Air cooling PC Case

[woody30]

Hi,

I have a Corsair Carbide 678C case and Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro RAM. I've decided on the Noctua NH-D15 chromax black cpu cooler. Would that clear the RAM and still fit inside the case? Is this CPU cooler best for the AMD Ryzen 7 3800x 8-core 105W TDP processor? I'm not doing any overclocking but will be playing iRacing. Thanks for help.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Whether or not it will clear your RAM depends on your specific motherboard. Same when it comes to clearing the VRM heatsinks. 

[woody30]

23 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Whether or not it will clear your RAM depends on your specific motherboard. Same when it comes to clearing the VRM heatsinks. 

ok I have the Asus B550 F-Gaming Motherboard (Wi-Fi) is there a better CPU cooler that you recommend for what I have? preferably air cooled that would fit better.

[Bombastinator]

On 10/28/2020 at 7:29 PM, woody30 said:

ok I have the Asus B550 F-Gaming Motherboard (Wi-Fi) is there a better CPU cooler that you recommend for what I have? preferably air cooled that would fit better.

“Better” is one of those very imprecise words. Better as in most powerful available period? It’s close.  It competes with a bunch of “big air” coolers.  The le grande macho RT for example is one that is as or more powerful.  It’s also cheaper. It’s got a worse rep about fitting on various motherboard and accommodating various types of ram though it is also shorter. Gelid also has a competitive cooler that I heard was going for drop-your-jaw cheap recently in Europe.  It has a rep for being annoying to fit. 
there the Assasin3 and a couple others as well. Corsair has one that developed a rep for really bad cooling plate evenness. 
 

“better” as in will cool my chip good and look nice and be easy and not cost a lot?  Not even close.  It’s only a 105w chip.  “Big air” coolers are usually more than 200w.  You could pick up some good four pipe cooler that can do, say 140w for $30 that would be fine.

Edited October 30, 2020 by Bombastinator

[woody30]

15 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

“Better” is one of those very imprecise words. Better as in most powerful available period? It’s close.  It competes with a bunch of “big air” coolers.  The le grande macho RT for example is one that is as or more powerful.  It’s also cheaper. It’s got a worse rep about fitting on various motherboard and accommodating various types of ram though it is also shorter. Gelid also has a competitive cooler that I heard was going for drop-your-jaw cheap recently in Europe.  It has a rep for being annoying to fit. 
there the Assasin3 and a couple others as well. Corsair has one that developed a rep for really bad cooling plate evenness. 
 

“better” as in will cool my chip good and look nice and be easy and not cost a lot?  Not even close.  It’s only a 105w chip.  “Big air” coolers are usually more than 200w.  You could pick up some good four pipe cooler that can do, say 140w for $30 that would be fine.

I was considering the noctua nhd15s would that one clear Corsair vengeance rgb pro RAM?

[woody30]

On 10/28/2020 at 7:04 PM, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Whether or not it will clear your RAM depends on your specific motherboard. Same when it comes to clearing the VRM heatsinks. 

I have the Asus b550 f gaming with wifi motherboard atx.

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, woody30 said:

I have the Asus b550 f gaming with wifi motherboard atx.

I’m trying to remember where they start measuring this stuff from.  RAM usually has heights listed at least somewhere if not at the place you’re buying it from.  “Ram clearance” is also usually given for coolers. The fussy bit is the height of the bottom of the rams slot and the thickness of the cpu package the cooler sits on.  Cant be more than 5mm total.

[woody30]

Hi,

I have an Asus b550 f gaming motherboard(wifi) and amd ryzen 7 3800x 105 watt TDP processor, 8gb 2060 super and corsair vengeance rgb pro RAM. Considering the VRM heatsink and RAM clearance will the Noctua NH-D15 fit on my board and clear the RAM and VRM? Thanks for help i don't want to do any overclocking but just gaming on iRacing 

[jaslion]

You could just get a sycthe fuma 2. Smaller cooler almost same performance (1-2c of the noctua).

[woody30]

18 minutes ago, jaslion said:

You could just get a sycthe fuma 2. Smaller cooler almost same performance (1-2c of the noctua).

I have considered that one, but really like the customizable heatsink covers on the nh d15 chromax. Do you think the nh d15 will fit? 

[freeagent]

On 10/29/2020 at 9:47 PM, Bombastinator said:

“Better” is one of those very imprecise words. Better as in most powerful available period? It’s close.  It competes with a bunch of “big air” coolers.  The le grande macho RT for example is one that is as or more powerful.  It’s also cheaper. It’s got a worse rep about fitting on various motherboard and accommodating various types of ram though it is also shorter. Gelid also has a competitive cooler that I heard was going for drop-your-jaw cheap recently in Europe.  It has a rep for being annoying to fit. 
there the Assasin3 and a couple others as well. Corsair has one that developed a rep for really bad cooling plate evenness. 
 

