Bro, I can’t imagine how much time this all took to film and edit… seriously great work man. I just picked up the same motherboard and cpu combo for my main editing rig. This video is insanely helpful. Thank you for all the hard work 🙏
Glad I found this channel. There’s so many great channels on RUclips that are hidden. Today the magic algorithm gave me a treat. When I worked at BB they had 15% restock fee and that kept me away but Love Best Buy now. Nothing like being able to drive 5minutes to buy return exchange/ no restock fee bs.
I can't understand the reason for setting maximum power draw limit to 295 Watts. Why not limit to 253 the way Intel intended it and check for which coolers can actually keep it under 100 degrees instead of counting how long it takes for them to bring throttling into the picture?
Thank you for this video. To check the Noctua issue, I reproduced your test, but with a NH-D15s and NH-U12A. The only difference between our tests is that I used a Thermalright LGA1700 contact frame (and obvious things like different Mainboard, Ram, etc.. Cooler and CPU are the same of course.) My results: NH-D15s = 39,550 NH-U12A = 39,636 I ran 3 tests with each cooler to confirm the result. I also controlled the contact pressure by checking the distribution of the thermal paste. Both coolers ran at full speed. The U12A performed a bit better, but not with that high amount like in your video. Furthermore the U12A seemed to be a bit quieter than the D15s under full load. The NH-D15 actually has 2 fans and should therefore perform a little better than the NH-D15s. I also noticed that the contact surface of the U12A is much larger than that of the D15s. The D15 should be identical to the D15s in this Point. I assume that with the Contact Frame your results would look a little different too. Update: I have compared the two coolers again side by side in terms of noise levels. This time it's a direct comparison, but still subjective. At maximum speed, the U12A with 2000 rpm is slightly louder than the NH-D15s with maximum 1500 rpm. If I adjust the speed of the U12A to 1500 rpm, it is a lot quieter than the NH-D15s. It probably performs a little worse then. I would say the coolers are on a par in terms of performance to noise.
Did you do your testing on an open benchtable as well? The NH-D15 has a lot more surface area which makes me believe it'll perform better than the NH-U12A in a closed case.
My NH-U14S throttles down to 4.7Ghz in Cinebench on a 13700k. I re did the thermal paste manually and spread it over the IHS and made sure it was definitely clamped down. Same result. Room temp was 19°C as well.
@@reinulf656 Turns out I was a nooby when it came to 13th gen. I applied an undervolting profile (CPU Lite Mode 4). Temps in cinebench hit up to about 85C under full load now at stock.
Noctua said in 2022 they were working on the NHD15 successor and it should be out later this year. I'd have been interested in seeing how the air coolers coped with some tweaking to maximize CPU performance on air. My 13700k with a AK-620 and Z790 Aero G stock throttled almost immediately in cinebench, with some testing and tweaking I got temps down to ~89ish without any hit to performance. In fact by the end my cinebench scores were a little bit higher.
@@vadimfedenko played with intel XTU to figure out how much I could undervolt the CPU then set that undervolt in the bios. I've recently become aware that z790 boards have a habit of supplying too much power which can also cause high temps so at some point I'll get around to checking the pl1/pl2 settings as well.
I set max tdp to 253 W and turned off enchanced turbo boost (msi oc thing). You will lose performance at extreme scenario but I don't bother. Temps down to 83C
Indeed, I installed it last week and my temps dropped 10-13°C on the hottest core (i5 12600k & NH-D15). With that said the temp. delta between cores is still higher than what I would like to see, I too think that the NH-D15 has a design that does not go along with 12th and 13th gen cpus.
the reason nhd15 underperformed can also be your variation in thermal paste application and mounting pressure OR your unit has some internal fault , ive seen MUCH better results from that cooler
The D15 is known to have issues with the latest CPU's because of how much smaller cores are, the contact area isn't as great. More towers doesn't necessarily mean more performance. It also has the same number of heat pipes as the U14S. In this case, it's really the amount of heat pipes that makes the performance, rather than the amount of fins, as the U14S is actually not even being fully saturated to its rated max temps, technically. So what you're seeing is basically the maximum air cooling potential of air cooling itself, and that's why more towers won't provide more cooling. I'd also imagine the coating does play a part in making the black D15 perform worse. What's really needed for modern and future CPU's is smaller and more heat pipes, so 12 pipes at half the size would be better. With the smaller cores, what essentially ends up happening is only a few heat pipes are actually making direct contact above the cores, so the rest aren't able to spread the load as much, and so only 2-3 of the heat pipes are doing the brunt of the cooling. In this case, the D15 is almost acting more like a heat insulator, because it has all that extra mass to cool, while the U14S can more readily expel that heat. Another factor with heat pipes is there is a balance to how they work, because you want it to be hot enough to quickly evaporate liquid in the pipe to the top where it can cool and fall. If your pipes aren't getting as hot due to it being spread out too much across multiple towers, then the liquid inside is taking longer to go through this process, which results in slower cooling. So the U14S is vaporating quicker / more effectively, which is what balances it out against the dual towers of the D15. And since it's only one tower, there's less mass holding on to heat. One has to keep in mind that one tower is expelling into the other tower, so all that hot air from the first tower has to also go through the second tower before it's expelled. So while the D15 seemingly should perform better, and can perform better under certain conditions, the U14S has always been generally on par with the D15, and only really shines when we're talking things like 65w - 95w processors, because at that point its extra mass does make a big enough difference.
The only thing missing in this test is you need to give a cooldown of 15 minutes per cooler to give time for the chip to get back to it's original state.
yeah the motherboard has many layers and it soaks heat in too, as well as the backplate and entire LGA socket, and the cpu. lots of heat chilling. plus the room that probably isn't ventilated enough and the bigger noctua cooler didn't look like it was seated properly, at just the right angle, you could see the pattern of paste on the bottom and it looked much heavier on half. was hard to see as it was quick and with weird lighting, but it would explain the performance difference
I would like to see 2 more CPU cooler added to the test - Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE (7 x 6mm heatpipes) and Thermalright Frost Commander 140 (5 x 8mm heatpipes). Maybe considering adding the CPU contact frame and see how much of a difference it make, especially for those big cooler that didn't perform up to par.
I have a TR 140 True Spirit 140 Power (6x8mm heat pipes) on a 3900X and it performs amazingly. Those 8mm pipes can really move the heat and I too would like to see someone test the Frost Commander on some of the newer CPUs.
@@ThomasD66 TR 140 True Spirit 140 Power is the best air cooler for the past decade. Unbeaten. I have two of them. Noise to cooling rate is out this world. If I can organize LGA1700 mounting kit for it I will try it with 13900kf.
Excellent review, love the channel! All the Noctua, Artic, and BeQuiet coolers are extremely expensive and hard to find here where I live. I ended up picking the Scythe Fuma 2 rev.B for cooling my Intel 13600K CPU and I'm very happy with the result. It cost me one third the price of the Noctua NH-D15, the temps never go over 80 degrees Celsius in intensive 3d rendering tasks, and the PC is super silent. I higlhy recommed it for those who can't find or afford those more famous brands.
Thank you for doing this, it must have been a lot of work. I do have to agree with @Sampawende, that in head-to-head tests like this, you need to perform all the tests on a level playing field, and as far as possible ensure the same ambient air temperature. I think the 1st run on the D15 suffered because of the room temp., although clearly, it isn't performing as it's size and price would suggest. The Peerless Assassin obviously offers the best bang for the buck, and your findings match those of GN - I'll be grabbing one ASAP. I would have liked to see the BQ Dark Rock 4 in there, as it claims to handle 250W - I've heard people recommend it, but not found any test/performance results...
*1) The reason for a stripe or "X" of thermal paste on the IHS is so that it fills gaps and pushes air outward. Your spatula method is more likely to trap air under a heat-sink.* *2) Your motherboard acted (minimally) as a heat-sink on the first tests, and saturated on later tests, slightly boosting the performance of the first coolers.* *3) Short-term load performance may be very different from long-term load performance. A 30 minute benchmark would be more telling, because the towers would be saturated. Your test shows the conductivity of the heat pipes, not necessarily the ultimate cooling capacity of these coolers under long-term load.*
TIM manufacturers actually supply spatulas with their pastes now, Kryonaut Grizzly and Alphacool to name but 2 companies that do. The spread out method is what is recommended on almost all CPU's.
