Noctua NH-D15

I use Noctua for the silence but I also literally don't have any of the panels attached to my case. The main panel doesn't even fit because the DH-15[1] would stick out. My DH-15 isn't particularly silent because the fans are silent but it's so effecient that the fans barely need to spin. [1]: https://www.noctua.at/en/products/nh-d15

Are you using any motherboard overclocking stuff? A lot of mobo’s are pushing these chips pretty hard right out of the box. I have mine at a factory setting that Intel would suggest, not the asus multi core enhancement crap. noctua dh15 cooler. It’s really been a stable setup.

I just played around with the fan curves. The Noctua fans are pretty damn silent below a certain speed (especially with GPU fan noise usually being louder). So I tried to keep them running faster than necessary at lower speeds and only ramp up a little bit when the temps go up, except at 80-85 or so degrees at which point I ramp up much faster until they're basically at max at 95 degrees. The CPU never really seems to hit those temperatures, as the NH-D15 is an over-sized cooler even for that chip. Most of the work is in stress testing the CPU to see what you can get away with without thermal throttling. Also helps to do this in the summer if you're in a no-air-conditioning-by-default country.

With a Noctua NH-D15 and about 30 minutes spent tweaking the motherboard fan curves I was able to get my 5950x to not thermal throttle without producing any noticeable fan noise. This seems extremely over-engineered and sounds like it could have been solved by using Noctua or similar quiet fans.

I went with the NH-D15 when I built my 5950x desktop. I've never fiddled with liquid cooling, and having to locate a radiator seemed like a pain. I very much hope not to need to touch it again for a decade. After tweaking the fan profile, it's silent most of the time. Of course, it does make it kind of a pain to remove my GPU because it's so bulky; I need to use a shim to reach the PCI-E latch.

I didn't know about them, so I've checked, IceGiant ProSiphon Elite vs Noctua NH-D15, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0OQxbMvo80 At min 29:30 it's shown test results, and the performance seems better with Noctua NH-D15. Less noise (less rpm) for the same temperature dissipation. Noctua's performance with low noise is the main reason why I own one since several years ago ( And also why I choose air-cooling over water-cooling). It would be interesting to know if someone has beaten them (At same performance, less weight would be decisive).

Finally, a chip that outmatches the Noctua NH-D15!

6 months in to my first pc build. had one other pc for past 2 years from letsbld. the build is easy, but it will take a full day. it is also a bit nerve racking, but mostly that’s just inexperience. parts are all sturdy and snap together. i will be building every nvidia generation from now on. i used to code on laptops, then game on a pc. now i have two ssds, one windows one linux. bios boot option is unborkable. it’s a great setup. it’s nice to be able to play fortnite, compile the linux kernel[1], and do gamedev[2] all in a single session. be aware ddr5 amd boards boot kind of slow. i’ve heard intel is faster. if you can afford it, go god spec. otherwise spec down into your price range. letsbld and originpc have good configurators to choose parts. newegg prices will be 30% less. check out fractal torrent cases and dh15 coolers! 4090 fe fits in the nano and 4090 pny fits in the compact. 1. https://github.com/nathants/mighty-snitch/tree/master/kernel... 2. https://r2.nathants.workers.dev/jetpack_hand_animations.mp4

> It seems like you definitely need at least an AIO watercooler There is another problem with watercooling, which is that once the water warms up (which it will under sustained loads) your CPU temperature will begin to climb. Then it becomes a game of "do I have thermal mass enough to run my job before throttling", and often it can be the case that radiators are unable to effectively cool down the CPU; but the additional water becomes thermal capacity; sometimes giving the appearance of better cooling when in actuality your system will throttle after 10 minutes of work. Your heatsink is one of the better ones, an NHD-15 might be better but only slightly, after which point: I don't think it can be expected to cool a CPU at a sustained load with any AIO system, even the triple fan ones. I'm probably not communicating this terribly well, I went down this rabbit hole when I was watercooling my old GPU and CPU in a custom loop by EK, I ended up discovering that if I wanted to do sustained work (which I did) then a direct airflow system would have worked better, so I ripped out the loop and it did work better for sustained loads.

> I would absolutely hate having to work next to a jet-engine or having a fridge-sized rig to fit some absurd cooler. Even SFF cases can fit 240mm or 280mm AIOs these days. Old standby heat sinks like the Noctua NH-D15 can cool 200-300W CPUs quietly, and they fit in common cases. They have a 120mm tall version for slightly smaller cases that doesn’t give up much in benchmarks. I think the cooling challenges have been overblown, honestly. It’s kind of trivial to quietly cool powerful CPUs these days. > My 135W-rated Xeon does get audibly loud despite the big-ass Noctua, Unless there’s something wrong with airflow or your mounting, your fan curves are almost certainly too aggressive. A lot of motherboards, especially workstation and server boards, will ramp fans to 100% by default. You probably don’t need that. Adjust the curves until it’s quiet, don’t worry about getting the absolute lowest possible temperatures. This is what OEMs do. If you build your own, you’re expected to do it yourself.