[SOLVED] The best air cooler for i9 9900KF?

[G-star93]

Hello,

so I'm in the middle of buying a new cpu and cpu cooler. I can't realy decide between i9 9900 non K and 9900KF. I'm wondering which air cooler should cool them down on stock speeds? I dont mean to OC it because there is realy no need in overclocking such an high end CPU.

Would arctic freezer 34 eSports DUO be enough? https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/freezer-34-esports-duo.html

or something like bequiet dark rock 4 ? ( not the pro version) I know that dark rock pro 4 and noctua nh-d15 would be more than enough but I want something smaller, so not alot of my motherboard gets covered up by an air cooler. I also don't realy want AIO water cooler, had to many troubles with them in the past.

So basicaly I'm after single tower air coolers with 1 or 2 fans. Any good ideas?

thanks in advance!

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Not all water coolers will get you into truble because i have an Corsair Hydro Series H100i RGB and the temps work pefectly then air cooler and have got the 9900k cpu!

https://premiumbuilds.com/guides/best-cpu-coolers-for-i9-9900k-9900ks/

4 best coolers acording to this website lol

 

[Phaaze88]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGHiRrQ2AAo

(skip to 4:40 if you only want to see the results)
Shows both stock and overclocked scenarios on a Blender workload.
You have very few air options.

 

[mdd1963]

'...so not a lot of my motherboard gets covered by the cooler'...

<blinking>...

I'm sorry...
what?


If a large air cooler is unsightly, best to look into a good liquid cooling solution then, as water blocks allow the best views of pulsating RAM and the semi-captivating glows of mainboard LEDs, etc....

 

[G-star93]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGHiRrQ2AAo

(skip to 4:40 if you only want to see the results)
Shows both stock and overclocked scenarios on a Blender workload.
You have very few air options.

But blender is nothing like real life scenarios like gaming am I right? Hmm so I must get something like noctua 15 or some 280/360mm aio. Great...

 

[G-star93]

'...so not a lot of my motherboard gets covered by the cooler'...

<blinking>...

I'm sorry...
what?


If a large air cooler is unsightly, best to look into a good liquid cooling solution then, as water blocks allow the best views of pulsating RAM and the semi-captivating glows of mainboard LEDs, etc....

What I meant was I dont want all of my board to get covered up by An air cooler, because its Nice and it has alot of rgb so does ram, so if I cover all of this up with some big piece of metal what good is it? I think I will try my luck and go with some aio 280/360mm. But never again with corsair or enermax. Might try Nzxt this Time. But I also want something reliable and quiet

 

[Phaaze88]

But blender is nothing like real life scenarios like gaming am I right? Hmm so I must get something like noctua 15 or some 280/360mm aio. Great...

Blender is a very realistic heavy load on the cpu. It's not synthetic, nor does it place absurd loads on the cpu like Prime95 does.
There are people out there that are running their 9900K on insufficient coolers and claiming that their temps are fine in games like CSGO, PUBG, or whatever...
But I bet you they never bothered to thermally test their coolers with that cpu either.

So, what do think will happen in the scenario where they come across a game or other that can actually run a decent load on this cpu? Or if the game runs AVX instructions?
The coolers they're using then won't be able to handle it, and the cpu will either run uncomfortably hot, or thermal throttle.

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

I'm sure you'll be fine, since the cooler you linked is recommended for up to a TDP of 210, but you might see some very toasty temperatures. If you are okay with the CPU running hotter than the more expensive alternatives, then I don't see a problem with it, especially if you plan on leaving it at stock.

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Blender is a very realistic heavy load on the cpu. It's not synthetic, nor does it place absurd loads on the cpu like Prime95 does.
There are people out there that are running their 9900K on insufficient coolers and claiming that their temps are fine in games like CSGO, PUBG, or whatever...
But I bet you they never bothered to thermally test their coolers with that cpu either.

So, what do think will happen in the scenario where they come across a game or other that can actually run a decent load on this cpu? Or if the game runs AVX instructions?
The coolers they're using then won't be able to handle it, and the cpu will either run uncomfortably hot, or thermal throttle.

Yeah that why I picked an high price cooler with my i9 9000k because dont trust anything that is cheap or mid ranage

 

[Karadjgne]

You opted for the most expensive mainline cpu. A motherboard that supports that cpu isn't in the budget line either. I'm going to assume since you talk about 'realistic' scenarios like gaming being important that you have a commensurate gpu for the 9900kf, which is far from cheap. Not to mention the 750w+ psu, which aren't cheap.

