Can Huge Air Coolers Beat Liquid Cooling?
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
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Noctua NH-D15: geni.us/d6CDr
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Have been using the same NH-D14 for more than a whole decade, only needing to swap fans, and when Ryzen launched Noctua sent me the am4 bracket for free, the thing is performing just as well as day one.
Silence, performance, no pump failure, no leak risk, hassle free installation, AND it helps cool down any nvme installed close to the cpu and the mobo's VRM.
Same here, still have a use for my NH-U12P bought in 2008 or 2009.
Air cooling only having one point of failure really is a huge advantage. AIO's not only have leak risk, but are more prove to physical wear and tear, and potentially need to be cleaned out of you're going to keep them for a really long time.
Yeah, and with Ryzen CPUs being thermally efficient as they are, you don't really need an expensive dual tower or AIO to keep them cool. Any decent single tower cooler should be enough nowadays
Other advantage of air coolers is that you don't have to choose where to put the radiator, let me elaborate
When you put the radiator on the case as intake, the rest of the pc is going to take hot air, which will mean lower cpu temperatures but higher ones everywhere else. On the other hand, if you install the radiator as exhaust, your overall temperature is going to lower, but your cpu will get hotter.
With an air cooled tower, there's no such thing, every component will get cool air from the case intake.
@@DrearierSpider1 Also it is easier to notice when the fan is dead than the pump. If the fan is broken there are case fan so it won't hurt cooling perf much, and it is easy to swap a new fan
If the aio pump is dead, blue screen and the whole aio is a bunch of garbage
Almost 6 years with NH-D15, 0 problems and fans still functioning perfectly
Noctua is all I buy for fans and cpu coolers.
I tried like 10 different coolers in my maybe 20 different gaming PC over the past 10 years...Just one AIO, all other air coolers. Both intel and AMD, especially Ryzen series since the very first Ryzen 1000. I learned which paste to use and how to apply it. and I also learned that unless you get a really good (or expensive) AIO, you may face several issues like leakage, pump noise, water noise, corrosion. Sure, the tech of AIOs has moved forward too, but I still prefer the reliability and 0 issues of an air cooler. You basically only need to swap the fans after few years. Thats like 10$
NH-D15, DRP4, but even budget options by Thermalright, Arctic, or DeepCool are BRILLIANT. Rn I'm looking at the TR peerless assassin and the DeepCool AK620 as a replacement for my trusty Arctic 34 duo - perfect for sub 150W, no nonsense, cheap (used to be, 35$, now over 65$ in my country). Thus, the much beefier AK620 for just 64$ here is a top choice for many.
Using noctua fans are blessing for quiet system.
Urang Tuai FACTS!
I bought the industrial 120mm noctua fan that runs at 3k rpm. It is not so quiet, but it does the job with gusto! I had an 8700k and now a 9900k that are very power hungry. To get an all core clock of 4.9ghz I need to run the vcore at 1.35v or else it will bsod. I could have been unlucky with both chips, but more likely my mobo doesn’t send as clean a voltage as needed (msi z370 a pro). I use the fuma 2 with the industrial noctua in the middle and the smaller included fuma 2 fan in front. During a handbrake job of 8-10 hours temps will peak around 88c, but average around 82-85c. Tis loud, but easy to talk over. I will try a run with a bigger fan in front with the industrial 3k noctua remaining in the middle. That noctua is quiet when running 1.6k rpm.
when loud, noctua does not produce a irritated 'whiny' sound as compare to let say the cooler master fans.. i am very sensitive to the whiny sound of the fans.
@Cerus98 I would be concerned if it was just a turbo and low voltage, but running at 1.35 vcore 4.9 all core seems like others are getting around those temps as well. I am not just playing games. I am 100% all cores and threads for hours with handbrake. As for over running the other fan, I also dont think that is an issue as there is not a closed system where the higher volume fan only scavenges from the front fan. Heck, the stock skinny front fan only maxes at 33.86 cfm while the stock middle fan does 51.17 cfm while the noctua I have pushes 109 cfm max. I have since swapped the stock "middle" 51.17 cfm fan to the front instead of the slim 33.86 cfm fan. My old air cooler was ramping up to 97c. I had to stop my work until I got my fuma 2 in. The hardware monitor shows that my noctua is reaching its 3k limit without issue ~2990 rpm. So there is no issue with power delivery. With both large fans combined they are rated at less than .5 amp so (0.5a * 12v= 6w) or less. Thank you for your concern, but I am ok. I probably would be better off with a beafier mobo as I think I could run the vcore lower with more stable power delivery, I'm guessing. I will just run what I have, and I won't throw the baby out with the bath water. I could even try to using high end thermal paste, but I wont expect miracles from modern thermal paste
Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT all day
The thing I've always been worried about with the big air coolers is how much weight you're hanging off what is essentially a thin fiberglass sheet. It would be neat to have some kind of mechanism to put the mass load on the case rather than the motherboard.
