NH-C14S or NH-U12A - Overkill for a Ryzen 3600?

[Energycore]

I'm getting close to shopping for an upgrade to my computer and  I'm 100% replacing my now 10 year old Hyper 212 Evo with a high performance Air Cooler for overclocking.

 

Originally I was looking at something high performance but compact (not entirely confident my case supports tall coolers like the D15). So I was thinking the NH-C14S or the NH-U12A from Noctua and I'm still looking for alternatives that have similar performance for cheaper (haven't found any yet).

 

But then I was reading this review https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3573-zalman-cnps20x-cpu-cooler-review-benchmark-vs-noctua-nh-d15-others

 

And I realized that the D15 can keep an OC 3950X (a 200W heat load) at 60C delta T while only outputting 35dBA. That would mean that it's extremely overkill for an OC Ryzen 5 3600 which looks to be pulling ~100W according to the Gamers Nexus review.

 

I want to be able to push my Ryzen 5 hard, but it seems like I don't need such a strong cooler. Are there any recommendations? Most of the time something available in Amazon US will be available here (also from Newegg, though keep in mind there's a hefty international shipping cost).

 

I don't have a budget (I was considering the $100 NH-U12A), but it should be an Air Cooler and it needs to keep the 3600 at 60C Delta T or less while being very silent.

[Moonzy]

10 minutes ago, Energycore said:

(not entirely confident my case supports tall coolers like the D15)

what case is it?

 

10 minutes ago, Energycore said:

I realized that the D15 can keep an OC 3950X (a 200W heat load) at 60C delta T while only outputting 35dBA.

to be fair, 58c above ambient is like 85c if room temp is 27c, so it's not exactly "cool" either

 

that said, it's still "overkill" for your 3600. but if silence is what you want then slap it on and never look back

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

what case is it?

A locally designed one lol. This is the page https://www.eaglewarrior.net/gabinetes (they don't have pages for each model, but the one I have is the Stealth. Long story).

 

It claims it supports 180mm tall CPU coolers, but I'm not sure that's correct. After mounting the 212 EVO there only seems to be ~1cm additional clearance available. Of course, I'd have to measure.

[porina]

With Zen 2 I don't think there is such a thing as overkill air cooling. I'm running the D15 LTT Edition on my stock 3700X, and it is adequate. The thing is the clocks do drop with increasing temperature, so the cooler you keep it, the more it may boost at the stock power limit. Right now it is running at stock 88W PPT limit, and it around 65C with ambient around 25C. I don't want to OC mine since the power efficiency takes a rapid dive when you do so. I think the 3950X was 142W PPT stock, so scaling up accordingly that would put it around 65C above ambient if it scales linearly, which it probably wont due to different fan curves and more.

 

Not sure if that helps or not, but in short, don't be afraid of going "too good".

[VeganJoy]

24 minutes ago, Energycore said:

And I realized that the D15 can keep an OC 3950X (a 200W heat load) at 60C delta T while only outputting 35dBA. That would mean that it's extremely overkill for an OC Ryzen 5 3600 which looks to be pulling ~100W according to the Gamers Nexus review.

yeah, total overkill! what dumbass would put a d15s on their 3600....

 

still runs a bit hot though, i hit ~70C pulling 78w on my 3600 with a single fan d15s. full speed i think. pushing a bit over 100w with pbo (meaningless it seems) and avx will push me past 90C which is weird. i could use nearly twice the wattage with my intel cpus and theyd be around the same temps.

[Moonzy]

16 minutes ago, Energycore said:

It claims it supports 180mm tall CPU coolers, but I'm not sure that's correct. After mounting the 212 EVO there only seems to be ~1cm additional clearance available.

listed 210mm case width, so 180mm for cpu cooler makes a bit of sense.

my casing's listed width is 220mm, same 180mm cpu cooler clearance.

 

the hyper 212 is 159mm high, so there should only be 2cm gap, which is what you mentioned. though i would look at 170mm cooler max though, because having it scrape the side panel is bad.

 

as porina said, zen 2 OC isnt much good due to the extremely steep power draw compared to the frequency you'll gain, and you'll lose single core boost while doing it too.

I undervolted my 3900x to 1.1v. 66c under sustained 100% load with DRP3 (110W PPT)

[Energycore]

5 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

listed 210mm case width, so 180mm for cpu cooler makes a bit of sense.

my casing's listed width is 220mm, same 180mm cpu cooler clearance.

 

the hyper 212 is 159mm high, so there should only be 2cm gap, which is what you mentioned. though i would look at 170mm cooler max though, because having it scrape the side panel is bad.

 

as porina said, zen 2 OC isnt much good due to the extremely steep power draw compared to the frequency you'll gain, and you'll lose single core boost while doing it too.

I undervolted my 3900x to 1.1v. 66c under sustained 100% load with DRP3 (110W PPT)

The NH-D15 is 165mm right? That doesn't seem to tall. Interesting.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

The NH-D15 is 165mm right? That doesn't seem to tall. Interesting.

though RAM compatibility and such might be an issue, look into it

 

had problem fitting LPX ram into first slot with my DRP3's heatpipe blocking it (my old b150 board)

not much i can do, fan can be moved but heatpipe no

[Energycore]

13 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

though RAM compatibility and such might be an issue, look into it

 

had problem fitting LPX ram into first slot with my DRP3's heatpipe blocking it (my old b150 board)

not much i can do, fan can be moved but heatpipe no

I think I'm grabbing the NH-C14S

 

Both because I like the looks of the fan looking straight at you and because I figure I'm likely not getting a mobo with good VRMs (motherboards are insanely overpriced here in tacoland).

