[SOLVED] The best all-in-one liquid cooling for Ryzen 7 3800XT ?

[ukLz]

Hi, I'm currently in process of building a thorough plan for a friend of mine who asked me if I could help him out with creating his very first gaming build yet.

First of all, let me write down what we've figured out so far and what components we haven't chosen yet:

AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE
Kingston HyperX FURY RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL16
RTX 2060 (not quite sure yet which exact model is it going to be)
Kingston A2000 M.2 500GB
any 1TB HDD
No idea about PC case yet
PSU not sure yet, you can suggest one if you have any specific advice

And now we come to the question of the CPU cooling system. To be frankly honest, I've had no experience with any water cooling in the past since I have myself a mid-end budget gaming PC and I never had an opportunity to play around with water coolers before, so I'm not exactly sure which AIO cooling system would fit right for the mentioned PC build. I didn't even do any research on this topic so I thought I should just ask the community instead what should I be looking for and how to generally decide which AIO cooling is the best choice for a CPU such as 3800XT.

The max budget we can segregate for the CPU cooling would be <250€ and hardly a single bit beyond that. I've seen models such as NZXT Kraken X73 but I'm not sure if it's the right choice.

Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

The max budget we can segregate for the CPU cooling would be <250€ and hardly a single bit beyond that. I've seen models such as NZXT Kraken X73 but I'm not sure if it's the right choice.

Thanks.

The NZXT Kraken AIO's are solid coolers... I used the 280mm X62 (currently $150) for nearly 4 years with my previous 7700k build and didn't have a single problem with it. It's still running strong for the new owner.

I went with the 360mm Z73 ($279) for my new 10900k build. The X73 ($179) cooler you are talking about is the same exact 360mm cooler as the Z73 minus the fancy display... hence the $100 price difference.

You'll be fine with a Kraken AIO... you just need to determine what size radiator you want to go with. I haven't owned an AMD system in 20 years and don't know much about the Ryzen chips and what's the best. I'd take a wild guess and say you'd be fine with the 280mm but I'd still get someone else to confirm. I went with the 360mm because these Intel chips get pretty warm and I don't think the same can be said about Ryzen chips so you'd probably be fine with a smaller rad.

 

[Phaaze88]

I believe your buddy should figure out what chassis he's going to put his hardware in, not the other way around. He could run into unwanted clearance problems.
Know the specs of the desired chassis.

There really is no 'best' with these units. If you've seen one 240mm hybrid, you've seen almost all of them.

Does your friend go for bling, or performance? If prioritizing performance, skip the models with LED fans.

For a 3800XT, I doubt they need larger than a 280mm.
360mm has worse price to performance than 280mm - if they care about that sort of thing...
It often doesn't have much of a edge over 280mm - unless the cpu is big on power, which the 3800XT isn't. It's a hot chip because the surface area of the internal heatspreader can't properly dissipate the higher thermal density of the 7nm dies.

Does it even have to be a hybrid cooler? Money can be saved - or better yet, reallocated, by getting an air cooler, then more can be spent on a nicer power supply, a category where new builders commonly skimp on and get screwed later.
The best air coolers tend to match 240mm units while being more affordable. It's not until 280mm that air starts to fall behind.
Try to convince your buddy to go with an air cooler if it means they avoid cheaping out on the psu. Seeing them get a 360mm hybrid + a cheapo psu is less desirable overall.
Here's a couple links in regards to power supplies:
-https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/gigabyte-pb500-power-supply-for-attached-build.3603181/post-21736184
-https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/psu-tier-list-psucultists.3624094/ (try not to go below Tier B)

Or, they could just disregard all that and get a 360mm anyway for whatever reason. The choice is theirs. The above is just subjective opinions anyway.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

For a 3800XT, I doubt they need larger than a 280mm.
360mm has worse price to performance than 280mm - if they care about that sort of thing...
It often doesn't have much of a edge over 280mm - unless the cpu is big on power, which the 3800XT isn't. It's a hot chip because the surface area of the internal heatspreader can't properly dissipate the higher thermal density of the 7nm dies.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too with my 280mm recommendation.

 

[ukLz]

I believe your buddy should figure out what chassis he's going to put his hardware in, not the other way around. He could run into unwanted clearance problems.
Know the specs of the desired chassis.

I just spoke to him over the phone and he told me he bought this morning a Cooler Master MasterCase H500M case for about 150€ or so. I told him it's an overkill case and price but he liked it very much and didn't skimp on a chassis. I guess that case is just fine for any cooler we decide to pick at the end.

Does your friend go for bling, or performance? If prioritizing performance, skip the models with LED fans.

