A TINY $25 CPU Cooler Might Be All You Need!

[@HardwareCanucks]

Let's play a game: take a shot every time I say SUPER in this video. I did.....and I'm paying for it today. ;) - Mike

[@minecraftanimator8718]

How to it to send you

[@grumpyratt2163]

My liver has now disowned me 🤣

[@creep069]

Does "super super" counts as one or should I do double shot?

[@HardwareCanucks]

@@creep069 Double Double? ;)

[@grumpyratt2163]

@@creep069 Do a double just to make sure

[@CarthagoMike]

I would love to see this compared to the Noctua NH-L12S

[@HardwareCanucks]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[@valdezapg]

@@HardwareCanucks or the NH-U9s ?

[@sympetrum667]

they have a 80mm cooler right? but for threadripper

[@Girvo747]

@@valdezapg I’ve got a U9S in my m-ITX build inside a Core V1, it’s absolutely brilliant. Noctua 200mm intake on the front, over the U9S, out through two 80mm Noctua exhaust fans. Set a nice fan curve, and it stays super cool while being quiet. Even at load, it’s a nice low pitched hum! All on a 5600X :)

[@keenanvaughn4112]

Also the Arctic freezer 7x!!!!

[@lisasmith5769]

Cool. Within a few millimetres on all dimensions of my Cooler Master Hyper T2. Might be swapping out for this one

[@HardwareCanucks]

I saw the T2 (sadly it wasn't in stock at the time) and it looked interesting.

[@AwSomeNESSS]

Loving this bang for the buck content! Keep it up please!

[@tthbeige3332]

Great video! Love seeing smaller tower-coolers getting some attention.

[@perdomot]

Really enjoying this series. Hope you do a low profile comparison video since tower coolers and AIO gets most of the love from reviewers.

[@dexter2433]

the be quiet rock slim 2 is what i have on my 5600x and it is overkill and I payed $25.90 for mine from Newegg after Paul's Hardware recommended it .nice vid great review and spot on also .

[@ClassyJackBF]

Sounds like a great little cooler for a 65w chip. I recently built a machine from old parts based on an old ivy bridge i5 3350p which has a tdp of 69w. I chose the LC Power CC 95 which also has a 92mm fan. Using prime 95 at max stress the cpu reaches no more than 38c over room temperature. You don't always need a big ass expensive cooler.

[@ReddwarfIV]

Yep. My PC has an Ivy Bridge i7-3770 (recently upgraded from the i5). With the stock Intel fan I was getting 80 degrees max. The Pure Rock Slim 2 dropped that to 70 max, while being super quiet. As far as I can tell, it never even had to go above its minimum fan speed to do that.

[@Richie016]

Great deal of info on the CPU cooler, Thanks for the info on the components.

[@Artis_OTS]

Bought this earlier in the year for an update to my build. Love it

[@noddy5]

Wow another great video from you guys! Following with this cpu coolers trend, I suggest you review the vetroo v5, pretty famous on amazon

[@pixxel17]

This tiny cooler almost dethroned the u12s at $25... that’s amazing

[@pixxel17]

@James Smith agreed 100%, the people looking for a $25 cooler most likely aren’t going to be running the most high end CPU out there, myself included. The Scythe Fuma 2 is amazing from what I’ve heard, my friend has one and it is s i l e n t. Enjoy it!!!

[@JamiesGamingDad]

Amazing value for money, have had it for nearly two months, works great in my mini itx case NZXT H210i

[@darkavenger003]

Mike you doing well , kepp going bro!

[@HardwareCanucks]

Yessir! Allergies still killing me slowly and the medication for them doing WEIRD things to my sleeping pattern but yeah....just peachy!

[@darkavenger003]

@@HardwareCanucks Take care !

[@redrangerJ]

Would love to see this with a 5600x or 11600k or even lower where it's a more realistic pairing.

