CPU cooler for a Ryzen 3600 on an M-ATX board in a small case?

[VincentVolaju]

Hey everyone, I think I'd like to get a different cooler for my Ryzen 5 3600 and replace the current stock cooler that came with it. When not playing any games or watching videos, the CPU temp varies wildly between 40-65degrees. When playing Bannerlord for about 30-40minutes it got up to 82degrees. After reading some posts about how these Ryzen CPUs run pretty hot, I'm guessing my numbers aren't super bad...but still, I'd prefer to get them lower. So I've decided to get a new cooler for it.

 

It seems like a lot of people recommend Noctua coolers, but they're pretty huge, from what I've seen. I have a M-ATX board in a pretty tight case. Does anyone know of any good / reliable coolers for smaller PCs? Preferably that could be easily installed without having to unhook everything and remove the mobo from case? =D

 

Thanks!

[Mateyyy]

You could try applying a slight undervolt in the BIOS to your CPU. You can generally get away on these chips with about -0.05 to -0.1V without losing any performance.

What case have you got?

[The_russian]

What's your budget and what case do you have? 

[VincentVolaju]

1 hour ago, Mateyyy said:

You could try applying a slight undervolt in the BIOS to your CPU. You can generally get away on these chips with about -0.05 to -0.1V without losing any performance.

What case have you got?

I've never done that before, not exactly sure how to do it. If I goofed it up, could I damage my system / CPU?

 

1 hour ago, The_russian said:

What's your budget and what case do you have? 

 

Budget anything under $100. I mean it would be great to get one for $20-30, but realistically, I'm guessing a cheap one wouldn't do much better than the stock one that comes with the 3600 right?

 

Case is an Antec VSK10 Window

 

 

[Mateyyy]

The VSK10 allows up to 160mm CPU coolers on paper, so it should fit something like a Noctua NH-U12A, NH-U12S or be quiet! Dark Rock 4, or the downdraft Dark Rock TF.

2 hours ago, VincentVolaju said:

I've never done that before, not exactly sure how to do it. If I goofed it up, could I damage my system / CPU?

In the BIOS you should probably be able to find a setting to adjust the core voltage, where you can choose either Auto, Manual, Offset (and maybe Adaptive, at least on ASUS boards). You'll want to select the Offset option, and then add something like a -0.05V voltage offset.

What could happen if you turn the voltage too low is the CPU will become unstable. With Ryzen 3000 AFAIK you're more likely to just see drops in performance, rather that BSODs, to show that it's unstable. You can use something like Cinebench to test each time you increase the increment by which you lower the voltage whether you're losing performance or not. 

This should be safe and not damage your CPU in any way. It's when you overvolt and go over the ~1.4-1.45V area where you get into potentially harmful land.