[SOLVED] Need help in selecting a good CPU AIR cooler at budget price in India

[Vishal_7]

HI everyone,
I built a entry level rig with specs as follows:

CPU: RYZEN 3 2200G [3.725Ghz/ 1.330 VOLTAGE]
GPU: INTEGRATED VEGA GPU [ 1320MHz ] with 1.25V
RAM: CORSAIR 8GBX2 SINGLE RANK 2933MHz 16-20-20-38 TIMINGS @ 1.35V
SSD: ADATA SU650 480GB
MOTHERBOARD: MSI B450M PRO-VDH
SMPS/PSU: CORSAIR CX450
MONITOR: BENQ GW2280
CABINET: CORSAIR SPEC-04 BLACK

This currently has the stock Wraith spire which came bundled with the CPU but since I'll be upgrading to new Ryzen 3000 6/8 core if the pricing falls within my budget or at least I'll be going with Ryzen 5 2600(x variant maybe) or R7 1700(i do stream as well but with 2200G i can only stream overwatch). I went up looking for Cooler and to my surprise I found some 120mm liquid coolers like

Corsair Hydro Series, H45
COOLER MASTER MASTERLIQUID LITE 120 All In One 120mm Cpu Liquid Cooler (MLW-D12M-A20PW-R1)
ANTEC KUHLER H2O K120 All In One 120mm Cpu Liquid Cooler

at around 4000INR ~ $60. H45 and Cooler master were to go in the forums but most of them suggested to go with air coolers as they would be much better at the price point of these 120mm AIO coolers.
Did some Google and found that at the same price bracket there were only 120 mm air coolers (at least here in Bangalore, India) like ANTEC C400, Hyper 212/evo etc.
I want to know which one to go and why ?If you /anyone have used something then your review would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

PS: Can you tell if I had to choose between 2600/2600x vs 1700 then which one to go with ?

 

[Vishal_7]

Factory leaks in AIO's are extremely rare, and most often visible soon as you open the box. 99% of leaks are caused by the installer during installation when bending or twisting the tubes and stressing the connections, either on pump side or rad side. There are millions of AIO's from all the various OEMs made every year and nothing is posted about all the ones that do not leak, only the ones that do, which is a couple every year. The chances of an AIO developing a leak a by itself are as slim as a motherboard warping under the weight of a large tower. Leaks do happen, boards do warp, but it only takes 1 video/complaint/happenstance to make a mountain out of that ant-hill.

Might as well start screaming about the amount of cpus destroyed, or motherboards ruined when inept installers drop those oversized aircoolers during installation, or how dangerous aircoolers can be since the fin edges can be razor sharp, I've personally received more than my fair share of paper cuts.

I've never had an AIO that I've installed leak, in fact the only leak I ever had was one time on a full custom loop I missed a burred edge on a tube and that connector dripped. Simple fix, if irritating.

Google is your friend. You can find the height of pretty much any cooler you need online, and if it's not posted on the cooler website, it'll be in a review or other such.

TDP is thermal design Power. Regardless of what wiki says, TDP is actually the power draw averaged from a series of applications run. And those are nominal output apps, not extreme apps like rendering or compiling and driving a cpu to 100% usage. The thermal output of that power used is generally ±5°C from the wattage used, although can be more or less depending on the cpu, so TDP was adopted as a thermal wattage indicator since it's close enough. Depending on the cpu, max thermal outputs are generally 1.5x - 2x TDP, although recent cpu designs like the 8c/16t i9-9900k can and do exceed that limit. OC changes the game even further, quite easy for thermal outputs to far exceed wattage used.

You can't ever over cool a cpu. It's impossible. You can definitely under cool a cpu though so when it comes to cpu cooling, figure the maximum you are willing to do, and then get a cooler that's larger still.

For a spec-04, the biggest cooling capacity will be found in a Corsair H80i varient or other double fan, double thick rad design. For air coolers, it's the Scythe Fuma Rev.b at 142mm, but that can have issues with ram fitment.

Ok to be honest , I built my pc on my own. AND i know about my luck that I'll be that 1% whose AIO fails. ;-( I really really cannot afford to loose other components cz of leak or anything( CPU thing was way too much bro)

Anyways yes I started to search in the product specification about the height and am still searching for the same. Due to my cabinet max cooler height of 150mm it's tough as most of the coolers are in 160-170mm height range.Still searching though,found the below ones but they kind of are low on tdp side

Arctic Freezer 33 (don't know the tdp it can handle)
CRYORIG H7 140 W
CRYORIG C1 140 W
CRYORIG H7 Plus 150 W
CRYORIG H7 Quad Lumi 160w

yesterday i was gaming and even my ryzen 3 2200G was taking around 130-140w. I saw it in HWinfo. With wraith spire it was cooling good. i mean 70C max and 66C average with room temperature around 26C and overclocked chip.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

That is good temps. Under 80c is best.

