan, not enough space for my artic p12 max, didn't have the original 2 black screews to use for mounting the cooler to the 2 bracket on the mb (used something non original screrws)

When thigtning the cooler to the cpu it was ever so slightly loose

fuma 2 not clean sounding fan in the middle,hard to find the fan and the new fans as well as the latest fuma 2 cooler (have the previous model)

Deepcool AK400 or 500, AK400 is cheap and can beat the noctua NH-D15S

AK400 Zero dark plus is with 2 non rgb fans and are almost 100% dark, not stock where i could order it today and get it tomorrow,dark with single fan, all white and standard grey/black, white was stock but didn't wanted white black only white or black (in casse i wanted to use black fan(s))

AK500 and AG620 BK ARGB a little more then what i wanted to pay

I found Deepcool AG500 ARGB (in stock) for the same price as the AK400 Zero dark plus alot cheaper then the AK500, it's a bigger version of the ak400 and ag400

Size diffrence between the Deepcool AG500 ARGB, the AK400 and 500, i don't know but i bought one, im not a fan of argb and rgb, if i don't want to use the light i don't have to.

It will allow me to use 1 or 2 artic p12 max fan(s) if there are metal clips for 2 fans AND it's rated a 220 watt, 40 more then my dark rock slim, i don't think it's because of the fan it has a tdp of 220 watt but a combination of the fan and cooler
 
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Cpu cooler mounted

Easy to mount, metal clips stays on the fan (don't fall off like on the dark rock pro 4 big con on the pro 4),at max rpm it has a smooth sound, not loud at all (you can just hear it), 11600k with higher power limit to 180-190 watt (not finally adjusted) short power max is stock 251 watt, -2 on avx 2 and avx512 so it runs 4.5 instead of 4.7ghz does make a big difference where it doesn't peak as high in temps as it does stock (still boost til 4.6-4.7ghz when gaming) , occt,aida 64 cpu,cpu fpu,cache and gpu stresstets it passed, no throttling

As long as it's not power limited it can do on 4.5ghz smallest prime95 without getting super hot,throtteling

Under 40 euros + shipping, no pump noise, no coilwhine (knock on wood), no screaming fan(s)m, argb for those who wants it,needs it.

TweakTown say about the DeepCool AK400

With style, performance, and a low cost, the AK400 Performance CPU cooler is the current king of the low-cost CPU cooler segment, and is a great option for anyone on a mainstream build

I also agree about the DeepCool AG500 BK AGRB (almost the same price as the DeepCool AK400 with single fan, same as the plus version with 2 fans)

Much better then the old budget king Cooler master Hyper 212 evo, since it's actually is a high tdp (180-220 watt) cooler, not just 150 wat and therefor you can build on it if you have a high tdp cpu without breaking the band and have a noisy cooler

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/10130/deepcool-ak400-performance-cpu-air-cooler/index.html
 
Noctua D15 is my first air cooler... and also my last. Never gonna need to upgrade it because it's the best there is.

Great support... future brackets freely available as needed... silent running... I don't hear a thing coming from my case even under max fan rpms.

I have offset mounting brackets arriving tomorrow (free, just paid $5 shipping) that Noctua just came out with for the x3D CPUs. Temps are already amazing but this should save me 1-3C on top.

What's not to like? Oh... the price. Feeling frugal? If so the Peerless Assassin is that way. ------>

There's 2 components I won't go cheap on... the PSU and CPU cooling. 👍
Spoiler allert, it's not the best

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o74u1u642I
 
Spoiler allert, it's not the best

Spoiler alert... don't believe every clickbait Youtube video you see.

Bonus spoiler alert... being the cheapest doesn't make something the best.
 
If you want the best air coolers, you'll want to check out Cooler Master's MA824 Stealth and DeepCool's upcoming Assassin IV. We'll have reviews of both posted soon to Tom's Hardware.
Any word on the MA824 and Assassin IV reviews? Really looking forward to your reviews as I narrow down my choice of CPUs to buy. Can either of these two monster coolers sufficiently cool the 13900k and 13700k?