Air Cooling The 3700X

LukeMurtagh1995 · 17 Feb 2020 at 17:16

Hello all,

I may decide to get the 3700X for my next build which will be all air cooled. I was wondering what air cooler to use for my 3700X. Can anyone recommend any air coolers? I was the I king of going for the Noctua NH-U12S, although I’ve also been recommended a Scythe cooler. Would the Noctua give me good temps when my CPU is overclocked?

Thanks.

Wang · 17 Feb 2020 at 17:22

There’s been a few good reports knocking around about the new Zalman cooler. Initial tests had it beating the flagship Noctua cooler but ongoing benching seems to have them fairly equal. The Zalman is a fair bit cheaper too.

LukeMurtagh1995 · 17 Feb 2020 at 17:24

Yes, I’ve seen the new Zalman cooler. The only issue is that I don’t like the aesthetics all that much. I may end up going for it though as it is a great cooler by all accounts.

Wang · 17 Feb 2020 at 17:28

The all black Noctua D15 is aesthetically pleasing, but slaps your arse with the price.

LukeMurtagh1995 · 17 Feb 2020 at 17:31

Ha, that it certainly does. Price to performance the Zalman is almost certainly better than the Noctua.

wazza300 · 17 Feb 2020 at 18:13

Dark rock pro 4 is good aswell

LukeMurtagh1995 · 17 Feb 2020 at 18:17

Yes, I’ve heard good things about that cooler. Is there any potential RAM-blocking issues with the Pro 4?

wazza300 · 17 Feb 2020 at 18:33

LukeMurtagh1995 said:
Yes, I’ve heard good things about that cooler. Is there any potential RAM-blocking issues with the Pro 4?

Probably,not sure on that cooler,if using low profile ram I think you'd be ok

Another cooler to consider is the arctic freezer 34 esports,but I doubt it would be as good as the expensive coolers

LukeMurtagh1995 · 17 Feb 2020 at 18:40

wazza300 said:
Probably,not sure on that cooler,if using low profile ram I think you'd be ok

Another cooler to consider is the arctic freezer 34 esports,but I doubt it would be as good as the expensive coolers

Okay, thanks for your advice. I’m looking to get some Ryzen optimised RGB memory so as long as the cooler doesn’t hang over the second memory slot I should be okay.

Grimley · 17 Feb 2020 at 19:11

Just a heads up. When you buy an air cooler, check to see how tall it is. Then check to see if said cooler will fit in the case of your choice. Reason is I bought a Lian-li PC-011 Dynamic without checking the max height for an air CPU cooler. Turns out most of the recomnended big air coolers wont fit (too tall) I also bought a Thermalright Macho SBM & didn't check the height of that either! Good job it fitted!

LukeMurtagh1995 · 17 Feb 2020 at 19:22

Yes, that’s something I need to keep an eye on. The case I’ll probably go with, a Meshify S2, should give me plenty of room, but I don’t want a massive air cooler to take up most of the space inside it. Purely for aesthetic reasons admittedly.

EsaT · 17 Feb 2020 at 20:32

LukeMurtagh1995 said:
I was the I king of going for the Noctua NH-U12S, although I’ve also been recommended a Scythe cooler. Would the Noctua give me good temps when my CPU is overclocked?

When overclocking there's no such thing as too much cooling power and you'll want the best cooler fitting into your requirements.
And you don't really overclock Ryzens in traditional sense.
At least if you play games.
Ryzens boost the most heavily loaded cores automatically very agressively (depending on also how well CPU is cooled) compared to silicon's capabilities and reaching similar speeds with manual all core overclocks is very hard.
Especially with higher core count CPUs.
And shouldn't be surprise that if clock speed doesn't reach same, that causes easily performance regression in games.

Again fast memories help to boost especially minimum framerates.

LukeMurtagh1995 said:
don’t want a massive air cooler to take up most of the space inside it.

Overpriced brand hype Noctua is worser in also that compared to Scythe Mugen 5.
Which has actually better DIMM clearances, because of Noctua failing to master the dark magic of offset finstack:
https://www.tweaktown.com/image.php...scythe-mugen-5-rev-cpu-cooler-review_full.jpg
https://www.tweaktown.com/image.php..._32_noctua_nh_u12s_cpu_cooler_review_full.jpg

Yeah... Despite of being anorexic in comparison NH-U12S is worser in those because of Noctua using more money into marketing hype than actual product.
https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8320/scythe-mugen-5-rev-cpu-cooler-review/index5.html
https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5417/noctua-nh-u12s-cpu-cooler-review/index7.html

Scythe even bundles proper screwdriver, while "poor" Noctua gives bent piece of wire, which is clumsy to use.
(and using normal short screwdriver is nightmare for skin of the knuckles)