Hey Ali, i'm a huge fan of your work. In Brazil, the most channels uses click bait and poor information about everything. I love your seriousness and objectivity to talk and the great quality of your videos.
Keep creating content like this and you will go far.
The Be Quite Dark Rock Pro4 is a famous beefy air cooler as well, is around the same price as the Noctua one, and comes head to head with it in terms of thermals and noise level
It also looks far more sexier than the Noctua's Chromax.
@@robertadrianwayne especially with a single fan (inside).
Its also allot harder to install, and the warranty isn't that great compared to a Noctua NH-D15 chromax. Both are black so it makes it a little harder to want to by the Dark Rock Pro4. Both what I hear are about the same when it comes to performance.
Michael Michaelagnew I installed the dark rock pro 4 with my motherboard in the case after tearing out my AIO. Zero issues.
@@michaelmichaelagnew8503 I actually recently installed a dark rock pro4, and honestly it was a really simple install, assuming you're building outside of the case. Only struggle was the size, but that's a little hard to avoid...
All I can hear is steve from gn saying "noise normalized thermals"
The first thing is to test inside a case, not on open bench.
@@SuperSuperka Yes, this.
Memory clearance is one of the reasons I have stayed with AIOs. But other than that I always preferred air cooling as I felt they were quieter. Good video and work. Thank you.
Well I would simply stay away from 10cm/5inch tall memory modules? Is there any point with those tall heat sinks? I mean that one stick consumes what 3 watts at worst. There's memory kits up to DDR4-4700 that will fit below (for example) Noctua NH-D15 without adjusting front fan.
@@kimnice Oh now this is really good to know. I would like clearance for my memory modules. Thank you.
I would love to see a fully air-cooled relatively SFF build for extreme gaming using the chromax NH-D15.
Balancing between looks as well as performance and compactness.
Noctua NH-D15 Rules...Would like to have seen prices included in the test.
@Nick V True dat, looking that mini beast for my next build it looks super sexy and it is super efficient.
What's the smallest case you can put the Noctua Nh-d15 ?? that Lian li t150 ?
@@Maisonier Probably. I have one and the clearance to the side is only a millimetre or so.
@Nick V Dude, Corsair 400q IT'S GIANT. I'm talking about MINI-ITX BUILDS, like the Lian Li t150.
@Nick V can't complain it cooled my i7 6700k better than my h100i v1 ever did, it's a beast!
I'd like to throw in my 2 cents given as I've actually recently switched from a Kraken X52 to the Noctua NH-D15. The NH-D15 is a total beast that keeps my Ryzen 3950X below 70 degrees (at stock speeds) in a fairly limited airflow case (Fractal Design Define R6) with two Noctua NF-A14 intake fans and one Noctua NF-A14 exhaust and it does it while remaining almost inaudible. Overall I'd say I prefer it to the Kraken and I actually kinda like the beefy understated look. That said, the video didn't touch upon one thing you might consider when deciding between liquid vs air cooling and that's that the video card temperature will not affect your CPU temperature when using an AIO whereas it will almost certainly do so with an air cooler (at least if we're talking about a non-blower style, average dual fan card) since some of the heat dissipated from the card's backplate will find it's way to the CPU cooler. Long story short, you can't go wrong with the NH-D15 if your case can fit it, it's slightly cheaper that a decent AIO, close enough in thermal performance and same or better noise-wise.
that scythe cooler is extremely impressive for a 120mm fan cooler!
0:16 It's nice to see a low angle shot like this that shows the nh-d15 with the 2nd fan mounted at the back instead of where the ram is. I wanted to see if it was possible without compromising side panel clearance by being forced to raise the fan up due to the IO height. Looks like its not affected so that's good. This was the one thing I struggled to find anywhere and you got an instant like for that alone.
Noctua nh-d15 the black edition with Lian lie t150 is my favorite combo for 3950x small workstation.
Hey do you know if the 140mm fan fits in the back where the I/O cover is? I was thinking of getting it but according to ram clearance my ram is too tall for it to be at the front. And only the double fan version is sold where I live.
Cyberno if you use noctua nh-15 yes you can just clip the fan offset a little to the top. If you use other air cooler some of them don’t allowed you to offset the fans so be carful.
@@shiyourin4846 It is shown at 3:50
What's the smallest case you can put the Noctua Nh-d15 ?? that Lian li t150 ?
Maisonier I guess yes lian li is the smallest possible case
Scythe Fuma 2 is very underrated cooler
Great value. 50 euro and close to NH-D15 but in Scythe you get lower noise(I think with swap fan difference will be ~1-2C). I have Scythe Ninja 5 :-).
@@Tomaszt-se6uf Has the Fuma 2. Even at full speed, it's silent. And if you hear it (aka, no other fans on) it's a nice pleasant noise of air rushing through the fins.
