Noctua NH-U12S Redux vs be quiet! Dark Rock Slim for a Ryzen 5 5600

[JustAGamer]

Hey,

So I am currently stuck between choosing the Noctua NH-U12S Redux and the be quiet! Dark Rock Slim. I am planning to use it with a Ryzen 5 5600, which I know both are pretty overkill which is on purpose to minimize the amount of noise coming out of the machine as the stock cooler is quite whiny and louder than I would like at idle. They are basically the same price with the Noctua being $5 cheaper than the be quiet on Amazon. Both are compatible with AM4 and AM5 which is nice in terms of maybe using this same cooler if I choose to upgrade my CPU to something better down the line. My main goal currently though is to minimize the noise. Anybody have any thoughts on what I should do?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Peerless assassin/phantom spirit 120 or ag/ak620, far superior to those dinky overpriced jokes and either cheaper or not that much more

 

If you are for some reason stuck with those two then the u12s redux

[johnno23]

Noctua.

High quality and a consumer after market service second to none.

[RevGAM]

What's your set up that you are looking at those 2?

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

On 5/7/2023 at 2:00 PM, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Peerless assassin/phantom spirit 120 or ag/ak620, far superior to those dinky overpriced jokes and either cheaper or not that much more

 

If you are for some reason stuck with those two then the u12s redux

Yup. Those are the only 2 coolers I typically recommend. I like EK AIO's too but those are $$

[Somerandomtechyboi]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:25 AM, johnno23 said:

Noctua.

High quality and a consumer after market service second to none.

Doesnt matter if its a crappy 4 heatpipe tower that cant even handle a 13600k let alone any future cpus thatll be even more power hungry than that, sure you can get new brackets for now sockets but if you cant even cool the new cpus whats the point, id agree if it was the d15 or something but not this crappy 4 heatpipe

 

The dark rock slim is even worse cooling wise though

[IkeaGnome]

4 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Doesnt matter if its a crappy 4 heatpipe tower that cant even handle a 13600k let alone any future cpus thatll be even more power hungry than that, sure you can get new brackets for now sockets but if you cant even cool the new cpus whats the point, id agree if it was the d15 or something but not this crappy 4 heatpipe

Overpriced, yes. Crappy? No. Can't handle a 13600k? Not relevant. OP has a 5600. U12 Redux is ~20C improvement over the stock cooler on a 5600x. Closer to 10-12C at 65W that you'd expect from a 5600.

Spoiler

 

 

7 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

The dark rock slim is even worse cooling wise though

Once again, for the price, it's not really worth it. Saying it's horrible is disingenuous. If OP is just trying to drop temps and have a quieter machine in one go, both will do just fine.

Spoiler

 

I'd be more inclined to go with the Vetroo V5 and save $20 while still accomplishing what OP wants to do.

Spoiler

 

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

10 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Overpriced, yes. Crappy? No. Can't handle a 13600k? Not relevant. OP has a 5600. U12 Redux is ~20C improvement over the stock cooler on a 5600x. Closer to 10-12C at 65W that you'd expect from a 5600.

Sure that wont be relevant in the future? If noctuas main selling point is the customer service why the hell make such a low end cooler that cant even cool a mere 200w heatload? It doesnt matter with ops current setup but if they wanna upgrade to a newer 12/16 core ryzen down the line?

 

13 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

I'd be more inclined to go with the Vetroo V5 and save $20 while still accomplishing what OP wants to do.

thermalrights burst assassin seems to be floating around 28$ so i wonder if thatll be any better than the vetroo v5

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

It doesnt matter with ops current setup but if they wanna upgrade to a newer 12/16 core ryzen down the line?

198 watts is talked about in one of those videos with nice graphs. 

If you're talking about a full platform upgrade to AM5, it's more likely they're going to have to change coolers anyways since none of the ones we've talked about so far use AMD's mounting hardware. 

9 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

that cant even cool a mere 200w heatload?

I'd hardly call 62C over ambient "can't cool" 

4 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

thermalrights burst assassin

I could find one review, and I don't trust their testing methods. There isn't an 8C delta between an Arctic 34 and NH D15.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

14 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

198 watts is talked about in one of those videos with nice graphs. 

If you're talking about a full platform upgrade to AM5, it's more likely they're going to have to change coolers anyways since none of the ones we've talked about so far use AMD's mounting hardware. 

why bother swapping coolers when the peerless assassin is the same price as the damn redux and will more than suffice for a 16 core 7950x or future ryzens?