 

[Karadjgne]

I built a pc for a client some years back, stuck a Phanteks PH-TC14PE on it. (Great aircooler btw). Temps went through the roof. Tore it all apart started over. Reseated that cooler like 4 times. Still no joy. Except when going for the 5th reseat I happened on the last removal not to put the cooler back in its box, I just stuck it on the bench top before cleaning. And it wobbled. Turned out the cold plate had a warp. No obvious heat discoloration, just a slight warp. It was enough that there was no way I was getting a good contact, just 1 corner was the rest being only tight enough to affect the paste. Aircooler was bunk.

Had another client had temp issues with a Noctua he had bought and couldn't solve. What he'd failed to see was the tiny crack on the top of one of the heat pipes, which allowed the vapor chamber to leak, basically rendering the cooler useless.

Both were quickly replaced by the vendors, but still the fact remains, 'stuff happens' and it happens to anyone. Murphy's Law. You can get bad AIO's and bad aircoolers.

Thought I'd try out Raijintek one time, got a great deal on a Nemesis. Got it home, ripped my pc apart, stuck the cooler in. No joy. The heatsinks on my msi mpower VRM's are large enough that they came into contact with the hestpiping under the rear side of the cooler. Turning it 180° didn't help, it now fit easily, except the heatsink blocked 3 of my ram slots, without the fan.

Stuff happens.

 

[Karadjgne]

Depending on the exact model, figure the Arctic Freezer series as being another budget 140w cooler. The Freezers happen to prefer the fans at high rpm, and aren't loud, so that's possible by bumping your curves up a notch above stock settings. Almost entirely due to fan design, they don't do so well at lower rpm, either not able to push decent cfm or not enough static pressure to push its cfm through the heatsink adequately.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I have heard good things about the artic freezer 33 series. If the temperatures werent bad with the wraith stealth, they are bound to be much better with the freezer 33

 

[DavidM012]

None of those will be enough for an overclocked 2600. The scythe fuma rev b is the only 6 pipe cooler that will fit your chassis otherwise the antec case will fit most of the other 6 pipe coolers. If you buy another heat sink for your 2200g that isn't enough for a r5 2600 it will be a total waste.

If you sell your current chassis at a knock down price, as someone will probably find a use for it, and get the antec you have more of a choice, because the fuma has loud fans, you could simply replace them with different fans, or else the only alternative is the noctuas or the other 6 pipe coolers, though you say ambient temps are currently 26c I thought you were worried about when it hits 40c so add 14c to your current temps and you get 84c which is still ok for a ryzen but the question is, would it be ok for years and years and the answer is, maybe not so great. Maybe the cpu would handle it but, would the other components in the system that's the question, since the vrm area gets particularly hot.

You could add another fan to huff on the vrm heatsink if you don't want to change the chassis beyond that there's nothing to be done except either forego the 2600 or get the chassis that will fit a larger heatsink or get the fuma scythe I don't see that any of the options is a problem I searched compatibility for the noctua and found pcpartpicker has a list of compatible boards which is a lot including yours and also for the scythe fuma rev b pcpartpicker again says it's compatible you simply have to decide which method of cooling you want to apply. The cheapest option is the scythe fuma rev b, even if you were to replace the fans with silent ones.

There is no way that more cooling will be bad for the system but along with overclocking it does attract a premium and there is no way around that there are no free mhz there is value for money if you play your cards right.

I'm currently running my cpu at default and it's 27c under load and the mobo temp is also 25. It goes up to 34c under load with a 4.5ghz overclock and motherboard temp is 32c. Currently mild weather 19c ambient. add 18c for a hot summer day and it's still all below recommended limits by a good margin.

However I found that because the cpu dumps a lot of heat into the near environment the air temperature goes up by a lot on warm days and absent good ventilation, at the high 4.9ghz overclock it was enough to trip the thermal shutdown after a while. And I'm talking about having quite a few fans in the chassis and so on so, when ambient temps are high for some days of the year it's probably the case that you will near the max operating temperature which isn't a good practice, in principle it is better to stay as far from the recommended limits as possible so that heat isn't a limiting factor to the system. Heat is dangerous, volts & electricity are dangerous, stay on the low side as much as possible!