Can a Gaming PC get by with stock or smaller CPU cooler/

Z

Zorachus

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Dec 17, 2006
Messages
11,301
I'm a Gamer, and looking to maybe go Ryzen 5 5600X, everything else I have is RTX 3080, 32GB DDR4, X570 motherboard, Lian Li case with tons of cooling and 6 case fans.

But with my new case having a glass panel, I am sick of the giant PU coolers I always have, they take up so much space and are just huge. I'd like to go much smaller fan, either the stock black fan the Ryzen 5 comes with a low profile, can something like this be safe?

https://www.microcenter.com/product/617826/noctua-nh-l9a-am4-low-profile-cpu-cooler

I don't OC or anything, I keep evreything stock. Games I play are msotly WoW, and Doom Eternal, and will be CP2077

Or do I play it safe, and just get this;

Amazon product ASIN B07QMK5R45
 
Last edited:
It will be fine. It will still run hot and loud under load. If your case aesthetics are so much more important to you then go for it.
 
intel stock coolers suck, but work.
AMD stock coolers are just fine.
short answer is yes. just use the stock cooler.

long answer, there is a small amount of additional performance and you can make it quieter at the same time, provided you pay for it by purchasing a bigger badder cooler.
If money is nothing, but the damn cooler you want. If money is a big deal, just use the stock cooler and dont worry about it (as always, any money saved in other areas of your build must be diverted to the GPU, its the law).
 
Nobu said:
If you have the room, I'd recommend the l9x65 SE AM4 over the l9a. Will have better cooling at a given fan speed. Or if you get a tower cooler (like the hyper212 you linked), the C14 series from noctua is a great choice.
Click to expand...
Realized I mistakenly said C14 but meant D15. D15 might be too big, depending on your components and case, so be sure to check clearances.
 
If you are unsure, run hardware monitor on the machine while testing out a game or two. Set your case fans (if applicable) and let it bake for a minute or two and check temps. If you feel its too high jump out and pickup a cooler. A few examples above. If you are happy with temps keep gaming and check every few minutes. After 10 -15 minutes you should reach the theoretical max temp for your setup. If you have your PC in an enclosed room the room will warm up after 30 - 60 minutes gradually increasing temp within the case. Keep this in mind. Nice aftermarket CPU coolers do make nice contact with the chip and transfer heat more effectively than stock (in most cases).
 
The low profile coolers like the l9a are really meant for stuff like small itx cases. The l9a is great if you need to stay within 37 mm, but you get a lot better cooling with something a little taller. Also, on AM4, a lot of the low profile heatsink fins are perpendicular to ram, which isn't ideal.
 
What ^ said.
This is particularly problematic when gaming bc you wouldn’t be maintaining consistent stock clocks much less baked in boosted clocks with a low profile cooler.

There are reviews ad nauseous about wraith prisms giving up a couple 100 MHz and a ton of noise to higher end air coolers and aios.
This would matter if you play at 1080p, 1440p you may or may not notice frametime spikes depending on the game, 4K meh run whatever you want.

If I dropped $ on a 3080, x570, 5600x build I’d ignore aesthetics and get at least a noctua u14s on it.....preferably an aio.
 
IMO NH-L9a is too tiny. Get at least a NH-L9x65.

I also don't like big coolers and I went with a NH-U9s.

Even though the TDP is 65W the way AMD calculates TDP is bogus. I have a 3600x and I find it runs pretty hot. With the U9S I can hit 85 degrees in Prime 95.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top