Very good observations, especially your 3rd point. I had trouble figuring out how in the world the NHD15 is so low on the chart. Then again, the contact frame is probably to blame too.
With air coolers, 10 minutes is enough to decide. Water coolers take longer to heat up and longer to cool down but air coolers are generally fairly quick to reach their peak. As for the motherboard acting as a heatsink, I can't comment. But shouldn't have a need for the 30 minutes benchmark for air coolers. As for the X method, I'd generally say that's the way to go too, but for this test, it was fine, since it's still an apples to apples comparison
1 is completely wrong. 2 is also wrong as you assume enough time hasn't passed between cooler swaps for the board to cool. 3 is also technically wrong as well. A 30 minute test would not do much different. What he really should do is multiple tests of each one, as every time the cooler is swapped the paste application and other factors might make a slight difference. Over all it's not a very good test because of the randomness of that benchmark.
Ive been using those thermalright coolers for quite awhile now. For the price to performance I dont think they can be beat. Im not cooling a 13900 but Im cooling a 13100. I spent $20 to cool a cpu very efficiently. Good video Im glad you were able to test so many coolers.
How you enjoying the 13100. I have a 12700k but hadn't built yet. I've actually had the parts for awhile and keep putting it off. Anyways In some ways I wish I would have waited for the i3 and i5 12400 13400 options to save money. But I think I'll be happy overall. But they do look really nice for the cost.
@@aarondavis8224 yeah. The budget cpus look good. Especially when you consider an i3 10100 is practically a i7 7700. So I'd imagine a 12100 and 13100 Is close to a i5 10400 or 11400. Hope you got a good deal on the 3070. I got the EVGA ftw 3 3060 ti , but I might eventually get a 4070/4070 to or a used 3080 3080ti at some point or probably just wait for the rtx 5000 series.
Nice tests good to seem more reviews looking at them, so we can see if they are consistent. GN did some looks at the flatness of the base plates, and showed how much of a correlation it has with performance. So being able to see coolers consistently performing well really shows how consistent their manufacturing process.
I have 13900K and a Noctua NH-D15 Chroma Black . With undervolting I was able to achieve 39k+ points . So you do not need water coolers. I am also waiting the shipment for my proper LGA1700 contact plate which will come in couple of days and reduce my temperatures minimum 5 degrees. I am expecting it to reach 40k+ . It all depends what kind of combo you have . I built my computer myself . I will also receive my DDR4 4000 64gb rams for my Z690 motherboard which might also help to get a better score because currently I have 32gb 3200 Dual Hyperx Rams.. I do a lot of video and audio editing and this CPU so far is a beast. BTW I did not limit my power for my CPU... Sometimes it spikes to 320W but mostly stays 270-300 with the temperatures around 90-98 on full load ... Edit: I finally broke 40k with the 64gb faster Ram and the Thermalright contact plate :)
How much did you undervolt and what software ( or did you use the bios) I'm thinking of getting an i9 but would prefer to keep it no hotter than 90c I have an ak620 and how hot does it get in gaming vs tests, I also have a contact plate, also what paste application method did you use
I know it's technically too expensive, but if you still care about looks with your air-cooling, the U12a will give you the best performance in the smallest frame. I have it on my 13600k and while I do know that it technically isn't necessary, it just looks beautiful with the white build and it's while chromax cover.
I have one installed at the time of build, so i don't have a reference point to compare to. My cpu is an i5 13500 running at 150watt max tdp unlimited.
I have the AK620 on my AMD rigs and have been nothing but impressed with their ability. At $65 US it is more than the least expensive of the units you tested, but the build quality is excellent and installation was a breeze, even for systems already mounted in case.
Nice job. I appreciate all that hard work. Benching is boooorreiinggggg. I do wish the thermalright frost commander 140 was thrown in there as that can be had for $40-$50 depending on the variant and is a giant beast. I picked up a peerless assassin 120 white argb and frost commander 140 in white to test against my Corsair h150i lcd elite xt and a custom loop on my ryzen 9 7900x and 4090 rig. Unfortunately there is no argb frost commander, you need to step down to the frost spirit or whatever it’s called. One less heat pipe and worse spec fans, how much that matters IRL idk.
Yeah that nhu12a is intriguing. It seems small and like it can’t hang. I haven’t seen it up close so idk what it’s trick is. Fin density? Who know? But for a small single tower single fan it is amazing. Makes me really curious for the upcoming NHD15 refresh
Noctua has stated that the successor to the D15 will be releasing this year, and that looks to be in Q4. Which means that we'll see the Chromax version in 2025. Really though, Noctua needs to wake up and realize that they're not the only game in town for top performing air coolers anymore. They need to move at faster than a glacial pace and might need to reconsider their prices. Also, I used the AK500 on a build for someone recently and I really liked it as well, and it did a pretty good job of keeping the 10700K cool.
I'm using an AK400 Zero Dark on a 12600K, and it's been fantastic. Super quiet while keeping things around 70C under max load. Amazing price to performance ratio and looks great.
@@alexsp7086 Not a query... it was a statement. I'm talking about the upcoming successor to the D15, which is currently planned for Q4 this year. In Noctua fashion, it will likely initially release in the standard Noctua taupe, and I'm just joking that we'll have to wait a couple of years to get it in Chromax.
@@DubboU I've been super impressed with Deepcool lately. I'd like to use the 400 and 620 in a build sometime. The 500 def performed well and I was very happy with how well it clears the RAM.
Currently got a 13700k and even undervolted, it runs very hot in demanding games. Using a ak620. I went with a Corsair 360 water cooler for the first time cause I was afraid of liquid cooling and my max temp is now 15 degrees cooler
@@iplaygames9837 So I had the Arctic 360. This liquid cooler is a beast. Max temp while gaming @1440p never went above 65 Celsius. I had to return it though because it emits a high pitched whining noise. I don't know if that's normal. I couldn't get past it cause I run a recording studio and the sound was coming through my recordings. I now am using a noctua d15 and I I am staying below 70 Celsius
@@iplaygames9837 If you don't mind the potential of a loud pump I would 100 percent recommend liquid cooling. If you want silent cooling go with the noctua and undervolt. You don't really lose any performance and it will run cooler. The only con about the Arctic liquid freezer is that you cannot adjust the pump speed. It runs at 100 percent constantly. Other pumps such as nzxt and Corsair ty can adjust the fan and pump speed to your liking.
Awesome video. I really appreciate you mentioning the room ambient. In the future, if you set your air-conditioner to be fully on, and close all of the vents to the other rooms, you can help keep that room's ambient a bit more constant between runs.
@Achmad Abid An Najib He can open windows if people are in the other room, but in this video he was physically in the same room as the computer he was testing with, so he would be getting filtered air from the air conditioner
Kudos, I enjoyed the video. Food for thought, even though it adds a lot of time, multiple mounts for each cooler is necessary. A mounting can make immense difference in test results. The Noctua NH-D15 is a proven CPU cooler and a known quantity in the PC world. Not that it can't be beat, but if it loses to a smaller or "lesser" cooler, you definitely want to repeat your tests. It's a good indicator of a less than optimal mount. I have been a PC hobbyist since the 1980s. Yes, the 1980s. I can't count the number of coolers I have installed over the decades, of all types: water cooling blocks, SSD heat sinks, CPU and GPU coolers. Bad mounts happen.
D15 is not the best cooler because there are other coolers that can spin the fans much faster with a small problem. You can't stay in the room, they are too loud. D15 offers a very good performance but it still can be quiet enough to play or work and hear the speakers and not your pc. I didn't see any mention about noise on that video, so......
Cant go wrong with Peerless with just a 300 score spread from top. That amount can be due to a number of variables. I just got a i7 14700K, and I might OC it and the ram, but I do ZERO gaming, and plenty hours of image editing (not much video at all these days, but maybe will more). So I am on the fence. I hate the idea of water and electronics, just in the idea alone is wrong. But IF you have a LARGER jar, about a gallon holding all the water, and you pipe that water from the room temp to the PC, then maybe I would try it. But with the setups I see, I just can't go with the idea to keep the entire unit inside the case and expect great results, and have no issues. Tough call for me, as I know the Arctic Freeze III420 tests very well for a liquid cooler. Sometimes 7 to 10 degrees cooler.