Ridiculously easy to install, comes with everything needed, has respectable cooling performance and is very quiet. And then there's the price, it's a no-brainer.
I have one and frankly you have to pay attention to not mount one fan in the wrong side for air flow.
I have a DeepCool dual tower. I had one fan, Antec RGB 120mm, in the middle and Prime95 got to 70C. I put the two others on for three and it only got to 60C. The CPU a 9600KF not OC. Love the simplicity of air cooling.
After I lost my last system when the OEM's cheap liquid cooler sprung a leak, I'm preparing to replace my 4 year old brand name liquid cooler with a high end air cooler instead. I don't ever want to repeat having to replace "everything" inside my case if and when a liquid cooler fails again.
That's why you should build your pcs or at least make sure it's using quality parts.
My new NH-D15 has been installed for several weeks now, and to my surprise significantly out performs the old, brand name liquid cooling system (240mm radiator, two 120mm fans). After running a "100% CPU on all cores (real and virtual) for over an hour" video rendering workload on my 140w TDP i7-5820k, the new air cooler consistently keeps the max temperatures a whopping 15C cooler than the liquid cooler did! Now I must mention that I did use Thermal Grizzly thermal paste with the new air cooler too, to get the best heat transfer that I could as I've seen reviews that indicate it beats other thermal pastes by an additional 50% as measured by its thermal transfer coefficient. As I was expecting a loss in performance with the air cooler, the actual performance is amazing to me!
@@warp00009 The only real advantage water cooling has I think is thermal capacity, so actually dissipating the heat shouldn’t be different. The pump noise in AIO is also a difference maker, my 240mm cooler is infuriating at idle, I can constantly hear the buzz of the water pump. I’m planning on getting a be quiet! Dark Rock 4 and strapping an extra Silent Wings 3 fan on it. 200W rated, with whisper quiet fans. Can’t beat that.
@@Mojave_Ranger_NCR Since I wrote my original post, I replaced my liquid cooler with a Noctua NH-D15 (admittedly with upgraded Thermal Grizzly thermal paste) - which totally surprised me when it blew away the performance that my liquid cooler had provided by a significant margin! Now my CPU temperature after running 100% load on all threads and physical cores for over an hour is a whopping 15C less than the liquid cooler could muster - and as you mention it is a lot quieter than the water pump too. With air cooled performance like that, I'm never going back to the risks and concerns of a liquid cooler again! Stay safe and well my friend!
@@warp00009 Great to hear. And thanks you too 🙏
Using and loving a Chromax NH-D15 now, used to have a regular D15 but wanted the all black looks to work with the aesthetics I was going for. Super happy with Chromax version:: superb build quality (even the fan clips are matte black), low noise (and more importantly, the pitch of the noise is low) and fantastic looks..
Should have ran some longer tests, it takes a bit for the water coolers to heat up since its water
30 minutes blender not long enough?
No
But the temp graph is pretty stable in the plot. It should at least incline slightly constantly if you were correct. AIOs do not contain that much water anyway. Custom loops should take longer to settle, but you still would see a constant move towards the final temp.
I just noticed that his was modified, wonder if that made the difference because from other reviews and my personal experience I've gotten same temps stock for stock with all in ones and big boi coolers
If you think about it, heatpipes are sort water coolers.They do use water (albeit by transitioning its phase from liquid to gas and back) to transfer heat away from the CPU and into the "radiator".
So I do wonder if further improvements in heatpipe technology could eventually lead to them outperforming "traditional" water coolers.
water cooling is actually air cooling because you just blow fan through the radiator
air cooling is actually water cooling because they use water in the evaporation chambers
I dont know what to believe anymore.
I want a CPU heatsink that is off-center to mount directly to a PC's rear fan slot. That would be neat.
Cavey Möth would have to be on a case by case basis but if SIs that actually cared about their products existed, they would probably be able to do that
8 years of continuous use for my NH-U14S and have had zero issues. Just brought it over from the AMD FX4350 build it was running on, to a 5900x. I’ve watched numerous videos trying to convince myself it’s time to “upgrade” and came to conclusion that the U14S is still plenty for my needs. I added another fan to make it push/pull and saw a huge improvement in temps. I have the cooler mounted so it blows the hot air up and out of the case. Moving the fan from the case to on top of the radiator made the biggest difference. I have barely been able to get the CPU above 80c during any workload, blender included.
After having 2 corsair h115i die on me 1-2 years apart. system was on 24/7 and pump speed was set to full speed in software( i read online its better for the pump to stay at one speed vs fluctuate)
The first unit.. pump just gave out on a overclocked 8350 @ 5ghz 1.45 volts.. sold it on ebay for 45$ for parts..