[Jeppes]

 

40 minutes ago, VeganJoy said:

yeah, total overkill! what dumbass would put a d15s on their 3600....

 

still runs a bit hot though, i hit ~70C pulling 78w on my 3600 with a single fan d15s. full speed i think. pushing a bit over 100w with pbo (meaningless it seems) and avx will push me past 90C which is weird. i could use nearly twice the wattage with my intel cpus and theyd be around the same temps.

The temps will go crazy no matter what air-cooler you use when these 7nm chiplets get over 100W. I would even claim that 100W 3600 is harder to cool than 160W 3900X as the surface area under the heatspreader is so much smaller. Thats why Noctua u14s is good enough for 3960X and 3970x.

 

 

[Energycore]

Just now, Jeppes said:

 

The temps will go crazy no matter what air-cooler you use when these 7nm chiplets get over 100W. I would even claim that 100W 3600 is harder to cool than 160W 3900X as the surface area under the heatspreader is so much smaller. Thats why Noctua u14s is good enough for 3960X and 3970x.

 

 

Oh this makes sense actually. Since the cores are divided by little chiplets, temperature density is weird, it's not as uniform as with a monolithic die.

 

Well, if I wasn't already convinced to use an NH-C14S lol

[VeganJoy]

13 minutes ago, Jeppes said:

 

The temps will go crazy no matter what air-cooler you use when these 7nm chiplets get over 100W. I would even claim that 100W 3600 is harder to cool than 160W 3900X as the surface area under the heatspreader is so much smaller. Thats why Noctua u14s is good enough for 3960X and 3970x.

 

 

hmmm guess that makes sense. i know idle temps dont matter but its weird that it spikes at regular intervals, is that also related to the chiplet design?

[Duckson McQuack]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

Oh this makes sense actually. Since the cores are divided by little chiplets, temperature density is weird, it's not as uniform as with a monolithic die.

 

Well, if I wasn't already convinced to use an NH-C14S lol

Why not a U14S

[Energycore]

11 minutes ago, Duckson McQuack said:

Why not a U14S

Why a U14S?

[Jeppes]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

Oh this makes sense actually. Since the cores are divided by little chiplets, temperature density is weird, it's not as uniform as with a monolithic die.

 

Well, if I wasn't already convinced to use an NH-C14S lol

You should be fine with that. My 3600 is under an Arctic Freezer 34 and it keeps the cpu under 80C with two fans 1850rpm with a 105W load. Not that any real load reaches 100W:s, thats prime 95. Blender load with same voltage and clocks is about 80W:s and temps stay under 70C with 1100rpm.

 

[Moonzy]

2 hours ago, VeganJoy said:

its weird that it spikes at regular intervals

it's been this way since zen 1 (my friend's r5 1600 does the same spike when idle on stock)

the spikes goes away when you undervolt the CPU, but remains when you overvolt it.

 

as to why it happens, no idea

[Deli]

I have a 3900X cooled by a 280mm AIO. The temp is fine, max out at 72C with Blender. So I think the little R5 3600 with six core should be a piece of cake to cool with a small air cooler. Think about the L9a.  I try Noctua U9S and Scythe Mugen 5. The max I feel comfortable is 4.3GHz OC. 4.4Ghz with 1.32v is too hot for small to medium sized air coolers unless maybe in the winter when my room is only 18C.

[VeganJoy]

40 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

it's been this way since zen 1 (my friend's r5 1600 does the same spike when idle on stock)

the spikes goes away when you undervolt the CPU, but remains when you overvolt it.

 

as to why it happens, no idea

hmmm thats interesting. any chance youve got some solid resources for overclocking/undervolting ryzen? i only have experience with intel and silicon lottery helps a ton for me

[Moonzy]

3 minutes ago, VeganJoy said:

any chance youve got some solid resources for overclocking/undervolting ryzen?

nah, i'm pretty beginner level at OC myself

been just tweaking voltage and core freq in ryzen master, havent touched any other bios settings at all

 

also, perhaps continue this convo in PM to not derail the topic any further

[Moonzy]

3 hours ago, Energycore said:

Why a U14S?

honestly i would grab a D15 personally

and undervolt the CPU enough to run it passively

 

i ran my i5 6600 on DRP3 passively, it was great

only thing i can hear is coilwhine and HDD spinning

[Energycore]

7 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

honestly i would grab a D15 personally

and undervolt the CPU enough to run it passively

 

i ran my i5 6600 on DRP3 passively, it was great

only thing i can hear is coilwhine and HDD spinning

I'm kind of a lot afraid it's going to interfere with something in the case / memory / etc. My GPU is in expansion slot 1.

 

And like I said above, I really like the idea of looking straight at a Noctua fan, because I am one.

 

EDIT: The D15S is cheaper than the C14S here. (the D15 is quite a bit more expensive). Interesting, I might get.

[Moonzy]

3 minutes ago, Energycore said:

I'm kind of a lot afraid it's going to interfere with something in the case / memory / etc. My GPU is in expansion slot 1.

fair point. cant guarantee anything about the RAM but generally there isnt any issue with D15 due to the offset fins and ability to switch fan height

as for expansion, i think it doesnt interfere it, but that depends on mobo cpu placement, which isnt fix

havent seen any people having issues with this, tho most consumer board have GPU on 2nd slot

 

5 minutes ago, Energycore said:

And like I said above, I really like the idea of looking straight at a Noctua fan, because I am one.

stick a mirror on the top plate  

 

but yea, eitherway you're not making a bad decision, pros and cons of each are there