[@HardwareCanucks]

We did lower wattages so you could take those as a great indication about how it would perform on the AMD side. :)

[@thoughtsofapeer]

The 5600x is only 65W so it is plenty good for that

[@devilmikey00]

I mean if it can handle 95/125w parts then it would be absolutely fine for 65w parts unless you are pumping a ton of volts through them.

[@P4NCH1]

@@devilmikey00 Yeah but anyways never full trust the "TDP" number. 2 days ago was testing a 5600X on a TUF B450, all out-of-the-box, and the CPU draw got to 74W while installing all the soft for testing

[@jamesm568]

LMFAO! The stock cooler is perfectly fine for the 5600X, so most aftermarket CPU coolers should be a breeze running that budget CPU.

[@Steveindajeep]

Can you do a head to head against the Noctua NH-U9S?

[@HardwareCanucks]

To be honest with you, we THOUGHT we had one here....and then didn't. :(

[@Steveindajeep]

@@HardwareCanucks SADNESS! 😥

[@Motishay]

Video update when you will get one, maybe against the gammaxx 400 as well? (pretty please?)

[@yellectronix]

I got mine today to replace my trash intel stock cooler. I was getting horrible temperature issues (90-100 degrees all the time during heavy use, cinebench for example). Now with this, it doesn't go above 75 degrees at max. Amazing.

[@Bp4FSniper]

Hey guys awesome review ! But it would be really nice to include the idle temps next time :)

[@RatBagDad]

I've just realised that I like Hardware Canucks' graphs more than Gamers Nexus ones. (Sorry Steve, HC's are just so well colour balanced and easy on the eye).

[@NatrajChaturvedi]

I am using the Noctua u9s on a 3800x and I am able to OC it to 4.250 on all cores and it doesn't go above 82c when I stress it. (82 might seem high but its an OC'd 8 core with a 92mm fan!!) Sure its not as inexpensive as this one but if someone wants a small profile cooler, Noctua u9s is a great choice too!

[@kvtan7]

Is this still relevant in 2024 ? Looking at budget coolers for current 5700x3d and upcoming AM5 upgrade.

[@John-gm8ty]

check out the Snowman dual fan. it kicks arse for it's price range.

[@DDHDTV]

0:09 "watch out watch out" .. all I could think of was: "WATCH OUT .... RKO!"

[@yubos98]

Wow. I built my system 2 years ago and was rocking a stock cooler for this whole time. Recently rather high temps under stock clocks made me think of getting a new CPU cooler and just wow! That's going to be my new cooler for a few more CPUs down the line, I guess. 65W Ryzen gang, rise up!

[@ArtisChronicles]

If the temps were fine before, then all you really need is to change the thermal paste. It's more than fine to get a new cooler though.

[@ravenfeeder1892]

Nice. I have a Dark Rock Pro 4 which is super quiet and I wouldn't swap for anything. But this looks like a good solution for a lot less money.

[@LTT.Official]

Definitely would consider this when rebuilding my desktop. Looks like a new 212 is on the block.

[@crylune]

I'm good with a thicker 120mm heatsink with two heavy duty fans on it. NH-U12A for life baby, cooling a 3900X just fine. Swapped the D15S for it.

[@boyensn4233]

I have the original Pure Rock Slim and I love it. Works quite well with my i5-7600k 🙂.

[@Friedbrain11]

I'm running a Peltier cooler with a 90mm fan. When it fails eventually, I will get this new one. Should be a slam dunk fit for my needs.

[@Bryan-T]

This is good for the money. I was lucky enough to get an Id Cooling 224 for the same price. Now it's up to 30.

[@SIW808]

I also paid $25 on sale for my Hyper 212 Black Edition in late 2019.

[@classicboatworks9876]

Should take a look at the ID Cooling skus. I just put a 914-XT Basic in a Rosewill FBM-01 Cheapie case over a R5 3600 as an upgrade from an R5 2600X Wraith Spire ( vapor chamber version ).. It's essentially the same class as the Pure Rock 2 Slim, but has 1 more heat pipe and a better Noctua style mounting system. Never goes above 76* and scores 100 points higher in Cinebench R23. Currently the Pure Rock Slim 2 is out of stock or in the $40 range, but the basic 914 XT is $28, and $40 for the ARGB version. They also sell a 120mm version for around the same prices

[@ReQuiem_2099]

So it’s a cheap Noctua NH-U9S? I have a pair in my dual Xeon workstation running dual fans nearly silent on 135W CPUs.

