Best 'air king' for 'silence first'? Best heatsink for fan swap?

[NewbieOne]

 

 

 

As per title — which 'air king' would win if we normalized the sound level to:

 

A) completely, literally inaudible to human ear at 100 cm, so probably 30 dbA or less;

 

B) drowned out by loudspeakers when gaming? (e.g. quieter than the sounds of a forest or city street or soundtrack when using a quiet volume setting; I suppose 35 dbA-normalized tests are more or less like this?)

 

 

Question 2 — which individual cooler has the industry's single best heatsink, ignoring stock fans? The idea would be to replace its stock fans with P14, NF-A12x25, Eloops or something from BeQuiet.

 

I would like to keep this thread as general as possible, but in the spoiler tag there are some deals I'm looking at right now if you don't mind comparing them in this light:

 

Spoiler

 

1. True Spirit Power 140, the 360W-rated version, not the weaker Direct, for $70/€60 shipped, vs anything else (hard to find equal TDP); weary of mixed reviews and price lower than LGM RT.

2. TSP140 vs Le Grand Macho RT (320W), which costs $/€ 25 more and has less TDP but may be more reliable.

3. NH-U12A for €78 shipped (Noctua outlet), where the fans purchased separately would cost as much and could be used on GPU if upgrading later, e.g. to upcoming U14A/D16/whatever, but this isn't really D15's equal, so I'm wary.

4. Normal NH-D15 for €78 shipped (Noctua outlet), where I would have to move the fan 1 cm up due to RAM, but also the front fan could be moved somewhere on the case for the cost of a D15s).

5. NH-D15s for €77 shipped (Noctua total new).

6. Phanteks TC14PE for $45/€38 shipped, used, no fans but got the clips, and I have a pair of BQ SW3 hi-speeds, so this would be the budget-est option.

7. D14 heatsinks around the same price range as the Phanteks.

8. Macho Rev. B, used, also no fans but got clips, at $25/€22, for even cheaper, though probably some distinct loss of performance compared to e.g. D15, perhaps not much better than my existing Gelid Phantom with the SW3s.

 

RAM is 42mm tall (Ripjaws V), cooler height clearance is 185mm (probably even more), first PCIE slot is not GPU.

 

 

[narrdarr]

What chip are we trying to cool?inside what case?

[Moonzy]

what component r u cooling? if it's not high powered you could look at passive cooling

i've done it, the only time fan spins is when I game (GPU fan and case fan, CPU is passively cooled by dark rock pro 3)

 

but now I just tossed my desktop into another room, so it's eerily silent in my room.

 

in total i've built two silent system, one semi-passively cooled 9700k with a dark rock pro 4 for a friend with no GPU and only SSD (totally silent)

and my old personal build, passively cooled i5 6600 with dark rock pro 3, with a semi-passive GPU and case fan that only turns on when under gaming load.

[NewbieOne]

17 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

What chip are we trying to cool?inside what case?

 

9600KF (stepping D, extended 9E), but let's keep plenty of headroom and err on the side of overkill. No budget compromises, this isn't a $300 AIO.

 

Phanteks Enthoo Pro, with all drive bays/racks removed. 230mm CoolerMasters for front intake and top exhaust, 140mm stock Phanteks for rear exhaust. Planning on P14+P12 for bottom intake. Not sure about keeping the case, though — P500A and P400A look good, and I'm also tempted to buy a bare frame and move the PC from under the desk to on the bookshelf nearby (CPU 200 cm from human ear). If keeping this case, I will probably replace the CoolerMasters with 2xP14 each and the rear exhaust with 1xP14 (abusing the PST daisy chain for ease of regulation).

 

14 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

what component r u cooling? if it's not high powered you could look at passive cooling

i've done it, the only time fan spins is when I game (GPU fan and case fan, CPU is passively cooled by dark rock pro 3)

 

but now I just tossed my desktop into another room, so it's eerily silent in my room.

 

Most modern coolers will be fine for desktop work if the cooler's fans can idle at 500 rpm or less, but in some cases I work at night and the system does some maintenance or updates, perhaps a virus scan also, while I have my work (a bunch of Office editors and similar software) and like 40 browser tabs opened, and I hate the sound of fans waking up and going from 0 rpm to max rpm for a second before falling down to the intended setting, just because I started copying a file from a pen drive.

