3950X SFF Cooling

[MajorStarewell]

I am planning my next build (parts list here) and want to use the Ryzen 9 3950X for its very high number of cores. I am a primarily a streamer/gamer but also like to mess around with 3D modeling (blender, 3dsmax), and often use Premiere Pro and Photoshop. The main point of this post is for cooling recommendations for this chip. I am going to use the Louqe Ghost S1 MK III (which will be available in NA around mid-late august) which is a mini-ITX case. The case is designed to pull in air from the sides and use convection to exhaust out the top. I am going to add a slim fan in the top to assist with the airflow. I originally planned to use the Noctua NH-L9x65 SE-AM4, however Nocuta recently announced the NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition but I have seen mixed reports about the cooling power of Noctua's SFF coolers. Which cooling solution should I go for? I do not want to downgrade the chip itself as the next logical step down would be the 3800x (as the 3900x's actually runs hotter as shown in many benchmarks). 

[Mateyyy]

The NH-L12 is about the best cooler you can fit in the Ghost S1. It will handle a 3950X fine, especially with a slight undervolt. In fact, you can generally get away with even an NH-L9a if you're undervolting, though if you can get the L12 then there's not much point in going that route.

[Senzelian]

I have a Ghost S1 and to be honest, I wouldn't buy one again for a high end build.

 

I wasn't able to keep my Ryzen 7 2700 under decent temps without cranking up the fan speed. I also had two 120x25mm top exhaust fans.

And the noise the GPU kicked out in that thing ain't fun.

 

On top of that the quality of the case isn't great either. Mismatched colors and panel gaps are to be expected. (Unless they improved on that by now, which I don't expect considering their track record.)

 

Just a warning...

[MajorStarewell]

4 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

The NH-L12 is about the best cooler you can fit in the Ghost S1. It will handle a 3950X fine, especially with a slight undervolt. In fact, you can generally get away with even an NH-L9a if you're undervolting, though if you can get the L12 then there's not much point in going that route.

I already planned on undervolting it a little bit since this build is gonna be so dense, but I'm glad I can put my cooling concerns to rest! Thanks so much for the quick response! 

[Deli]

You will need to limit the power quite a bit, thus reduce the boost clock a lot to use a small air cooler for the 3950X, unless you don't mind the CPU runs at 90C+. For a SFF build. I still think a 240mm AIO is needed for this CPU if you want to get the most out of it.

[MajorStarewell]

4 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

I have a Ghost S1 and to be honest, I wouldn't buy one again for a high end build.

 

I wasn't able to keep my Ryzen 7 2700 under decent temps without cranking up the fan speed. I also had two 120x25mm top exhaust fans.

And the noise the GPU kicked out in that thing ain't fun.

 

On top of that the quality of the case isn't great either. Mismatched colors and panel gaps are to be expected. (Unless they improved on that by now, which I don't expect considering their track record.)

 

Just a warning...

Which Ghost S1 revision do u have? I've heard that the MK I Ghost S1's engineering tolerances were a bit loose as well as just general not outstanding build quality, but it was improved with the MK II. I would assume that along with the MK III's improvements it would also be higher quality. 

[Senzelian]

1 minute ago, MajorStarewell said:

Which Ghost S1 revision do u have? I've heard that the MK I Ghost S1's engineering tolerances were a bit loose as well as just general not outstanding build quality, but it was improved with the MK II. I would assume that along with the MK III's improvements it would also be higher quality. 

I have a Mk2.

[Mateyyy]

3 minutes ago, MajorStarewell said:

I already planned on undervolting it a little bit since this build is gonna be so dense, but I'm glad I can put my cooling concerns to rest! Thanks so much for the quick response! 

Sounds good then. No problem!

You can use these videos for reference on cooling, undervolting and general performance results:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ir1Wvcypic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlPrQE82m-E

[Deli]

2 minutes ago, MajorStarewell said:

I already planned on undervolting it a little bit since this build is gonna be so dense, but I'm glad I can put my cooling concerns to rest! Thanks so much for the quick response! 

Undervolting doesn't work well with 3950x and 3900X. You see the CPU performance goes to the drain. However it works for 3600. Don't know exactly why. Just know this is the case.

[MajorStarewell]

6 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

I have a Mk2.

Interesting... this is really the first "bad" review I've seen of the Ghost S1. The cooling capability/noise of the system would be affected more by the model of GPU and CPU cooler more than the case overall but i will keep these things in mind while finalizing my build. 

[Senzelian]

8 minutes ago, MajorStarewell said:

Interesting... this is really the first "bad" review I've seen of the Ghost S1. The cooling capability/noise of the system would be affected more by the model of GPU and CPU cooler more than the case overall but i will keep these things in mind while finalizing my build. 

If you got access to the Slack community, you'd know that I'm by far not the first one.

 

The cooling depends more on the case than you might think. The airflow is quite restricted by the amount of surface area that is blocked off.