[@akmarksman]

This cooler is PERFECT for my stealth build in my old Dell Inspiron 570 MATX case. I tried installing the Pure Rock Slim on my Gigabyte B550M DS3H board which has a Ryzen 3 3300x, but when it's installed, it pointed the fan either towards the top, where the PSU is, or down towards the GPU, so I returned it. I went with a different cooler from a different company, but I'm thinking I'll get this cooler to replace it. I've got a BeQuiet cooler on my 5600x gaming PC and I love it. Also, that's a REALLY good price point.

[@Jusbale]

This was the only tower cooler that could fit in my case. Very happy with it

[@ccallaghan84]

I run an NR200 myself - completely agree on the U12/212. I ultimately went with a Scythe Fuma 2, and it keeps my 5950x on PBO cool enough (~65 during gaming). Fits perfectly in the case. This looks like a great option for even less space.

[@smartgorilla]

That's what I did

[@ccallaghan84]

@@smartgorilla It's crazy the way the FUMA fits.. It's almost as if the case was built for it.

[@smartgorilla]

@@ccallaghan84 I keep wanting to switch the fans just out of interest for more ooomph

[@ccallaghan84]

@@smartgorilla I've got an A12x15 and A12x25 kicking around, I could thermal test the differences.

[@smartgorilla]

@@ccallaghan84 the thin one I think rotates the other way just be careful if you do

[@MrAvatin]

I need this so bad. Can only find them for $70 here in Canada :(

[@Bioniclema90]

It's $40 here in America =/

[@benslabbo]

Mike! I have the original purerock slim. Hate the push pin install for Intels

[@HardwareCanucks]

Yeah, that's what I said. I HATE push pin on Intel.

[@tarfeef_4268]

@@HardwareCanucks i gotta say tho, after working in Intel's labs doing GPU validation... being able to install the CPU cooler in like 10s is pretty nice. would not use them for personal systems, though, yeah. they both can break fairly easily, and don't get very good pressure. a 25 dollar cooler like this is a great investment for most builds, even just for noise

[@benslabbo]

@@tarfeef_4268 I can see the advantage if you are doing installs in bulk. Didn't think about that!

[@nicktaylor897]

Me too!

[@greenman8]

@ 5:33 I really do not like using the stock plastic clips with the stirrup pressure to mount. My personal experience, I had two instances where the plastic broke over time. The first time I experienced this when I came home one day- turned on PC, to have it automatically shut down, opened the case to find the stock air cooler dangling. Broken tab. The second time on another PC during an install. Keep in mind, this was a long time ago on two Phenom 2 systems, but I still maintain the belief, Having 4 actual points of contact with bolt/nut through the Motherboard, is what I try to look for on any aftermarket AIO or Air Cooler.

[@TheEriclikeseatin]

I'd love to see how this cooler compares to the Cryorig M9! I had the first Pure Rock Slim in my Skylake system and it kept everything cool and quiet.

[@TheAffar369]

I have the old model and I can say the installation is such a pain to deal with for AMD boards. So I'm glad they decided to come with pre-installed AMD clamps.

[@TYahn91942]

I think, I may end up going with this little guy, instead of the stock air coolers for, AMD systems. Awesome video and the tower of coolers.

[@shadow19121]

The headache I had squeezing the Noctua NH c14s into my NR200 at more than twice the price this one goes really shows how much I over spent for my CPU cooler.

[@waterflowzz]

I bought the Abko Suitmaster t101 (korean brand, i believe). It’s basically the same design as this with 4 copper pipes and rgb (I don’t care for the rgb) for about $16 - $17usd. The best part of it is that it’s a screw mount (i hate clip on mounts with a passion).