Not sure about that but I remember he's got RGB Fury ram modules ready, so hence that I suppose he's seeking both bling and performance in this case. If it turns out his budget runs out quicker than expected, then I guess he'll go for a non-RGB version.

Does it even have to be a hybrid cooler? Money can be saved - or better yet, reallocated, by getting an air cooler, then more can be spent on a nicer power supply, a category where new builders commonly skimp on and get screwed later.

Air cooling for 3800xt? I genuinely thought air-cooling would be insufficient for such a CPU, especially due to the fact he told me he'd like to OC it to some degree and try to get the best out of it. I'm gonna take a look at what air coolers I can find in local stores and keep it as an alternative to AIO cooling.

Here's a couple links in regards to power supplies:

-https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/gigabyte-pb500-power-supply-for-attached-build.3603181/post-21736184

-https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/psu-tier-list-psucultists.3624094/ (try not to go below Tier B)

Or, they could just disregard all that and get a 360mm anyway for whatever reason. The choice is theirs. The above is just subjective opinions anyway.

I told him we should go for some 750 or 800W 80+ gold PSU (no matter whether modular or semi-modular or not at all) but that's yet to be determined. These links will definitely help the choice and thanks a lot for that, btw.

 

[Phaaze88]

H500M, huh?
-190mm of cpu tower cooler clearance
-Radiator support(top): 120, 140, 240, 280, 360
-Radiator support(front): same as above
Plenty of options, that's for sure.
There's no air cooler today that wouldn't fit in there.
They could leave the 200mm fans in the front and mount a hybrid up top, or mount the hybrid in the front, and move the 200mm up top.

Air cooling for 3800xt? I genuinely thought air-cooling would be insufficient for such a CPU, especially due to the fact he told me he'd like to OC it to some degree and try to get the best out of it. I'm gonna take a look at what air coolers I can find in local stores and keep it as an alternative to AIO cooling.

Nay. Big air coolers and 240mm hybrids are more or less neck and neck. About all 240mm have over big air is the looks(subjective). Both air and hybrid have their share of pros and cons as well. Moving on to the actual cpu though-
The problem starts before he even gets the cpu. 3800X, 3800XT, and 5800X run uncharacteristically hot in their respective Ryzen product stacks because of what I posted earlier:
"the surface area of the cpu's internal heatspreader can't properly dissipate the higher thermal density of the 7nm dies."
Plus they squeezed more speed out of them? That didn't really help with the above issue.
Your buddy would be better off with a 3700X or a 5600X(if they can get one). I'm assuming the reason for the 3800XT is a good sale price?

Also: Overclocking today's cpus is seldom worth it. With older cpus, it could be done without sacrificing performance anywhere. Not now.
Now, overclocking sacrifices single thread performance for extra multi thread perf. Not everything we do will benefit from extra multi thread perf. Many games/apps are still heavily dependent on the speed bound Primary Thread.

 

[BogdanH]

..Overclocking today's cpus is seldom worth it.

-agree fully.

Too many times I can read people say "will overclock it.. need max out of it.." without actually knowing how to do it and what performance gains/losses to expect. After few weeks they usually just set back to default values -because the system becomes unstable and/or too loud.

If your friend is really after performance, my advice would be: instead of water cooler, he should get a solid aircooler (he just saved about 150€) and get better CPU instead (5800X, for example) -no need to overclock and system will be stable.
Let me explain:
If he overclock 3800XT, he can get max 5% performance increase (and risk stability). But 5800X is by default about 15-20% faster because of IPC improvement on 5000 series CPU.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Also: Overclocking today's cpus is seldom worth it. With older cpus, it could be done without sacrificing performance anywhere. Not now.
Now, overclocking sacrifices single thread performance for extra multi thread perf. Not everything we do will benefit from extra multi thread perf. Many games/apps are still heavily dependent on the speed bound Primary Thread.

-agree fully.

Too many times I can read people say "will overclock it.. need max out of it.." without actually knowing how to do it and what performance gains/losses to expect. After few weeks they usually just set back to default values -because the system becomes unstable and/or too loud.

Yeah I'm thinking of dialing my 10900k back down to default... not because I'm having problems it's actually running stable and has been for the last 2 months at 5.2ghz all core. I'm mainly thinking about it just because I really don't see the advantage of it outside of flexing over benchmarks... which I've already done.

Back in the day sure... but nowadays I'm just not seeing the advantages. I would definitely want to tweak the voltage I think... the stock mobo settings have it at like 1.4v (???) and I'm running 5.2 @ 1.34v so I know for sure I could lessen the voltage with a stock setting and still be fine... (I think)