Bought the 2nd unit at retail price, The pump also gave out but sounded like sand and temps would jump over 90c in a matter of seconds.. corsair was nice enough to give me a full refund after the warranty ended almost 5 months later...upgraded to a ryzen 3600x and purchased the Scythe Ninja 5. never going back to aio..
just my 2 cents
Just built a Ryzen 5900x, Radeon 6800 XT system. Went 100% air cooling, because of the reliability and simplicity reasons. Keeping the CPU cool with a Noctua NH-D15 chromax is not hard, to say the least, especially using your other excellent video that you made after this discussing undervolting the Ryzen. If anything, the GPU is what needs better cooling - oh, it stays cool but it spins the fans up high and spews a ton of heat into the case because there's no air exiting the case where it sits. But, I don't want pump noise, failure risks and I certainly never sit looking at my system when I use it. Heck, I bought an opaque case, even.
For quiet performance remember to always opt for push / push configs. Any pull fan should be gapped 1-3mm to avoid noise from having the suction side being too close to the heatsink. U14S includes thicker corner pads to gap the suction fan away from the heatsink. I think many people introduce this noise and not even realize it is avoidable. I have 3x 140mm fans on my D15 and use the U14S thicker pads for the 3rd fan in a pull config. Silent 3 fan setup.
I got myself AIO 8 years ago, that was mistake. I mainly sit on idle at night and never using headphones. Pump noise is killing me.
Next build going to be completely passive.
Completely passive build is unnecessary - I used various 120mm Noctua and Be Quiet Silent Wings fans @500rpm and I can't tell whether PC is powered on or not.
@@veduci22 thing is: I want to? Design will be tight
Have fun downclocking your system for 60W TDP
@@Stefan50326 Dude, Ryzen 3k runs awesome at 65W. Octacore at 3.6 GHz.
@@Azraleee
Which one exactly?
Wow this seems to be the only video on UA-cam that I’ve ever come across that actually takes the time to consider pump noise at idle. It seems like most reviews are only interested in the raw maxed out performance but give so little attention to noise especially that from the pump. I am especially sensitive to any sort of noise coming from my system at idle and in that regard most air coolers immediately trump liquid coolers.
The NH-D15 Chromax Black is the best cooler out right now. Looks so good and performs so well. My next build will definitely feature one. Corsair's 2020 CES cooler is a joke compared to this beauty.
If you are running more than 8 cores or are overclocking i wouldn't recommend it
@@shadowguardian3612 what would you recommend?
@@shadowguardian3612 the 9900k is an 8 core 16 threaded processor lmao
Really? I mean many reviewers used NH-D15 when they tested AMD Ryzen 9 3950x, a 16 core CPU. They managed nice overclock-results with it.
@@alexpetree2038
Funny enough: There were temperature test where they used Noctua NH-D15 with various processors. Intel Core i9 9900KS ran almost 20c hotter than AMD Ryzen 9 3950x..despite latter having twice as many cores. Since Noctua NH-D15 was good enough for 9900KS, it most certainly is enough for 3950x.
Thorough and thoughtful as usual.. The mouse clicking during the sound test to give people a baseline reference was great thinking.
Very underrated channel, u deserve more subs.
THIS!
You can always share his videos on social networks. ;)
He deserves that!
Yea...At least 500K
Built my first pc with a Scythe Mugen 4 and the stock water cooling of the 295x2, man that 295x2 was LOUD! Tweakers once lent my 295x2 for a review and I've got the HD7990 as a replacement, which was a godsend! So quiet! Shortly the 295x2 was bailed out, and a 980Ti came in.
Nowadays my 6700K is cooled with an Scythe Shuriken rev 2b with 120mm Noctua 15mm thick and a 1060 3gb is coupled with an Raijintek Morpheus 2 with also dual 120mm Noctua's full thickness.
Won't ever be using water cooling again, pumps are loud, it induces a risk, whereas cooling towers are cool looking by their bulkiness.
Who cares about lights in your system!? I prefer the pixels on my screen way more!
*And the sweet sound from my stereo!
Nobody ever tests air coolers in a high airflow case. i have proven the superiority of aircoolers because of the impessive drop in temperature from great case cooling. The best way to acheive this is to buy a SL600M case and configure it to top down airflow feeding a Noctua NH-DH15. (Screw the convection effect, the closer your input fans to the CPU cooler the better. Also top down stops your case sucking in floor dust)
Vertical mount the Noctua NH-DH15 and custom mount your graphics card to the right of the motherboard near the PSU using a PCI-E cable to allow all components fresh air.
Having a twin 200mm fan push pull case will provide the maximum airfow through your case. This configuration will run very quietly and outperform any AIO 480mm water cooling in both temperature and sound whilst keeping all components nice and cool with vey little expense. BTW your graphics card will love all that fresh air and outperform liquid cooling.
Why does almost every tech channel have such a high noise floor? My noise floor is around 26 dB(A).