 

This is something I wanted to avoid so much that I have considered AIOs due to their longer time to reach an equilibrium, hene more resistance to spikes. I certainly don't mind the fans on Arctic Liquid Freezer II, but I'm wary of the pump's acoustics in idle and low loads. Testers report a minimum of 29 dbA, and I'm gonna hear that in a quiter room at night from an otherwise dead-as-a-brick PC just next to my chair. I have some neurological issues (mostly with vibrations, clicks and coarse sounds rather than pure woosh decibels, though I hate them too), and my hearing happens to be rated Exceptional, which makes things so much worse. Large doses of caffeine, which are frequent in my line of work, amplify both problems.

 

So far, however, my work solution is Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 (or not even Extreme) with 2xSilent Wings 3 hi-speed. They idle at 250 rpm, and 500–600 isn't audible, perhaps even 800 is okay. I literally keep them as the only fans in the case much of the time, allowing 500 rpm case fans if needed, and the PSU is semi-passive (Corsair RM750 or so). This is generally okay, but I've only had this for 1 month, so I don't know much about resistance to load spikes. And the GPU sometimes ramps up to 1000 rpm due to hitting 60C — the airflow is inaudible, but the fan rotation produces an ugly sound (I hate ball bearings), which of course means the GPU is next (actually opened another thread just minutes ago).

 

So chances are I'm fine for work, especially if I improve the heatsink, which I will, just can't choose yet. So what's left to do is choose the largest, meanest son of a bitch of an air cooler with the softest and most subdued acoustics possible for optimal balance in gaming.

 

For the record, my gaming sessions sometimes last more than a dozen hours, and the case is under the desk in the very corner of the room, so the airflow isn't ideal. Plus I'm poor at physics/tech (more of an arts/social guy with a lifelong interest in computers but also very much of a skill cap, hence a lifetime newbie, like my name suggests), so my flow designs aren't optimal. They aren't bad, but they aren't great, so I'm losing out some. And the goal is to avoid frog-cooking the GPU (which has happened in the past), whose throttling mechanisms are less reliable than in a CPU, so long sessions can fry VRMs without triggering a throttle, at least sometimes. This is something I would avoid because I always get a huge pang of conscience when spending money on a gaming GPU. Also don't want microstutters, driver timeouts or other crap when playing e-sports titles competitively (which I suck at, but it sucks all the more to break the rare winning streak due to hardware issues).

 

No option to toss the PC in a different room, I'm afraid. If buying an open frame, I could probably put it on the fridge in the kitchen (for some additional chill from the bottom) and drag some cables, though that would be a huge practical challenge — gotta keep the door closed due to cats and can't drill a whole huge enough for several cables through the wall, while drilling holes through door wings would be less ideal due to having to open those doors. I could probably mount a shelf above the door to my room, some 300 cm away from my ear, but the airflow in that corner would be unspectacular. Otherwise there's the top of the furniture, some 50 cm down from the ceiling, some parts of which cats can't reach. There I could put an open frame with a decent air cooler or a unicorn of an AIO with a pump that's silent in light loads.

 

I've also started thinking about something like electrical refrigeration, e.g. electrical cold plate, followed by acrylic plate, followed by mobo flat down.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

in total i've built two silent system, one semi-passively cooled 9700k with a dark rock pro 4 for a friend with no GPU and only SSD (totally silent)

and my old personal build, passively cooled i5 6600 with dark rock pro 3, with a semi-passive GPU and case fan that only turns on when under gaming load.

 

Does your friend do much gaming? Does he or she OC? I recall I've seen a lot of Dark Rocks on PCs built by people who use open frames — probably for a reason.

 

Right now, I have a sort of PoorRock(™) with a pair of hi-speed SW3s strapped on a 120 Ultra, alternative on a Gelid Phantom. The Phantom is a joke of a 200W-rated cooler with 7 heatpipes that looks 2x better than it performs, although it used to be hailed as the king of budget cooling here in Poland at some point (wish I'd been a good patriot and chosen Grandis instead). I've been testing the Ultra + SW3 for a while, so I still haven't tried the SW3 on the Phantom, whose biggest problem was the acoustics of its 'silent' fans (which are outright unbearable and can't even be set to run below 50% as case fans via PWM or DC, making them totally useless for me, so perhaps I might strap them back onto the heatsink and sell the whole thing away as a unit).

