Threadripper Cooler Comparison: Full Coverage Liquid vs. Air

[@GamersNexus]

People don't seem capable of using Google, so: The NH-D15 is not compatible with Threadripper, and Noctua informed us that there are no plans to make it compatible. Full article with testing methods thoroughly discussed, as well as all the charts from here: www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3089-threadripper-cooler-comparison-full-coverage-liquid-vs-air You might also like our previous large vs. small coldplate comparison with Noctua coolers: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6eYc2pvq8mcjrc

[@GamersNexus]

Cookiekinggaming - I'm not sure I understand your comment, but we have literally millions of cells of data with these results. If you continue posting comments in such an aggressive tone and without any basis, you will be banned from commenting on this channel. Calling testing "fake" is not acceptable.

[@GamersNexus]

We did 40dBA noise-normalized tests. That's pretty bearable, subjectively speaking.

[@TB-zm3zc]

Damn, Cookiekinggaming really has a problem with charts. I have so many questions. Was he abused by a chart as a child? Did he have a chart as a childhood best friend that he later had a major falling out with? Was his ex-wife a chart who divorced him, took all his money, and got full custody of their half-chart/half-human children? Is he simply a disgruntled office worker who is fed up with working in Excel? I need to know more!

[@larrywhite9552]

Thanks Steve

[@TimmyJoePCTech]

Can you test max overclocks on 1950x now that you have the Enermax cooler?! My chip hits 4.2 Ghz stable for most benchmarks and I want to know if the Enermax does the same for your chips! Thank you for this, I've seen at least 3 major youtubers do Noctua vs Asetek and never bring Enermax in to it. I'm still waiting for someone to do EK TR4 block vs Enermax.

[@ElijsDima]

From three years down the line - well, at least there's no literal slime growing in the air coolers.

[@jasondailey9402]

This is exactly the comparison test I was looking for a few days ago! Perfect! :D

[@franzb69]

the only thing i don't like about watercooling is the possibility of pump failure. possibility of leaks. possibility of losing coolant from evaporation. i know there's been advances but i still don't trust them. i've built my own watercooling loop before and i've experienced all of those. but that was back in 2008.

[@KevinMCable]

Also hot vrms on anything but I high-end x570

[@Megalomaniakaal]

@@KevinMCable Get a mono-block?

[@JarrodsTech]

I'm using the u14s with my asus zenith board, really good temps but yeah I had to put the GPU into the 2nd x16 slot, not an issue for me though but definitely worth being aware of!

[@kevadu]

The Asus boards are about the only ones that actually have this problem. Seems to fit fine on most other boards, but Asus put the first PCIe slot extra close to the socket for some reason...

[@karmapoliceman7]

what kind of GPU was it? would a 2 slot gpu still have clearance issues?

[@ValidAsian]

Jarrod'sTech I know your comment is a year old but this may help. I know this may sound weird but the bigger nh-d15s (make sure it’s the “s” Model) may fit better for you. It’s because it has a staggered design to leave the top slot open

[@stephencurah1059]

i have an asus zenith board too, any issues with memory and this cooler?

[@bassbatterer]

You forgot to mention another performance metric of CPU coolers is RGB performance. That's what really matters.

[@GamersNexus]

That's true. Refresh rate of the RGB LEDs is a major factor in cooler selection.

[@michaeltschuertz]

which brings up an important question why has nobody on youtube donr "pimp my pc" yet?

[@kaihekoareichwein9392]

Michael Tschuertz I think I would unsub if Steve started doing that.

[@michaeltschuertz]

Kaihekoa i am not saying Steve should Do that But there is A market for that.

[@crimsun7186]

Come on, you have to wait for RGB CPUs for that to come into factor. And RGB capacitors. And RGB heatsinks. And RGB SSDs. And RGB VRM. And so on. Then you'll start to see PWM overclocking.

[@junkerzn7312]

I love my U14S, though I run it with two fans instead of one (push-pull). Zero maintenance, zero worry, temps are fine... in a warm room, the TR3 is 70C @ 410W (410W at the wall). Very happy camper here. -Matt

[@drewc9947]

I’m a *fan* of these tests. It would be *cool* to see how well Noctua’s heat sinks perform with the new x25 fans

[@danij3l794]

you are right ... Enermax did cut corners ... they used inappropriate liquid ... and over time inside of the loop corrodes ... microchannels fill up with gunk and at that point Enermax AIO is unable to keep even stock CPU from throttling and rebooting ... AVOID AT ALL COST ... buy Noctua U14 , use Asetek AIO or build custom loop ... Enermax corrodes and leaks ... (potentially killing your high end TR build)

[@reyanthonygandionco5519]

Just a couple of years later, a horde of complaints and returns about the Enermax Liqtech still proving aircoolers more dependable. LOL. Still a thumbs up for a very honest review.

