[SOLVED] Low profile cooler for an i7-12700k ?

[Mahisse]

I recently upgraded from i5 3570k to i7-12700k and now need a new cooler.

My setup is mATX so I need a low profile cooler for the CPU. I have been super happy with my cooler master gemini s524. I'm considering if the gemini s524 v2 will fit to 12the generation intel but the specification doesn't say anything about lga 1700 https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/coolers/cpu-air-coolers/geminii-s524-v2/

Will the version 2 fit to 12700?

If not, what's the best low profile air cooler out there for 12700 at the moment?

 

[Lafong]

Have you looked at certain Scythe or Noctua models?

I know Noctua has socket 1700 mounting adapters. Not sure about Scythe.

The Noctua U9S tower cooler might fit. Check the Noctua site, but I think its only about 120 mm tall, so will fit in some narrow-ish cases. It probably would cool better than any "low-profile" down blowing cooler. It's within 4 or 5 degrees of the much taller U12S.

 

[Mahisse]

The more I read about cooling and LGA 1700 the more confused I get.

I decided I want to get a cooler that is LGA 1700 comptatible out of the box. I really don't want to have a cooler that was designed for a squared processor and was re-modified to fit a rectangular processor. That's just me.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/reusing-old-lga15xx-cooler-alder-lake-may-not-be-good-idea

But many coolers that are claimed to be LGA 1700 compatible are missing that specific information, when you look into the specification of the product, which I find very confusing.

I think nh-l9i-17xx is my best safest bet for a low profile air cooler that will fit into my system
https://noctua.at/en/nh-l9i-17xx

But I really wanted to get a more effecient cooler in there and I really loved the Gemini ability to cool components on the motherboard as well.

I guess nh-l9i-17xx will be OK, when not planning to OC anyways?

 

[Mahisse]

Also, just a bonus info, which many will probably face palm/frown upon .

I decided I just wanted to test what happens if I placed my old Geminis cooler on the new processor. Obviously it doesn't fit 1:1 to the Alder Lake processor so it's kind of an abonimation..

Anyway for anyone interested. The Idle temp sits around 33-40 celsius. Gaming load tops the temperature at 75 celsius.

I did however run Heavyload and about 10 min in, some of the cores reached 100 celsius

 

[SkyNetRising]

If not, what's the best low profile air cooler out there for 12700 at the moment?

What pc case are you using?
What is cpu cooler height limitation for your case?

 

[Mahisse]

What pc case are you using?
What is cpu cooler height limitation for your case?

The case is nothing special. I can't remember the manufactor but it's a pretty standard mATX case.
I've installed a fan in the front for fresh air intake and one in the back to push warm air out.

With the old Geminis cooler installed I guessed there is a couple of centimeters free space left to the cover of the case.
The Geminis cooler is 105,4 mm in height so I guess the limitation is just about 125 mm.

 

[Lafong]

The Geminis cooler is 105,4 mm in height so I guess the limitation is just about 125 mm.

The Noctua U9S standard tower cooler is 125mm tall.

Have you rejected the Noctua L12?

 

[geofelt]

MATX does not necessarily mandate a low profile cooler.
What is the make/model of your case?
Or, measure the height available for a tower type cooler.
You are looking for 160mm.

The more I read about cooling and LGA 1700 the more confused I get.

I decided I want to get a cooler that is LGA 1700 comptatible out of the box. I really don't want to have a cooler that was designed for a squared processor and was re-modified to fit a rectangular processor. That's just me.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/reusing-old-lga15xx-cooler-alder-lake-may-not-be-good-idea

But many coolers that are claimed to be LGA 1700 compatible are missing that specific information, when you look into the specification of the product, which I find very confusing.

I think nh-l9i-17xx is my best safest bet for a low profile air cooler that will fit into my system
https://noctua.at/en/nh-l9i-17xx

But I really wanted to get a more effecient cooler in there and I really loved the Gemini ability to cool components on the motherboard as well.

I guess nh-l9i-17xx will be OK, when not planning to OC anyways?

Such a cooler will not let you get the most out of your new processor.
Overclocking is not particularly recommended anyway.
Better to let the turbo mechanism increase performance on a few cores when needed.
That requires temperatures to be well under control.

Here is noctua's suitability chart for the 12700K:
https://ncc.noctua.at/cpus/model/Intel-Core-i7-12700K-1579

If you truly need low profile, the NH-L12s looks ok.
But, if the height available for a cooler is 160mm or so, there are some much better options.
New stock from Noctua will include lga1700 mounting as a rule.
In the event you get old stock, noctua will send you the proper kit gratis.
I did this, noctua customer support was very responsive.

 

[Mahisse]

The Noctua U9S standard tower cooler is 125mm tall.

Have you rejected the Noctua L12?

I like the idea of U9S but I read some reveiws that the cooler is quite noisy and noise is a bit of an important parameter for me.

The l12s is also a candidate by I need to double check if it won't interfere with RAM blocks, even though they are low profile RAMs im not sure anything fits under the L12s cooler.

My MB is Z690M-PLUS D4. Can you tell me if the L12s fits and still have room for the RAMs?