 

Back when I had a 6600 (also non-K), the Ultra with a single quiet noname 120mm fan was a blast. Alas, no more. The move from 65W to 95W (well, more like 125 when OC'd + high load) made a world of difference to my brave single tower, which one day quietly supported a Wolfdale 8600 OC'ed from 3.3 to 4.5, after it cost me less than ten bucks to buy. I paid more for the 775-to-1151 mounting adapter.

[narrdarr]

Have you considered a ninja 5 cooler. It can handle roughly 125w ((tdp) yes tdp measurements are not equal across different platforms. I believe it's base on intel.) Passively. the fans( if/when needed) are very quiet, have decent static pressure, and have one of the lowest if not the lowest rpm for a pwm fan @ 300 to 700 or 800 rpm max(can't remember)

[Moonzy]

15 minutes ago, NewbieOne said:

gotta keep the door closed

i ran my cable under the door, total of 4 cables

1 USB (with a powered extension hub at the end) 1 DP 1 HDMI and 1 audio (though i recommend USB sound card or using monitor pass through)

no drilling, doors closed.

 

17 minutes ago, NewbieOne said:

I've also started thinking about something like electrical refrigeration, e.g. electrical cold plate, followed by acrylic plate, followed by mobo flat down.

no

 

17 minutes ago, NewbieOne said:

Does your friend do much gaming? Does he or she OC?

no and no, hence why no GPU

 

17 minutes ago, NewbieOne said:

I recall I've seen a lot of Dark Rocks on PCs built by people who use open frames — probably for a reason.

for the looks, probably

 

as for the fan ramping up and down suddenly problem, you can change the fan curve to be less steep, and put a delay (forgot what it's called exactly) for the fan to change speed so it wont keep changing speed and be audible.

 

you could also look at undervolting to lower the power draw + temps, so your fans dont have to run as loud

I do that to my CPU and GPU now, even though they're outside my room (due to efficiency and lifespan for me)

 

afaik, D15 is one of the best air coolers out there, even if there are better coolers, they're probably not much of a difference.

but i've used noctua fans, the motor sound isnt great

bequiet fans are really silent, and their dark rock pro coolers are also one of the best, on par with D15 i would say

[Tan3l6]

be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3, Deepcool Assassin 3, Scythe Fuma 2 or Ninja 5, maybe Zalman CNPS20x all are contenders...

But the Noctua NH-D15 is probably the best overall.

 

 

Also Alpenföhn Olymp is on same tier as NH-D15

[NewbieOne]

58 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

as for the fan ramping up and down suddenly problem, you can change the fan curve to be less steep, and put a delay (forgot what it's called exactly) for the fan to change speed so it wont keep changing speed and be audible.

 

you could also look at undervolting to lower the power draw + temps, so your fans dont have to run as loud

I do that to my CPU and GPU now, even though they're outside my room (due to efficiency and lifespan for me)

 

afaik, D15 is one of the best air coolers out there, even if there are better coolers, they're probably not much of a difference.

but i've used noctua fans, the motor sound isnt great

bequiet fans are really silent, and their dark rock pro coolers are also one of the best, on par with D15 i would say

Ideally, a sort of work mode vs game mode switch would be good to have. Work would be undervolted and even downclocked with some smart detection of spikes or just smart hysteresis, and game would be like the 'okay, now I don't mind some noise' switch. Though I honestly question the wisdom of my overclocking as opposed to just getting good enough cooling so the processor can keep up a boost clock reliable while gaming. The difference between stock and boost is so huge now.

 

As for D15, yes, if there's anything better, then by a hair's breadth, which means one might as well buy a D15 and stop splitting hairs, wasting his own and other people's time, and so on. But I'm still intrigued by those tests in which the various Thermalright and Scythe coolers occasionally come out on top. If I could replicate those results some reviewers/testers get — like same temps as D15 but at 3 decibels less — then I would love to. This is probably linked to NF-A15 fans not being perfect, but also to fans not being perfect on some other heatsinks.

