[SOLVED] Should I Use Wraith Spire Cooler on Ryzen 5 3600?

[Alone_Boy_]

Hi again. I've purchased a new Ryzen 5 3600 CPU. As you know it includes a smaller Wraith Stealth stock cooler. So I want to use my current Ryzen 5 1600's bigger and better Wraith Spire stock cooler on Ryzen 5 3600. Is it a good or a bad idea?

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's better than the wraith stealth, so in that way it's a good idea.

The problem is, none of the wraith coolers are very good, and using a good aftermarket cooler offers much better thermal performance and allows for better boost profile management, so in that way, it's a bad idea.

 

[Alone_Boy_]

I'not planning overclock. Also pc games aren't that CPU intensive and they don't causing CPU overheat. So I think Ryzen 5 1600 Wraith Spire cooler will do okay.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I didn't say anything about an overclock. I'm talking about stock performance and by stock performance I mean the basic precision boost/XFR2 boost profiles or the PBO/PBO2 precision boost overdrive profiles. If you've used those coolers before and don't mind the constant up/down and annoying tone, then more power to you. Myself, and most people, can't stand it.

 

[Alone_Boy_]

Yes. I've been hearing those up/down fan tones. It can become annoying sometimes when surfing on internet. But when I put my headphones for gaming, I don't hear fan sounds. So, that won't be a much of a problem either.

 

[John Chesterfield]

I tend to agree with @Darkbreeze as I like a quiet system. But if you're not so bothered about that and wear headphones when gaming, then sure, use the Wraith. It'll keep the CPU cool enough.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Yes. I've been hearing those up/down fan tones. It can become annoying sometimes when surfing on internet. But when I put my headphones for gaming, I don't hear fan sounds. So, that won't be a much of a problem either.

The fan pulsing is easy to fix with an appropriate fan profile, and that's even with a Stealth cooler. You may have to live with it getting loud and screamy sooner (than with a better cooler) but at least it won't pulse annoyingly.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sorry drea, I don't agree on the fan profile. I've not, apparently, built as many Ryzen systems as you or worked with my own (Coming soon), but I have built five other Ryzen systems so far and on every one of them I've tried every kind of configuration of the case fans and CPU cooler that could be done, and nothing made any difference on that cyclic fan behavior OR the tone/pitch it emits when it is at a medium to high RPM.

All it seems to change is whether it cycles at a higher or lower temperature, but the cycle remains regardless and so does the annoying harmonic that those coolers have. For me, EVERY Ryzen system that comes with a stock cooler is getting it replaced. Five customers, having been invited to take a listen before I relinquished their systems back to them, have agreed, and enough people here as well, to make that a foregone conclusion for all future builds that it's even a question for. It's really not that surprising either, because I've experienced similar cyclic fan behavior and similar annoying harmonics on a number of OTHER Cooler master products using their fans, but none of them were QUITE as annoying as these ones are.

But I fully understand that if you always wear headphones and simply don't want to deal with replacing it, then that's 100% your call. My biggest contention with this is the fact that it's been clearly shown, over and over, that better cooling results in extended boost and performance on every model of Ryzen CPU, so if you don't want to hamper performance it's still a pretty good idea IMO. And that's all it is, my opinion.

 

[kurdtnz]

When I was using the wraith prism, not only was it the sound of the cooler ramping up and down that was an issue, when it was maxing out, I could feel the vibrations through my desk!

 

[Alone_Boy_]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll consider buying an aftermarket cooler for CPUs in the future. Or I'll have to anyway, as both AMD and Intel removing stock coolers from their CPU bundle.

 

[RodroX]

In the last Ryzen system I built (Ryzen 5 3600 + Asus X570 Tuf Gaming Plus with lastest BIOS) I found that the stock cooler was not anywhere near as annoying as the first ones I did back in 2019 and ealy 2020 (including my own system).