[@jonathanellis6097]

I think Bequite have rebranded a cheep generic cooler, and slapped a good fan on it. Not a bad strategy but there is nothing special about it.

[@waterflowzz]

@@jonathanellis6097 yeah most of these are generics that are rebranded like most other things in the world today. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that for laptops and other things too but for laptops i really don’t expect this kinda thing cuz they’re so pricey but they do it anyways. The world is turning generic....... at least it keeps my ryzen 5600x at around 36c at idle and about 69c ish at load (overclocked a tiny bit) and my gpu runs really hot so can’t complain.

[@Mediiiicc]

I bought one of these 2 months ago, very happy with it.

[@nonamenameless5495]

Not the first vid I watched with your new reviewer but wanted to say that I really like the way he presents so congrats, nice addition to your team.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Thanks! But I've been around for 15 years now. - Mike. :)

[@williamlau7179]

After installing the hyper 212 led last week in an ATX casing, realising a compact sized cooler can perform similar or better heat dissipation and lower sound intensity is preferred, especially at budget pricing.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Even today the Hyper 212 EVO is a cooler that should be in every cooler roundup. Not because it is still the best budget cooler without competition (There are a lot great coolers in the 35 and under range nowadays), but because a lot of people bought one when it was the budget option of choice. I have one myself. Not in my main rig, but in a smaller system.

[@IIHydraII]

I could get an Arctic Freezer 34 eSports for £2 extra, should I just get that instead?

[@richardwinstanley8219]

Biggest difference between this and the previous model: they rotated the AMD mount. Now airflow is horizontal rather than vertical.

[@tidjane2001]

This would be great for something like the Cooler Master NR200

[@neoperol]

There are a lot of 120mm Tower cooler that fit in the NR200 without problem. I have the ID Cooling with dual Noctua Fans with the TG panel on.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Exactly. Just remember there are tower coolers that DO fit, but they tend to cost more money.

[@HugoRBLX]

@@neoperol what about coolers that fit along side a 120mm fan attached to the side? Having an extra fan there is super useful

[@Majima_Nowhere]

Be Quiet is quickly becoming my favorite cooling manufacturer.

[@dexter2433]

there stuff works there fans are quiet and the build is quality at a very competitive price point what else in todays market can we ask for :-)

[@dejzdujz]

what cpu u got and is it good?

[@LRM12o8]

It's astonishing how low the cooling requirements for mid-range CPUs have become. I'm using a 25$ top-blower cooler from LC-Power which does have a big fan (110mm I think), but not a lot of metal and still my Rizen 5 1600 is below 65°C in any of my workloads and the only reason I swapped that cooler in for the stock cooler was that the bearings on the stock cooler started making noises after a year and adding oil didn't fix it, otherwise the stock cooler would've been fine as well. I have a soft spot for small but efficient CPU coolers. Cooling a high-performance chip with a tiny heatsink that's, well... just cool. And I like the stock AMD mounting system with the lever. It's easy to install and effective!

[@justsomegamer2285]

i ordered for 25,90€ from retail store, for replacing the intel stock coller 10400.

[@wilgerec]

really good video. good job. I love the installation guide brolo!

[@davidgunther8428]

All these 3x 6mm heat pipe coolers will have trouble above 130W because each heat pipe can handle 45W. The new attachment mechanism looks a lot like the one on the Enermax ETS N31. I have the first pure rock slim, so I'm glad they made it better!

[@HardwareCanucks]

Actually, due to the fact be quiet! is spacing the heatpipes, it has better coverage. BUT they rate it at 130W so you shouldn't go above anyways. I mean it IS a $25 cooler....

[@ronstewtsaw]

Have you looked at the ASRock DeskMini X300 product? You get a tiny case (not as small as a PN50) with an AM4 motherboard and an external power supply. You add a Ryzen APU, a cooler, some RAM and some storage. If AMD really does make their latest APUs available to enthusiasts this year, this type of product might take off. I ask here because getting a good pancake fan would be important. Hardware Canucks might be able to get ahead of the curve.