 

As for the Dark Rock series, yeah, well, I hated my Silent Wings 3 hispeeds as case intakes through mesh and filter (already a problem at 600 rpm, let alone 700… had to keep them at 560), but as CPU fans they are great (800 is inaudible and 1000 is okay-ish, while 1500 isn't louder than your average silent GPU once you start pushing it for real). But there is some variety in the scores Dark Rocks get. Sometimes it's just a little behind Noctua, sometimes just a little ahead, and sometimes the gap's like 10 degrees Celsius while being marginally quieter. On the other hand, I remember from a test somewhere, when they tested popular coolers in passive mode, that the then-current (2 maybe?) Dark Rock came out much, much better as a naked heatsink than D14. So perhaps the heatsinks on the Dark Rocks are very good and the Silent Wings fans are very silent but don't move much air, so when you run out of TDP you're in trouble. Which isn't really a world-changing problem for me, because it's not like I'm going to insist on doubling my electricity bill for the sake of 400 MHz or something.

 

There is a company that sells them which I owe a favour for giving me a free repair when it was my fault bending pins on a mobo a couple of months ago, and I broke them again last month, so I might as well go back to them again and buy a Dark Rock from them to sweeten the deal. I'm just slightly afraid of the nasty sounds Silent Wings 3 bearings tend to make. Like engine buzz or something. I don't hear much of that on my CPU now, but I did hear it with the SW3s as case fans.

 

 53 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3, Deepcool Assassin 3, Scythe Fuma 2 or Ninja 5, maybe Zalman CNPS20x all are contenders...

But the Noctua NH-D15 is probably the best overall.

 

 

Also Alpenföhn Olymp is on same tier as NH-D15

Thanks. Yeah, I saw the Tier List, though I would be include to dispute some of the placements, and the placement reflects some things that aren't performance, like installation ease or beefy build or whatever, with the end result that coolers may be on the same tier for reasons other than strictly performance, so I'm a bit wary. Or there's the problem of LGM RT being a tier less than D15 probably due to crapping out more easily under truly high heat outputs, while being slightly cooler and slightly quieter at the same time under lower loads, which is interesting to me because I won't be sporting a 5.2 GHz i9-9900K. I won't be looking at the benefits of 'better 212s' in their best-case scenarios because that's too low on TDP for me, but the situational advantage of Le Grand Macho or True Spirit Power over D15 does catch my interest and steal my sleep.

 

Still, I've been tempted to just buy D15 and start playing with the curve, knowing that while it won't always win, it will always be very close to the top and it's a consistent performer, unlike many other coolers that place variously in group tests, from one test to the next (including relative to D15).

[Tan3l6]

The tier list is flawed, sure. Also there are no considerations of fan rpm/loudness on the tier list.

One option would also be a passive cooler like "NoFan CR-95C" with a very silent fan.

That would of course not guarantee decent cooling results.

[NewbieOne]

14 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

The tier list is flawed, sure. Also there are no considerations of fan rpm/loudness on the tier list.

One option would also be a passive cooler like "NoFan CR-95C" with a very silent fan.

That would of course not guarantee decent cooling results.

Yeah, not to criticize the list at all, just to say sometimes a cooler one or two tiers below D15 (as the default reference for air) could be better for my needs.

 

I'd rather not go passive, since I really don't mind 500 rpm or something (800 depending on the cooler, even 1200 while gaming), and passive ones tend to require stronger ventilation in the case. In mine, front intakes tend to get very loud while the CPU cooler tends to be highly insulated (verified this on the same pair of Silent Wings 3 HS). So I would be getting better results from like 800 rpm CPU fans and 500 rpm case fans than passive CPU with 700-ish case fans (which would be slightly but clearly audible). So the way I go about it is as strong a heatsink as possible for passive dissipation but still one that can benefit from a low-rpm fan and even from incremental speeds till like 1500 if the game is still drowning out the cooler.

 

I know Ninja 5 would be at least decent here and Le Grand Macho RT also, with their sparse fins, but I also wonder if D15, being a kind of emperor among kings, still wouldn't beat them. Or if Dark Rock / Dark Rock Pro wouldn't end up producing the best balance of cooling and silence (especially considering how the heatsink on the DRP is really strong).

 

So there are a couple of coolers I couldn't really go wrong with, but the trouble is to choose the best one of them all.

 

My attention is particularly drawn to True Spirit Power due to its high TDP and low price, but then I'd rather not be taking chances and experimenting. Better make a $100 purchase once and overinvest a bit than several $70 purchases in a row until finally getting it right.

[freeagent]

Le Grand Macho RT is slightly quieter while performing as well as a D15. And it does not block ram at all. The cooler can also be used passively up to 90w TDP. I ran my 3770K at 4.4 passively in the open with no problem for a day.