You make excellent videos but I had the DeepCool AK400 plus for my 13600k in Corsair 4000D air flow case with 3 fans in front and 1 for exhaust. I had some heating issues with it where a game did cause the system to get too hot and shutdown. I returned it and got the DeepCool LT520. It was remarkably better with the AIO and so far no heating issues. While your performance differences are not that far apart in percentage, would it show more difference if tested in a complete rig with the hot air is more restricted. While it would be more of a pain to test that way, it's more representative of actual use than an open bench.
Interesting comparison, well done! But still, if you calculate all variables, like differences in room temperature (more than 2°C isn't insignificant when differences between the best and the worst cooler are so small), different temperatures of MoBo and RAM during testing process and also that testing is done only once (except on ND-H15) 6.74% is almost in the margin of error. Also, T-Force Siren isn't the best in its class (like some of the Noctuas) and is much louder than many of other coolers used in this test. So if you want best performace/loudness ratio, I'd recommend Noctua. I'm using Noctua NH-U12P on 13700K and its doing its job excellent, especially because I often must leave my PC to render over night (rendering time is often longer than 3 hours), and PC is still running so quietly, without losing performance or any issues.
Awesome video. Obviously, there are tests variables that should not be ignored, like ensuring that each tests run in the same room temperature, that between each tests, the CPU and other he MB cool down to the room temperature, etc. But what you did is already terrific and I can’t even imagine how tedious it might be to do it. And you provide us very valuable information with them. I went with the D15 thinking it was the best (mainly because of the price) but now I know that price is not a safe indicator and well, my next build will go AIO for sure, unless the CPUs manage to heat less. But definitely won’t be investing that much money on a CPU again with air-coolers.
was testing my own 13900k and was getting way lower temps but lower clocks as well, with unlimited PL1/PL2. went back to bios and realized I need to increase the cpu current limit to 512A - ran R23 and it threw the efficiency out of the window....i went back and be staying at intel specs 😅
For the Noctua NH-D15, I think it's because the cpu watts was around 270W - 280W. All the other coolers was around 250W - 260W. Thats why it was hotter.. Do you agree with me?
Save your money and buy air cooled heatsink instead if you're using older or mid-tier processors because for them, AIO water cooling is an overkill. I'm using Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE for my 4th gen Core i7 rig right now and the temperature never went up over 65°C while gaming in a non air-conditioned room. I'm upgrading the rig to Ryzen in the near future and I would pick Peerless Assassin for my next cooling choice, because it placed 4th in your meticulous tests and ultimately the best value for money.
Would there be a difference in the motherboard laying horizontally like in the video and vertically like in a case or on a wall. Cuz heatpipes do stuff with condensation so maybe tower coolers preform diffrent when mounted on a vertically placed motherboard
8 of 9 AM4/AM5 in the house is on Noctua. Only paid retail on the first U14S. The rest were $20-50 with only one Chromax D15 black with white covers $80. It’s not just cooling performance but future support and simple easy mounting. 4x D15 2x U14S 1x U9S 1x D9L 1x Thermalright Silver Soul
I have the D15 Chromax on a 12900k since a year and will take it with me when I upgrade to my 13900k next week. Never had any issue, it is as good as silent under load and for me who runs his rig 24/7/365 it is the best choice for air cooler.
Thanks for this, so informative with exactly the information I was wanting! I have done quite an extensive search. Mostly resulting in team cheerleaders or consumer gripes. Very few side-by-side comparisons of the items I was needing. So thank you!
If you limit your wattage to 125w and turbo 253w, which is what it's supposed to be, then the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE is actually one of the best ways to go. I have yet to run a game that takes the CPU past 75C. Also, use a CPU contact frame.
Instead of doing that undervolt... dropped my temps over 20c on my 13900k... stock vcore is way WAY too high... i can now pull 300w without throttling... stock would hit 100c in seconds...
@@Fighter4Street ... I think it will work fine, since I think if you set your power consumption as I stated, then it can handle quite a bit. I have yet to run a game over 75C, since the CPU doesn't get too overwhelmed if you have a good GPU and plenty of decent RAM ( a good 32GB).
Thank you for all the work, all the thermal paste, and the excellent description of your procedures for ranking the air coolers. I agree that an AIO or custom water cooling system is the best way to get the most out of the high-end CPUs. I wish I had this information for the last build I did two weeks ago.
I am using Dark Rock Pro 4 for 13700K 253W small undrevolting. Max temp 78st after 20-30 min of rendering 100% utilisation, Thermal Grizli paste, ambient temp ~22-25C.
The only thing in motherboards that overheat are SSD and vrms and that only occurs in trash tier boards so any decent motherboard will not have thermal issues. Also there's no way a mobo will retain heat for several minutes of switching coolers unless it's on fire.
Amazing bro, this test is very helpful for me as I was looking for a new air cooler. Didn't expect Peerless Assassin to top some of the expensive brand.
My mate has the Deepcool AK400 on his i9 12900KF. He bought it on a sale and THEN asked if it woiuld be okay haha. Really quiet. Noctua-esque quiet. Even compared to my ID 2400mm AIO water cooler. Not shilling, just a cooler I've had recent experience building with. This was a really helpful vid for PC builders like myself. But Linus proved even a 5000W cooler couldn't stop that CPU from throttling hard hahaha
Something is wrong, the NH-D15s has a bigger mass and its been always tested to be best among all air coolers, the U12A isn't better (i tested it) and the peerless assassins and deepcool 620 are good coolers, but lower mass than the D15, something went wrong in your test imo.
Awesome video and nice work bud. You have a lot more patience than I do and the information you provide is appreciated. 👍 Could you do one of these with the same coolers for the 7900x or 7950x (or whatever the hottest amd cpu is), when you recover from this one😁 I'd be curious to see how those same coolers perform from a cpu with a different layout, which would indicate whether they are good or bad coolers, or just bad for that particular CPU. I've been running my NH-12A on my amd CPUs for awhile and very happy with it
I have a NH-U95 on a Ryzen 5800x and it is amazing. It's so small and looks fantastic and I have good enough airflow in my case to keep temps below 75 even while stress testing. Never really reaches 70 while gaming. I also undervolted it a tiny bit, because at first I did have some hotter temp around 80 and 40 at idle. Undervolting brought my idle temp down to room temp which is AMAZING.
Amd cpus are power efficient. At full load they use half of the power to equivalent intel cpus. You can't judge how well a cooler will work with intel based on amd cpu.
Great video 👍 I think I would still choose a Noctua for that cpu, since I believe that once it goes in a good case (Fractal Torrent), it will keep a better temp. If still a bit hot, I would limit the cpu a bit, to make it cooler.
I have a white torrent and the Noctua Chromaxblack U12a cooling a 5800x3d. Tons of air flow in that case and I know it’s not a hot running chip but I could move to an Intel chip and use the same case and cooler.
The heatpipe direction definately has an impact. We've (computer industry) has been doing this since I been building systems with tons of heat from CPUs when heatpipes became very popular and used extensively around 2000 or so. I used to do nothing but research and test this theory back then to get the best cooling. That's when I had the patience 🤣 It's mostly due to how the ships are laid out on a cpu and whether the heatpipes cover them consistently. If the heatpipes are going across the chips, not as good as going with them. Going with or against the flow of heat
I have a DeepCool dual tower, six pipe that I first bought for my 4790K. It now cools my 9900KF with three Cooler Master Halo 120's. 75C max on Cinebench no OC.
NHD15 design is outdated compared to these new CPU and the new challenge of dissipating their heat. That's why Noctua is preparing a new version to launch this year. Don't forget heatpipes aren't all equal. Also, certain coolers mounting mechanism might have different results given the CPU bracket issue we all know. I would have tested all of this with a contact plate.
you should have done the Be Quite Dark Rock Pro 4. this is my go to cooler for higher end cpu's and I think it might have kept pace with the AIO. the cooler is rated for 250W.
I had it. It has no chance against 13th gen i7 and i9. Its good for ryzen. But for Intel just go with a 360 or 420 cooler and forget about hitting 100°c constantly.
Surprised no one is including the Jonsbo HX7280 ( tdp coverage of 280W), as its been claimed to be one of the most performant air coolers on the market. Comes in around $70-80, and includes 2 x 140mm fans and 1 x 120, for a variety of fan configurations.
I've ordered this myself; limited information as no one is covering it but it's such a nice looking cooler and in the limited tests I have found on YT, it beats the NHD15 in some tests (my current cooler). Can't go wrong with either, espescially with air-optimised cases with no closed off panels. I'm looking forward to receiving it.