Aren't air coolers way more dependent on the case design compared to liquid aios?
Does testing this on an open bench really yield representative results?
I'm thinking the same thing! I used to use a Noctua U12S and that outperformed my Kraken x62 in OC stability and maximum temps!
Low pump speed is almost as effective as higher speeds, unlike fan speeds, so to take full advantage of this virtue people should set their pump speeds lower unless you’re pushing more than 360mm radiators.
Excellent video production and fantastic job on the subject coverage. I've done extensive testing of coolers over the years and I see quite a big gap between the cooling *capacity* of air vs AIO. People are very hung up about noise levels these days but I wanted raw performance because I was benchmarking, so I regularly used fans at 4,000rpm and above. With an apples-to-apples comparison like this, AIO coolers would be several degrees lower than the very best air coolers. Interestingly enough, the Thermalright Silver Arrow IB-E is on par with the NH-D15, but Thermalright seem to have lost their publicity footing of late.
Great video. I wonder how running them on an open air chassis might have skewed the results. The biggest problem I see with air coolers is that you need more fanage because the cooler doesn't have access to cool air in the case and you have to move the air twice with an air cooler - first through the CPU cooler and then in and out of the case. With a radiator the radiator fans move air through the case.
I've performed a simple cfd on Cooler master N400 and the HAF XB EVO: The heat produced by the video card and circulating airflow generated a dT of about 17C in the N400 and 14C in the HAF; from ambient (about 21C). The fan flow is very important, because the dT with the factory setup on the N400 is about 63C above ambient. Summary: the fans in both cases should go into the box. The dT on the cpu is much higher in the n400 due to obstructions. The recommended case is the haf. Replacing the inlet fan on the Noctua with an industrial 140mm is recommended. In both cases, replacing the rear fan with and industrial fan is also recommended. One can expect a dT on the cpu 65C above ambient. The factory N400 (with two fans) would likely get very hot, even with a liquid cooler; because of the poor circulation.
Finally someone using the fuma2!
Great video although I would like to see the return of noise-standardized results, they were really popular back then and it really shows the effeciency of coolers. Also it would be great to test this with a higher TDP Ryzen, like a 3900X or 50X with like 200-250W output.
then you want to go proper liquid cooling and bypass aio's altogether, aio's are only useful if the case dont have the room for a good air cooler
Nice video, but it would be nice to see prices as well and that stand at 8:27 tho
Prices in the description.
Still using a Scythe mugen 2 air cooler from 2009, I did mount a new Be Quiet! Shadow wings fan on it to make it quieter but it's still doing really well, keeping my i5 12500 perfectly cool at 550 rpm, totally inaudible 👌
My system consists of a Ryzen 2600X and Strix Vega 56 undervolted. Noctua NH-D15 tower cooler decked out with Chromax fans and white heatsink covers, Chromax 120mm fans in the front and Phanteks 140mm in the back. At idle, and some basic stuff like web browsing and UA-cam videos (4K60), my computer makes no noise at all... CPU at 50-55C max with the CPU fan off (passive cooling alone) and case fans around 500rpm just to get the heat out of the case.
When gaming, it's just a very low Noctua fan noise, maybe 50-60% on all fans, and it's so quiet that most of the time I game with my speakers, no headset without being distracted by fan noise. Couldn't be happier with it.
I used to run a Corsair AIO cooler, and it was a far cry from being this quiet with the constant pump droning. I sit about 2ft from my computer, for reference, and my room has a low enough noise floor I can hear almost anything that makes noise... 2.5" hard drives are pretty audible and 3.5" are extremely audible when compared to the rest of the sound (or lack thereof) coming out of my computer. Because of this, the pump noise was just not something I could deal with, hence I went with the NH-D15 a while back and it's absolutely wonderful now.
I got a NHD-15 with copper and lapped ihs with liquid metal conductonaut. Doesn't even reach above 80°C when stress tested. And this is at 5.5GHz, and 4000MHz ram. I think I'm good for a pretty decent while. Saving up for a 3440x1440 144hz monitor.
Im not sure if 30 minutes is enough to properly heat up all the water which is therefore an unfair advantage for the liquid cooling.
You should let it run for 2 hours atleast to compare results.
Also it would be great to normalize the temperatures with the noise, if you do that you will see that the NHD-15 outperforms any non custom AIO you can buy.
I'd also say that you should inform the people about push and pull setups and what their strengths and weaknesses are (either cool cpu or gpu properly but both isnt possible with a radiator).
They will notice that having a radiator may be nice for the CPU, but it def isnt nice for the GPU if its a pull setup.
This of course doesnt take any full custom waterloops into account which are always superior to any of the here presented solutions :D
I had water. Switched to this and never looked back. Cools to temps similar to this. Consistanty, i don't have to worry about failure and maintance.
Either go full custom loop or stick with an air cooler. Go all in or dont at all.
