It would be nice to have at least a couple of those in this reviews graphs, but jumping between them shows that pretty much every cooler in this review performs much better than a stock cooler, and the worst cooler here is slightly better than the AMD Wraith cooler. I'm guessing the Wraith Prism would be a bit better than that for cooling but everything I found elsewhere suggests that the Prism is not much of an improvement over the (regular?) Wraith.
I spent extra $10 for that stupid over-hyped Wraith Spire. After 2 days putting up with its poor heat dissipation I got the NH-U12S Chromemax Black. Cost me $70 but it's well worth.
Does anyone want the useless Wraith? I'm giving it away or it'll go to the trash soon.
I used a Wraith while I waited my NH-D15 socket adapter to arrive. It performed pretty well. The Noctua only gave me a few degrees C. One difference is that I used aftermarket head sink paste. Perhaps stock paste or overly thick paste is the issue?
If an NH-D15 only netted a loss of a few degrees C , you must have had one hot running and/or overvolted CPU...(some 5000 series Ryzens run a tad warm, to be sure, although this seems semi-normal)
I've never used stock pastes. It took me more than 15 minutes to clean it off. I've tried both Arctic Silver 5 and MX-4 but they didn't help much with the stock cooler on my non-overclocked 3600x. The NH-U12S took about 10C down with MX-4 paste and it's quieter on high speed.
Wraith Spire Prime 95 max at 84C. Gaming max at 76C.
We use the Wraith Prism with a 3900X, and it performs surprisingly well. The board apparently does not power-limit the CPU, and putting load in the CPU resulted in 190W above idle power, which the Prism managed to cool. We have temperature-limited the CPU to 70C, now power is only 135W over idle after some time. Cooling this much to such a low temperature is impressive; elsewhere I always read about high temps on the 7nm Ryzens. But the Prism makes a lot of noise for this performance, so I would not use it for a deskside machine.
It handled even 190W above idle power consumption. Given that the Prism is delivered with CPUs that have 138W PPT, it definitely should be able to handle that. The 190W is surprising, though.
My experience with the Wraith Prism was very good, but I think you need to stick with 65W (or below) processors in order to get the best from it. It will handle higher loads than that, you just have to accept that it won't be anywhere near quiet.
While the linked article does contain several stock coolers, are any of those available or widely used in 2021, 5 years on from that review? Are the results directly comparable with the current review? It would have been nice to include the AMD Wraith Prism in this set of results since it's not in that old article and I guess it would be nice to include whatever Intel is bundling too.
This gets particularly interesting with things like AMD's high-end Ryzen CPUs, where even when not overclocking, a better cooler than stock might let the CPU boost to higher frequencies for longer. (Let alone the noise benefits) But that's so dependent on the particular CPU and case environment/ambient that I don't really know how you could make a useful comparison in a standalone cooler review :/
I've never had a good experience with an Intel stock cooler, but I know a few people who've used them for their budget gaming systems. It depends a lot on your sensitivity to noise. Personally I hate the buzzing noise the fans on them make, even at lower speeds.
The cheap model has fewer heat pipes and poorer connections between the pipes it does have and the fins. With an equivalent fan it would preform hotter than the more expensive model; to keep the thermal performance the same Noctua used a faster - and thus louder - fan.
It's a pity that that y'all don't have the historical data to put other coolers on the R_th vs SPL chart. Every remotely modern fan has PWM control now, and for the ones that don't, motherboards have variable-voltage drive of 3-pin fans. Nobody is bridging their fans between the 12V and 5V supplies anymore.
Though there is no best, I mostly agree, provided the manufacturer is stable and provides long-term support for new sockets. An air cooler should last decades. Stock CPU coolers should go the way of in-box charging bricks; they waste money.
Meh Noctua isn't really competitive in this segment and probably never will be. My recommendation if you need a plane 4 heat pipe tower cooler (mainstream as it can get) is Artic Freezer 34 CO for some 38$ no cut corners there regarding mont brickets or thermal paste and a blower just a tad worser that best Noctua Industrial (server) ones. On the other hand regular Freezer 34 with standard PO fan (still better than Redux one's) is just 30$.
I looked at this and sadly it appears that it's just too tall to fit inside my case. Went for the Scythe Fuma 2 instead which costs a bit more but is about 3cm shorter and seems to get better reviews (everywhere except Anandtech which seems to have missed it altogether).
