Question Need AMD FX-8350 Heatsink Under 110mm Wide [SOLVED]

ajreaper

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Jan 28, 2019
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Hello all! On January 21st (a week ago) I upgraded my aging (but perfectly functional) AMD Phenom II X4 945 to the AMD FX-8350 (both Black Editions) and was wondering if I needed to change my heatsink or upgrade to a new one. FYI: I did test out the stock heatsink it came with, but it idled at 50C-60C.

Maybe it is because I so used to cool temps on the Phenom and my Zalman, but I noticed that it runs, on average, about 36-45 C on idle (according to Core Temp and AMD Overdrive). The Phenom, in the summer heat (ambient 100 F) would get no hotter than 40 C.

Now, running The Sims 3 with six (6) expansions, it would stick around 50-55 C. I haven't dared try anything more intensive. One-minute and five-minute stress tests using AMD Overdrive haven't put any of the "cores" above 46 C, but TMPIN has gotten up to 55 C. Cool n' Quiet and Auto Voltage were turned off last week to help, but with the Phenom everything was automated in the BIOS.

I am using the Zalman Fanmate 2 fan controller to manually adjust the CPU fan speed, which I keep on 2200 RPM. I did this because the fan speed fluctuations were happening so often (and on idle with both heatsinks) that it was pissing me off. With this mobo and RAM, the clearance for the heatsink is no greater than 110mm wide. That's the major issue.

MY RIG (** I do not overclock anything, ever **):
  • AMD FX-8350 Black Edition CPU
  • Zalman CNPS9500A-LED Heatsink
  • 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM (<-- Primary Issue)
  • EVGA GeForce 680 GTX GPU
  • Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 MOBO
  • XION Supernova XON-800R14N 800W ATX12V Power Supply
  • Cooler Master HAF 932 Chassis
~ Other stuff, like a Wifi card, disconnected audio card, CD/DVD-ROM, two hard drives, OS (Windows 7-64 Bit), LEDs and an touch-screen fan controller.
~ Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5%, X-Method

My cable management is what I consider "okay". I have three exhaust fans: one in the rear, one to the left, one on top. I have one intake fan in the lower front. As soon I get some screen mesh, I plan on putting a 180 intake on the bottom. I tried to funnel air bottom-to-top, front-to-back and leftward.

My chassis supports a liquid cooling system, but my budget for a heatsink is around $30 (I might splurge a little on a cheap Noctua). So, what does the community recommend for a heatsink, given my limited 110mm wide clearance? Or maybe I just need to let the thermal compound cure? The Zalman was reinstalled on today (the CPU has been installed/cleaned three times thus far).

Thank you for any input you may provide! I appreciate it. 😀

PS: I noticed after removing some compound (AS5) that dribbled on the sides of my CPU after testing and reseating, there was corrosion on the sides. My Phenom, which always had dribbling on the sides, did not have any corrosion. Thoughts?


[[ SOLVED? ]]
Cooler Master Hyper T2 (BUT NOT FOR THIS CPU; AMBIENT TEMPS OVER 25C MAY CAUSE OVERHEATING!)
 
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Thanks for replying!

So far it's been fine, but that is likely because of the room temp being about 22 C right now. No AC means that during summer, this room will shoot up to about 38 C on the worst days.

I've ready enough posts, articles and so on to suggest the CM Hyper 212 EVO. With the backplate installed (which I hear is a pain) it can be oriented in any direction. Is the Hyper 212 EVO still the best choice for this situation? Or maybe the Rosewill ROCC-16003?

I'm leaning toward a horizontal orientation, front-to-back. The height is a bit tricky--at about 35mm taller, it might touch the left door.
 
