Air cooling

[Ripred]

Hey folks, Id like a tower air cooler that isnt to expensive, can cool some of todays hottest chips and most of all dose not block / limit options for tall ram sticks

[Tan3l6]

Dual tower? Air coolers barely do the job nowdays, at least talking up from 12900K etc.

Cheap great dual-tower is Deepcool AK620 or Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE or Thermalright Frost Commander 140.

 

[YoungBlade]

The best dual-tower for optimal RAM compatibility is arguably the Scythe Fuma 2 - it uses a thin fan at the front and bends the front tower away from the RAM so that RAM sticks are able to stand at full height. Sadly, it's been hard to find recently, and if found, it's hard to find for a reasonable price. It really should be priced around $60, but scalpers are trying to sell it for over $100 - which is not worth it.

 

So the above mentioned AK620 and Peerless Assassin 120 are probably the go-to price-to-performance choices.

 

For the best-of-the-best aircooler, that's probably still the Noctua NH-D15, but it definitely can have RAM compatibility issues.

[Ripred]

11 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

The best dual-tower for optimal RAM compatibility is arguably the Scythe Fuma 2 - it uses a thin fan at the front and bends the front tower away from the RAM so that RAM sticks are able to stand at full height. Sadly, it's been hard to find recently, and if found, it's hard to find for a reasonable price. It really should be priced around $60, but scalpers are trying to sell it for over $100 - which is not worth it.

 

So the above mentioned AK620 and Peerless Assassin 120 are probably the go-to price-to-performance choices.

 

For the best-of-the-best aircooler, that's probably still the Noctua NH-D15, but it definitely can have RAM compatibility issues.

I was looking at the Scythe, seems to be what I need but totally unavailable...You think they would continue to produce these for the popularity, most other options  seem to cool well but either they obstruct the ram or they clear the ram and are way to tall for my case....

[OddOod]

The NHD15 has ram cutouts, but it's 100$ so not exactly cheap 

[Ripred]

2 minutes ago, OddOod said:

The NHD15 has ram cutouts, but it's 100$ so not exactly cheap 

yeah a little much, I was thinking like$60 $70 tops of its really good, if I'm going to spend $100+ ill water cool at that point lol

[Rupert P]

41 minutes ago, Ripred said:

Hey folks, Id like a tower air cooler that isnt to expensive, can cool some of todays hottest chips and most of all dose not block / limit options for tall ram sticks

Noctua all the way. I bought the U12S Redux recently as a quick solution, and ended up beating my PB in XTU Benchmarks. Quiet fan, SecuFirm is goated and Noctua just does it best.

[OddOod]

11 minutes ago, Ripred said:

yeah a little much, I was thinking like$60 $70 tops of its really good, if I'm going to spend $100+ ill water cool at that point lol

I mean, AIO watercoolers are less effective (and FAR more prone to failure) than air coolers and full custom loops, while more effective, are really spendy.

According to GN, the only thing that beats an NHD15 noise normalized is the Arctic Liquid Freezer II which starts at 130$

[Kilrah]

11 minutes ago, Ripred said:

yeah a little much, I was thinking like$60 $70 tops of its really good, if I'm going to spend $100+ ill water cool at that point lol

A $100 air cooler from someone like Noctua who provides mounting hardware for new sockets is going to last virtually a lifetime, unlike a few years for an AIO...

[Ripred]

3 minutes ago, OddOod said:

I mean, AIO watercoolers are less effective (and FAR more prone to failure) than air coolers and full custom loops, while more effective, are really spendy

Right , that and my pc location is a bit inconvenient for regular maintenance and inspection

 

Exhibit A 

[freeagent]

I would go with Thermalright PA120, probably the best 40 buck cooler on the market. I would also choose FC140 over the D15 any day.

 

Noctua is not the only brand that will give you mounting hardware if you need it.