[@s0lidjesus885]

Your channel is literally the best when it comes to testing. I'm surprised you don't have way more subscribers!

[@BitPicante]

Important note about the NH-D15: Noctua mentioned that they will not be designing an Threadripper version of the NH-D15 because the price/performance is not worth it, so they want to get more benfits because of the NH-U14S. You would only gain 1-2 degrees over the NH-U14S. This means that in the last few years they improved the Single Tower coolers A LOT. Also by the fact that the Coldplate is way bigger for Threadripper, this makes the temperature gap between 2-tower and 1-tower waaay smaller. NH-U14S with dual 3000-RPM NF-A14 should be more than enough to keep up a Threadripper overclocked.

[@PyromancerRift]

What about a redesign to have half the heatpipes on once of the DIE going on one of the tower and the other half of the heatpipes on the other DIE going on the other tower ? It will be killer. After all, if two towers rocks on small DIE, why 2 towers won't rock on 2 DIE ? Heck, i am sure 3 towers will do better. The only useless thing is making coolers more tall than 140mm, because the big part of the heat is dissipated near the bottom. But having to redesign and produce a unique cooler only for TR4 surely is not worth it. Small sale CPU cooler on an already small sale CPU is clearly not worth the effort. They prefer to bullshit out instead of saying that sales of such a niche product (and niche socket) will never cover the engeeniring and production cost.

[@BitPicante]

2 towers wont do much better than 1 tower on threadripper because the proportions arent correct. In order for 2 towers to be more efficient (threadripper case) you should also add more fins or improve the technology on 2 towers. Noctua gets way more benefits from NH-U14S than improving dual towers for threadripper. Think of it from a manufacturers standpoint, if 1 tower costs to manufacture 50$ while giving 70ºC on threadripper but 2 towers cost to manufacture 100$ while giving 60ºC it's just not worth it to manufacture. At this point Noctua decides if 70ºC with 50$ manufacturing price is ok or not. This is not the case with double-towers for Intel. In Intel's case, the proportions are more adecuate because the CPU size is way smaller, so the only way to keep the processor cool is to add heatpipes/towers and/or fin density. 3 towers in threadrippers case will make manufacturing process way too high. At this point, what Noctua (my guess) is doing is improve what they already have while doing it in the smallest package possible, hence the NH-U14S performing so well on threadripper. Give Intel a 1 tower noctua cooler while overclocked and I can asure you it wont perform proportionally due to Intel having less surface to spread the heat. The best air cooling you can get atm on threadripper is NH-U14S + NF-A14 3000RPM + Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut. You won't even have to think about liquid cooling at 4,2GHz.

[@khoabui1984]

Robert Artenie: how i can mount that NF-AF14 3000rpm to the Noctua NH-U14S? That would be awesome

[@railhead7616]

The Enermax unit has problems. After about 6 months of use gel will form along the fins on the internal side of the cold plate. Apparently it restricts coolant from moving through the fins to cool. Once that happens machine will shutdown and you can RMA or clean and refill for another 6 months.

[@MrHejjzan]

Wow. You was right about Enermax cutting corners somewhere. I have had 2 Enermax 360 MM TR4 dying on me in 10 months. Something with corrosion and pump.

[@privateportall]

Same happened to me on the second revision!! Never again...

[@Ripper7620]

I fell for “their scam” as well, but once, and only once.

[@ndis1977]

Mine lasted 18 months but the degredation was present after a couple of months

Surely they will replace this for free via warranty? or refund?

[@Act1veSp1n]

$200 Water vs $99 Air with only 5 degrees difference - easy choice.

[@oso1165]

and last 8x longer. and quieter

[@mrbeyonder6081]

Imagine a cpu starts throttling at 80c and works fine at 75c.

[@kendranobiz630]

This is exactly what I was hoping to find -- comprehensive testing! Thanks very much.