[@Lunker_Dunker]

ID-COOLING has a similarly priced and speced cooler on Amazon with 4 heat pipes, I wonder how that would compare

[@danielgallo299]

Does in come in all stealth black? Also does it allow for a 2nd 92mm fan?

[@craig.9229]

i dont see any reason why a 2nd fan wouldnt fit. Youre just gonna need to buy some new Clips to attach it.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Not YET and yes if you can find a compatible fan + brackets BUT be aware the fan in addition to the cost of this pushes price into another category.

[@craig.9229]

@@HardwareCanucks you could also just ziptie one on

[@SirPsychonautic]

I just bought a ryzen 5900x and 3070 to replace my 1070 and 2600x and don't plan on overclocking. so im assuming you would recommend the cooler for the job or would you add prerequisites?

[@hunne94]

is there a way to rotate the cooler by 90°? I think that would work great in my nr200 (AMD)

[@Smithson52]

I had the original Be Quiet Slim, worked great for my i3 9100f. Then I upgraded to the Ryzen 5 3600 and it couldn't take the heat at all. Was reaching temps of 95°C on load. So I'm happy to see them improving on it, especially for that amazing price point.

[@ahuesphoto]

Please review Arctic Freezer 7X, I have great success with this cooler; and I also had the old version. I think it’s not compatible with AM5 nor LGA1700, and has no thermal headroom for over locking, but for a regular Desktop it is great

[@fiveforbiting]

I use a 114mm height Shadow Rock TF2. 140mm fan. Effective, Silent.

[@leedaq7767]

not bad, daily users don't even need massive dual tower coolers anyway, mostly people buy them for looks

[@tomasbern7716]

Hey :) What's the difference between Hyper 212 Evo V2 and Hyper 212 Evo? Is v2 better since it's v2 of 212 evo? :) Awesome video btw.

[@TSUNAMI17]

Thank you for this!!! Would like to see if the Intel results are different due to mounting pressure issue.

[@rynomclaughlin1595]

Will this be any better than my AMD stock cooler? Will I see any noticeable performance improvement?

[@TurboMintyFresh]

yes you will see a 20 to 30 degree difference

[@sensibledriver933]

I had a Be Quiet Pure rock. It cooled my 3600 ok but not stellar. They are great at being quiet but not so great for cooling. Ive swapped for a thermaltake peerless and get 10 degrees lower temps for the same DB decause I can run the fans slower.

[@OntarioGuy430]

Currently using a dark rock pro 4 on a 3800x - was waiting for the comparison chart in the video since you were showing both - Did I miss something, or was it not actually compared? - Was hoping to see the difference.

[@akirathearchibald7958]

Loving these tests

[@moleyboy9650]

that the cpu cooler i've been using for years, and i love it!!!

[@cx019]

I have got the first PRS on a 10400F. And I can confirm your findings 100%! If it just was black!

[@meaningproof]

Will I get good thermals in the i5 11400f with unlocked wattage using this cooler???

[@thrydwulf]

I am using this in my Thermaltake core V1 which has a max cpu cooler clearance of 140mm

[@Kohega]

I had a Pure Rock Slim 1, and it was really good

[@andreaguidigigio]

Same here. The only difference seems to to be the mounting for AMD CPUs, which was simply wrong in the orginal (with the fan blowing toward the top of the case)

[@Kohega]

@@andreaguidigigio Yes, i had it for my AMD X4 860K, and i had good temps even in top oriented configuration

[@adamhafiddin9564]

Been looking out of this cooler for a while. Its suits perfectly in my micro atx build since my case can only allowed maximum 145mm for cpu cooler. Time to retire my trusty old wraith stealth then.

[@komenasai86]

NR200 user, i got a question. Can i use side bracket if i am using 154mm cooler? I plan to put one fan on side panel. I got deal for the case and cooler. If not, i just use low profile cooler. Thanks.

