Air cooler for OC i9 9900k

[HellTheCRoss]

Hey guys, which one of these air coolers are better for an i9 9900k 4.7-5ghz OC: Deepcool Assassin III, Dark Rock Pro 4, Noctua NH-D15 or should I go for an AIO instead? I'll do more gaming and a little bit of video editing.

[Ralf]

I've on this forum that dual tower coolers arent worth it's price. Dark Rock 4 isn't worse compared to the Pro 4, so I would go for the legend: Cooler Master Hyper 212X Dual Fan

[Meganter]

8 minutes ago, HellTheCRoss said:

Hey guys, which one of these air coolers are better for an i9 9900k 4.7-5ghz OC: Deepcool Assassin III, Dark Rock Pro 4, Noctua NH-D15 or should I go for an AIO instead? I'll do more gaming and a little bit of video editing.

Hello,

 

They're all good but out of those the Deepcool is the best.

 

For reference :

 

 

[dizmo]

D15. All day every day.

I wouldn't but the Deepcool just because of the companies either blatant false advertising, or not knowing what their products actually are.

 

7 minutes ago, Ralf said:

I've on this forum that dual tower coolers arent worth it's price. Dark Rock 4 isn't worse compared to the Pro 4, so I would go for the legend: Cooler Master Hyper 212X Dual Fan

Suggesting something like that without pointing out you're joking isn't funny.

5 minutes ago, Plouffe said:

Hello,

 

They're all good but out of those the Deepcool is the best.

No, it's not. The D15 is better.

[Zando_]

NH-D15, a top performer and it has Noctua's very good mounting system, support, a 6 year warranty, etc. Still pretty much the best choice for high end air unless you only consider numbers on paper and don't care about anything else. They make a chromax one now too if you don't like the silver with brown fans. 

[Meganter]

3 minutes ago, dizmo said:

No, it's not. The D15 is better.

As much as I am a huge fan (huehuehue) of Noctua :

 

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/deepcool_deepcool_assassin_iii_review,9.html

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/james-dawson/deepcool-assassin-iii-air-cooler-review/5/

https://tech4gamers.com/deepcool-assassin-iii-cpu-air-cooler-review/

 

And also the tier list I linked above.

[Mateyyy]

4.7GHz should be fine even with a single tower heatsink on almost any chip, as it's the stock all-core boost frequency.

 

I've personally been using a 9900K paired with a DRP4 and even with MCE turned on (basically a bad 5GHz OC), temps while gaming hovered around the low to mid 70s (in CPU intensive titles such as BF5) and 60s in less CPU heavy games. At 4.7GHz it will sit at about 60C even in CPU intensive titles, and mid 70s in stress tests.

I also run my fans quite slow though so if you don't mind turning them up a little you can get even better results in terms of temperatures.

I'd also suggest the NH-D15 - I would've also gotten one but they didn't have the chromax.black version out back when I was building my PC unfortunately. I believe it just edges out the DRP4 by a couple degrees, and should also be very quiet.

[freeagent]

Le Grand Macho RT

 

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/thermalright-le-grand-macho/6.html

 

[StarsMars]

46 minutes ago, HellTheCRoss said:

Hey guys, which one of these air coolers are better for an i9 9900k 4.7-5ghz OC: Deepcool Assassin III, Dark Rock Pro 4, Noctua NH-D15 or should I go for an AIO instead? I'll do more gaming and a little bit of video editing.

The d15 and the assassin3 will perform within a degree of each other but the assassin will be louder when pushed. 
 

I believe the dark rock pro4 is really getting pushed at 5ghz 9900k. If less than 5ghz this would be fine. 
 

I say go d15 or aio. 

[jones177]

I use a NH-D15 with a i7 8086k at 5.1ghz(1.34v) and it idles around  33c.

I also have a i9 9900k at 5gz(1.27v) all cores using a NH-D15 that idles at 32c. 

 

I have a Dark Rock Pro 4 sitting in a box because it won't fit over my ram. I hope I remember to buy low profile ram so I can use it in the future.

[HellTheCRoss]

Alright, the NH-D15 it is then. Btw, can I also ask what thermal paste I should go with? I know that nt-h2 from noctua aswell is a good choice.

[dizmo]

1 hour ago, Plouffe said:

As much as I am a huge fan (huehuehue) of Noctua :

 

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/deepcool_deepcool_assassin_iii_review,9.html

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/james-dawson/deepcool-assassin-iii-air-cooler-review/5/

https://tech4gamers.com/deepcool-assassin-iii-cpu-air-cooler-review/

 

And also the tier list I linked above.

The Guru article you linked clearly shows the D15 as being better...

Same with the Tech5Gamers.

So. Not sure what you were trying to prove.

[Meganter]

3 minutes ago, dizmo said:

The Guru article you linked clearly shows the D15 as being better...

Same with the Tech5Gamers.

So. Not sure what you were trying to prove.

You didn't even read then as the Assassin III beats it by a little margin but still w/e, it's just facts that you didn't even show in the first place...

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, Plouffe said:

You didn't even read then as the Assassin III beats it by a little margin but still w/e, it's just facts that you didn't even show in the first place...