[@brad151k]

You're the only youtuber digging deep at this issue. Very helpful video! Thank you

[@ironmantooltime]

14:08 the prophecy according to tech jesus 🙏

[@Albylion]

14:07 - There are A LOT of reports of the Enermax pumps leaking, coldplates corroding, etc. I'm pinning my hopes on the Thermaltake 3.0 Ultimate

[@stephencurah1059]

yeah my enermax 360 is going bad after having this new system for 8 months. It seems others have the same issue.

[@Na0uta]

Honestly I think it's down to what you would prefer as it's been for the last few years. A good Air cooler is fine and a decent CLC is great. Both are fine and you should buy for your situation or preference.

[@MiguelRamos-up5tf]

Thanks! I just switched my order for an X63 for the Enermax. Then saw your videos about the Enermax and cancelled that as well. Still disappointed that I can't find an AIO for threadripper. In despair, I look for the dimensions of the coldplate in manufacturer's websites. Reviewers never measure the coldplate too. Obviously, the larger the area of contact between the IHS and the coldplate the faster heat can be transferred between the two. Please start measuring coldplates! Thanks again. I built my first PCs in the nineties and learned a lot about cooling from your videos these last couple of days.

[@mm2900mm]

"Probably know who you are," yes I do. May or may not have 2 360mm radiators in a custom loop because the test gave me 1.7C more to work with compared to a 360mm and a 280mm 😅

[@bignick277]

Nicely done. I've been waiting for this video. It should be noted that the reason for the clearance issues with the NH-U14S on the ASUS Zenith board is due to ASUS not following the keepout zones that AMD gave them for Threadripper boards and as a result, planted the CPU socket right up against the top PCIE slot. Where as MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock all offset the CPU socket upwards away from the top PCIE slot giving a lot more clearance. On top of that, the NH-U14S also has offset screws on the base so you can shift the cooler even more (up to 6mm) should need more clearance. Whether that additional 6mm clearance is enough to allow the NH-U14S to be installed on the Zenith and free up the top PCIE slot is a question I can't answer, as the Zenith is way outside my budget and I simply don't like the Zenith as a board. Components wise it's an outstanding board. But from a practical design perspective, it's by far the worst of all the boards currently available for Threadripper. I'll be getting the MSI Pro Carbon as I know that board doesn't have any issues with the NH-U14S and keeps the top PCIE slot clear.

[@lakicar1989]

Any word from Thermalright or Raijintek for their TR4 coolers? Im talking about Macho or Ereboss. I wonder how they would stack up. Even Deepcool with Lucifer. But they are less known coolers anyway, so I dont expect them to go that far like Noctua did.

[@deus_ex_machina_]

What's with those names lol

[@MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

Solid proof here and yet only Ek and Emermax make full cover AIO for TR4(0) still here 2 years later when TR40 is dominating the HEDT market.

[@godzoookie]

Really wanted to use AIO cooler for 1920x had Noctua on 6700k before upgrade and it's just so big even in full tower case. Recieved Enermax Liqtech and it was leaking right out of the box and I got gun shy about having that sitting over my 3 1080 ti's. So everything is a really tight fit but after seeing that leak I would always be worried.

[@ghostdog662]

I'm glad your reviews stick to science over hype. I still get a kick out of that 'gamers nexus sucks' video when you were overseas.

[@m.balauszko]

One consideration for using water is that the plate doesn't block the RAM slot like the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 fan does. If you're going for all the 8 dimms you'll probably have to use a water block.

[@Demon09-_-]

glad to see your test are in the 30 min range as many will do a quick run on water vs air which is not accurate. glad to see water is able to beat a single tower 140mm cooler though, as before it was quite a sad site to see the likes of x62 be beat by a mid sized air cooler. to bad to hear the nh-u14 didnt work with that mobo as that is even there offset model

[@TB-zm3zc]

Great test GN. Noctua Nation

[@Retro-Future-Land]

Enermax pumps fail, had one of those and it broke within 2 months. They weren't using anti-corrosion coolant so the pumps would seize up.

[@Ripper7620]

Watch Ryder Enermax=possibly losing up to close to $2000 for the latest and so called greatest Threadripper, if left unattended, DO NOT BUY ENERMAX, EVER!