All of the 212 series coolers are, IMO, much overrated. If you want a decent cooler, that is really inexpensive, you cannot beat the Deepcool Gammaxx 400. It is THE best cooler, in general, for usually under 30 dollars. In this case, much less than that and not only does it outperform the 212 series coolers, all of them, at least if you're comparing them as they come, not "what they can do" if you ADD a better fan, it is also the best budget 120mm cooler Tom's hardware has ever tested. I think the extra money is worth it for the Cryorig H7 at 38 bucks,

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF2DZ6565&Description=cryorig%20H7&cm_re=cryorig_H7-_-13C-000U-00005-_-Product


however the Gammaxx 400 is a lot cheaper and does a fair job, better in fact than the Hyper 212 Evo.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/deepcool-gammaxx-400-slim-tower-cpu-cooler,4460-2.html



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Deepcool - GAMMAXX 400 74.34 CFM CPU Cooler ($22.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $22.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-05 22:34 EST-0500


You might also consider the Noctua NH-U12S, which is of course a bit more expensive, but is appreciably better than any other 120mm air cooler that I'm aware of, and at identical RPMs, there is no other 120mm cooler that is both as quiet AND offers the same degree of performance. At less than 60 bucks, it's a pretty darn good option. Myself, when I had my FX-8320@4.6Ghz, I was running the exact same Noctua NH-U14S then as I'm running now, on my 6700k.
 


I actually just saw that the 212 required removal of the motherboard to install the backplate, so... that's a no. Dropped. I'm lazy AF.

The GAMMAX 400 won't work for me, since one of its dimensions is 135mm and the space available on the board surrounding the CPU/Heatsink is around 120mm in any direction (a fact I discovered last night, poking around and measuring). The Cryorig H7 might be able to squeeze in there (123mm); I'd have to check how it fits with a similar GIGABYTE board and Corsair Vengeance setup.

Regardless, thank you for the recommendations!

My current list now includes:
* Rosewill ROCC-16003
* Deepcool Ice Blade 200M
* Noctua NH-D9L
* Noctua NH-U12S
* Noctua NH-U9S
* Cryorig H7

Any opinions on the Ice Blade 200M?
 
You do realize that unless an object on the motherboard is taller than about 35-50mm, depending on the CPU cooler, it's going to to fit under the heatsink right? And that the heatsink should be oriented with the longest section of the heatsink facing top to bottom rather than front to back, like this?:

2008izm.jpg


Also, ALL aftermarket coolers that are even remotely worth using, are going to require that you either have a case with a backplate cutout for access or removal of the motherboard, in order to install the backplate. There are ZERO CPU coolers that are better than what you already have installed that won't require changing the backplate.

I'm not sure what that 120mm clearance is supposed to actually be FOR, other than possibly tall RAM?

 


Sorry if I wasn't clear... and for the confusion. ;-)

What is shown in that image is almost exactly the setup that I have. Front to back, bottom to top. The issue, as you mention, is that the placement of the CPU fan is not optimal. From what I understand, unless the CPU is either already built to go "against the grain" of similar AMD mobos (like the Rosewill), they end up needing to be placed bottom-top, instead of front-back. Unless you have something that change the orientation, like the 212 EVO backplate.

The chassis unfortunately has nothing short of a peek-a-boo hole that taunts me: (not my image, btw)
[img=200]https://cdn.pcpartpicker.com/static/forever/images/userbuild/25891.ea728ed3fef370b8402e7393a7acc03c.bbb34189a112daad44ffa9a1bd12a014.1600.jpg[/img]

And to answer your question, yes: the heat spreaders get in the way. One of Noctua's selling points for some of their heatsinks is that they RAM compatibility in terms of clearance. Regarding 120x120: that is just about the square-sized space I have where the heatsink sits before it startings touching things.

To put it another way: I first installed the stock cooler, which by the way did a worse job than the Zalman and was loud as hell, and was PUSHING up against the RAM. When I took it back out, I measured it to be about 110mm by 110mm, which is where I got the original 110mm wide mention in the subject of this thread. The ones I listed didn't appear to have any issues with being mounted, as is without the backplate--unless, you are suggesting there could be a support issued because of the added weight?

However, when I look at PCPartPicker, I do see people using stock low profile heatsinks and liquid coolers with that mobo. One guy has the H7, but sacrificed a slot. Just out of curiosity, would liquid cooling this thing be overkill?

Sorry for all this. Honestly, I would've waited until my AMD Phenom II X4 945 Black Edition died instead of all this... complication. Yeah, the Zalman worked fine with that ah heck, amazingly.
 
