Recommendations for cooler under 150mm?

Devilmoon · March 10, 2020

Hey everyone,

I just upgraded my PC and installed a Ryzen 5 3600, currently using it with the stock cooler. For now I'm seeing temps ranging from 40ish to ~85 degrees, but I would like to upgrade the cooler to have it running cooler and possibly OC it a bit (either with Ryzen Master or my mobo's "game boost", nothing too crazy).

My case is a mid-tower (Carbide 100R) and on the specifications the max height of the CPU cooler is listed as 150mm, hence I'm looking for something under that. Right now I've been looking at the Noctua NH-U9S as my first choice, but I've also read good things about the Cryorig H7 and the Dark Rock TF, but this last one in particular I am not considering too much because I would prefer a cooler pushing air out of the back of the case.

Do you guys have any other recommendations? Does someone have my same 150mm limit and have you found a cooler you are happy with?

P.S.: I was also looking at the tier list stickied on the forum, but unfortunately the height of each cooler is not reported and I am still working through it, but the Noctua I linked seems to be the best one according to that list that fits in my case

ObsidianAura · March 10, 2020

You could fit a 280mm radiator into that system if you aren't averse to AIW cooler. Corsair doesn't officially support that but people have done it.

schwellmo92 · March 10, 2020

The Noctua or the Cryorig are good.

WoodenMarker · March 11, 2020

The 150mm spec is conservative. Examples of the 159mm tall Hyper 212 Evo and LED fitting just fine:

https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/by_part/JwVBD3#h=8,512

https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/by_part/PzM323#h=8,512

The 160mm tall NH-D14 also seems to fit: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/31573844/

Good options include:

Freezer 33 eSports ONE: https://it.pcpartpicker.com/product/P8KcCJ/arctic-freezer-33-esports-one-blackgreen-cpu-cooler-acfre00045a

If you don't mind

Phantom: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B076KYYSRW?tag=pcp06-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Devilmoon · March 11, 2020

Quote

Phantom: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B076KYYSRW?tag=pcp06-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

This one seems to push it at 160mm like the Noctua you linked, so I think I would not risk buying it just to have to return it.

The Freezer on the other hand seems a more reasonable choice; May I ask why you are recommending it? Is it just because of the cheaper price compared to the ones I originally linked or does it actually outperform them?

WoodenMarker · March 20, 2020

On 3/11/2020 at 10:28 AM, Devilmoon said:

This one seems to push it at 160mm like the Noctua you linked, so I think I would not risk buying it just to have to return it.

The Freezer on the other hand seems a more reasonable choice; May I ask why you are recommending it? Is it just because of the cheaper price compared to the ones I originally linked or does it actually outperform them?

I recommended it since the pricing is good and it performs better than the NH-U9S and similarly to the pricier H7.

The NH-D14 seems to fit fine so I wouldn't have any qualms of the Phantom fitting.

FYI, I don't get any notification when the quote is manually created or edited that way.