[@MagashiSaizen]

The one thing that makes me lose my nerve with liquid coolers is the quality control for them, some of us can't afford to replace components if one decides to squirt all over the chassy and I'm pretty damn sure these companies won't replace damages caused by them. Some say its a %1 margine for a faulty aio but that's %1 too much imo.

[@ElNeroDiablo]

Something I'd like to see you guys possibly test when it comes to TR4 and custom loops - benefit of going with like 1x 240mm or 360mm, 480/2x 240, 240+360, 2x 360 (possibly including 360+480 & 2x 480 for the crazies) and where you hit a hard point of diminishing returns for keeping the chip cool and as close to ambient as possible over the configs. Combine that testing with things like fans at full-speed against x% speed (say 50-75%) and noise-normalised to 40dB would make for some interesting and delicious data to delve through for those that might want to run as few fans as possible against running a lot of fans at a low speed for similar temps (eg: gaming streamers who don't want their rig to be heard on-stream under load)

[@agentxanon6555]

I got the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 on gigabyte arous extreme and yes you are right it's too close to the first pcie slot so when I do get a better GPU I'm going to try the NH-U12S TR4-SP3 and yes less cooling yet I only use my PC for light video editting and gaming so don't think the temps will be a problem. I defernetly wont be getting an AIO cooler as they have a sort life span.

[@ShainAndrews]

This is the data I was looking for. I figured the NH-U14S would, Noctua says it will work... but confirmation is vastly different than when people say it will work.

[@SirtubalotTX]

Cool vid and nice to see the air options for Threadripper.. I have no patience for water cooling unless I actually just HAVE to use it for something. (Had too many problems with water cooling in the past and just don't want to mess with it).

[@wesk7346]

I have both Noctua 14 air tower and XSPC waterblock, and with the Noctua I can't use the first PCIe slot, even with the air tower pushed all the way up over the VRM.

[@gogo8092201]

wow...look at you go! Nice video! Very informative and helpful for buying choices. I hope Enermax will send you their 360 RAD. I would expect a little more performance at a little less noise!

[@davidminor1254]

If Noctua makes one for the threadripper you ought to try the NH-U15s. The original used to go head to head with aios and in some cases beat them or tie as for cooling. Yes the 15s needs gpu clearance but I think it ought to do even better than the U14s

[@james2042]

It's really just the coldplate that needs to be bigger. There is no architectural change to the noctua coolers other than the bracket and coldplate size. The same goes for coldplate of the liquid coolers. The issue with asetek coolers is not actually the coldplate size, but it's the limited thermal paste. You are limited by the conductivity of the thermal paste on the smaller cooler. Try the same enemax aio with only the amount of paste of a asetek cooler, and it will perform the same as an asetek 240

[@titaniummechanism3214]

Linus' video has 3.1 million views, this has 127 thousand views. He still thinks that an NH-D15 "outperforms almost every AIO out there" even though your recent coverage especially with the very competetive Artic AIOs has, in my opinion, soundly and thouroughly proven that to be wrong. That shit really makes me mad.

[@jamesclow108]

It was interesting to read below in the comments about the 2-5 degrees difference by having the second fan on the Noctua, which from what I've seen it is designed to have added if you want the extra cooling. Would have been interesting to see the difference with the Noctua at it's full potential in the video. Yes, truth be told, I'm old and I still can't convince myself that liquid inside a case full of expensive electronics is a good idea lol. That aside it would be interesting to see inside the enermax to see the potential, if any, for improvement.

[@mdh.3421]

I have noticed that with your videos if my wife talks to me while watching I have to pause and go back and rewatch. To much info at once causes my brain to overheat and I lose focus. She does not have a pause function like KZbin

[@rickylouw0339]

Love the detail keep it, overlooking is life

[@not2muckinfuch612]

Another great video! Thanks Steve!

[@maxcypond]

Worth it is an interesting question. When the choice is between $80 and $130 I think we are in specialized territory....$80 for a Noctua is nothing to sneeze at. The biggest downsize, that is objective, with a big air cooler is hanging the much weight off the motherboard. Looks and aesthetics are up to people interpretation, but weight and the stress on the connection points is not. Then comes size or fitting in you case, if it doesn't fit then it doesn't matter what it costs. If you are buying a new rig you can simply buy a big enough case, so again some personal athetics bleeds in. However, if you need to fits you case a cooler there a water blocks with pump and 240 rad will fit in far more cases. And for a gaming rig where people want the video card in the top slot moving a $400 to $7000 video card down a slot so you can save $50 on a air cooler that interferes with the top PCIe slot....is simply cringey logic. Finally, we are talking about a TR build, and if you are buying into Ripper you likely didn't buy the $525 part that specs-out nearly the same at the R7 1800X...one woul hope. So a $750+ CPU on a $330+ motherboard likely with a $400 to $800 video card....and you then you think "Let's quibble about $50-more in regards to the cooler."

