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Recommend me the best cpu air cooler that will fit in a phanteks enthoo pro

2K views 34 replies 9 participants last post by  XanderTheGoober 
#1 ·
I have not bought a proper air cooler in quite some time, the last one I dealt with that was of high end quality was a phanteks dual tower cooler for a college build in 2012.

Before christmas I will be tearing out all the water cooling in my main rig in favor of air cooling. I want a cooler that is big enough to run passively in the event I have a failed fan or fans (large single tower or dual towers welcome, one that looks good. Preferably black but we will see. and also looking for ease of installation. Price I am shooting for is under $100. I will consider Noctua if it has the black fans, my god those tan and brown fans are ugly. I am also slightly computer OCD so same size fans on a dual tower cooler would be preferred but if the performance is better for a cooler with asymmetrical fans I can probably deal with it.

GPU cooling will be handled by an arctic cooling twin turbo II vga cooler.

EDIT: I am NOT looking for closed loop coolers, all in one coolers, or any sort of pre filled loops of any kind.
 
#2 ·
The Cryorig R1 Ultimate/Universal are probably the best looking ones. Cooling performance is comparable to the NH-D15 (I say better since they are quieter).
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

I have not bought a proper air cooler in quite some time, the last one I dealt with that was of high end quality was a phanteks dual tower cooler for a college build in 2012.

Before christmas I will be tearing out all the water cooling in my main rig in favor of air cooling. I want a cooler that is big enough to run passively in the event I have a failed fan or fans (large single tower or dual towers welcome, one that looks good. Preferably black but we will see. and also looking for ease of installation. Price I am shooting for is under $100. I will consider Noctua if it has the black fans, my god those tan and brown fans are ugly. I am also slightly computer OCD so same size fans on a dual tower cooler would be preferred but if the performance is better for a cooler with asymmetrical fans I can probably deal with it.

GPU cooling will be handled by an arctic cooling twin turbo II vga cooler.

EDIT: I am NOT looking for closed loop coolers, all in one coolers, or any sort of pre filled loops of any kind.
Best passive cooling would be the Thermalright Le Grand Match RT comes with a TY-147B fan. Very quiet and great cooling. But don't expect your system to cool well if fan/fans stop running. Cases and coolers need airlfow .. and fans need to run a to move air ..

Really, most a11 major names top tier coolers are good.
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doyll View Post

Best passive cooling would be the Thermalright Le Grand Match RT comes with a TY-147B fan. Very quiet and great cooling. But don't expect your system to cool well if fan/fans stop running. Cases and coolers need airlfow .. and fans need to run a to move air ..

Really, most a11 major names top tier coolers are good.
I am not saying i would intend to run long periods of time fanless. mostly just to be able to web browse while i order a new fan.
a11? never heard of that make. Please tell me more

also 1. will that le grand fit in the enthoo pro and 2, will push pull (provided there is enough space) make much difference? That is a lot of mass on that heatsink.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

I am not saying i would intend to run long periods of time fanless. mostly just to be able to web browse while i order a new fan.
a11? never heard of that make. Please tell me more

also 1. will that le grand fit in the enthoo pro and 2, will push pull (provided there is enough space) make much difference? That is a lot of mass on that heatsink.
a11 should be all. No idea how 1's got in there.

Most any big cooler will cool an idling CPU with no fan. Le Grand Macho will cool quite with only the case fans moving air through it. It was first released without a fan.
wink.gif


1/ Yes, but I don't know what motherboard you have.
2/ Probably not enough space for push/pull, but makes little difference .. maybe 1c. Yeah, it is a big boy.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doyll View Post

a11 should be all. No idea how 1's got in there.

Most any big cooler will cool an idling CPU with no fan. Le Grand Macho will cool quite with only the case fans moving air through it. It was first released without a fan.
wink.gif


1/ Yes, but I don't know what motherboard you have.
2/ Probably not enough space for push/pull, but makes little difference .. maybe 1c. Yeah, it is a big boy.
motherboard is a maximus hero Z97 version. I see that cooler with fan is on amazon for about $80. worth it?
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

motherboard is a maximus hero Z97 version. I see that cooler with fan is on amazon for about $80. worth it?
Totally. Most big air coolers are in that ballpark ($80-100). A competing CLC would be in the +$100 range, and it would be worse in all aspects.
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

motherboard is a maximus hero Z97 version. I see that cooler with fan is on amazon for about $80. worth it?
Thermalright & Scythe make decent coolers for half that cost ~ $45-50.

Thermalright Macho Direct / anything 140mm fan "Macho"
Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct , 140 Power
Scythe Fuma / Mugen Max / Mugen 5

The biggest driver of performance is heatpipes (construction, diameter , attachment to fins via solder / press fit) and fin area.
 