No Be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4?
Also no arctics, those things have the Best price benefit ratio
Arctic Freezer 34 duo is almost the same as DRP4 for just 35$ and it comes with Arctic thermal paste too. Super good deal
Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT all day
@@Saigonas Yeah, keep dreaming buddy! A 4 heatpipes cooler performing almost the same as a dual-tower 7 heatpipes beast? The Freezer 34 can't even beat the regular DR4, let alone the PRO. Maybe it comes close when used on a stock CPU, but a 9900k at 5Ghz? Be ready for the mother of all throttlings.
@@Danko_HS you wouldn't even use 40$ cooler on 9900K at 5GHz. Even DRP4 in some instances isn't enough for overclocked 9900k.
To answer this question, an average sized cooler will do just fine in most cases. However, it is sometimes more preferable to use a larger cooler, but anything beyond a certain size will be met with diminishing returns. On the other end of the scale, the lack of size can be compensated for by being mindful of the placement and cooling methods being used.
I upgraded from a deepcool to a D15. Its silent. While CPU cooling performance is similar, not having my exhaust blocked by a radiator has dramatically lowered case and GPU temps.
it's not the size of the radiator that allows that aio's to win, it's the thermal properties of the liquid running in the tubes. Run the aio's for an hour so the liquid temp normalizes and try it again, they won't keep up. liquid just takes longer to heat up, so it's more effective in short bursts but bad for long sustained loads.
Damn, so you'd get a bigger difference delidding your CPU, than using a super expensive liquid cooler.
Isn't the 9900k soldered?
@@pedrobastos8132 Yes, it is
You'd also void your warranty, risk completely killing the CPU, need expensive liquid metal + delidding tool.. And of course, it'd only be for *that* CPU. meanwhile an expensive air cooler would be almost a lifetime upgrade, since you could most likely just swap out the mounting brackets.
@@PureRushXevus that's assuming the aio will last longer than a year.
Most aio's are cheaply built overpriced trash that build up copper salts to critical levels in under a year.
You don't need to delid Ryzen or Intel 9th gen K-series.
Two things here, one why is that NZXT logo upside down, the little pump cover is even designed to spin so you can mount it however you want. Secondly the NH-D15 does allow you to just mount the fan higher on the cooler, so if you want high profile ram and you dont want to mount the second fan on the rear side of the cooler you dont have to.
Very Short video, yet the way you explain and to the point without making confusing charts, is the best description I have ever seen. Right away I clearly understood everything you explained. Thank you very much. And Yes, your comment about a quiet environment. at 3:00 am with the winter season, and with the windows closed it gets very very quiet. I had the original AMD stock cooler and at that time of night it was insanely loud even at idle. Even worse I couldn't concentrate in my video editing because of the fan buzzing in and out as moved the cursor in the video program. Kicked the thing out of the system and replaced it with the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4, fan cooler. Not only there is no more noise but the mother board runs cooler since is not getting blasted with hot air by the downward air direction of the AMD fan cooler. Oh by the way thanks for not using background music, talking nonsense or trying to be humorous. To the point. Yes to the point. Subscription? Yes please!
But there's more to consider. The fan coolers also supply air flow to the power delivery heatsinks and the memory heatsinks.
120s? You didn't let the liquid to warm up, it was clear win for aio in that case :v.
If you'd let it get some heat it could be way different
Arivald yeah true, linus tested this before. He let it run for a few hours. His results were aircoolers performed better in the long run.
It says for 30 minutes in the bottom right corner
I had Corsair AIO, worked well while it was new, but those things just aren't designed to last. After a couple years, the cooler was no longer effective with the pump at low RPM, then the pump started making noise, at that point if I couldn't fix it I was going to throw it out so I tried servicing it. Immediately noticed that a lot of fluid had been lost from the system and could hear liquid sloshing around in the radiator. When I removed the cold plate for examination, the copper micro fins were clogged up with a hard mineralized substance (presumably the product of galvanic corrosion), and some of this loose material was circulating in the system and probably responsible for the pump noise. In the end I couldn't even reassemble it with the trash quality screws they used to secure the cold plate.
Given that they're all essentially the same design with aluminum radiators and copper cold plates, they will all suffer the same types of failures inevitably. They could at least add fill ports for topping off the fluid and spend a couple more cents on better quality screws that wont strip by looking at them wrong and these units would actually be servicable and have much longer lives, but they don't because AIO coolers are designed to have to be replaced.
I would like to see this test performed in a case rather than a test bench. Having to pull air through a fan grill (and potentially a dust filter) in addition to pushing air through a radiator can have a significant impact on how much air a fan can move. Surely it would hurt both air and water coolers, but I suspect that if noise levels are held constant, the liquid coolers would suffer more. I doubt the air coolers would come close to challenging the 360mm rad under load, but I wouldn't be surprised if, say, the NH-D15 became more competitive with the 280mm aios. I've had a couple of 240mm AIOs and have never been overly impressed with them.