Brother can you help me My 13600k clock speed automatically underclock to 4.8 ghz only while cinebench r23 but cpu temp max going 94 I have only turned on max power limit to 180 watt in bios
I appreciate the effort you put into this video. It's quite entertaining. Though I have some reservations in terms of how reliable your results are. Obvious reasons why that is have been mentioned already. But there is also one things that keeps bugging me. You really put a Pure Rock 2 on the test? Seriously? I would have expected a Dark Rock 4 Pro instead.
Hey, I look at a lot of other creator where they put NH-U12A vs NH-D15 and almost everyone shown D15 is better for cooling, with a select few that have result U12A perform better. I was wondering why that is? Is it possible for you to revisit them please?
I suggest you to try a contact frame to avoid cpu heat sink bending! Thermalright make one pretty good for a few dollars! Iam just curius about VRM temp with AIO test
I'm surprised you didn't try bequiet dark pro 4 as that is designed to handle TDP heat output of 250 (Though after looking around, it seems to perform around similar to NH D15
Wow! Thats a metric crap-ton of work right there! Really great information too. Very, very helpful. Your process format requires a bit of intellectual engagement on the part of the viewer, but once one actually listens and reads/observes the data on the test screens, it becomes obvious what is taking place. Excellent work, thanks!
Well, I've been looking at the Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 FX lately. It's excellent timing on this video! Guess I'll keep looking around. Thanks for your hard work.
Very nice work. Huge amount of effort for a single person but very interesting. However, I missed the noise evaluation as well. Having this information could lead to different product choices. Cheers!
The NH-U12A is what i'm using on my 5700X in my gaming PC and the NH-D12L on my 8500G in my HTPC and they're both perfect for me cos you get similar performance to a liquid cooler but with less things that can go wrong such as a leak or broken pump.
My laptop turns off the overheating components, and the fan gets more silent after each charge. All 3 power plans have to be fixed separately. To do this, the inbuilt text editor has to be used. Word pad is hidden in Win 7. Only 3-5 sentences are needed to be written during 1 discharge, the laptop recognizes that the user is working. Then, you have to wait till the shutdown, that has to be 3% if possible. When the fix is done, you can play with your silent, cool pc or laptop.
I know it would take a very long time to do but wouldn't it make more sense to start with a completely cool system for each cooler? I think you would get very different results>
I really wish you would hover your mouse over the score because it'll tell you what it's doing right now every time it completes one. so we can see how it deals with heat. Does it start off well and then taper off. Does it start off hot and get better.
Great choice. Reasonably compact. Very quiet. Very efficient. I've had one in use with a 10700K @ 5GHz for 18 months, ambient temps usually ~ 27C. No negatives. I should add, in order to get a good view of the RAM RGB, I moved the fan to 'pull' config. That's commonly considered a serious no-no. However, the cpu temps proved similar to 'push'; 1 to 1.5 C up, according to HWiNFO64 - unlike the 10C difference claimed in one review. While 'push' is certainly optimum, the effectiveness of 'pull' might depend on case airflow.
@@fred_2021 I have the Gigabyte z790 board and the fractal pop air case and where my cpu fan begins there is a 1/4 inch gap between the ddr5 g-skill Trident RGB ram and the fan. And I am using 2 - 16gb sticks in slots one a three..I will never use anymore than that. I changed my cpu fan to black and have the chromax cover on the radiator. Looks really good and simple. I am only using the RTX 3060 MSI because I am cheap and did not want to spend a fortune on a video card. My CPU heat while gaming never gets about 37c but I am not playing high resource games like cyberpunk.
Not surprised with the results from the Peerless Assassin, I have seen other testing where it performed near the top. Best bang for your buck. I am really surprised with the NH-D15 results, I really expected it at the top of the list.
My major concern with AIO is that the pump failure are most unpredictable and I don't want any liquid spillage costing me my system. I'm looking for air cooling solution that's 100% same performance with 360 AIO. this video gave me my answers
Would have loved for you to do this testing using liquid metal as the thermal paste - dual fans where they are available and makng sure the pipes are all same orientation
I have an i7 12700k and I keep it locked at 120w with the Thermalright assassin 120. 225w give it like 5-10% more performance that I don´t think makes sense to aim for.
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
Bro, I can’t imagine how much time this all took to film and edit… seriously great work man. I just picked up the same motherboard and cpu combo for my main editing rig. This video is insanely helpful. Thank you for all the hard work 🙏
Thanks a ton!
@@theTechNotice yes, most definately awesome work bud.
@@theTechNotice Hy what do you think of the assasin 3 140? Or maybe it with be quite 2500rapm splint wings pro 4 fans?
Glad I found this channel. There’s so many great channels on RUclips that are hidden. Today the magic algorithm gave me a treat. When I worked at BB they had 15% restock fee and that kept me away but Love Best Buy now. Nothing like being able to drive 5minutes to buy return exchange/ no restock fee bs.
@@checktheplaylist101 Bs?
I can't understand the reason for setting maximum power draw limit to 295 Watts. Why not limit to 253 the way Intel intended it and check for which coolers can actually keep it under 100 degrees instead of counting how long it takes for them to bring throttling into the picture?
Thank you for this video. To check the Noctua issue, I reproduced your test, but with a NH-D15s and NH-U12A. The only difference between our tests is that I used a Thermalright LGA1700 contact frame (and obvious things like different Mainboard, Ram, etc.. Cooler and CPU are the same of course.) My results:
NH-D15s = 39,550
NH-U12A = 39,636
I ran 3 tests with each cooler to confirm the result. I also controlled the contact pressure by checking the distribution of the thermal paste. Both coolers ran at full speed. The U12A performed a bit better, but not with that high amount like in your video. Furthermore the U12A seemed to be a bit quieter than the D15s under full load. The NH-D15 actually has 2 fans and should therefore perform a little better than the NH-D15s. I also noticed that the contact surface of the U12A is much larger than that of the D15s. The D15 should be identical to the D15s in this Point. I assume that with the Contact Frame your results would look a little different too.
Update:
I have compared the two coolers again side by side in terms of noise levels. This time it's a direct comparison, but still subjective. At maximum speed, the U12A with 2000 rpm is slightly louder than the NH-D15s with maximum 1500 rpm. If I adjust the speed of the U12A to 1500 rpm, it is a lot quieter than the NH-D15s. It probably performs a little worse then. I would say the coolers are on a par in terms of performance to noise.
Did you do your testing on an open benchtable as well? The NH-D15 has a lot more surface area which makes me believe it'll perform better than the NH-U12A in a closed case.
@@erazzed Yes, I did the tests on a benchtable. That's an interesting idea. Maybe I test it out later.
My NH-U14S throttles down to 4.7Ghz in Cinebench on a 13700k. I re did the thermal paste manually and spread it over the IHS and made sure it was definitely clamped down. Same result.
Room temp was 19°C as well.
@@griffin1366any update on the U14s?
@@reinulf656 Turns out I was a nooby when it came to 13th gen. I applied an undervolting profile (CPU Lite Mode 4). Temps in cinebench hit up to about 85C under full load now at stock.
My bet is on the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120. It's less expensive than the Noctua and as good or better in most reviews and benchmarks 😉
Yeah but on average it run sightly louder for the same performance.
Still impressive and less expensive though*
@@edouard9867 I will probably swoop out the fans if I had one
That's an amazing cooler, use it on my 7700
I have it and its amazing for the price
That's what I run. I don't even notice the fan noise.
The Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4 would have been the likely candidate for the 13900, the 2 you used were never suitable, or marketed as being so.
Agreed, I came here to see the performance of the Pro 4 against the newer coolers but i guess not lol
This is definitely the video I needed. Thanks for your dedication testing all those coolers
Noctua said in 2022 they were working on the NHD15 successor and it should be out later this year. I'd have been interested in seeing how the air coolers coped with some tweaking to maximize CPU performance on air. My 13700k with a AK-620 and Z790 Aero G stock throttled almost immediately in cinebench, with some testing and tweaking I got temps down to ~89ish without any hit to performance. In fact by the end my cinebench scores were a little bit higher.
what did you tweak exactly to get the temps down?