#10 ·
AlphaC said various good coolers.
Others:
Noctua D15 or D14 with other fans? (you can sell the noctua fans)

Assasin II (Deepcool, GamerStorm)

Thermaltake was far behind but i use a Thermaltake Frio (first version) in my fx8320 and phenom 1090t (2010-2015)
220w tdp... good temps very good but... his fans in high RPM are noisy. (i speak of the first version.)

i repeat: Thermaltake was far behind... In the forums nobody recommends this brand anymore :/
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

motherboard is a maximus hero Z97 version. I see that cooler with fan is on amazon for about $80. worth it?
Depends on how much you want to worry about it needing to cool passively if a fan fails. I have been using TY-14x fans for as long as they have been sold and have never had one fail yet (knock on wood). The other coolers being suggested are also good, but not as big so won't cool passively as well. Also the Le Grand Macho and other Machos all use same basic fan (TY-147A instead of TY-147B).. TRUE Spirit 140 Power is a super good cooler and lower priced too, but it is 155mm wide and 77.5mm center CPU toward PCIe sockets. This means it blocks the top PCIe socket on many motherboards .. and so does NH-D15, NH-U14S and a few others. This does not make them bad choices (TRUE Spirit 140 Power is lowerst priced and I'm using one myself). I just want you to know as many +/- points of each cooler as I can think of. Additionally the NH-D15 will clear RAM but in some cases it's 140mm front fan means RAM needs to be less than 57mm tall for it to fit .. unlikely it will be a problem. As long as you don't get RAM with high phony 'cooling fins' (RAM less than 40mm tall) it will fit under most coolers and 140mm fans will fit in cases with 175mm or more CPU clearance.

Noctua coolers all come with baby poo brown fans anyway and are usually higher priced than similar coolers from other brands. Phantkes PH-TC14PE is still one of the top coolers. Only changes for what your old one is new (better) fans.

I like to use the big coolers because they usually are quieter than smaller ones. That said, I'm using a Thermalright TRUE 140 Direct and it is not very big, is low priced and performs very well .. and I'm about to build a system with Cryorig H7 Quad Lumi .. a 120mm fan 4x 6mm heatpipe cooler.
I suggest you look at what has been suggested and figure out which ones you like the looks of.
 
#12 ·
If reliability is very high up on your list why don't you get a cooler with 2 fans? The odds of 2 fans failing at the same time ridiculously small.
 
#13 ·
Noctua's are overpriced, IMO.

Phanteks PH-TC14PE Black is big but should fit the case. Cryorig R1 universal is also a great hefty air cooler. Any that Doyll suggests is also very good surely. He has a lot of experience in this matter
thumb.gif


You should also think about RAM height clearance with some of these big air coolers. What MOBO you thinking? and what RAM?
 
#14 ·
The odds of any quality fan failing is extremely remote. Besides even if a single fan cooler fan did fail, any fan can be held onto cooler with a rubberband for few days it takes to get a new fan.
 
#15 ·
My ram is not very tall, only slightly taller than no heatsink standard ram. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231627&cm_re=gskill_sniper_ddr3_1866-_-20-231-627-_-Product

I am still leaning towards the macho because it looks massive enough to cool to the best potential yet be able to go vertical or horizontal. love the look of the phanteks dual tower cooler (black) but i think it would impact surrounding devices a lot more.

thoughts?

EDIT: oh and the hero motherboard i have does have a 1X pci express slot before the graphics card so there should be enough room in there for almost any cooler, height permitting
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlphaC View Post

Coolers are rarely over 170mm. The Enthoo Pro can fit 193mm.
Sweet! I think just because the Macho has so much more surface area I am getting that one. black top to look pretty through the side window as well.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

My ram is not very tall, only slightly taller than no heatsink standard ram. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231627&cm_re=gskill_sniper_ddr3_1866-_-20-231-627-_-Product

I am still leaning towards the macho because it looks massive enough to cool to the best potential yet be able to go vertical or horizontal. love the look of the phanteks dual tower cooler (black) but i think it would impact surrounding devices a lot more.

thoughts?

EDIT: oh and the hero motherboard i have does have a 1X pci express slot before the graphics card so there should be enough room in there for almost any cooler, height permitting
G.Skill Sniper is 42mm tall, That makes it 45mm above surface of motherboard and top of CPU is 8mm above mobo so 37mm above CPU. Bottom of most coolers is more 37mm so no problems.

Here is a chart with many of the popular cooler sizes and clearances.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1491876/ways-to-better-cooling-airflow-cooler-fan-data/0_20#post_22319255
 
#19 ·
#20 ·
Quote:
Many reviews are lots of talk and fancy graphs but have no actual scientific test procedure so results are worthless .. or worse, out right ridiculous. In this review Okeanos is hotter than most other cooiers, even little 120mm 3 heatpipe ones like H7 is 3c cooler. But at same time H5 (bigger and better than H7) is 2c warmer than H7.
https://www.eteknix.com/reeven-okeanos-rc-1402-cpu-cooler-review/4/

Okeanos does cool well, but it also uses extremely loud 1800rpm fans that make 48dB of noise to achieve temps similar to top tier coolers like PH-TC14PE, NH-D15S, R1, Dark Rock Pro 3 do with 1300-1500rpm fans at 36-39dB or less. Personally, I don't want anything above about 35-38dB which is less than half as loud. In fact my system only get above 35dB when CPU is running 100% all cores.