 

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

 

True Spirit 140 Power performs as well as Le Grand Macho RT, but only costs 50 bucks. Its quite tall though.

[NewbieOne]

2 minutes ago, freeagent said:

Le Grand Macho RT is slightly quieter while performing as well as a D15. And it does not block ram at all. The cooler can also be used passively up to 90w TDP. I ran my 3770K at 4.4 passively in the open with no problem for a day.

 

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

 

True Spirit 140 Power performs as well as Le Grand Macho RT, but only costs 50 bucks. Its quite tall though.

With D15, I would need to move the front fan about 1 cm up. LGMRT being set back would be welcome, as well as practically sticking its ass in rear exhaust. I also suspect the oversized fan would assist VRM/mosfet cooling same way the A15 does on the D15.

 

Yeah, I'm familiar with that interview. It also has made me thinking about what the True Spirit Power could do if it's 60% more powerful than Direct, which already was pretty close. As in, Power's level of improvement on top of Direct should probably also outpace LGMRT.

 

The height is okay, at worst I'll have to hand it down with the whole system to whomever gets to inherit my current PC eventually. (As I'll probably be going for something mini next time or an ITX open frame.) Right now, it's more like which cooler is stronger / quieter — LGMRT vs TSP?

[Mateyyy]

17 minutes ago, NewbieOne said:

With D15, I would need to move the front fan about 1 cm up.

Have you considered going with the U12A? 

[freeagent]

I wouldn't buy the Direct. Get the Power over that. TS140P and LGMRT are pretty close. I have both. They perform pretty close to each other. I actually prefer LGMRT for a couple of reasons. First, the cold plate is slightly nicer than my TS140P, though I know of someone who also has both coolers, and said his cold plate on TS140P is nicer than his LGMRT. Meaning a slightly better grip on core temps. So I guess it depends on who was running the Milling machine that day. LGMRT has that nice offset, so when using TY-143 there is no interference anywhere, on my TS140P when using TY-143 there is some pressure on the closest DIMM slot, and it was the same with my X58 board. LGMRT is quieter as well, even when using TY-143 thanks to its fin pack, TS140P has a much denser stack, so it takes more pressure to get through it, so you hear it a bit more.. And then there is the fact you can run it passively, so the option is there. TS140P can do it to a point too, until I realized I forgot to plug the fan in, again. It was a on stock X5690 for about an hour, no problem.

 

Based on my experience, LGMRT is the better cooler, though its the much much bigger cooler out of the two. I have been using TY-143 on both coolers, that is a 130CFM fan, compared to the 74 CFM fan it comes with. But both perform the same in every regard at the same RPM.

 

Now, I did own a D14 at one point, and I still have my old hardware that I ran it with. Both of my Thermalright coolers performed slightly better. D14 is still a beast though, but require many concessions to run one.

[Jeppes]

How much power does your 9600K draw while gaming? 80-90W max? Id say lower fan speeds with your current heat sink and dont overthink it.

[NewbieOne]

3 hours ago, Jeppes said:

How much power does your 9600K draw while gaming? 80-90W max? Id say lower fan speeds with your current heat sink and dont overthink it.

Not sure, no gaming time lately, but an hour or two of Prime 95 with 4.4 GHz OC results in going to 125W over time, around 75C. My current cooler is Ultra 120 (probably TRU rather than TRUE, i.e. not 'Extreme') with 2x140 Silent Wings 3 hi-speed strapped to it (dead silent at 500 rpm in Crusader Kings 2 but gotta try Witcher 3 or something else more demanding). Next week I'm going to test the same fans on a Gelid Phantom chap dual-tower heatsink.

 

3 hours ago, freeagent said:

I wouldn't buy the Direct. Get the Power over that. TS140P and LGMRT are pretty close. I have both. They perform pretty close to each other. I actually prefer LGMRT for a couple of reasons. First, the cold plate is slightly nicer than my TS140P, though I know of someone who also has both coolers, and said his cold plate on TS140P is nicer than his LGMRT. Meaning a slightly better grip on core temps. So I guess it depends on who was running the Milling machine that day. LGMRT has that nice offset, so when using TY-143 there is no interference anywhere, on my TS140P when using TY-143 there is some pressure on the closest DIMM slot, and it was the same with my X58 board. LGMRT is quieter as well, even when using TY-143 thanks to its fin pack, TS140P has a much denser stack, so it takes more pressure to get through it, so you hear it a bit more.. And then there is the fact you can run it passively, so the option is there. TS140P can do it to a point too, until I realized I forgot to plug the fan in, again. It was a on stock X5690 for about an hour, no problem.