@@vadimfedenko played with intel XTU to figure out how much I could undervolt the CPU then set that undervolt in the bios. I've recently become aware that z790 boards have a habit of supplying too much power which can also cause high temps so at some point I'll get around to checking the pl1/pl2 settings as well.
I set max tdp to 253 W and turned off enchanced turbo boost (msi oc thing). You will lose performance at extreme scenario but I don't bother. Temps down to 83C
It'll be the same heatsink but with the new 140mm fans.
@@Chopper153 Saw that recently along with the 4677 coolers.
Great video. I'm sure it took a lot of time to do. One tweak I'd suggest is using the Thermalright CPU contact frame on an LGA 1700 system.
Great suggestion!
Indeed, I installed it last week and my temps dropped 10-13°C on the hottest core (i5 12600k & NH-D15). With that said the temp. delta between cores is still higher than what I would like to see, I too think that the NH-D15 has a design that does not go along with 12th and 13th gen cpus.
the reason nhd15 underperformed can also be your variation in thermal paste application and mounting pressure OR your unit has some internal fault , ive seen MUCH better results from that cooler
The D15 is known to have issues with the latest CPU's because of how much smaller cores are, the contact area isn't as great. More towers doesn't necessarily mean more performance. It also has the same number of heat pipes as the U14S. In this case, it's really the amount of heat pipes that makes the performance, rather than the amount of fins, as the U14S is actually not even being fully saturated to its rated max temps, technically. So what you're seeing is basically the maximum air cooling potential of air cooling itself, and that's why more towers won't provide more cooling.
I'd also imagine the coating does play a part in making the black D15 perform worse. What's really needed for modern and future CPU's is smaller and more heat pipes, so 12 pipes at half the size would be better. With the smaller cores, what essentially ends up happening is only a few heat pipes are actually making direct contact above the cores, so the rest aren't able to spread the load as much, and so only 2-3 of the heat pipes are doing the brunt of the cooling. In this case, the D15 is almost acting more like a heat insulator, because it has all that extra mass to cool, while the U14S can more readily expel that heat.
Another factor with heat pipes is there is a balance to how they work, because you want it to be hot enough to quickly evaporate liquid in the pipe to the top where it can cool and fall. If your pipes aren't getting as hot due to it being spread out too much across multiple towers, then the liquid inside is taking longer to go through this process, which results in slower cooling. So the U14S is vaporating quicker / more effectively, which is what balances it out against the dual towers of the D15. And since it's only one tower, there's less mass holding on to heat.
One has to keep in mind that one tower is expelling into the other tower, so all that hot air from the first tower has to also go through the second tower before it's expelled. So while the D15 seemingly should perform better, and can perform better under certain conditions, the U14S has always been generally on par with the D15, and only really shines when we're talking things like 65w - 95w processors, because at that point its extra mass does make a big enough difference.
Thanks for doing this. Can’t imagine how long it took to test all the coolers. Helped me make my decision on which cooler to buy.
The only thing missing in this test is you need to give a cooldown of 15 minutes per cooler to give time for the chip to get back to it's original state.
Prob isn't controlling ambient temp well either these results are not consistent with almost any I've ever seen
yeah the motherboard has many layers and it soaks heat in too, as well as the backplate and entire LGA socket, and the cpu. lots of heat chilling. plus the room that probably isn't ventilated enough
and the bigger noctua cooler didn't look like it was seated properly, at just the right angle, you could see the pattern of paste on the bottom and it looked much heavier on half. was hard to see as it was quick and with weird lighting, but it would explain the performance difference
🤓🤓🤓
I would like to see 2 more CPU cooler added to the test - Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE (7 x 6mm heatpipes) and Thermalright Frost Commander 140 (5 x 8mm heatpipes). Maybe considering adding the CPU contact frame and see how much of a difference it make, especially for those big cooler that didn't perform up to par.
I have a TR 140 True Spirit 140 Power (6x8mm heat pipes) on a 3900X and it performs amazingly. Those 8mm pipes can really move the heat and I too would like to see someone test the Frost Commander on some of the newer CPUs.
@@ThomasD66 TR 140 True Spirit 140 Power is the best air cooler for the past decade. Unbeaten. I have two of them. Noise to cooling rate is out this world. If I can organize LGA1700 mounting kit for it I will try it with 13900kf.
@@sebnaHad this cooler for ages, still is one of the best out there, also makes very good contact with the cpu in my experience.
@@malloot9224 do you use it with LGA1700?
@@sebna no it's on my 3900x now
Excellent review, love the channel! All the Noctua, Artic, and BeQuiet coolers are extremely expensive and hard to find here where I live. I ended up picking the Scythe Fuma 2 rev.B for cooling my Intel 13600K CPU and I'm very happy with the result. It cost me one third the price of the Noctua NH-D15, the temps never go over 80 degrees Celsius in intensive 3d rendering tasks, and the PC is super silent. I higlhy recommed it for those who can't find or afford those more famous brands.
I'm getting 85C on Cinebench R23 on an AIO. I must be doing something wrong lol.
Great work on this. The performance of the Thermalright Peerless Assassin for its price is unbelievable!
Thank you for doing this, it must have been a lot of work. I do have to agree with @Sampawende, that in head-to-head tests like this, you need to perform all the tests on a level playing field, and as far as possible ensure the same ambient air temperature. I think the 1st run on the D15 suffered because of the room temp., although clearly, it isn't performing as it's size and price would suggest. The Peerless Assassin obviously offers the best bang for the buck, and your findings match those of GN - I'll be grabbing one ASAP. I would have liked to see the BQ Dark Rock 4 in there, as it claims to handle 250W - I've heard people recommend it, but not found any test/performance results...
*1) The reason for a stripe or "X" of thermal paste on the IHS is so that it fills gaps and pushes air outward. Your spatula method is more likely to trap air under a heat-sink.*
*2) Your motherboard acted (minimally) as a heat-sink on the first tests, and saturated on later tests, slightly boosting the performance of the first coolers.*
*3) Short-term load performance may be very different from long-term load performance. A 30 minute benchmark would be more telling, because the towers would be saturated. Your test shows the conductivity of the heat pipes, not necessarily the ultimate cooling capacity of these coolers under long-term load.*
TIM manufacturers actually supply spatulas with their pastes now, Kryonaut Grizzly and Alphacool to name but 2 companies that do.
The spread out method is what is recommended on almost all CPU's.
Very good observations, especially your 3rd point. I had trouble figuring out how in the world the NHD15 is so low on the chart. Then again, the contact frame is probably to blame too.
With air coolers, 10 minutes is enough to decide. Water coolers take longer to heat up and longer to cool down but air coolers are generally fairly quick to reach their peak. As for the motherboard acting as a heatsink, I can't comment. But shouldn't have a need for the 30 minutes benchmark for air coolers.
As for the X method, I'd generally say that's the way to go too, but for this test, it was fine, since it's still an apples to apples comparison
1 is completely wrong. 2 is also wrong as you assume enough time hasn't passed between cooler swaps for the board to cool. 3 is also technically wrong as well. A 30 minute test would not do much different. What he really should do is multiple tests of each one, as every time the cooler is swapped the paste application and other factors might make a slight difference. Over all it's not a very good test because of the randomness of that benchmark.
@@seanmcd72 No rebuttal, just "you're wrong"?
Ive been using those thermalright coolers for quite awhile now. For the price to performance I dont think they can be beat. Im not cooling a 13900 but Im cooling a 13100. I spent $20 to cool a cpu very efficiently. Good video Im glad you were able to test so many coolers.
How you enjoying the 13100. I have a 12700k but hadn't built yet. I've actually had the parts for awhile and keep putting it off. Anyways In some ways I wish I would have waited for the i3 and i5 12400 13400 options to save money. But I think I'll be happy overall. But they do look really nice for the cost.
@@TheRightToFilmPolice yes its been really good. Best budget chip out there. $125 and enough speed to keep up with a 3070
@@aarondavis8224 yeah. The budget cpus look good. Especially when you consider an i3 10100 is practically a i7 7700. So I'd imagine a 12100 and 13100 Is close to a i5 10400 or 11400. Hope you got a good deal on the 3070. I got the EVGA ftw 3 3060 ti , but I might eventually get a 4070/4070 to or a used 3080 3080ti at some point or probably just wait for the rtx 5000 series.