[@MoraFermi]

In short, it's all about the thermal contact between the cpu IHS and the coldplate. This means that using high performance transfer material should be critical: liquid metal, not paste.

[@Dia1Up]

After watching the performance degredation of my AIO, and the fact that the U14s is about twice as good for the same price as the AIO I have...... I went air.

[@DoctorWho14615]

Steve, can you show us what would happen if you bridged contacts on the back of the card with the large CPU coolers? You know.. for science? And because it would be cool?

[@CheapSushi]

Nothing spectacular. Just creates a short and fries some of the card components.

[@turke47]

Ask Linus, infact he's probably already done it before.

[@DoctorWho14615]

Now if you could make it an RGB short that would be cool

[@bgtubber]

And now we know how and why Enermax was first to the market with a full IHS coverage AIO - they didn't do any testing and now a large marjority of their Liqtech TR4 coolers are breaking down after a few months. Even the new revision aka Liqtech II. 🤦‍♂️

[@issaciams]

Can someone please clarify something for me concerning these results and graphs? I notice that the graphs are in terms of delta temperature over ambient temps in C° which I'm assuming is something like 22°C. So does that mean that the Noctua nh-u12 tr4 result @10:30 which comes in at 66°C, is really 88°C? If that's the case isn't that pretty hot?

[@dstblj5222]

yes but not for a 16 core processor

[@chuck798]

My Corsair h115i liquid cooler is great with my 1950x and very quiet.

[@BillyLapTop]

Paul's Hardware sent me. Good review GN!

[@BAdventures]

Good review and comparison 😎👍

[@FloStudios]

What if you used Noctua 120mm fans on the Enermax rad? Possibly get another degree plus quieter noise levels?

[@zycane]

Are you guys at Gamers Nexus, going to test the ram timings of Ryzen CPUs? There seems to be quite some interesting leaps in performance to gain, with tight timings on ram, which grants quite the huge gains in gaming, a 1700 with great ram timings beating a 7700k @5Ghz in quite a couple of cases.

[@BcHmF]

The Noctua U14 does perform very well! Will use this one with Chromax otpions. Perfect timing Noctia ;)

[@VanceHeard]

Another great video thanks Steve

[@EdgyNumber1]

Very interesting stuff... again. Cheers guys! 👍

[@v3zMedia]

You should review the new Kraken X72 320mm AIO by NZXT on this Processor and the i9's... That will do numbers.

[@leesouder1851]

Ha! "Enermax might be cutting corners by going first to market" Yes, 6 months after purchase my Tr4 Enermax is all gunked up!

[@Ripper7620]

Mine has failed as well, less than a year later, and now idles @80C, which is useless. I absolutely will not be risking any resources on the TR4 II. I’m going with the Noctua NH-U14, which will “clear” my AsRock X399 P.S. with the TR4, my idle temps were 68C when the pos was brand spankin new, total junk!

[@stephencurah1059]

@@Ripper7620 yup same here, mine just died after about a yr.

Surely they will replace this for free via warranty? or refund?

@@Ripper7620 Surely they will replace this for free via warranty? or refund?

[@bgtubber]

@ Yes, the will replace it with the same g@rbage. A lot of people that bought the "new" revision "Liqtech II" say that the new ones break down the same way. And now we know how and why Enermax was first to the market with a full IHS coverage AIO - they didn't do any testing and now a large marjority of their Liqtech TR4 coolers are breaking down after a few months.

[@birdsoup777]

i used the Noctua nh-u14s for a year. I just replaced it with Nh-d15 , for my i7. Best air coolers if you don't want to go with Liquid. The installation process is easy, the quality of the parts top tier. I had the dark rock pro 4 for a week and returned it for the nh-d15. I returned the dark rock because the quality of parts and installation is no where near the noctua, aside from that, the dark rock pro 4 is a great air cooler but once you use a noctua, you will why.

[@ChessBoxin]

just curious, why replace the Noctua nh-u14s? Did something go bad?