If you want to compare cooler reviews use sites like Anandtech &UK Hardware that do 7v & 12v 30dB and 40dB+ load testing. Anandtech test with 60, 100, 160, 200, 250 & 340 watt heat.

Probably the best is theLAB.gr but they don't do a lot of coolers. They test coolers at multiple heat ratings in both horizontal, and vertical orientation.

A couple others that are pretty good are Modders Inc and FORCCA. FORCCA does not have as high a watt CPU, but has a very long list of coolers tested.

Until you learn what sites do accurate scientific testing I suggest you listen to users like ciarlatano, AlphaC, geggeg, ehume, etc (even me) who have years of of experience not only testing but also using a wide variety of coolers.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doyll View Post

Many reviews are lots of talk and fancy graphs but have no actual scientific test procedure so results are worthless .. or worse, out right ridiculous. In this review Okeanos is hotter than most other cooiers, even little 120mm 3 heatpipe ones like H7 is 3c cooler. But at same time H5 (bigger and better than H7) is 2c warmer than H7.
https://www.eteknix.com/reeven-okeanos-rc-1402-cpu-cooler-review/4/

Okeanos does cool well, but it also uses extremely loud 1800rpm fans that make 48dB of noise to achieve temps similar to top tier coolers like PH-TC14PE, NH-D15S, R1, Dark Rock Pro 3 do with 1300-1500rpm fans at 36-39dB or less. Personally, I don't want anything above about 35-38dB which is less than half as loud. In fact my system only get above 35dB when CPU is running 100% all cores.

If you want to compare cooler reviews use sites like Anandtech &UK Hardware that do 7v & 12v 30dB and 40dB+ load testing. Anandtech test with 60, 100, 160, 200, 250 & 340 watt heat.

Probably the best is theLAB.gr but they don't do a lot of coolers. They test coolers at multiple heat ratings in both horizontal, and vertical orientation.

A couple others that are pretty good are Modders Inc and FORCCA. FORCCA does not have as high a watt CPU, but has a very long list of coolers tested.

Until you learn what sites do accurate scientific testing I suggest you listen to users like ciarlatano, AlphaC, geggeg, ehume, etc (even me) who have years of of experience not only testing but also using a wide variety of coolers.
That's all I needed to hear er read bud.
smile.gif
also I continued to do research after I posted and also saw the noise levels on other review sites and kinda put that idea to rest already. Also, yellow fans. Ew.. Worse that noctua brown
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

That's all I needed to hear er read bud.
smile.gif
also I continued to do research after I posted and also saw the noise levels on other review sites and kinda put that idea to rest already. Also, yellow fans. Ew.. Worse that noctua brown
One of the very best fans I've ever used are red and orange. TY-143 and TY-143 SQ
tongue.gif

 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doyll View Post

One of the very best fans I've ever used are red and orange. TY-143 and TY-143 SQ
tongue.gif

And as ugly as they are.....I still get tempted to pull them out and use them. One of the best I have ever tested.

Aren't the SQ version available in black under the generic mfg name through eBay?
 
#24 ·
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober View Post

So what's the different between the le grand macho and the macho X2? found this on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-100700729-Macho-X2/dp/B00ZGDWUO0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1501095621&sr=8-3&keywords=thermalright

Edit: i see the difference in dimensions is macho X2 = L140mm x W102mm x H162mm and le grand macho = L150mm x W120mm x H159mm
is that the only difference other than obviously the extra fan with the x2?
Number of heat pipes is different and the x2 fans are 800rpm 3-pin, not 300-1300rpm PWM. Both are good coolers. Le Grand Macho is rated 320 watt and Macho X2 is rated 240 watts. All of the above is in their specifications.
 
#26 ·
Well I thought I had my mind completely made up and was going for the le grand macho, but now I am second guessing myself. is the Cryorig C1 ultimate worth an extra $10?
le grand macho - https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Macho-fan-TY-147B/dp/B01BCLXO7Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501257585&sr=8-1&keywords=le+grand+macho
R1 ultimate - https://www.amazon.com/Cryorig-Ultimate-CR-R1A-Heatsink-2xXF140/dp/B00HUHC3WY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1501257445&sr=8-4&keywords=cryorig

EDIT: probably not worth the extra as my 4770k never goes past 4.2GHz anyway regardless of voltage and i don't see myself delidding anytime soon. but oh my does the R1 ultimate just look dang good.
 
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