Nice tests good to seem more reviews looking at them, so we can see if they are consistent. GN did some looks at the flatness of the base plates, and showed how much of a correlation it has with performance. So being able to see coolers consistently performing well really shows how consistent their manufacturing process.
man this kind of hard work can not go unnoticed. Excellent work. Best wishes.
I have 13900K and a Noctua NH-D15 Chroma Black . With undervolting I was able to achieve 39k+ points . So you do not need water coolers. I am also waiting the shipment for my proper LGA1700 contact plate which will come in couple of days and reduce my temperatures minimum 5 degrees. I am expecting it to reach 40k+ . It all depends what kind of combo you have . I built my computer myself . I will also receive my DDR4 4000 64gb rams for my Z690 motherboard which might also help to get a better score because currently I have 32gb 3200 Dual Hyperx Rams.. I do a lot of video and audio editing and this CPU so far is a beast. BTW I did not limit my power for my CPU... Sometimes it spikes to 320W but mostly stays 270-300 with the temperatures around 90-98 on full load ... Edit: I finally broke 40k with the 64gb faster Ram and the Thermalright contact plate :)
How much did you undervolt and what software ( or did you use the bios) I'm thinking of getting an i9 but would prefer to keep it no hotter than 90c I have an ak620 and how hot does it get in gaming vs tests, I also have a contact plate, also what paste application method did you use
@urazkıvaner Nasıl yaptın undervoltaj işlemini
I know it's technically too expensive, but if you still care about looks with your air-cooling, the U12a will give you the best performance in the smallest frame.
I have it on my 13600k and while I do know that it technically isn't necessary, it just looks beautiful with the white build and it's while chromax cover.
I'm curious how loud the cheaper coolers were in comparison to the NH-U12A, especially given how similar performance was.
A $6 Thermalright LGA1700 Contact Frame during this testing would have made a huge difference in results compared to the default intel ILM
Maybe he can do a follow up and compare
No it won't
I have one installed at the time of build, so i don't have a reference point to compare to. My cpu is an i5 13500 running at 150watt max tdp unlimited.
@@toonnut1 it's proven that it will
@KeonXD no it's not do you own one because I do and they don't make any difference. Don't fall for the hype
I have the AK620 on my AMD rigs and have been nothing but impressed with their ability. At $65 US it is more than the least expensive of the units you tested, but the build quality is excellent and installation was a breeze, even for systems already mounted in case.
I have the white edition cooling a 7600x very impressed so far
@@BigDavos got it for 5800x3d as well, and does it keep it cool, one of the best bang for your buck i have ever got so far
Nice job. I appreciate all that hard work. Benching is boooorreiinggggg. I do wish the thermalright frost commander 140 was thrown in there as that can be had for $40-$50 depending on the variant and is a giant beast. I picked up a peerless assassin 120 white argb and frost commander 140 in white to test against my Corsair h150i lcd elite xt and a custom loop on my ryzen 9 7900x and 4090 rig. Unfortunately there is no argb frost commander, you need to step down to the frost spirit or whatever it’s called. One less heat pipe and worse spec fans, how much that matters IRL idk.
Yeah that nhu12a is intriguing. It seems small and like it can’t hang. I haven’t seen it up close so idk what it’s trick is. Fin density? Who know? But for a small single tower single fan it is amazing. Makes me really curious for the upcoming NHD15 refresh
Do you get resonance from the fans like jet turbine sound? Most people get it and my 620 does it too.
I installed Noctua NH-U12a on my i7 13700K + Asus ProArt Z790 very happy. Quiet and cool.
Hey 👋 what is your impression now, and What is the temperature under maximum pressure?
A bit late here, how are the temps?
I can't remember now out of my head but tomorrow I will run stress test and will check with HWinfo.
Will update on that.
Noctua has stated that the successor to the D15 will be releasing this year, and that looks to be in Q4. Which means that we'll see the Chromax version in 2025. Really though, Noctua needs to wake up and realize that they're not the only game in town for top performing air coolers anymore. They need to move at faster than a glacial pace and might need to reconsider their prices. Also, I used the AK500 on a build for someone recently and I really liked it as well, and it did a pretty good job of keeping the 10700K cool.
I'm using an AK400 Zero Dark on a 12600K, and it's been fantastic. Super quiet while keeping things around 70C under max load. Amazing price to performance ratio and looks great.
Confused about your query but isn’t the chromax black already out?
@@alexsp7086 Not a query... it was a statement. I'm talking about the upcoming successor to the D15, which is currently planned for Q4 this year. In Noctua fashion, it will likely initially release in the standard Noctua taupe, and I'm just joking that we'll have to wait a couple of years to get it in Chromax.
@@DubboU I've been super impressed with Deepcool lately. I'd like to use the 400 and 620 in a build sometime. The 500 def performed well and I was very happy with how well it clears the RAM.
Wow This really helps! Was thinking to get a 13700k with air cooling (water cooling may have problems after years of usage).
Currently got a 13700k and even undervolted, it runs very hot in demanding games. Using a ak620. I went with a Corsair 360 water cooler for the first time cause I was afraid of liquid cooling and my max temp is now 15 degrees cooler
@@jcfsounds8550 which aio u r using and how much high temp u got ?
@@iplaygames9837 So I had the Arctic 360. This liquid cooler is a beast. Max temp while gaming @1440p never went above 65 Celsius. I had to return it though because it emits a high pitched whining noise. I don't know if that's normal. I couldn't get past it cause I run a recording studio and the sound was coming through my recordings. I now am using a noctua d15 and I I am staying below 70 Celsius
@@iplaygames9837 If you don't mind the potential of a loud pump I would 100 percent recommend liquid cooling. If you want silent cooling go with the noctua and undervolt. You don't really lose any performance and it will run cooler. The only con about the Arctic liquid freezer is that you cannot adjust the pump speed. It runs at 100 percent constantly. Other pumps such as nzxt and Corsair ty can adjust the fan and pump speed to your liking.
For a similar price and if it fits in your case go for 360mm AIO much more efficient than air coolers.
Awesome video. I really appreciate you mentioning the room ambient. In the future, if you set your air-conditioner to be fully on, and close all of the vents to the other rooms, you can help keep that room's ambient a bit more constant between runs.
maybe thats bad for air quality. and you inhale and exhale it
@Achmad Abid An Najib He can open windows if people are in the other room, but in this video he was physically in the same room as the computer he was testing with, so he would be getting filtered air from the air conditioner
I'm running the NH-D15 with 3 fans clipped no issues on my 14900k runs more stable with less bs spikes over my old 420 AIO with 6 fans in a push pull.
Kudos, I enjoyed the video.
Food for thought, even though it adds a lot of time, multiple mounts for each cooler is necessary. A mounting can make immense difference in test results. The Noctua NH-D15 is a proven CPU cooler and a known quantity in the PC world. Not that it can't be beat, but if it loses to a smaller or "lesser" cooler, you definitely want to repeat your tests. It's a good indicator of a less than optimal mount.
I have been a PC hobbyist since the 1980s. Yes, the 1980s. I can't count the number of coolers I have installed over the decades, of all types: water cooling blocks, SSD heat sinks, CPU and GPU coolers. Bad mounts happen.
I had the same test and it spat out 37467 too. I wonder if I should consider buying NH-12A fr. What's your take?
P/S: Same processor
D15 is not the best cooler because there are other coolers that can spin the fans much faster with a small problem. You can't stay in the room, they are too loud. D15 offers a very good performance but it still can be quiet enough to play or work and hear the speakers and not your pc. I didn't see any mention about noise on that video, so......
@@chrishar110 I did not say the D15 was the best cooler. I said the cooler has a reputation of being a top performing cooler and it does.
Cant go wrong with Peerless with just a 300 score spread from top. That amount can be due to a number of variables. I just got a i7 14700K, and I might OC it and the ram, but I do ZERO gaming, and plenty hours of image editing (not much video at all these days, but maybe will more). So I am on the fence. I hate the idea of water and electronics, just in the idea alone is wrong. But IF you have a LARGER jar, about a gallon holding all the water, and you pipe that water from the room temp to the PC, then maybe I would try it. But with the setups I see, I just can't go with the idea to keep the entire unit inside the case and expect great results, and have no issues.
Tough call for me, as I know the Arctic Freeze III420 tests very well for a liquid cooler. Sometimes 7 to 10 degrees cooler.