So don't even bother mentioning 'cheap' coolers like the Arctic series. The 9900k's are the one cpu that demands the biggest potential in cooling. For those who argue against that, saying air is good enough, they aren't using a 9900k, they are using a 9700k. That's a 9900k using 8threads or less. Folding, blender, Prime95 and similar programs don't use 8threads, theyll use the 9900k full 16 thread capability, and thats a huge difference in thermal outputs.

The 9900k under Prime95 small fft at a 'standard' 5.0GHz locked core OC can easily hit 250w, the absolute limit of a Noctua NH-D15, so expect temps to hit thermal limits there and throttle. At a 5.3GHz OC, the 9900ks can hit 400w. There isn't an aircooler made that'll stop that from shutdown.

There's only one rule to follow with cooling any of the 9900k series, go big or get a 9700k instead.

 

[G-star93]

You opted for the most expensive mainline cpu. A motherboard that supports that cpu isn't in the budget line either. I'm going to assume since you talk about 'realistic' scenarios like gaming being important that you have a commensurate gpu for the 9900kf, which is far from cheap. Not to mention the 750w+ psu, which aren't cheap.

So don't even bother mentioning 'cheap' coolers like the Arctic series. The 9900k's are the one cpu that demands the biggest potential in cooling. For those who argue against that, saying air is good enough, they aren't using a 9900k, they are using a 9700k. That's a 9900k using 8threads or less. Folding, blender, Prime95 and similar programs don't use 8threads, theyll use the 9900k full 16 thread capability, and thats a huge difference in thermal outputs.

The 9900k under Prime95 small fft at a 'standard' 5.0GHz locked core OC can easily hit 250w, the absolute limit of a Noctua NH-D15, so expect temps to hit thermal limits there and throttle. At a 5.3GHz OC, the 9900ks can hit 400w. There isn't an aircooler made that'll stop that from shutdown.

There's only one rule to follow with cooling any of the 9900k series, go big or get a 9700k instead.

I have MSI Z390 Meg GODLIKE, 1TB nvme m.2 ssd, 16gb gskill tridentz neo 3600 and tier 1 psu 750w for gpu I'm currently using AMD 5700 XT till the release of RTX 3000 series. I still dont know what case to use and what cooler. I'm afraid of AIO's I had alot of them and I had troubles with pumps on 3 of them. So I would even rather get i9 the none K version because it doesnt run as hot, and some big air cooler like noctua nh-d15 and a case with good airflow and it should be enough right? I'm also using Thermal Grizly Kryonaut thermal paste

 

[Karadjgne]

Nice board.

I've been tinkering with liquid cooling for something close to 20 years or so, and have had nothing but AIO's for the last 10 up until I got a killer deal on a Cryorig R1 Ultimate a couple months ago. Shoulda stuck with my nzxt x61. Even on my old i7-3770K at 4.9GHz there was a noticable temp difference under stress, and a very noticable audible difference, the R1 just doesn't have the cooling capacity of the 280mm AIO's. But thats me. Preference.

Realistically, it's entirely dependent on what you get, more so than what type. CoolerMaster makes a 240mm in several designs, a 'lite' L version I'd not touch with a 10 foot pole and the 'rugged' R version which is very good. Corsair has come a long way from its previous iterations with the 2400-2800rpm jet engine noise maker fans, to the mag fans which are excellent and super quiet. Others are trying AIO's, and as of yet are still working out the kinks.

For my money, nzxt. Some don't like that Cam reports the pc build and usage numbers and temps back to nzxt, who uses that to better understand exactly how their coolers are behaving and how they can be improved. Me, lol, I got married, divorced, married, had kids, bought houses, so my info is already out there if you really wanted to look, same as everyone else's. So a company knowing exactly what pc components you have and how it's used is nothing new. Oh wait, that's Microsoft.

There's always a lemon. Every single component in a pc is a possibility. Doesn't matter if it's Seasonic, Noctua or any other, they all have failure rates. Ppl tout about leaks, but don't mention the Noctua that I had that sprung a leak from a heatpipe tip. Or the Phanteks I had that had a slight warp to its base and made temps impossible to regulate.

It's really a matter of what fits your needs and wants and what pro's/con's you can live with. I happen to prefer the looks and performance of a decent AIO over an equivalent aircooler. Some don't.

If Corsair sold 500,000 AIO's last year, and 100 of them leaked and got plastered all over the web, that's still a 0.02% failure rate, and I can live with that number, and so can the 499,900 customers who didn't get a leaky AIO. Sucks if it happens to you, but it can happen to anyone, anytime, with any other component. Nothing is infallible.