[@Din2580]

Totally off topic (not by much) but have you considered making a air cooler video? I know there's plenty of them on the net, but there's not much on the new-ish MSI XL cpu cooler.. or the MSI L. Some parts of the world can't get Noctua a NH-D14 and I'd like to see how they compare. Please?

[@neoqueto]

Thank you for this massive and extremely detailed roundup - as always. Wow so the temps are about right. I was worried that my X62 (in a H440) doesn't perform as well with a 3.8 GHz overclock @ 1.1875 v (1950X). Given that my ambient temp is about 24 *C, I should be happy with temps reaching 75 *C (Tdie as reported) in 100% load during rendering. But AMD is stating "68 *C" to be "max temps", which still leaves me worried. Gotta sell my Kraken eventually.

[@kwedog2373]

Are you a car guy Steve...I'm not use to hearing 'power to the road' and torque used to describe a CLC or any Liquid cooling solution. Non the less, enjoyed the coverage... something to keep in mind when considering cooling solutions especially for threadripper.

[@0000oooo100]

"It's easy to win a test if unconstrained in noise" yes! I've got an idea.. I used to work in a garage and there was an air gun adapter for the compressors that run the air power tools. The nozzle on this thing was like 5mm and blew air out hard enough to damage hearing. I wonder if you'd even need a heat sink.. you could probably just power blow the air straight on the CPU and keep it cool enough. If we truly don't give an F about noise I recon we could keep the CPU temps under control with just air.

[@LowLightVideos]

16:36 - Threadripper isn't the only CPU the larger cold plate fits.

[@julianangell342]

Hey could you re-test for threadripper 3 with the chiplet design?

[@nerdMike]

Noctua still the best on air :) no way. U14s for me and it's perfect, also they support they product over years with possibility to upgrade etc. Only the fan colour the bad point .-.

[@skychaos87]

you know, i was thinking if you could mod or combine both the air and liquid cooler together? maybe connect the heatpipe and fins of the noctua into the baseplate of the enermax cooler? or if not, slot the enermax cooler inbetween the baseplate and fins of the noctua cooler?

[@DaveKaiserIII]

Great testing. Love looking at the results and interesting that a liquid cooler (nzxt) can perform worse than air cooler.

[@dodruku]

Hey, It would be cool (pun not intended) if you could invite the Enermax folks to talk about their strategy/technology. Maybe they will spill the beans on whether they really did cut corners and if so, would they be coming out with a better optimized design.

[@justplainearl]

Since I know you're not afraid of doing teardowns how about trying the larger cooling plate on something other than a threadripper? You'll need to fab a custom mounting bracket, but I'm dying to know if an oversized cooling plate could lower temps on my i7.

[@dgillies5420]

Noctua U14S often beats water coolers, if not in absolute terms, certainly in cooling at a constant noise level, it's why I've built 2 PCs with it. Strange that you didn't have the Kraken device to show off during this video!

[@MAGAMAN]

Did they ever fix the Enermax so it doesn't gunk up and die after a few months?

[@jayw654]

Why not use the NH-U12S TR4-SP3 and spend an extra 20 bucks for a second fan? That should drop the temp another 8 degrees Celsius and be able to keep clearance.

[@killercat268]

I'm wondering how long each test was running for. I didn't see this noted anywhere on the graphs or in the article . I hear it takes an hour or so for a liquid cooler to reach peak temperature. In other words the Aios may get hotter if the test wasn't done long enough. Usually this channel does some of the best, most thorough testing I have seen. I would assume you guys made sure the temps werent still fluctuating when measurements were collected.

[@abigailpatridge2948]

Based on your own observations when you demonstrated how an Asetek cooler contacts the TR, I'm not as surprised by these results. The problem is the Asetek's don't even fully cover the die area.

[@Malus1531]

Exactly I don't know why people keep saying they cover them. Asetek coolers just barely cover the dies if you include the screw holes, but the solid part of the plate doesn't cover it, and the microfins only cover like 50% of it.