Noctua , always make you feel so proud when put on a PC for the performance and how quiet it is well. Unlike any other fans as this Noctua are the best quality fans for any who like to enjoy their PC working w no noise with a better performance as well. Great video man and way to go.
the only reason i dont want watercooling is the maintenance work when it actually needs it like when something like algae starts growing or when the pump broke or when it leaks. Air cooling issues only comes from the fan and installation but that can easily be fixed since fans can easily be replaced unlike when the pump motor broke.
Thanks for including audio. I was surprised at the variety of noise color.
If, hypothetically it's possible to make a 3 tower air cooler, they would probably preform exactly the same. (Same surface area, volume and airflow) I would buy one. :D
I still prefer my ultra-quiet Noctua NH-15 coupled with a GPU that's fans turn completely off at low use. :))
Just had an AIO pump fail after 6 months worth of use and switched to the Noctua D15. Seems to be performing better than the AIO due to the fact I've also switched to an open air chassis from Yuel Beast Designs. Noctua is a 10/10 for anyone whos on the fence, quiet, performs extremely well, and also fairly priced with no gimmicks.
Only thing that can beat a Noctua NH D15 is a 360mm AIO or greater.
@@JbHomestead I was running a 360 AIO previously from a pretty reputable brand. But I don't want to name them because they actually make some really really good custom liquid cooling solutions and shouldn't have an AIO failure tarnish that xD
Just bought the Fuma 2 with a 5600X, super happy with the cooling performance and noise levels. My mechanical HDD is louder than the cooler. Time to move bulk storage to SSDs.
what about the beQuite Dark Rock Pro 4?
It should be a degree hotter than the noctua and a decibel quieter.
I feel like you forgot the most important difference. The case! In for example the fractal torrent an air cooler will outperform even a 360mm aio because the case is made for airflow, Obviously the torrent isn't the only case that focuses on this but it just really important to consider your case when buying a cooler
The vaunted NH-D15 is exhibiting *strong* blade passing noise at 8:44. 7 blades * 1400 RPM = 163 Hz. I think perhaps the oversized fan overhanging the fin stack is a mistake.
Excellent sound comparison!! Very nice job. Fuma is the quietest air cooler of course, Scythe usually win on noise. Noctua fans are surprisingly tonal, with an unpleasant whine. Top content!
that's one hunk of a cooler
good job and thank you. i've been waiting for a reputable channel to do this.
i have a Be Quiet dark rock pro 4 on my 5600 x. Love it
Well, looking at LC performance in relative to almost twice the price of AC, it doesn't look that good for LC.
I've had a few AIOs and always gone back to air coolers due to the acoustic difference.
Having less points of failures is also a big plus with air cooling.
Cellsplitter can i use aorus atc700 on i9 9900k@stock clock
Kraken pump is rather loud at least on my x52. I'm definitely going to buy the noctua next time around.
Always enjoy your videos. Very informative and educational.
What about a custom Noctua NH-D15?
The D15 with 2 or 3 Noctua NF-A12x25 fans?
I would bet money that is would be the quietest and coolest...
what about be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4?¿
I think that's similar to the noctua, I mean I have one in my case but they are VERY comaprable.
I just built a pc with that cooling a 3950X after watching Linus Tech Tips vidéo about air cooling being better than liquid cooling.
@@Connor_Herman what's your cpu temp with DRP4?
@@DarkPa1adin Under full load, up to 80C but usually about 65C. The only reason it's running hot is because I installed it backwards. I need to move some fans around so air is flowing better.
Would be pretty similar to Fuma 2
Couple of things, firstly you mentioned with the Noctua if you're using tall memory sticks you have no choice but to either go without the 2nd fan or move it to the back, thats not true if you have a deep case (of which there are quite a few now), you can simply mount that fan in a much higher position. The second point regarding sound, I'd argue the air coolers are still quieter because their fan noise is contained within the case, whereas with a radiator they're always mounted on case edge, so its fans are much closer to the outside world. Especially using something like a Fractal R5/R6 case with the solid metal side panel with acoustic padding, this is where a Noctua air cooler will sound a lot quieter.
Your result is the only one I've seen that the Assassin III is not "beating" the Noctua nh-d15 for a single degree celsius albeit louder...
I have a Xeon 2288G running 4,7Ghz all 8 cures at 100% using 220W at that setting, max temperature is 85C with a huge qube 12 heatpipe Schyte Ninja 3 cooler equipped with four 12cm Noctua HP fans.. During normal use with more normal load like the most demading gmes tempereature is in the 40 - 50C range with 40 - 50% CPU use and around 60 -100W.