[@NeverStopImproving-w7d]

Should I get an Intel Tiger Lake i5 / i7. Or should I get an AMD Ryzen 5000 series 5 or 7?

[@iHasCaek]

still $25.90 from amazon. just make sure to chose amazon as the seller.

[@Jesticles85]

impressive! might have to invest in some be quiet! fans

[@evlkenevl2721]

Still rockin' an Enermax 90mm tower on an old i5. Building my first system with a 120mm tower and I see this, lol.

[@khanscombe619]

I'm looking for best I can get in a dual Xeon socket. I have room of 100mm wide by 150mm deep. I'm on pair of E5-2667-V4 at 135W already. maxed out Noctua NH-D9DX i4 U3 in dual fan. I'm willing to try. Not much slection out there for Dual Xeon.

[@Zantriuce]

Uh I wish it came in a black edition but it would probably affect performance doing that

[@Shmoozo55]

Based on your testing, I would guess that people building budget systems based on CPUs with TDPs in the 65 to 90 watt range like the Ryzen 5 3600 will likely find this capable of keeping CPU temps under control even with a bit of overclocking.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Correct. Or a bit higher.

[@craesh]

How does it compare to the previous Pure Rock Slim? I have this since 2.5 years on my Ryzen 1600, works fine so far an I can barely hear it (it runs below 50% and Max temperate at around 65C).

[@alligatorscrublord]

it's a miracle you didn't linus it with that tower in the beginning

[@ex0thermic986]

I wonder how it compares to the Arctic 13 cooler. think it's also a 92mm fan with 3 heat pipes. might be worth a test ?

[@denvera1g1]

How does this compare to the NH-D9L i've got one of these in my server but the heat pipes touch the lid, if this is about the same hight, or a bit less i'd defiantely go with this

[@massimoR64]

Great! Is it ok for i5 10600 (non K) processor? Thank you for your replay.

[@iamironsam]

Are they scalping heatsinks too??

[@NuggetsXInfinite]

So how about this for a 12400 ? Should definitely be better than the stock cooler, but I wonder by how much.

[@tns6862]

Is the NH-D9S a good competitor in terms of performance? Understand its double the price but, its shorter at 110mmH, however its wider as its a dual tower

[@prashantghimire8187]

physically how far away is the mic of the dB reader? I think thats important because im trying to compare it to my intel stock cooler which ggoes >43 then its next to my side pannel and ~36 when im 2 feet away

[@kraftwels]

I have the original Pure Rock Slim. It looks great and is well built, however it was a really bad expierience. The mounting mechanism was tedious and mounting pressure seemed to be insufficient.

[@HardwareCanucks]

On Intel right?

[@kraftwels]

@@HardwareCanucks No it was AMD. That reminds me, the biggest issue i had was that it could only be installed facing up or down in a traditional case layout, so it would exhaust air up against the case, or down against the PSU, so definetely not ideal. Looking at the new one, it seems they have fixed that issue, but it really was shocking how BeQuiet could make such a weird design decision.

[@regeckted]

I love the design of this cpu cooler but i prefer the cpu air cooler that I'm currently using. A $26 Snowman M-T6 tower cooler with 6 heat pipes.

[@mahfl22]

I have one, sadly I bought the wrong CPU for the Asrock Steal Legend m/b, so waiting for the new CPU to arrive. It is pretty quiet as we did get the fan running.

[@inkysteve]

The original, I have one, would only mount in the up and down orientation on AM4.

[@Tarkhein]

The design reminds me of the Cooler Master Hyper TX3, and being from Australia, I thought it was weird that you'd bring up the price as a pro, seeing as the TX3 should also be a similar price. Then I looked around Amazon and Newegg and holy crap what the hell happened to the price? My go to Australian store has it for 32 AUD (approx 25 USD) and between Amazon and Newegg, it's priced from US$35-US$115?!

[@marcello_piccolini5190]

Will this be good for a 5600? Like 60° when playing games on heavy load