I’ve seen in most L1 videos of Wendell talking about different 3rd Gen Ryzen builds that he favours the NF-U12A. I’m curious what experiences people have with different air coolers on Ryzen, and also some comparisons between the NF-U12A and other tower coolers.
Mostly, I’ve stuck with Be Quiet!'s Dark Rock Pro series for the last two builds. A DRP3 and DRP4 for my recent Ryzen build, but the idle temps of high 40s (with multiple tries at repasting) have left me wondering whether there are other options out there. Either less bulky, like the NF-U12A with similar performance, or whether it’s even just worth moving to a 240-280mm AIO.
The DRP4 has 7 heatpipes, like Noctua’s NF-U12A, but Wendell pointed out that the heatpipe placement and orientation on the Noctua might be more ideal than most.
I’d be keen to hear people’s experience. I know this new gen of Ryzen processors run hot, but I’m currently running a 3700X and waiting for a 3900X to come into stock to finish my build.
Some people have been complaining of high temps even on AIO’s. Reason for this being that most water cooling plates cool the center of the block - which isn’t perfect for the off-center chiplets.
3rd Gen Ryzen gives you the temp of the hottest core and with the aggressive boost system that dumps allot of voltage into some cores in single core workloads (Even at “idle” - Windows is still doing stuff in the background) you will see higher temps than your used to. I don’t see this as a problem - as long as the temps stay lower then the max temp.
If you haven’t then I suggest looking at Buildzoids video with his take on how the boost algorithm works:
If you are going to buy a new cooler anyway then I would say go ahead and buy the NH-U12A - it’s an awesome cooler but I don’t think it’s worth it to swap out your DRP4 if not necessary.
On upgrading a stock CPU cooler
Cooler Master T-2 (T series) “Oh wow that was so easy to install”
DeepCool Gamexx 400 “I wish I had smaller hands, this such a pain!”
CollerMaster Hyer 212 “I have to remove the motherboard to remove the stock backplate, install this cheap flimsy backplate, what a POS!”
Thanks for the reference, I’ve definitely noticed that at full load it exceeds 80, and on warmer days reaches 85 which isn’t ideal but these are pure stress-test conditions and even if I’m running it full load with simulations, I don’t expect it to be stressed to that extent. I’m just curious if the 120mm Noctua magic can somehow improve thermals, even marginally, over the DRP4. Would be easier to deal with a smaller cooler that doesn’t cover the RAM.
I’m doing the same, as the mobo seems to select the correct FCLK speed to match my RAM, etc. and it seems that the BIOS updates are narrowing in on the correct default Ryzen settings now.