Thx, helped a lot. I will get a 13700kf and AK620 - it’s rated to cool 260w and that it does and doesn’t cost the world
You make excellent videos but I had the DeepCool AK400 plus for my 13600k in Corsair 4000D air flow case with 3 fans in front and 1 for exhaust. I had some heating issues with it where a game did cause the system to get too hot and shutdown. I returned it and got the DeepCool LT520. It was remarkably better with the AIO and so far no heating issues. While your performance differences are not that far apart in percentage, would it show more difference if tested in a complete rig with the hot air is more restricted. While it would be more of a pain to test that way, it's more representative of actual use than an open bench.
A £33 Peerless Assassin can cool a 13600k.
That sounds like a bad mount.
Interesting comparison, well done!
But still, if you calculate all variables, like differences in room temperature (more than 2°C isn't insignificant when differences between the best and the worst cooler are so small), different temperatures of MoBo and RAM during testing process and also that testing is done only once (except on ND-H15) 6.74% is almost in the margin of error.
Also, T-Force Siren isn't the best in its class (like some of the Noctuas) and is much louder than many of other coolers used in this test.
So if you want best performace/loudness ratio, I'd recommend Noctua.
I'm using Noctua NH-U12P on 13700K and its doing its job excellent, especially because I often must leave my PC to render over night (rendering time is often longer than 3 hours), and PC is still running so quietly, without losing performance or any issues.
Awesome video.
Obviously, there are tests variables that should not be ignored, like ensuring that each tests run in the same room temperature, that between each tests, the CPU and other he MB cool down to the room temperature, etc.
But what you did is already terrific and I can’t even imagine how tedious it might be to do it. And you provide us very valuable information with them.
I went with the D15 thinking it was the best (mainly because of the price) but now I know that price is not a safe indicator and well, my next build will go AIO for sure, unless the CPUs manage to heat less. But definitely won’t be investing that much money on a CPU again with air-coolers.
Peerless Assassin handling 285 watts... really happy I got one on my 13600k instead of an AIO
was testing my own 13900k and was getting way lower temps but lower clocks as well, with unlimited PL1/PL2. went back to bios and realized I need to increase the cpu current limit to 512A - ran R23 and it threw the efficiency out of the window....i went back and be staying at intel specs 😅
Just set a 1.25 static voltage, and enjoy less power, and higher clocks.
For the Noctua NH-D15, I think it's because the cpu watts was around 270W - 280W. All the other coolers was around 250W - 260W.
Thats why it was hotter.. Do you agree with me?
You should mention the fan noise. I watched another test like that and for the same fan noise nh d15 and peerless assasin were the best
Would like to see you test out the Thermalright Anti-Bending Buckle,Curved Pressure Plate to help with cooling a CPU for production PC workflow
That was a lot of work put into this and so a big thanks for your time and effort. The results confirms the top 3 I suspected would be on top...
Save your money and buy air cooled heatsink instead if you're using older or mid-tier processors because for them, AIO water cooling is an overkill. I'm using Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE for my 4th gen Core i7 rig right now and the temperature never went up over 65°C while gaming in a non air-conditioned room. I'm upgrading the rig to Ryzen in the near future and I would pick Peerless Assassin for my next cooling choice, because it placed 4th in your meticulous tests and ultimately the best value for money.
Would there be a difference in the motherboard laying horizontally like in the video and vertically like in a case or on a wall.
Cuz heatpipes do stuff with condensation so maybe tower coolers preform diffrent when mounted on a vertically placed motherboard
Just bought a peerless thanks to your video. Thanks for your work, lot of effort in this video!
I am sure this took a considerable amount of time to do but thank you for taking the time do it!!! Very informative.
2 days of filming 2.2TB of footage over 8h of overall footage + a week of editing :) totally worth it!
8 of 9 AM4/AM5 in the house is on Noctua. Only paid retail on the first U14S. The rest were $20-50 with only one Chromax D15 black with white covers $80. It’s not just cooling performance but future support and simple easy mounting.
4x D15
2x U14S
1x U9S
1x D9L
1x Thermalright Silver Soul
I have the D15 Chromax on a 12900k since a year and will take it with me when I upgrade to my 13900k next week. Never had any issue, it is as good as silent under load and for me who runs his rig 24/7/365 it is the best choice for air cooler.
Thanks for this, so informative with exactly the information I was wanting! I have done quite an extensive search. Mostly resulting in team cheerleaders or consumer gripes. Very few side-by-side comparisons of the items I was needing. So thank you!
If you limit your wattage to 125w and turbo 253w, which is what it's supposed to be, then the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE is actually one of the best ways to go. I have yet to run a game that takes the CPU past 75C.
Also, use a CPU contact frame.
Instead of doing that undervolt... dropped my temps over 20c on my 13900k... stock vcore is way WAY too high... i can now pull 300w without throttling... stock would hit 100c in seconds...
Do you think this peerless assassin will work for a 14700K. Looking to use a cheap temporary CPU cooler until the new Noctua D15 comes out.
@@Fighter4Street ... I think it will work fine, since I think if you set your power consumption as I stated, then it can handle quite a bit. I have yet to run a game over 75C, since the CPU doesn't get too overwhelmed if you have a good GPU and plenty of decent RAM ( a good 32GB).
The AK620 is a beast for the price. Very similar to the u12a but 40$ cheaper.
AK620 98cad vs. u12a 137cad
Great review, thank you
Thank you for all the work, all the thermal paste, and the excellent description of your procedures for ranking the air coolers. I agree that an AIO or custom water cooling system is the best way to get the most out of the high-end CPUs. I wish I had this information for the last build I did two weeks ago.
If it leaks youll need a new system.
I am using Dark Rock Pro 4 for 13700K 253W small undrevolting. Max temp 78st after 20-30 min of rendering 100% utilisation, Thermal Grizli paste, ambient temp ~22-25C.
how much ghz ur 13700k hit at max utilization ?
@@iplaygames9837 5,4 GHz with stock turbo configuration
Will you be making the same test on AM5 platform? It would be very interesting to see the difference between these coolers on the AMD platform.
35:26 "The room is much cooler, like a few degrees cooler", that's a good thing when measuring temperatures? 🤔
shouldn't the motherboard be allowed to completely cool between cooler changes? wouldn't the temp of the motherboard parts affect the test's?
The only thing in motherboards that overheat are SSD and vrms and that only occurs in trash tier boards so any decent motherboard will not have thermal issues. Also there's no way a mobo will retain heat for several minutes of switching coolers unless it's on fire.
Amazing bro, this test is very helpful for me as I was looking for a new air cooler. Didn't expect Peerless Assassin to top some of the expensive brand.
My mate has the Deepcool AK400 on his i9 12900KF. He bought it on a sale and THEN asked if it woiuld be okay haha. Really quiet. Noctua-esque quiet. Even compared to my ID 2400mm AIO water cooler. Not shilling, just a cooler I've had recent experience building with.
This was a really helpful vid for PC builders like myself. But Linus proved even a 5000W cooler couldn't stop that CPU from throttling hard hahaha
You should test every heatsink with the same VRM temp. I know your test took a LOT of time, and we all appreciate your tests. Thank you very much.
Something is wrong, the NH-D15s has a bigger mass and its been always tested to be best among all air coolers, the U12A isn't better (i tested it) and the peerless assassins and deepcool 620 are good coolers, but lower mass than the D15, something went wrong in your test imo.
Man its not mass only. I could not believe my results either but pa120 was better than d15 for me. I made a video
heatpipes
He tried to explain why that can happen in last 10-15mins.
If you hook up two Arctic P12 Max fans on Deepcool AK620 , you get even lower temps, with way lower noise...
Awesome video and nice work bud. You have a lot more patience than I do and the information you provide is appreciated. 👍
Could you do one of these with the same coolers for the 7900x or 7950x (or whatever the hottest amd cpu is), when you recover from this one😁
I'd be curious to see how those same coolers perform from a cpu with a different layout, which would indicate whether they are good or bad coolers, or just bad for that particular CPU. I've been running my NH-12A on my amd CPUs for awhile and very happy with it
I have a NH-U95 on a Ryzen 5800x and it is amazing. It's so small and looks fantastic and I have good enough airflow in my case to keep temps below 75 even while stress testing. Never really reaches 70 while gaming. I also undervolted it a tiny bit, because at first I did have some hotter temp around 80 and 40 at idle. Undervolting brought my idle temp down to room temp which is AMAZING.