 

Based on my experience, LGMRT is the better cooler, though its the much much bigger cooler out of the two. I have been using TY-143 on both coolers, that is a 130CFM fan, compared to the 74 CFM fan it comes with. But both perform the same in every regard at the same RPM.

 

Now, I did own a D14 at one point, and I still have my old hardware that I ran it with. Both of my Thermalright coolers performed slightly better. D14 is still a beast though, but require many concessions to run one.

 

Yeah, Direct is out of the question, just like Rev. A, B and other older Machos. Only TSP, and they cost almost the same anyway, so no reason to buy the older one. And yes, I've heard about Thermalright's milling inconsistencies, which is giving me second thoughts about the company.

 

Re: DIMM slots, I could live with pressure on the first if the second was undisturbed, but it's nice to be able to fill the banks out, other things being equal.

 

So… I suppose there's no other way to understand your post but that LGMRT is probably — with some allowance for milling variance — going to be quieter than TSP, even given the same fan, since it's less quick to need to spin up (due to Macho's lower fin density, which is the solution used by Ninja 5 also)?

 

Since you also had a D14 — I could buy a used one, just the heatsink, or Phanteks TC14PE, and use it with my Silent Wings. The cost would be about 45 bucks, that is roughly 50% of the price of a new LGMRT or 66% of a new TSP. What would you choose here? I can't really use the SWs on the case — put them behind a filter and they're gonna be loud at 550 rpm. So either CPU or maybe GPU. Would you imagine a D14 with Silent Wings or a Le Grand Macho to be quieter for the same thermals?

 

Alternatively there are plenty of used Dark Rocks around my place — 30 bucks for a 3 non-Pro, 50 for a Pro. The reason to buy non-pro would be its quieter results under lower loads than the Pro's, although the Pro will probably end up quieter once the load gets really high, in which case the non-Pro might even crap out eventually (190W rating). This could be a placeholder until Noctua releases something interesting.

 

 

4 hours ago, Mateyyy said:

Have you considered going with the U12A? 

 

Yes. Noctua outlet sells them for like €78 shipped. I even considered getting that just for the fans, moving the fans on the GPU, and using my Silent Wings 3 on the U12A heatsink. Plus 2 VGA-PWM adapters, and I'd have CPU and GPU done in one go. Except the U12A with Silent Wings would probably not be the most powerful of all coolers. It still wouldn't be worse than my Ultra and probably not than the cheap dual-tower Gelid Phantom I also have.

 

[freeagent]

7 hours ago, NewbieOne said:

Yeah, Direct is out of the question, just like Rev. A, B and other older Machos. Only TSP, and they cost almost the same anyway, so no reason to buy the older one. And yes, I've heard about Thermalright's milling inconsistencies, which is giving me second thoughts about the company.

 

Re: DIMM slots, I could live with pressure on the first if the second was undisturbed, but it's nice to be able to fill the banks out, other things being equal.

 

So… I suppose there's no other way to understand your post but that LGMRT is probably — with some allowance for milling variance — going to be quieter than TSP, even given the same fan, since it's less quick to need to spin up (due to Macho's lower fin density, which is the solution used by Ninja 5 also)?

 

Since you also had a D14 — I could buy a used one, just the heatsink, or Phanteks TC14PE, and use it with my Silent Wings. The cost would be about 45 bucks, that is roughly 50% of the price of a new LGMRT or 66% of a new TSP. What would you choose here? I can't really use the SWs on the case — put them behind a filter and they're gonna be loud at 550 rpm. So either CPU or maybe GPU. Would you imagine a D14 with Silent Wings or a Le Grand Macho to be quieter for the same thermals?

 

Alternatively there are plenty of used Dark Rocks around my place — 30 bucks for a 3 non-Pro, 50 for a Pro. The reason to buy non-pro would be its quieter results under lower loads than the Pro's, although the Pro will probably end up quieter once the load gets really high, in which case the non-Pro might even crap out eventually (190W rating). This could be a placeholder until Noctua releases something interesting.

Indeed, but it should be noted a lot of people cant even apply TIM properly. The machining you described is no where near as bad as you may think. Regardless of heresy.