 

[geofelt]

Noctua has you covered on the motherboard compatibility issue also:
https://ncc.noctua.at/motherboards/model/ASUS-Prime-Z690M-Plus-D4-5381
L12s will work.
But, low profile coolers are not the best.
Look at the NSPR(performance rating) number on the charts.
L12s is 88.
NH-U12A, for example is 169 It needs 158mm headroom.

 

[Lafong]

I have been using a U9S for several years and would say the noise level is very low. I can't hear it at all.

Most any fan will be audible as RPM goes above 1000.

Typically, a standard tower cooler will cool better than low profile models, but I have not seen tests on the L12.

There are 2 L12 variants. They differ in RAM clearance. Read the details below.

https://noctua.at/en/nh-l12-ghost-s1-edition

https://noctua.at/en/nh-l12s

The Noctua motherboard compatibility list below says both are compatible with your motherboard.

https://ncc.noctua.at/motherboards/model/ASUS-Prime-Z690M-Plus-D4-5381

 

[Mahisse]

Arh there is actually a compatibility list. That's great. That will make it so much easier. After coming home from work I realized that I have a good chunk more headroom than 125 mm available so I guess I need to measure it out.. will do that tomorrow.
Regarding the compatibility list - if it says it fits and doesn't have any remark on the RAM clearance (and I have low profile RAMs) can I then safely assume RAM clearance will not be a problem for the listed coolers? (if so, that helps me quite a lot since headroom and RAM clearance is my two biggest concerns)

 

[geofelt]

Low profile ram is never a problem.
Normally such ram is 32mm high.
For a particular noctua cooler, there will be a specification tab which will give you all of the cooler dimensions. On a top cooler like the NH-D15, clearance can be an issue.
That is why there is a high compatibility version which allows for ram and gpu clearance.

 

[Mahisse]

So I did measurement of the height. There seems to be ~ 48 mm headroom to the cover from where the Geminiis cooler fits.
So I guess I have 105,4 + 48 = 153,4 mm avaialble in height for a new cooler.

Unfortunately there isn't enough room for the NH-D15S, which I really also like

So far, I'm leaning towards NH-U9S due to it looks like it also suits the general air flow of the case best - pushing the hot air to the back fan of my case.

Any final suggestions given the more precise dimensions?

And I really appreciate your time to answer my questions. Funny, how the cooler is always the toughest part for me to pick due the small case

 

[Lafong]

You can fish around for coolers that are no more than say 150 mm tall and thus would fit, but...........................

I did that a few years ago when I moved to a narrower case and didn't find anything suitable taller than the U9S but under 150. All the good candidates were circa 158 mm and up.

You might peruse whatever Scythe has to offer. I've used them with success maybe a decade ago and they do have some low profile and smaller stuff.

There might be something new out there?

I'd guess you will be happy if not going for a sizable overclock. I did some testing with the U9S and found it to be within 5 to 7 degrees of the taller U12S, which is certainly acceptable to me. Even less difference at low loads.

I'd be interested in a report with the U9S on the 12700K. If I cannot restrain myself, I may well buy a 12600K or a 12700 non-K in the next few months and I have every intention of using the U9S.

Of course, tune the fan in your BIOS. I keep my fan at a constant 800....virtually inaudible, using the BIOS "silent" pre-set.

 

[Mahisse]

Cheers, Lafong.

I think I will go with the U9S. I'll come back when to report in, once I got it in my system

 

[Mahisse]

So installed the U9S and I was dreading a bit when I turned on my PC and seeing the idle temperatures being slightly a little worse than the Geminis abomination I had on. However after running Heavyload the max temp reached 88 celsius and sat around 87 for half an hour. I feel quite happy about that.
I had to order the LG1700 mount kit on the website since it didn't came with the cooler. Funny thing is that the mounting kit came sooner than the cooler, so it was all good.

Coming from Cooler Master's Geminis cooler the U9S is not taking much space at all and RAM is easy accessible (not blocking at all) along with most things on the MB. I do actually believe the general airflow is better in the case compared to before. The GPU seems to have bit lower performance temperature with the new cooler.

Also the U9S was really easy to get mounted.

I would say the noise is not better or worse than before. Pretty much the same.

All in all, super happy with this cooler and the upgrade in general so thanks for the advice and thoughts.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sorry to revive this thread Mahisse, but if you have any time to do so and might be so kind, it would be appreciated if you could run Prime95 Small FFT with all AVX options disabled in the utilities options, for 10 minutes or until the CPU reaches 90°C in which case I'd stop the test, to see if that U9S can actually handle a full 100% load with that CPU. I'm assuming all cores are enabled and you do not have the efficiency cores or hyperthreading disabled?

The reason I ask is that Heavyload is about 3-5% "lighter" than Small FFT for steady state full load testing, and 3-5% is enough to push past the 90°C mark ALTHOUGH, technically, for your own information, all 6th through 12th Gen Intel Core-i processors have an identical TJmax specification of 100°C and it is HIGHLY recommended to NOT run these processors at all above 85°C. I understand that your CPU was only doing so during stress testing, but the recommendation is that you have cooling that is capable enough to not allow the CPU to exceed 85°C so that if you encounter a full load or a game that makes extensive use of AVX instruction sets and you do not have an adequate (Or any) AVX offset configured in the BIOS, you do not unknowingly overheat the CPU and/or motherboard VRMs.

Thanks and hope all is well.