 

I was running a beQuiet Shadow Rock LP with a Noctua A12x15 fan and a EVGA GTX 1080.

Testing has shown that the Shadow Rock LP performs on par with the NH-L12.

 

I wish I would've not spent the money on the Ghost and instead gotten a Streacom DA2.
It's larger, but apparently has much better build quality and offers more flexible mounting solutions.

[MajorStarewell]

21 minutes ago, Deli said:

Undervolting doesn't work well with 3950x and 3900X. You see the CPU performance goes to the drain. However it works for 3600. Don't know exactly why. Just know this is the case.

Seeing some mixed reports about undervolting 3950Xs from reddit, anandtech and other forums but have yet to see anything about performance going down the drain while undervolting. Obviously I'm going to take everything with a grain of salt as individual systems are going to behave differently but still thank you very much for your input. I will definitely take this into consideration while finalizing my build.

[MajorStarewell]

14 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

If you got access to the Slack community, you'd know that I'm by far not the first one.

 

The cooling depends more on the case than you might think. The airflow is quite restricted by the amount of surface area that is blocked off.

 

I was running a beQuiet Shadow Rock LP with a Noctua A12x15 fan and a EVGA GTX 1080.

Testing has shown that the Shadow Rock LP performs on par with the NH-L12.

 

I wish I would've not spent the money on the Ghost and instead gotten a Streacom DA2.
It's larger, but apparently has much better build quality and offers more flexible mounting solutions.

Based on first impressions the DA2 does look like another good candidate for my build, not super stoked about the size increase and the strange front I/O placement (although I do like that its a type C port) but ill definitely take it into consideration while finalizing my build.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, Senzelian said:

If you got access to the Slack community, you'd know that I'm by far not the first one.

 

The cooling depends more on the case than you might think. The airflow is quite restricted by the amount of surface area that is blocked off.

 

I was running a beQuiet Shadow Rock LP with a Noctua A12x15 fan and a EVGA GTX 1080.

Testing has shown that the Shadow Rock LP performs on par with the NH-L12.

 

I wish I would've not spent the money on the Ghost and instead gotten a Streacom DA2.
It's larger, but apparently has much better build quality and offers more flexible mounting solutions.

My main rig is using the DA2 case. The airflow is just too restrictive because there is no exhaust fan. You can mount a 92mm fan for exhaust but the holes on the panel are not effective to get the hot air out. I end up making a piece of acrylic to replace the top plastic panel with a 120mm slim Noctua fan for exhaust. The CPU temp is fine, but the GPU was cooking even with the bottom panel removed. the Nitro+ 5700XT ran loud and hot(74C). While it was whisper quiet and did 66C when mount on an open test bench. Now I have both CPU and GPU watercooled with two 240mm rad. Similar to what Optimum Tech did to his NCASE M1 build.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, MajorStarewell said:

Seeing some mixed reports about undervolting 3950Xs from reddit, anandtech and other forums but have yet to see anything about performance going down the drain while undervolting. Obviously I'm going to take everything with a grain of salt as individual systems are going to behave differently but still thank you very much for your input. I will definitely take this into consideration while finalizing my build.

A simpler way to verify is to run Cinebench after you undervolt the CPU. In my case running -0.03v offset actually seems to get the Cinebench score higher, although it has no effect on load temp. If I undervolt it further, the CPU appears to boost to the same clock, but the Cinebench score will start to drop significantly.

[MajorStarewell]

13 minutes ago, Deli said:

A simpler way to verify is to run Cinebench after you undervolt the CPU. In my case running -0.03v offset actually seems to get the Cinebench score higher, although it has no effect on load temp. If I undervolt it further, the CPU appears to boost to the same clock, but the Cinebench score will start to drop significantly.

Will definitely try this out. I have received confirmation from the SFFPC reddit and Optimum Tech on YT that the NH-L12 will deal with a 3950X even at stock voltages just fine but undervolting a just a tiny bit may shave off a couple degrees. Obviously I'm taking it with a grain of salt as individual system will perform differently but still thank u for your input, it will definitely help me while tweaking my system. 

[Senzelian]

17 hours ago, Deli said:

My main rig is using the DA2 case. The airflow is just too restrictive because there is no exhaust fan. You can mount a 92mm fan for exhaust but the holes on the panel are not effective to get the hot air out. I end up making a piece of acrylic to replace the top plastic panel with a 120mm slim Noctua fan for exhaust. The CPU temp is fine, but the GPU was cooking even with the bottom panel removed. the Nitro+ 5700XT ran loud and hot(74C). While it was whisper quiet and did 66C when mount on an open test bench. Now I have both CPU and GPU watercooled with two 240mm rad. Similar to what Optimum Tech did to his NCASE M1 build.

Yeah the airflow is just as garbage as the Ghost, but at least you can mount a proper heatsink.

I went back to mid tower cases for gaming PCs and workstations, because SFF cases simply can not handle the heat output, unless we're talking about low end stuff, such as maybe a RTX 2060 and Ryzen 5s.