Noctua has smaller models like the NH-U9S which I have along with the U12S. Or you can get the Zalman CNPS9500 which performs better than the U9S. I have the Zalman in my old i5-2500K system. It's been working extremely well since 2011. Yup, it's been 10 years and I repasted it twice (every 4-5 years or so) even though the old paste did not cause any degrade in performance.
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I see a bunch of coolers I've never heard of but the very popular Hyper 212 isn't there. Considering the very low price that's probably why, but the performance is still good, at least for me on a 5600X. The 212 would provide a good base reference point for aftermarket price performance and put the rest of the coolers into perspective.
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jordanclock - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
I've always wondered why CPU cooler reviews don't include stock coolers.Ian Cutress - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
https://www.anandtech.com/show/10500/stock-cooler-...jordanclock - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
It would be nice to have at least a couple of those in this reviews graphs, but jumping between them shows that pretty much every cooler in this review performs much better than a stock cooler, and the worst cooler here is slightly better than the AMD Wraith cooler. I'm guessing the Wraith Prism would be a bit better than that for cooling but everything I found elsewhere suggests that the Prism is not much of an improvement over the (regular?) Wraith.sonny73n - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
I spent extra $10 for that stupid over-hyped Wraith Spire. After 2 days putting up with its poor heat dissipation I got the NH-U12S Chromemax Black. Cost me $70 but it's well worth.Does anyone want the useless Wraith? I'm giving it away or it'll go to the trash soon.
Sivar - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
I used a Wraith while I waited my NH-D15 socket adapter to arrive.It performed pretty well. The Noctua only gave me a few degrees C.
One difference is that I used aftermarket head sink paste. Perhaps stock paste or overly thick paste is the issue?
MDD1963 - Sunday, August 29, 2021 - link
If an NH-D15 only netted a loss of a few degrees C , you must have had one hot running and/or overvolted CPU...(some 5000 series Ryzens run a tad warm, to be sure, although this seems semi-normal)Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
Any extra context on that? Which CPU were you using it with, was it stock paste, and was it the noise that bothered you or the temperatures?sonny73n - Saturday, August 28, 2021 - link
I've never used stock pastes. It took me more than 15 minutes to clean it off. I've tried both Arctic Silver 5 and MX-4 but they didn't help much with the stock cooler on my non-overclocked 3600x. The NH-U12S took about 10C down with MX-4 paste and it's quieter on high speed.Wraith Spire
Prime 95 max at 84C. Gaming max at 76C.
NH-U12S
Prime95 max at 77C. Gaming max at 65C.
Tams80 - Saturday, August 28, 2021 - link
Something sounds wrong there.But anyway, you paid an extra $60. Of course you got a better cooler.
AntonErtl - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
We use the Wraith Prism with a 3900X, and it performs surprisingly well. The board apparently does not power-limit the CPU, and putting load in the CPU resulted in 190W above idle power, which the Prism managed to cool. We have temperature-limited the CPU to 70C, now power is only 135W over idle after some time. Cooling this much to such a low temperature is impressive; elsewhere I always read about high temps on the 7nm Ryzens. But the Prism makes a lot of noise for this performance, so I would not use it for a deskside machine.Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
Yeah, you're definitely outside the Prism's sweet spot at that point. I'm impressed to hear that it handles 135W at all!AntonErtl - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
It handled even 190W above idle power consumption. Given that the Prism is delivered with CPUs that have 138W PPT, it definitely should be able to handle that. The 190W is surprising, though.Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
My experience with the Wraith Prism was very good, but I think you need to stick with 65W (or below) processors in order to get the best from it. It will handle higher loads than that, you just have to accept that it won't be anywhere near quiet.TrevorH - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
While the linked article does contain several stock coolers, are any of those available or widely used in 2021, 5 years on from that review? Are the results directly comparable with the current review? It would have been nice to include the AMD Wraith Prism in this set of results since it's not in that old article and I guess it would be nice to include whatever Intel is bundling too.kepstin - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
This gets particularly interesting with things like AMD's high-end Ryzen CPUs, where even when not overclocking, a better cooler than stock might let the CPU boost to higher frequencies for longer. (Let alone the noise benefits) But that's so dependent on the particular CPU and case environment/ambient that I don't really know how you could make a useful comparison in a standalone cooler review :/A5 - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
The short answer is that they're really bad. Anyone who sits in the same room as their computer should invest the $20-$50 to get a good air cooler.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
They're fine as long as you dont put a K SKU with unlimited turbo under them. Regular intel chips are quite efficient.Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
I've never had a good experience with an Intel stock cooler, but I know a few people who've used them for their budget gaming systems. It depends a lot on your sensitivity to noise. Personally I hate the buzzing noise the fans on them make, even at lower speeds.Leeea - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
I like the pre-applied thermal paste, great feature.I wonder if the different fan was necessary, or if they are just artificially nerfing the product? I doubt they cost any different to manufacture.