 

And are you use that amount of cooling on the u12s redux doesnt make it stupidly loud or anything?

[IkeaGnome]

3 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

same price as the damn redux and will more than suffice for a 16 core 7950x or future ryzens?

 

45 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Overpriced, yes. Crappy? No. Can't handle a 13600k? Not relevant. OP has a 5600.

^

3 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

And are you use that amount of cooling on the u12s redux doesnt make it stupidly loud or anything?

 

20 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

198 watts is talked about in one of those videos with nice graphs. 

^ But since you don't want to look at the reviews or read the graphs, here's another. Hint, one cooler is quieter than the other.

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

11 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

 

^

 

^ But since you don't want to look at the reviews or read the graphs, here's another. Hint, one cooler is quieter than the other.

 

U12s redux still gets steamrolled by the peerless assassin as expected and still has to run the fans faster than the peerless assassin yet 9c hotter, not too bad for a 4 heatpipe but increase the heatload even more and see it crumble which dont seem that far off into the future

 

i still do not see any reason to go u12s redux if the peerless is at the same price and offers superior cooling

[IkeaGnome]

Just now, Somerandomtechyboi said:

i still do not see any reason to go u12s redux if the peerless is at the same price and offers superior cooling

I don't either, but you're also not seeing the point and what's being said to you completely.

 

Coolers are often bought with platform upgrades. If they step up to a 5950x later on, either of what they listed in the OP with generally keep up. The 5950x with no OC tops out under 200W. That review has 200W performance and would be very similar to what OP would expect. 

If they upgrade to Intel or AM5 later, it's highly likely they're going to get a new cooler anyway. 

If a L9i can keep a 7950x cool in gaming loads, and keep up just fine with a 7700x in synthetic benchmarks, basically anything mentioned is fine, it just comes down to cost and what OP wants. Saying they're crap coolers just because they're, admittedly, over priced is a bit counter productive. 

3 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

still has to run the fans faster

But is quieter. If they're going purely off noise, then the U12 redux is the marginally better cooler for a 5600 over the Peerless Assassin.

On 5/7/2023 at 10:46 AM, JustAGamer said:

which is on purpose to minimize the amount of noise coming out of the machine

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

13 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

But is quieter. If they're going purely off noise, then the U12 redux is the marginally better cooler for a 5600 over the Peerless Assassin.

It is quieter at peak fan speed but then theres just the peerless assassin being a better cooler (beefier heatsink) so id assume you can just dial down the fan speeds to get the same noise level as the u12s redux but still have better cooling or dial the fan speeds down even more to make it outright quieter than the u12s redux whilst maintaining the same temp, theres also just ditching the stock fans and swapping them out for p12 or something for less noise but obviously gonna drive up costs abit even if you sell the stock fans

 

17 minutes ago, IkeaGnome said:

Saying they're crap coolers just because they're, admittedly, over priced is a bit counter productive.

Right theres a difference between actual garbage and being stupidly overpriced yea mixed that up abit

[RevGAM]

What I found annoying is that while the U12A has 7 pipes, it's not simple finding out how many pipes the other U12s have because the info isn't provided in most of the specs, and the photos obscure the number. You have to look at the comparison page to get what is basic info that should be in all specs. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I have both the U12A and PA120. I just dislike a premium company not showing relevant data. That their website is not well organized and specs are not complete is a second complaint, and that trying to find compatible coolers is frustrating because they list every cooler with less info than is required to make a decision. I even told them this and their response was basically IDC.

[filpo]

On 5/7/2023 at 7:46 PM, JustAGamer said:

Hey,

So I am currently stuck between choosing the Noctua NH-U12S Redux and the be quiet! Dark Rock Slim. I am planning to use it with a Ryzen 5 5600, which I know both are pretty overkill which is on purpose to minimize the amount of noise coming out of the machine as the stock cooler is quite whiny and louder than I would like at idle. They are basically the same price with the Noctua being $5 cheaper than the be quiet on Amazon. Both are compatible with AM4 and AM5 which is nice in terms of maybe using this same cooler if I choose to upgrade my CPU to something better down the line. My main goal currently though is to minimize the noise. Anybody have any thoughts on what I should do?

Out of these two, from personal preference and experience, I would go with the noctua cooler or an alternative Thermalright PA120/SE or AK620