Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2 vs Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B or similar coolers

[micheat1023]

So I'm going to be building my next system soon and I was debating on what cooler I should get. I was originally going to get a Noctua NH-D15s but, then figured that it's probably pretty unreasonable and overkill. Since my system will have a silver theme as its primary color I was looking for a nice silver cooler that's still a good performer with nice aesthetics and noise. I was looking at the Shadow Rock 2 since it has a clean brushed aluminum top and Be Quiet is a reputable brand but, when I looked at the cooler tier list it's only rated as a "better 212 EVO" and it seemed like it was struggling to keep up with overclocked CPUs. So then I saw the Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B as an alternative at a similar price point, this one is also rated higher on the CPU cooler tier list. So which would be a better performer for my price, if the Shadow Rock 2 performs as well or better than the Mugen 5 I would rather get that since it's the prettier cooler imo. I would gladly take any other suggestions too preferably around or under $60. I'm starting out with a Ryzen 5 1600 but, would very likely upgrade to a Ryzen 7 3700x class or higher CPU in the future and would like to be able to overclock the chips as hard as I can within a stable limit while keeping temps under 80c and noise to a reasonable level. I also intended to swap out the stock fan of either cooler with a Deepcool RF120 fan if that makes a difference. The max cooler height cannot exceed 166mm as my case is the Cooler Master NR400. Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Streetguru]

11 minutes ago, micheat1023 said:

So I'm going to be building my next system soon and I was debating on what cooler I should get. I was originally going to

Get a Neptwin or Scythe Fuma 2

If you want to really push overclocking do a custom loop

[wylie3]

Here is a nice custom build with the Scythe Mugen with an Auros Z390 Ultra with an i9-9900k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5yh42XPnKg&t=3569s

And another comparing similar types of air coolers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgWTH3V-OM

The Scythe is 154.5 mm (not including MOBO). I have been researching this for my first build and got the Scythe.

[WoodenMarker]

The SR2 is a quiet cooler but not high performance. 

Where are you shopping / located? Budget? 

Do you already have the RF120? If you plan to replace the fan anyway, you should be aiming for a good heatsink. The SR2 might have some potential but only with higher rpm fans.

What ram are you using?

[micheat1023]

10 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

The SR2 is a quiet cooler but not high performance. 

Where are you shopping / located? Budget? 

Do you already have the RF120? If you plan to replace the fan anyway, you should be aiming for a good heatsink. The SR2 might have some potential but only with higher rpm fans.

What ram are you using?

I'm located in the US and my budget is around $60 for a cooler and I've been shopping online but, I could definitely go to a place like microcenter or Frys if I needed to. I don't currently have any of the fans or RAM since I'm probably going to pick them up around black Friday time. The RAM I plan on using is 3200mhz DDR4 Team T-Force Vulcan Z 2x8GB. The reason why I was gonna go with the RF120s is because I'm planning on picking up a 5-pack of them and my case can only use a max of 4 case fans so I would end up having one extra so I thought I might as well slap it on there to keep a consistent look with my build. When it comes to overclocking I pick stability over anything else so, I'm not like a crazy bencher overclocker or anything like that.

[micheat1023]

28 minutes ago, wylie3 said:

Here is a nice custom build with the Scythe Mugen with an Auros Z390 Ultra with an i9-9900k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5yh42XPnKg&t=3569s

And another comparing similar types of air coolers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgWTH3V-OM

The Scythe is 154.5 mm (not including MOBO). I have been researching this for my first build and got the Scythe.

I'll check these out. Thanks.

[micheat1023]

43 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Get a Neptwin or Scythe Fuma 2

If you want to really push overclocking do a custom loop

I was looking at both of them and the only real reason I haven't really picked either or is because they don't really match my build aesthetic as much. The Neptwin is better than the Fuma 2 but, the heat pipe caps look so ugly ;-;. I can't really afford a custom loop and Ryzen isn't as crazy when it comes to pushing overclocks so I would rather keep with the reliability of air cooling because I should easily be able to attain a stable max OC on air.

[micheat1023]

48 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Go with the Mugen 5. Presumably the stock fan is better then the Deepcool RF120 but shouldn't be much of a problem. You can still use the original one at the back. Push pull helped on my quite a lot.

Also they launched a few months ago the TUF edition with RGB.

I see well so far it seems like the Mugen 5 is the one that has more leaning in favor. With them being in the same price I would be willing to give up some prettiness for performance. What are you referring to with the TUF edition with RGB?

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, micheat1023 said:

I was looking at both of them and the only real reason I haven't really picked either or is because they don't really match

There is a pure white neptwin, they just happen to be the cheapest dual tower 120mm coolers typically.

[WoodenMarker]

If you don't mind using the original Scythe fan in pull along with the additional RF120, the Mugen 5 Rev. B is among the best options available and hard to go wrong with.

 

FYI, you can quote multiple posts at once instead of making separate posts.

[micheat1023]

30 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

If you don't mind using the original Scythe fan in pull along with the additional RF120, the Mugen 5 Rev. B is among the best options available and hard to go wrong with.

 

FYI, you can quote multiple posts at once instead of making separate posts.

Hmmm I see, depending on the how the fan placement inside my case is then I'll likely do a push-pull configuration. My concern is since I'll have a rear and top exhaust right by the CPU cooler anyways if it would even fit. Thank you for the notice, this is only my second post on these forums.

31 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

There is a pure white neptwin, they just happen to be the cheapest dual tower 120mm coolers typically.

I was planning on getting that originally when I had decided to make white my main theme color but, I just felt like it would end up clashing with my motherboard especially the white LED fans that come with the cooler. And if the Mugen 5 Rev. B performs just as well as the Neptwin I would rather just go with the Scythe cooler.

2 minutes ago, James Evens said:

It is basically a Mugen 5 with some cosmetic and a RGB version of there fans. Don't know if the RGB fan are identical to the non RGB one.

I see, unfortunately they seem to be out of stock on that cooler where I would be shopping for it. Thank you for the recommendation though, I will keep a look out.