Amd cpus are power efficient. At full load they use half of the power to equivalent intel cpus. You can't judge how well a cooler will work with intel based on amd cpu.
your tests never disappoint👍
neither do your comments!
Nice video. I normally get worried if I have to replace 1 heatsink/cooler with a new one. You've done it 14 times, hard work
Great video 👍
I think I would still choose a Noctua for that cpu, since I believe that once it goes in a good case (Fractal Torrent), it will keep a better temp. If still a bit hot, I would limit the cpu a bit, to make it cooler.
I have a white torrent and the Noctua Chromaxblack U12a cooling a 5800x3d. Tons of air flow in that case and I know it’s not a hot running chip but I could move to an Intel chip and use the same case and cooler.
The heatpipe direction definately has an impact. We've (computer industry) has been doing this since I been building systems with tons of heat from CPUs when heatpipes became very popular and used extensively around 2000 or so. I used to do nothing but research and test this theory back then to get the best cooling. That's when I had the patience 🤣
It's mostly due to how the ships are laid out on a cpu and whether the heatpipes cover them consistently. If the heatpipes are going across the chips, not as good as going with them. Going with or against the flow of heat
Only person I have ever seen bring this up, people always call me crazy when I say this. 😂
Great test man. You provide the most relevant and helpful tests!
As a Noctua NH-U12S (I use dual fans on the tower) owner I will say the Noctua coolers are probably the best out there
Lmao a maximum difference of 7% with an average difference closer to 3-4% but somehow an AIO is a "must"
I have a DeepCool dual tower, six pipe that I first bought for my 4790K. It now cools my 9900KF with three Cooler Master Halo 120's. 75C max on Cinebench no OC.
NHD15 design is outdated compared to these new CPU and the new challenge of dissipating their heat. That's why Noctua is preparing a new version to launch this year. Don't forget heatpipes aren't all equal.
Also, certain coolers mounting mechanism might have different results given the CPU bracket issue we all know. I would have tested all of this with a contact plate.
Great video. NH-D15 was my go to cooler thus surprised by the results. I do hope Noctua respond.
you should have done the Be Quite Dark Rock Pro 4. this is my go to cooler for higher end cpu's and I think it might have kept pace with the AIO. the cooler is rated for 250W.
I had it. It has no chance against 13th gen i7 and i9.
Its good for ryzen. But for Intel just go with a 360 or 420 cooler and forget about hitting 100°c constantly.
I have the Peerless Assassin cooling my 7700X. I am surprised at how well this cooler works for the price!!!
Surprised no one is including the Jonsbo HX7280 ( tdp coverage of 280W), as its been claimed to be one of the most performant air coolers on the market. Comes in around $70-80, and includes 2 x 140mm fans and 1 x 120, for a variety of fan configurations.
I've ordered this myself; limited information as no one is covering it but it's such a nice looking cooler and in the limited tests I have found on YT, it beats the NHD15 in some tests (my current cooler). Can't go wrong with either, espescially with air-optimised cases with no closed off panels. I'm looking forward to receiving it.
Brother can you help me
My 13600k clock speed automatically underclock to 4.8 ghz only while cinebench r23 but cpu temp max going 94
I have only turned on max power limit to 180 watt in bios
I appreciate the effort you put into this video. It's quite entertaining. Though I have some reservations in terms of how reliable your results are. Obvious reasons why that is have been mentioned already. But there is also one things that keeps bugging me. You really put a Pure Rock 2 on the test? Seriously? I would have expected a Dark Rock 4 Pro instead.
Hey, I look at a lot of other creator where they put NH-U12A vs NH-D15 and almost everyone shown D15 is better for cooling, with a select few that have result U12A perform better. I was wondering why that is? Is it possible for you to revisit them please?
I suggest you to try a contact frame to avoid cpu heat sink bending! Thermalright make one pretty good for a few dollars! Iam just curius about VRM temp with AIO test
I'm surprised you didn't try bequiet dark pro 4 as that is designed to handle TDP heat output of 250 (Though after looking around, it seems to perform around similar to NH D15
Wow! Thats a metric crap-ton of work right there! Really great information too. Very, very helpful. Your process format requires a bit of intellectual engagement on the part of the viewer, but once one actually listens and reads/observes the data on the test screens, it becomes obvious what is taking place. Excellent work, thanks!
U should include the ID Cooling SE-226-XT-Black, and the SE-207-XT Advanced coolers also next time.
250/280W TDP.
I have noctua U12a on 127000k it's perfect , nice video
Well, I've been looking at the Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 FX lately. It's excellent timing on this video! Guess I'll keep looking around. Thanks for your hard work.
The Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 FX is rated for 150W TDP, it is not designed to be used with a 13900K, even on an open air test bench.
Very nice work. Huge amount of effort for a single person but very interesting. However, I missed the noise evaluation as well. Having this information could lead to different product choices. Cheers!
The NH-U12A is what i'm using on my 5700X in my gaming PC and the NH-D12L on my 8500G in my HTPC and they're both perfect for me cos you get similar performance to a liquid cooler but with less things that can go wrong such as a leak or broken pump.
My laptop turns off the overheating components, and the fan gets more silent after each charge. All 3 power plans have to be fixed separately. To do this, the inbuilt text editor has to be used. Word pad is hidden in Win 7. Only 3-5 sentences are needed to be written during 1 discharge, the laptop recognizes that the user is working. Then, you have to wait till the shutdown, that has to be 3% if possible. When the fix is done, you can play with your silent, cool pc or laptop.
I know it would take a very long time to do but wouldn't it make more sense to start with a completely cool system for each cooler? I think you would get very different results>
Ought to let the VRM and motherboard in general come to room temperature and run the CB23 test for each cooler from a cold start.
Great analysis, but a price to performance column would be helpful as well!
Intel can be cool, my KS is over 350w and can be cooled really wel, just not with small air cooler
I really wish you would hover your mouse over the score because it'll tell you what it's doing right now every time it completes one. so we can see how it deals with heat. Does it start off well and then taper off. Does it start off hot and get better.
here is my problem with AIO- they are too expensive and you need to replace them sooner then aircooled, also there are more points of failure
I used the NH-U14S on my new build last week. I am a huge fan of Noctua, been using their stuff for many years. I mounted it exhaust out the back.
Great choice. Reasonably compact. Very quiet. Very efficient. I've had one in use with a 10700K @ 5GHz for 18 months, ambient temps usually ~ 27C. No negatives. I should add, in order to get a good view of the RAM RGB, I moved the fan to 'pull' config. That's commonly considered a serious no-no. However, the cpu temps proved similar to 'push'; 1 to 1.5 C up, according to HWiNFO64 - unlike the 10C difference claimed in one review. While 'push' is certainly optimum, the effectiveness of 'pull' might depend on case airflow.
@@fred_2021 I have the Gigabyte z790 board and the fractal pop air case and where my cpu fan begins there is a 1/4 inch gap between the ddr5 g-skill Trident RGB ram and the fan. And I am using 2 - 16gb sticks in slots one a three..I will never use anymore than that. I changed my cpu fan to black and have the chromax cover on the radiator. Looks really good and simple. I am only using the RTX 3060 MSI because I am cheap and did not want to spend a fortune on a video card. My CPU heat while gaming never gets about 37c but I am not playing high resource games like cyberpunk.
@@andredaedone7732 Sounds perfect. The Chromax covers do look good. Might do that too, if can decide between black vs white :)
Got Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB for my i5-13600K and couldn't be more happier.
Not surprised with the results from the Peerless Assassin, I have seen other testing where it performed near the top. Best bang for your buck. I am really surprised with the NH-D15 results, I really expected it at the top of the list.
Surprising isn't it, makes you wonder about the the Be Quiet Dark Rock 4 Pro.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS IK THIS WONT BE SEEN BUT I FINALLY FOUND A COMPARISON FOR THE THERMALRIGHT ASSASIN KING 120 SE
My major concern with AIO is that the pump failure are most unpredictable and I don't want any liquid spillage costing me my system.
I'm looking for air cooling solution that's 100% same performance with 360 AIO.
this video gave me my answers
Would have loved for you to do this testing using liquid metal as the thermal paste - dual fans where they are available and makng sure the pipes are all same orientation
I have an i7 12700k and I keep it locked at 120w with the Thermalright assassin 120.
225w give it like 5-10% more performance that I don´t think makes sense to aim for.