[@abigailpatridge2948]

I mean. If the cold plate at least fully covered the dies, then even if it left some of the IHS uncovered the performance delta wouldn't be as large. It'd be like how we've seen it before when IHS jumped upwards in size and coolers hadn't kept up. (Intel's MCM multi-cores and AMD's first quad-cores.) Back then, the older coolers lost maybe 10%, but they were still fully covering the actual die space, it's just the rest of the IHS they weren't fully contacting. EDIT: It was also during this time btw, that delidding first started to become a thing. It was much riskier back then too, because both companies were soldering their chips. But until bigger coolers started showing up and people actually bought bigger coolers, it improved performance, because the coolers fully covered the dies, and with direct contact, the IHS loss was eliminated.

[@tommihommi1]

what about pump noises, wich aren't technically louder, but more noticeable than noctua fan noises? If performance really matters, just go for a full cover waterblock by EK

[@TheRefugins]

i recently got NH-D15 w/ double 140mm fans (cant fit its second fan so i put it as a case fan) and for my standards its just loud :/ im gonna try setting up my own rpm plan and hope its gonna be better and wont burn my 7700k

[@PapaP86]

I just built a 1950x system (got the CPU for $410 on Cyber Monday), and went with an EVGA CLC 280 cooler before I knew about the issue with the IHS size to cold plate size. At stock speeds doing renders in Keyshot with 100% CPU usage, I hit 68-69C in 10-20 minutes to the point it throttles. The CLC 280 should be more or less equal to the Kraken X62 used here. My ambient temp is currently pretty low being winter here and in a basement. Was thermal paste applied manually or was the pre-applied paste on the X62 used? That's about the only thing I can try before I saw screw it and go with a 100% IHS air cooler because frankly the liquid options for TR4 are not very good. Enermax has massive QC issues like pump failures, broken or dying fans, leaks, etc and Corsair's option uses plastic on the mounting bracket (WTF?) that would drive me to go towards a quality air cooler until a good liquid AiO option exists. *Edit* - An update on this, I too the CLC 280 off the 1950X, cleaned the IHS and cold plate and reapplied my own MX-4 thermal paste and it was not any better... I guess that means I install the Wraith Ripper coming in the mail tomorrow.

[@ewitte12]

Just got my 2950x the water cooling solutions are disappointing as all of the Asetek coolers have too small of a plate and the Enermax TR4 seems to have QC issues. I'll have to live with this until I can do a custom EK. Unfortunately I can't lose the top pcie slot having 3 usable(2.5 gpu) and 3 pcie cards.

[@busywl69]

lol. just replaced a corsair liquid cooler in a $5k gaming/twitch rig. They are in Noctua heaven now. Those liquid coolers are for the same people that need to see lights and stuff on the inside of their cases! When they fail they will just replace them and never get around to RMA'ing it.

[@GeomancerHT]

Better as in "if it leaks you don't lose 5000 usd in hardware" just to have 5 degrees celcius lower temps...

[@Ripper7620]

Nicolas Alvargonzalez exactly!

[@izzy3612]

Is anyone having problems with their Liqtech? I have a 280 and day one temps where really good. 5 months later and my idle temps are about 10c hotter.

[@timtimethymetie]

Israel Rivera apparently the unit corrodes itself on the inside. Check Amazon reviews for more info and contact Enermax.

[@privateportall]

Corrosion!! Mine just died!!!

[@stephencurah1059]

yeah mine is going so im going with the noctua 14s.

[@shibaspeed]

Great reviews and I like how you normalize for 40 decibels. I do wonder though if there is a way to either try to normalize or compare with surface area of the fins as part of the equation. For example, is the surface area of the heatsink/rad have a higher correlation to performance than heat pipes/tubes with fluid. Maybe Enermax won because it has more surface area and more airflow (2 fans) than the Noctua and less so because of water versus air. Something I am curious about after watching these water versus air videos, especially Linus’s comparing 3 closed loops to 3 Noctuas. This leads me to another thought that would be cool to be tested. How does thermal conductivity play into all this. I would imagine a heat pipe would be much faster than a water tube to pull heat off the cpu and transfer it to the heatsink fins. Which seems to make sense since it takes longer for a water cooling loop to normalize in temps than a air cooled heatsink from what i have seen in other videos. Maybe once temps stabilize, it thermal conductivity differences doesn’t matter as much. In any case, I do agree on your other points like water having more flexibility in terms of placement compared to a tower cooler. And things like case and component restrictions could lead to using one over the other. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to more of your videos!