 

Yes LGMRT is quiet, also has a quieter fan, noting the B designation. It has a different frame than the A, and it revs 100rpm lower.

 

You could buy a D14 sure, and if you are ok with it covering your ram, then it should be fine, especially if you don't tinker with multiple sets. I like My Thermalright coolers, have been using them on and off since 2003 or 4 and have five of their coolers. I preferred my Ultra 120 Extreme over the D14 back then as well.. As for fans? I don't use the same fans you guys use. My case fans are 120x38 Panaflo rated at 110 cfm @ 2500. The fan on my cooler is a TY-143 rated at 130cfm, and I have a little 92x35 that puts out more than my TY-143 so.. all of the consumer grade fans people recommend all the time are weak to me lol. Of course I don't run my fans at full speed all the time, I do value my silence too..

 

As for DRP4, my workmate has one on his 9700K in his Hackintosh, he does a lot of photo and video stuff, and his stock CPU loads in the 70s-80s. That would be up to you. I have a fairly quiet setup and two good coolers that I could recommend as an overclocker, and thats about it 

 

[Algebruh]

Depends on CPU.

For intel, any high end cooler will do.

For AMD, Thermalright ARO-M14. Its coldplate is specially designed for AMD IHS, because AMD decided to use convex IHS

[NewbieOne]

12 hours ago, freeagent said:

Indeed, but it should be noted a lot of people cant even apply TIM properly. The machining you described is no where near as bad as you may think. Regardless of heresy.

 

Yes LGMRT is quiet, also has a quieter fan, noting the B designation. It has a different frame than the A, and it revs 100rpm lower.

 

You could buy a D14 sure, and if you are ok with it covering your ram, then it should be fine, especially if you don't tinker with multiple sets. I like My Thermalright coolers, have been using them on and off since 2003 or 4 and have five of their coolers. I preferred my Ultra 120 Extreme over the D14 back then as well.. As for fans? I don't use the same fans you guys use. My case fans are 120x38 Panaflo rated at 110 cfm @ 2500. The fan on my cooler is a TY-143 rated at 130cfm, and I have a little 92x35 that puts out more than my TY-143 so.. all of the consumer grade fans people recommend all the time are weak to me lol. Of course I don't run my fans at full speed all the time, I do value my silence too..

 

As for DRP4, my workmate has one on his 9700K in his Hackintosh, he does a lot of photo and video stuff, and his stock CPU loads in the 70s-80s. That would be up to you. I have a fairly quiet setup and two good coolers that I could recommend as an overclocker, and thats about it 

 

Yeah, I don't trust myself with TIM, TBH. Rice grain with something like AS5, or X with some other older pastes, sure, but achieving good thin spreads without either taking too little paste and achieving too little contact or taking too much and making a pigsty of the socket is still level hard to me. Last time I actually dripped Kryonaut on a CPU pin and damaged the socket because of 'non-insane automatism', a.k.a. rushing to clean it up like an idiot. So embarrassing. Wasn't as clumsy in my younger days when there were a couple of swaps per year rather than one swap every couple of years.

 

Right, I certainly don't use the same type of jet engines, I mean, fans, you use. I've thought about 38mm for static pressure, but I want the PC inaudible when writing or reading and only a slight hum in gaming, so no 2000 rpm. For the record, how do 38mm Panaflos compare to typical 25mm consumer fans when you bring the rpms down to inaudible levels? Do you still get better flow and pressure?

 

10 hours ago, Algebruh said:

Depends on CPU.

For intel, any high end cooler will do.

For AMD, Thermalright ARO-M14. Its coldplate is specially designed for AMD IHS, because AMD decided to use convex IHS

Yeah, sucks for people with AMD CPUs. Convex + convex… At least some cooler makers have adapted.

[Quadriplegic]

Ninja 5 is the ultimate silent air cooler. Sadly, performance does suffer a bit.

[freeagent]

4 hours ago, NewbieOne said:

Yeah, I don't trust myself with TIM, TBH. Rice grain with something like AS5, or X with some other older pastes, sure, but achieving good thin spreads without either taking too little paste and achieving too little contact or taking too much and making a pigsty of the socket is still level hard to me. Last time I actually dripped Kryonaut on a CPU pin and damaged the socket because of 'non-insane automatism', a.k.a. rushing to clean it up like an idiot. So embarrassing. Wasn't as clumsy in my younger days when there were a couple of swaps per year rather than one swap every couple of years.