I do not know if that last Ryzen 5 3600 was a very good one (silicon wise) but the stock fan was not annoying at all. I even launched hwinfo and tested for like 20 mins with diferent loads (browsing, browsing+youtube, CR20, etc) and the fan worked flawlessly and the cpu boosted as it should 4.2 GHz single core, and around 3.95GHz all cores while runing CR20 loop.

Of course thermal performance was not as good as what you can get with any budget aftermarket cooler, but in that particular case I was really surprised.

Its been 2 months already and the user of that system is very happy, she spend the days as a web designer, working with lots of open apps (and lots of open tabs in two or three browsers at the same time), editing pictures and rendering many of small videos.

This girl didn't have any money left back then to change the stock fan, so I told her we should do it as soon as summer time arrive.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Sorry drea, I don't agree on the fan profile. ...

I'm not saying it won't be louder...just tame the pulsing. You have to be content with a fan profile that's essentially flat up to as high as 75C. The smaller the cooler (especially for the little stealths) the higher that fixed fan speed and the louder it will have to be. But below even 70C it doesn't have to be especially bad as the temp spikes are not thermally significant. The problem is many just can't accept that and try to 'tame the temp spikes'. You can't, unless on LN2.

But definitely agree that getting a better cooler means it can both be quieter and keep the average temperature below 85C, when processor boosting is most severely affected. It's a matter of degree; I'm actually quite content using the Prism cooler I took from my 3700X and put onto the Ryzen 1700 system (OC'd to 3.85Ghz). It's much louder than the AIO on the 3700X, but it's tolerable because I have the profile ignore the temp spikes.

 

[madmatt30]

I'm not saying it won't be louder...just tame the pulsing. You have to be content with a fan profile that's essentially flat up to as high as 75C. The smaller the cooler (especially for the little stealths) the higher that fixed fan speed and the louder it will have to be. But below even 70C it doesn't have to be especially bad as the temp spikes are not thermally significant. The problem is many just can't accept that and try to 'tame the temp spikes'. You can't, unless on LN2.

But definitely agree that getting a better cooler means it can both be quieter and keep the average temperature below 85C, when processor boosting is most severely affected. It's a matter of degree; I'm actually quite content using the Prism cooler I took from my 3700X and put onto the Ryzen 1700 system (OC'd to 3.85Ghz). It's much louder than the AIO on the 3700X, but it's tolerable because I have the profile ignore the temp spikes.

Gen 1 ryzen doesn't have those wildly fluctuating temp spikes at low/idle loads that the 3*** series cpu's do though.

In that respect the wraith coolers on gen 1 run on a much more relaxed curve.

Its specifically the 3*** series that have this behaviour, I expect the same from the new series to behave exactly the same.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Gen 1 ryzen doesn't have those wildly fluctuating temp spikes at low/idle loads that the 3*** series cpu's do though.

In that respect the wraith coolers on gen 1 run on a much more relaxed curve.

Its specifically the 3*** series that have this behaviour, I expect the same from the new series to behave exactly the same.

Agreed...not as wild but if set up correctly still brings cores out of C6 deep sleep as needed to process a transient and 'spikes' temp with each one even when OC'd. It's a lot less likely to be noticed but can be a problem with a tight fan profile if trying to keep it quiet at the low temp side of the spikes.

Even my FX6300 processor at stock, if i recall correctly, would spike temperature and ramp back down periodically. I OC'd that thing so far it ran hot all the time so I can't recall to what degree. My motherboard also only offered one-speed (flat +12V, no PWM) fan headers so pulsing wasn't even possible to find out if it could have been an issue.

AMD's been working with this power management scheme for quite some time I think. It's very much on display with Zen2 taking control completely from the OS and doing it up to 100 times a second. I also don't expect it to be abandoned with Zen3. What needs to happen, IMO, is for motherboard BIOS's to stop using an instantaneous temp reading to monitor for fan speed. Instead use an averaging method, even if just an analog RC circuit to integrate the spikes into a smoother curve.