Tell you what, on ANY of these heatsink fans, you can move the fan to the backside of the heatsink to eliminate the RAM interference issue, and most of them work BETTER with a pull fan anyhow. Or, you can on most of them, slide the fan up the heatsink just slightly until they are just barely not touching the memory modules. It's also pretty much imperative that you populate only the second and fourth memory slots away from the CPU socket unless you have four sticks, in which case obviously you don't have much choice.

The Noctua NH-U12S for example, (And all of Noctua's coolers have a compatibility chart showing any kind of interference problem for ALL known motherboards of all socket types and chipsets) shows no interference issues at all for the 970A-UD3 motherboard. Obviously, if you have very tall RAM, that can be a problem on ANY motherboard with any cooler, but honestly I don't think you'd have an issue if you install it correctly. As for the backplate, the socket doesn't change just because it's a 970 chipset. I have five AM3+ motherboards here, including a 970 gaming, and the backplate mounts just the same as any other model, and the cooler can be mounted with the heatsink oriented vertically, as it should be, rather than horizontally, with the fan blowing from front to back, not bottom to top.

The 212 EVO, or any other cooler, are all going to mount the backplate similarly, regardless of whether it's AMD or Intel.

 
UPDATE
I ended up doing more research and ultimately settled on the Cooler Master Hyper T2, primarily because of its small size, but also because I did not need to remove the stock backplate from my motherboard. The primary factor for the size limitation is caused by my tall RAM (52.5mm) and because I am using all four slots. Interestingly, after installing it I am getting overall higher temperatures than my Zalman, which as Darkbreeze indicated, is rated for 95W on AM3+ on a non-OC CPU. However, this might be a temporary issue, as ambient temperatures currently are at ~22 C and during the summer, will rise to ~42 C. Under future stress from higher ambient temperatures, one hopes that the new heatsink will be able to keep this monstrosity of a CPU cool. 😉
 
This is an update to my original post.

Unfortunately, the T2 was simply inadequate when ambient temperatures reached about ~26C and my literal hot mess of a CPU. Even after reseating it with Noctua's NT-H1, I was still getting temps of between 30-55C at ~50% load. I didn't even bother testing with Prime95, since the computer would likely shut down at my setting of 60C. Ventilation and air pressure (within the chassis) is not a problem here, so that isn't a factor (I double-checked anyway). The 8350 simply runs hot, a problem I never experienced with my Phenom II X4 945 and Zalman.

The CM T2 is super easy to install; the easiest I have ever dealt with, in fact. Unfortunately, because I am not in an air conditioned room and I expect temperatures to be about 35C in the summer in here, this is not viable. On the bright side, I got this for very cheap so I am not too upset about it. For the space limitation I encountered, which was caused by my abnormally tall ram with heat-spreaders, this was initially a good choice--but bad for my environment.

Ultimately, I opted to remove the heat-spreaders from my RAM in order to both save money and increase space. I have no intention of OCing my RAM to anything over 1.5, so it's not an issue. With that done, I have been researching heatsinks once again, keeping in mind size and weight limitations.

Currenly, I am leaning toward the recommendation of @Darkbreeze to the Deepcool Gammaxx 400, primarily because of the Linus Tech Tips CPU Cooler Performance Tier List, which ranked both it and the Cryoig H7 in the same category, but the AMD Wraith, Arctic Freezer 13, CM Hyper 212 EVO and Noctua NH-U93 in a lower category.

Again, I sincerely enjoyed the T2 as a lightweight, slender and easy-to-install option. For my space requirements, it was perfect. For this CPU however, I wouldn't recommend it--or the accompanying thermal compound. That stuff is absolute sh*t.
 
Remember, I said that. :)

Yep. I know. I just based it on builds on partspicker, who used it and didn't seem to have a problem. I guess they live in the mountains or something. 😉

After removing those darned RAM heat spreaders, I had no problem fitting the Gammaxx 400 in. I installed it today with some HT-H1. BIG IMPROVEMENT! With the ambient at 30C and after ten minutes running Prime95 and AMD OD, it didn't get past 47C. When it gets up to 35 in August/September, hopefully it'll maintain, but just in case I will be getting another 120mm fan for the other side, plus some magnetic meshies because dust is a real problem in here.

So, thanks again for that suggestion!