People: Ohh no, pump so loud, I think I may die😫
Me: *Laughs in gaming laptop when opening a single chrome tab*
for systems that I recommend for friends, I almost always recommend air, it's just where the value and reliability are at, personally, I run a custom water loop for overclocking, plus it's fun!
Best use of liquid cooling, in my opinion:
1. really hot GPUs in SLI
2. really hot GPUs
3. SFF cases, because liquid gives you options, where to put the radiator.
But I still hold to air cooling, running Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme for more than 10 years now, I first mounted it on the Athlon 64 3500, IIRC.
There's a similar question I would find very interesting: *When* does a liquid cooler make sense? I've seen people in forums asking which liquid cooler they should get for their R5 3600 and my immediate reaction was just "why". But talking about CPUs in between, like an R7 3700X or an 9700K without OC, is there a noticeable difference between an AiO and a middle class or high end cooler? Or does it only make a difference when you have something as hot as your 9900K? If there is one, where's the point where a liquid cooler is actually better, or is there a noticable difference even on CPUs that don't create much heat in the first place?
Slimmer cases where you cant quite fit a massive tower cooler. Also its easoer show off your baller RGB ram with one. But I'll keep rocking my NH-D15
In fact according to my personal experience, air coolers are usually quiter. Firstly, high end air cooler usually has higher quality fans, especilly if it's from some brand like Be Quite or Nuctua. Secondly, fans come with air coolers are usually air flow optimized while fans come with liquid coolers are usually static pressure optimized becasue radiators usuallu have denser fins than air coolers and have more resistense. It's the nature of high static pressure fan to generate more turbulence and noise. From my experience, the biggest adventage of liquid cooler is space optimization, which in many cases is more important than just a few degrees and a few dBs.
Just a thought on the noise, you were measuring them from a test bench where a CPU tower cooler will be stuffed in a case (for the majority of people) where the fan noise will be somewhat enclosed whereas the radiators will usually be mounted to the side of the case (many the top) where they won't be snuffled so much, so this could mean, all being equal, you may prefer the noctua air cooler vs the water cooler that it was otherwise very much.
It's a point that occurred as I used to have an AMD stock cooler in a Coolermaster Silencio 352 and never thought much of it, out the bench the other week I couldn't believe how much of a racket it was. (though, obviously an exaggerated example, given the silencio is designed to keep the noise in at the expense of cooling).
No Thermosiphon? That thing is a true beast in air cooling! 🤣
I use a NHD15 with 2 Corsair ML20 Fans zipped tied to it, cools better than a 280mm aio but is slightly beat by a 360mm aio
The answer to this question is simple. They're both equally effective. What you choose to do with your PC however is what you should consider.
If youre going to tuck your PC away in a shelf or another room from where youre working or gaming the go with a air cooler. If you are building a PC and you want to show it off with all its RGB glory then go with a water cooler. And yeah, its basically as simple as that.
Before Noctua started including AM4 brackets with all their coolers this year, they were freely sending them to users with coolers that were sold as far back as 2005. That's one of the huge reasons people love air cooling, a good cooler can last you practically forever.
NH U12A - best of both worlds, looks, cooling, quite, ram clearance ;)
Is there a reason why the NH D15 heatsink doesn't go all the way "up" to the end of the fans?
And for me, NZXT H210 case, ROG Strix GTX1080.. there is no way I'm fitting a 240mm rad. But if I did do another AIO, it would have NF A12x25 fans no doubt!
We need to revisit this topic once IceGiant gets their ProSiphon Elite released. The initial prototype actually beat a 360mm AIO.
Would only consider air coolers if they start to become better for small itx cases. At the moment i think im gonna stick with liquid coolers and i don’t see myself switching to a mid/high tower anytime soon.
I would have preffered the same test with a Zen 2 cpu as well because of the chiplet design, maybe in a future video?
Also a test inside a case would have been better as well, especially if the GPU is stressed as well.
Wish you used two 360mm rads for the custom loop. I mean that's the thing about custom.. 1x 360aio or custom won't be much of a difference. But I wonder how it would be with two rads
you applied thermal paste like someone dookied on the ground and smeared it a bit.... I like it.
water cooling systems seem to fail deadly :V if a fan on your air cooler stops spinning.. well.. it's still got a massive heatsink and case airflow and passive cooling. pump fails.. or springs a leak.. or cold plate gets clogged up with gunk (looking at you Enermax :V) things are melting or shorting out or breaking :
Videography is top notch!
And the detailed explanation ✌️✌️
Would like to see the neptwin v2 with aftermarket fans (like the Arctic p12) and tim (mx-4 or whatever) compared to the fuma because both would be similarly priced. It's like a somewhat smaller budget d14, would be cool to see how a cheap dual tower stacks up against a slightly more expensive single tower (and arguably one of the best ones in it's price range).
Nice noise levels for that Scythe@1200rpm. It would be interesting to compare the air coolers noise at similar rpm levels.