[@Heigthball]

Yea enermax 360 is nice when it work. If it broke your are on your own. Contacting tech support when something go wrong take month did purchase at noctura until they comeback to me. (but pissed off about enermax did need to spend another 100$ for a noctura so now i am a 300$ for cooler)

[@jrsmithunited]

Do Noctua make a D15 in threadripper specs? What confuses me is why a 240 AIO is going up against a single tower air cooler. The data I can recall suggests that D14/15 are equivalent or better in price and thermals than most 240 AIOs on previous sockets.

[@GamersNexus]

Jason Smith No.

[@JMUDoc]

Could have tried extra fans on the air coolers - another

[@RiverWyvrn]

Does the noctua adjustable mounting bracket help with PCIe slot clearance? You're supposed to be able to get an extra 6mm.

[@sudd3660]

as 40dba is pretty loud, and definitely not silent, i would think the noctua u14s will continue to gain ground as we go to 30 dba, which is a more tolerable loudness. and i think the clc has a noise floor you cant fix that is about 30 to 40dba, pump noise and radiator turbulence make it noisy, making the noctua the only choice if you want a silent system. and this does not abouce for the extra airflow the air cooler gives, or the better the air prause in the case is, aka positive airflow and help the back case fan to exhaust air. a radiator hinders airflow and have to be put instead of case fans, hindering even more airflow or in worst case making use of top fan slots making a case using 3 exhaust and making airflow and air pressure a big problem. a radiator is pointless fan and with a 2 fan size radiator clc you are stuck with front mount or top, front should have air filter, and how do you think airflow is with filter and radiator.... less than ideal. clc makes no sense if you consider noise, airflow, price, easy of installation, reliability, and performance is in real use case air coolers are better or equal to twice the price of clc. in summary: you cant intelligently defend clc. you have to have other beliefs and opinions that logic to defend the use of a clc compared to a air cooler.

[@Bound4Earth]

40 dba is a garbage metric, Noctua fans only run under 20 dba at max and any respectable AIO will be under 30. 40 is a nonsense number and their bias is showing here. They only care about non real world metrics that have no real value. If the AIO cannot beat the air cooler at stock speed it loses They are trying to prove a fact that we already know is true. water can dissipate heat better. That does not mean all AIO will beat all Air coolers, but they shove their bias so far into ridiculous just that even the worse AIO has an advantage that still wouldn't mean sales.

[@Peizxcv]

Do a Scythe's Mugen 5 Rev.B review. I heard it is beating coolers twice it’s price and even better if pared with more expensive fans

[@PursuitPerfectSystem]

did you test The Noctua with 2 fans as the enermax cooler has 2 fans?? The noctua is still cheaper with 2 fans? Would be interested thanks??

[@dstblj5222]

not comparable

[@FirdausAzhar87]

finally, thank you sir u r the best

[@cowpker4life333]

Gaamers Nexus last time with windows gaming mode you guys did some stuff with it with windows lastest update update can you see if performance has changed or not as the choice to turn game mode off has been removed and maybe what some the new features do? such as there true-play anti-cheat thing? the update seems pretty anti choice forcing users to run whatever windows wants them to.

[@Aereto]

Noctua may have the heat dissipation, but they are better used in cases without window to the internals due to their inflexible design choices that is better left to the 80s and 90s desktop designs.

[@randomcallsign]

Thanks for the vid

[@Ripper7620]

I made the mistake of purchasing an Enermax original Liqtech TR4, and less the a year later idle temps have gone up to 80C, so I now have a completely useless product. Will I try the new TR4 II? Oh hell no!!

[@Sponch1]

For ryzen as a whole it seems watercooling isnt completely necessary, there isnt enough overclocking headroom and heat to justify the extra cash.

[@CheapSushi]

TR is not Ryzen. They tested TR here. They're all Zeppelin cores but still different, unique products.

[@Malus1531]

+CheapSushi Threadripper is certainly Ryzen. It says "Ryzen" in huge print both on the packaging and on the chip itself, larger even than the word "Threadripper".

[@EddoWagt]

CheapSushi it's Ryzen

[@CheapSushi]

That's because people are dumb, so of course they needed to. But it is Ryzen, Threadripper & EPYC, they are share the same Zeppelin cores and are part of the Zen architecture. That's a fact.

[@Malus1531]

+CheapSushi So what? I can name a dozen other similarities too. They're also all Summit Ridge. None of that means they aren't all Ryzen.

[@mrmjordan]

Thanks you've saved me a lot of time.