“better” as in will cool my chip good and look nice and be easy and not cost a lot?  Not even close.  It’s only a 105w chip.  “Big air” coolers are usually more than 200w.  You could pick up some good four pipe cooler that can do, say 140w for $30 that would be fine.

The cooler is offset, dual or triple channel is not a problem, even with all dimms populated. Problems could come with quad channel setups that use certain sticks. I am running LGMRT with no fan right now, semi passive. Its great. I have never had a computer this quiet lol. All of my fans are turned down except the VRM. Ahh. Anywhoo, it can passively cool up to 90w, and for the first time I am taking advantage of it lol 

 

4400Mhz on my 3770K with Linpack Xtreme and no fan is about 80 load, at 4500 no fan is just under 90 load in a big R4. Awesome.

[Bombastinator]

39 minutes ago, freeagent said:

The cooler is offset, dual or triple channel is not a problem, even with all dimms populated. Problems could come with quad channel setups that use certain sticks. I am running LGMRT with no fan right now, semi passive. Its great. I have never had a computer this quiet lol. All of my fans are turned down except the VRM. Ahh. Anywhoo, it can passively cool up to 90w, and for the first time I am taking advantage of it lol 

 

4400Mhz on my 3770K with Linpack Xtreme and no fan is about 80 load, at 4500 no fan is just under 90 load in a big R4. Awesome.

Ah. Noise.  That’s a trick.  You’ve got to run one with low speed fans.  Full passive in a bolt on cooler is out.  A nofan 95 is a hundred bucks, is the size of half a bowling ball, and will only really do a 3600x. Big air makes a lot more sense then. 

[WoodenMarker]

The heatsink itself will fit but the front fan wouldn't. That being said, the cooler works fine with just a single center fan. 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[freeagent]

7 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah. Noise.  That’s a trick.  You’ve got to run one with low speed fans.  Full passive in a bolt on cooler is out.  A nofan 95 is a hundred bucks, is the size of half a bowling ball, and will only really do a 3600x. Big air makes a lot more sense then. 

Noise is a trick. No need to run a fan on it, unless you want to push more than 90w. Best I could do is about 80w with my 3770K. You can run LGMRT full passive. I'm impressed.

[jaslion]

11 hours ago, woody30 said:

I have considered that one, but really like the customizable heatsink covers on the nh d15 chromax. Do you think the nh d15 will fit? 

Without the front fan sure.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

Without the front fan sure.

To be perhaps unnecessarily specific the front fan will sit over the ram.  The fan can sit wherever it sits though.  If the ram is tall the fan will sit high.  Depending on ram height perhaps too high. 

[woody30]

13 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

The heatsink itself will fit but the front fan wouldn't. That being said, the cooler works fine with just a single center fan. 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

Thank you so much for this reply, how are the Temps with just center fan?

[Bombastinator]

21 minutes ago, woody30 said:

Thank you so much for this reply, how are the Temps with just center fan?

Short version:

very vaguely the same.  There will just be more noise (probably)
 

Long version:

Spoiler

That’s somewhat difficult to say in a specific case as there are so very many variables.  Very generally a second fan on a cooler does not double airflow.  It usually adds more like 20% but does not increase the actual cooling capacity much at all as it doesn’t change how big the cooler is.  It can lower total noise in specific circumstances, but in others it can actually make it louder.   The big noise advantage is when fan speeds are low but not quite low enough.  Fan noise curves are not flat. There tends to be a sharp drop off below a critical speed.  If you double the noise but increase airflow by 20% sometimes that total is lower.  Sometimes it is not. The cooler’s max capacity is WAY over the max heat output of your chip so fan speeds will be quite low while still achieving excellent cooling.  A similar cooling level could be achieved with a smaller cooler but would require more fan speed and therefore more noise. 

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Bombastinator

[woody30]

4 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Short version:

very vaguely the same.  There will just be more noise (probably)
 

Long version:

  Hide contents

That’s somewhat difficult to say in a specific case as there are so very many variables.  Very generally a second fan on a cooler does not double airflow.  It usually adds more like 20% but does not increase the actual cooling capacity much at all as it doesn’t change how big the cooler is.  It can lower total noise in specific circumstances, but in others it can actually make it louder.   The big noise advantage is when fan speeds are low but not quite low enough.  Fan noise curves are not flat. There tends to be a sharp drop off below a critical speed.  If you double the noise but increase airflow by 20% sometimes that total is lower.  Sometimes it is not. The cooler’s max capacity is WAY over the max heat output of your chip so fan speeds will be quite low while still achieving excellent cooling.  A similar cooling level could be achieved with a smaller cooler but would require more fan speed and therefore more noise. 

 

Ok thank yall so much for helping me on this