I did not know Noctua normally welded the fins, interesting.
DanNeely - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
The cheap model has fewer heat pipes and poorer connections between the pipes it does have and the fins. With an equivalent fan it would preform hotter than the more expensive model; to keep the thermal performance the same Noctua used a faster - and thus louder - fan.A5 - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
Their redux fans are a bit cheaper and louder than the ones they normally pack with the coolers.Oxford Guy - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
‘beautifully designed and made, with the perfectly arranged fins and heatpipes creating a work of art.’I’ll call the Louvre.
DanNeely - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
Or maybe just call it the Louver. 🙄AnnonymousCoward - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
Love the Thermal Resistance vs Sound graph.I've been using the NH-U14S for 6 years. I love Noctua quality and honestly don't care what it costs, it's worth it.
vegemeister - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
It's a pity that that y'all don't have the historical data to put other coolers on the R_th vs SPL chart. Every remotely modern fan has PWM control now, and for the ones that don't, motherboards have variable-voltage drive of 3-pin fans. Nobody is bridging their fans between the 12V and 5V supplies anymore.meacupla - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
I get the feeling that, if you are looking to buy an aftermarket heatsink, you should buy the best one.You can reuse the heatsink when you upgrade, and a really good one will handle higher wattages just fine.
Wrs - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
Though there is no best, I mostly agree, provided the manufacturer is stable and provides long-term support for new sockets. An air cooler should last decades. Stock CPU coolers should go the way of in-box charging bricks; they waste money.damianrobertjones - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
So... lower cost unit usually means that the higher priced items become more expensive. Top, middle and bottom etc. Nice move, Noctua.ZolaIII - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
Meh Noctua isn't really competitive in this segment and probably never will be. My recommendation if you need a plane 4 heat pipe tower cooler (mainstream as it can get) is Artic Freezer 34 CO for some 38$ no cut corners there regarding mont brickets or thermal paste and a blower just a tad worser that best Noctua Industrial (server) ones. On the other hand regular Freezer 34 with standard PO fan (still better than Redux one's) is just 30$.Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
That does look like a bargain, and I've always had good experiences with their products. Cheers for the tip!Leeea - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
I have found direct heat pipe coolers to not be particularly flat on the bottom.On a silverstone cooler I had, I perceived the problem seemed to get worse with time. Gave me a real dislike for that design.
edwardhchan - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
So it's an expensive Hyper 212?Threska - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
The clips are better than the plastic for holding the fans on.TrevorH - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
I looked at this and sadly it appears that it's just too tall to fit inside my case. Went for the Scythe Fuma 2 instead which costs a bit more but is about 3cm shorter and seems to get better reviews (everywhere except Anandtech which seems to have missed it altogether).sonny73n - Saturday, August 28, 2021 - link
Noctua has smaller models like the NH-U9S which I have along with the U12S. Or you can get the Zalman CNPS9500 which performs better than the U9S. I have the Zalman in my old i5-2500K system. It's been working extremely well since 2011. Yup, it's been 10 years and I repasted it twice (every 4-5 years or so) even though the old paste did not cause any degrade in performance.lau808 - Sunday, August 29, 2021 - link
Why isn’t the hyper 212 part of the test group?Jamesanderson03 - Thursday, September 2, 2021 - link
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For more details - <a href="https://getassignmenthelponline.com/spss-assignmen...
dicobalt - Saturday, September 11, 2021 - link
I see a bunch of coolers I've never heard of but the very popular Hyper 212 isn't there. Considering the very low price that's probably why, but the performance is still good, at least for me on a 5600X. The 212 would provide a good base reference point for aftermarket price performance and put the rest of the coolers into perspective.