 

Right, I certainly don't use the same type of jet engines, I mean, fans, you use. I've thought about 38mm for static pressure, but I want the PC inaudible when writing or reading and only a slight hum in gaming, so no 2000 rpm. For the record, how do 38mm Panaflos compare to typical 25mm consumer fans when you bring the rpms down to inaudible levels? Do you still get better flow and pressure?

It just takes practice that’s all. Don’t be afraid to remount several times if you didn’t get it the first time. I went through a tube in a weekend when I was new, trying to perfect my mount.. needless to say I’ve done that more than once. It just takes practice.

 

Indeed, well to be honest I don’t run my fans at full speed unless I am benching, and even then I don’t really have to, unless it’s summer. The only regular fans that I have are a bunch of shitty cooler master fans. And my panaflos are quieter at 7v then they are at 12v. Of course they get destroyed by the panaflos. I also don’t run inaudible levels because my kids are loud, tv is loud, so it’s all loud. My system would probably bug you if you can’t hear yours. But! I don’t have to worry about thermals all year round.. 

[freeagent]

1 hour ago, Quadriplegic said:

Ninja 5 is the ultimate silent air cooler. Sadly, performance does suffer a bit.

No it’s not

[Quadriplegic]

8 minutes ago, freeagent said:

No it’s not

It's pretty much is. It doesn't perform that well, but you won't find many tower coolers that have fans with 300 RPM starting point.

[freeagent]

5 minutes ago, Quadriplegic said:

It's pretty much is. It doesn't perform that well, but you won't find many tower coolers that have fans with 300 RPM starting point.

TY-147A and TY-147B both start off at 300 rpm, they came with each of my coolers. There maybe more but such a low rpm has never really intested me. I’m sure the Ninja 5 is ok, just not what I would be looking for. For reference my TY-143 starts off at 600rpm. 

[NewbieOne]

22 hours ago, freeagent said:

It just takes practice that’s all. Don’t be afraid to remount several times if you didn’t get it the first time. I went through a tube in a weekend when I was new, trying to perfect my mount.. needless to say I’ve done that more than once. It just takes practice.

 

Indeed, well to be honest I don’t run my fans at full speed unless I am benching, and even then I don’t really have to, unless it’s summer. The only regular fans that I have are a bunch of shitty cooler master fans. And my panaflos are quieter at 7v then they are at 12v. Of course they get destroyed by the panaflos. I also don’t run inaudible levels because my kids are loud, tv is loud, so it’s all loud. My system would probably bug you if you can’t hear yours. But! I don’t have to worry about thermals all year round.. 

 

Yeah, it's just that I've already damaged three if not four sockets this year, so it's a bit PTSD-like. It will go away with time. Just gotta be more careful and really stick with the self-imposed rule of not touching CPU sockets if I'm tired, which is like 99% of the time. I really liked the pins being on the CPU more.

 

And yeah, your system would probably be a bit too much for me, unless perhaps in gaming. In gaming, I'm still more decibel-averse than the average person, but no longer as insistent on complete silence. As long as there are no specially bad sounds such as vibrations, pulsations, coarse bearings, clicking, rattling, puttering, etc. (which I have in the past deliberately turned fans up to mask with a louder but more civilized flow sounds), I can adjust pretty well to the PC's own noise and even catch a positive attitude like uh-oh, my GPU is working for its supper, nice, my CPU is pushing hard, etc. — within certain limits, often depending on how much caffeine I've had and how tired I am, which affects the neurological issues I have (something in the family — I'm at least the third consecutive generation).

 

Heck, this is a bit of a love-and-hate relationship. I miss the sound of CPU fans or GPU fans when they aren't there, even though I work to silence them. This is quite conflicting, actually, just not something one would waste much time thinking about, due to so many more important internal conflicts to focus on in life. I'm sure car fans can understand me. You like quiet cars, but you also like the sound of your engine. You like the sound of your engine, but you also like civilized noise levels during your ride.

 

So this is what it looks like for me in gaming. For work, however, complete silence is a complete must, including enough headroom in the cooler to soak spikes from Windows maintenance, application updates, the antivirus, etc. (which sometimes like to gang up). At work I'm often tired from the long shifts and incaffeinated, which amplifies responses to things you'd laugh off on a normal day, like I mentioned before.