Guru:

Idle

D15 32

Assassin 35

 

Load

D15 74

Assassin 74

 

Tech4Gamers:

Stock

D15 20.85

Aassassin 20

 

OC

D15 39.4

Assassin 40.6

 

When you get up into higher end coolers, every degree matters when you're talking about differences in performance. The only one where the Assassin was better was the stock test by Tech4Gamers, and even then a fraction of a degree is margin of error.

 

So yes, while they're close on most tests, the D15 wins. It's better. It's cooler. You can't ignore the numbers and say that because the cooler you recommended is behind be a little bit that it doesn't matter.

 

Don't be so salty.

 

[freeagent]

LGMRT performs as well as D15, and is quieter. Add a TY143  to leave the D15 at the back of the pack.

[WoodenMarker]

13 hours ago, HellTheCRoss said:

Alright, the NH-D15 it is then. Btw, can I also ask what thermal paste I should go with? I know that nt-h2 from noctua aswell is a good choice.

The cooler already comes with NT-H1 which is excellent. Most coolers come with decent paste. 

13 hours ago, dizmo said:

Guru:

Idle

D15 32

Assassin 35

 

When you get up into higher end coolers, every degree matters when you're talking about differences in performance. The only one where the Assassin was better was the stock test by Tech4Gamers, and even then a fraction of a degree is margin of error.

Idle temps are irrelevant for measuring raw performance. It's where there's little distinction between coolers from low to high end. As load increases, differences become the most clear. The extra performance also matters the most when cooling is more difficult so the best tests to look at are the heaviest ones.

 

The Tech4Gamers article shows a win on the 6850k oc for the NH-D15 and a loss for the NH-D15 on the 2700x oc -- Pretty even trade.

13 hours ago, dizmo said:

The Guru article you linked clearly shows the D15 as being better...

Same with the Tech5Gamers.

So. Not sure what you were trying to prove.

There were two 'guru' articles linked -- kitguru and guru3d.

Although guru3d shows a closer comparison, it's also probably a lighter load and less applicable for this comparison. The guru3d article shows 74c load with a 4790k (a 53c delta over 21c ambient) whereas the kitguru article shows a 62.5 vs. 63.1c for delta over ambient with the 9900k which is what the OP wants to cool. The larger delta is a good indicator of clearer results since cooler performance is harder to separate at lower temperatures. 

It's a small difference indeed but Deepcool's claim for their Assassin III is 1c better than the NH-D15. 

 

There are plenty of tests and reviews showing the coolers trading blows. Depending on which tests you focus on, which seems to be the better cooler can sway in either direction. 

The Assassin III being placed higher is it seeming the better performer more often than not. 

Along with the reviews already linked above, here's a non-exhaustive list of more results that can paint a fuller picture:

https://twitter.com/HardwareSci/status/1187427422016131072/photo/2

https://youtu.be/g0pv3g7A44I?t=466

https://youtu.be/wsEpHMQHBVM?t=371

https://m.hexus.net/tech/reviews/cooling/135152-deepcool-assassin-iii/?page=2

https://www.eteknix.com/deepcool-gamerstorm-assassin-iii-air-cooler-review/5/

https://play3r.net/reviews/cooling/gamerstorm-assassin-3-the-best-cpu-air-cooler/

https://www.ocinside.de/review/deepcool_assassin_iii/5/

https://tweakreviews.com/air-cooling/deepcool-gamerstorm-assassin-iii

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/deepcool-gamer-storm-assassin-iii-cpu-cooler/6.html

http://myc-media.de/deepcool-assassin-iii/

https://www.hardwaremax.net/reviews/kuehler/1606-test-deepcool-assassin-iii?showall=&start=5

https://www.tomshw.it/hardware/deepcool-assassin-iii-recensione/

https://www.computerbase.de/2019-10/deepcool-assassin-iii-test-kuehler/2/#abschnitt_messergebnisse

https://youtu.be/svnrP6Fr0jg?t=662

https://youtu.be/f8Se0qVKD1Y?t=167

13 hours ago, freeagent said:

LGMRT performs as well as D15, and is quieter. Add a TY143  to leave the D15 at the back of the pack.

The LGMRT sure is quiet but generally trades blows with the NH-D15S even with an additional fan.

Most high performance large air coolers show at least a few instances of beating other dual towers by a significant margin whereas the LGMRT is shown barely trading blows at best. Its best showing is likely from tweaktown where it's ahead of the NH-D15 but the load is light enough that the Brontes and MasterAir Pro3 can both keep temps in check at 83c. https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7986/thermalright-le-grand-macho-rt-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

https://youtu.be/0fq-oi7p6r4?t=655

https://www.nikktech.com/main/articles/pc-hardware/cpu-cooling/cpu-air-coolers/7107-thermalright-le-grand-macho-rt-cpu-cooler-review?start=5

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Luftkuehlung-Hardware-217993/Specials/Thermalright-Le-Grand-Macho-Test-Review-1216603/

https://www.hardwaremax.net/reviews/kuehler/1301-test-le-grand-macho-rt?showall=&start=4

https://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.php/artikel/hardware/kuehlung/38997-thermalright-le-grand-macho-mit-ty-147-b-im-nachtest.html?start=4

https://www.pakgamers.com/reviews/thermalright-le-grand-macho-cpu-air-cooler-review/

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/thermalright-le-grand-macho/6.html