Best and most affordable liquid cooler for Ryzen 9

[Mindfield]

Hi guys,

So I recently upgraded from a Ryzen 7 3700x to a Ryzen 9 5950x and bought a Noctua NH-D9L thinking it would be an adequate cooler (according to Noctua’s website it’s on the edge of acceptable performance but no headroom for overclocking, which I don’t care about). It isn’t. Not even close. Idle at 65°C, tops 80°C under load and throttles down to 3.4Ghz.

Clearly liquid cooling is in order here. I had experience with liquid cooling on my old FX
9590, but that was a 220W processor with a 75° max (realistically 65°). I ran a Corsair H100i and Coolermaster ML240L and they did fine.

However, This new CPU runs hotter, so I don’t know if a 240mm liquid cooler will cut it. Any suggestions? Is 240mm enough or should I go with a 280 or 360? Would a Coolermaster ML240L or ML360L suffice or would
I benefit more from a better brand like Corsair? Preferably something under $200.

 

[moocow]

Arctic Cooling got decent review like 2 years back. I wouldn't go with anything smaller than a 360 for a Ryzen 9.

Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB Review - KitGuru

Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II line of CPU coolers has been a fan favourite, and for good reason; the ba

www.kitguru.net

 

[Jokester]

unless something is on sale its hard to beat Arctic prices

 

[Sagath]

The difference between LC AIO brands almost boils down to fans and rad. There is only 2 or 3 actual types of AIO out there and most companies just slap their branding on it and throw it in a box.

That being said, from the research I've done I agree with the lads above, you're not going to find a better bang/buck than the Arctic Cooling models.

Also, if you're comfortable with it I would look into reducing your offset voltage in the cores. It can save you a lot of heat and actually increase clock speeds modestly when done right.

 

[freeagent]

I run my 5900X at 245/170/190 +200 with FC140 and PS120.

 

[gingerbee]

I run both my 3900/5900x with an offset of 0.05 Vcore which dropped max temp by almost 10C on my 5900x and 5-7c on my 3900x which is on Nh-U12S and 5900x on custom loop but a 240 should be enough but if you are like me and want to keep things as cool as you can then I would say 360 artic.

https://www.amazon.ca/Arctic-Cooling-Liquid-Freezer-Cooler/dp/B07WNJCVNW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LB060F8CSZC&keywords=Arctic+Liquid+Freezer&qid=1696782112&sprefix=arctic+liquid+freezer%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.d0e27fc4-6417-4b26-97cb-f959a9930752

https://www.amazon.ca/ARCTIC-Liquid-Freezer-All-One/dp/B07WP6M7P7/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2LB060F8CSZC&keywords=Arctic%2BLiquid%2BFreezer&qid=1696782112&sprefix=arctic%2Bliquid%2Bfreezer%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-3&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.d0e27fc4-6417-4b26-97cb-f959a9930752&th=1

https://www.amazon.ca/ARCTIC-Liquid-Freezer-All-One/dp/B07WSDLRVP/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2LB060F8CSZC&keywords=Arctic%2BLiquid%2BFreezer&qid=1696782112&sprefix=arctic%2Bliquid%2Bfreezer%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.b06bdbbe-20fd-4ebc-88cf-fa04f1ca0da8&th=1

I would look around for average temps for the 240 so you can get a small idea of what temps you may be looking at but you could also have a hot running chip.

 

[FreeKnight]

As Sagath mentioned, there's only a couple manufacturers (due to patent issues) so most are just a different look on the pump/block combo and the supplier's chosen fans.

I'll give a nod out to the lian li galahad coolers for one perk though; they have a fill port on the rad. How likely the unit will run long enough that you have any substantial coolant loss vs the pump just dying is a separate topic, but if you think you'll have that AIO for years and it'll never die, that's a potential nod in their favour that others don't seem to have.