Better case fans or better cpu cooler?

[kyn1972]

Looking to improve the cooling slightly for my 3900x in this Fractal Define R6 case I have so which would be the better option overall?

I am looking at either three Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-24V-3000 for $97 dollars or waiting until someone has the Noctua NH-D15 chromax Black back in stock which will hopefully get for a little over 100 assuming the price does not spike further up.

[desertcomputer]

Assume you have crap cooler now, I would upgrade CPU cooler first and then fans.

[LogicalDrm]

iPPC aren't meant for desktop use. What is the reason for your upgrade? iPPC fans are loud, even when controlled at lower speeds (and that point you are wasting money on them). Assuming you are using only stock cooler, then upgrading CPU cooler would give you most out.

[kyn1972]

I am simply looking at keeping the system overall as cool as possible.

I guess I will just wait as even if I were to decide to get the cpu cooler no one has the Noctua Chromax D15 which is the one I wanted.

I even emailed Noctua and they replied that they are not going to be shipping anymore for an unknown time.

[LogicalDrm]

19 hours ago, kyn1972 said:

I am simply looking at keeping the system overall as cool as possible.

I guess I will just wait as even if I were to decide to get the cpu cooler no one has the Noctua Chromax D15 which is the one I wanted.

I even emailed Noctua and they replied that they are not going to be shipping anymore for an unknown time.

What kind of temps would this be?

[kyn1972]

9 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

What kind of temps would this be?

Nothing bad about 46 to 48c on idle.

I just wanted to try to keep the system running as cool as possible.

Without of course doing a water cooling setup because to honest the idea of water + electricity kinda makes me nervous lol.

[LogicalDrm]

13 minutes ago, kyn1972 said:

Nothing bad about 46 to 48c on idle.

I just wanted to try to keep the system running as cool as possible.

Without of course doing a water cooling setup because to honest the idea of water + electricity kinda makes me nervous lol.

For actual idle those would be on the higher side. What about load?

[kyn1972]

3 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

For actual idle those would be on the higher side. What about load?

Ran CINEBENCH 20R for 20 minutes and the highest it got was 85.7C

and then CPU-Z cpu stress test barely hit 80.2C after 10 minutes.

Even tried both at the same time and it didnt go much higher than CINEBENCH on its own with its peak at 86.2C.

Of course its always possible I ran the tests wrong.

Edit: Just got done using OCCT as well with CINEBENCH and CPUZ stress at same time to get 100% cpu usage and highest was 88.3C after 9 minutes.

[LogicalDrm]

9 hours ago, kyn1972 said:

Ran CINEBENCH 20R for 20 minutes and the highest it got was 85.7C

and then CPU-Z cpu stress test barely hit 80.2C after 10 minutes.

Even tried both at the same time and it didnt go much higher than CINEBENCH on its own with its peak at 86.2C.

Of course its always possible I ran the tests wrong.

Edit: Just got done using OCCT as well with CINEBENCH and CPUZ stress at same time to get 100% cpu usage and highest was 88.3C after 9 minutes.

Ok, I can see the need for cooling upgrade. Part of those temps is just Ryzen 3rd gen being what it is and how it was designed to be. If everything is left stock.

 

Reasoning: AMD has Performance Boost (PBO or CPB etc. in BIOS) which boosts clock speed and voltages if your cooling has room for it. Mainly the target temp seems to be 80C while under load. The normal load target might be 75C, and the max temp is 95C. Getting beefier cooler might not drop temps that much as PBO will just take advantage of the situation. Solution would be to disable PBO. There's GamersNexus article explaining what PBO is and how much it will improve performance over stock clocks. My opinion the boost is minimal, and if you like lower temps, you don't need PBO.

 

And as said by another member, who I don't recall at this moment, 3rd gen Ryzen doesn't actually OC that well. Its designed to be at its best performance out of the box, unlike what Intels strategy has been.

[kyn1972]

2 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Ok, I can see the need for cooling upgrade. Part of those temps is just Ryzen 3rd gen being what it is and how it was designed to be. If everything is left stock.

 

Reasoning: AMD has Performance Boost (PBO or CPB etc. in BIOS) which boosts clock speed and voltages if your cooling has room for it. Mainly the target temp seems to be 80C while under load. The normal load target might be 75C, and the max temp is 95C. Getting beefier cooler might not drop temps that much as PBO will just take advantage of the situation. Solution would be to disable PBO. There's GamersNexus article explaining what PBO is and how much it will improve performance over stock clocks. My opinion the boost is minimal, and if you like lower temps, you don't need PBO.

 

And as said by another member, who I don't recall at this moment, 3rd gen Ryzen doesn't actually OC that well. Its designed to be at its best performance out of the box, unlike what Intels strategy has been.

Thanks,

I have a Noctua D15 Chromax Black ordered  now via Amazon and it is supposed to be here on the 14th.

Hopefully that will help bring the temps into a better range.

[Mitzy]

On 5/5/2020 at 2:32 AM, kyn1972 said:

Looking to improve the cooling slightly for my 3900x in this Fractal Define R6 case I have so which would be the better option overall?

I am looking at either three Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-24V-3000 for $97 dollars or waiting until someone has the Noctua NH-D15 chromax Black back in stock which will hopefully get for a little over 100 assuming the price does not spike further up.

Get a better cpu cooler and then get the fans after you have got the cooler seems that your cpu is pretty high end in other words better aio/air cooler means better overclocking in the pc and if you chose fans it would just improve airflow so that’s why I personally would choose the the cpu cooler over the fans first and then the fans a bit later

[kyn1972]

2 hours ago, Mitzy said:

Get a better cpu cooler and then get the fans after you have got the cooler seems that your cpu is pretty high end in other words better aio/air cooler means better overclocking in the pc and if you chose fans it would just improve airflow so that’s why I personally would choose the the cpu cooler over the fans first and then the fans a bit later

Yup I have a Noctua Chromax D15 on the way via fedex and its due monday before noon.

[Mitzy]

2 minutes ago, kyn1972 said:

Yup I have a Noctua Chromax D15 on the way via fedex and its due monday before noon.

That should give you enough room if you wanted to overclock in the future if you wanted to and still manage to keep the 3900X considerably cool so it doesn’t overheat 

[kyn1972]

Update on the temps with the new cooler getting 69C +/- 1C with CINEBENCH so it seems the Noctua has helped rein the temps in.