The Best Midrange Air Cooler - 6 Great Value Coolers Tested, 1 Winner Chosen
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2024
- What's the best midrange air cooler? Let's test them out and see!
Recommended Coolers
Best Midrange CPU Cooler: amzn.to/3KJVL8U
All Products in This Video
NH-U14S: amzn.to/3KJVL8U
Ninja 5: amzn.to/44fpKwy
NH-U12S: amzn.to/44dfc0M
Dark Rock Slim: amzn.to/3sfjEPl
PH-TC12DX: amzn.to/45obLWa
Core Frozr L: amzn.to/44df1mf
Gloves: amzn.to/44cMg9g
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0:00 Introduction
0:51 Midrange Air Cooler Price
1:48 Midrange Air Cooler Compatibility
2:55 Midrange Air Cooler Ease of installation
4:25 Midrange Air Cooler Appearance
6:24 Lowest to Highest Fan Speeds with 95W CPU Heat Load
9:32 Lower to Highest Fan Speeds with 185W CPU Heat Load
11:19 Midrange Air Cooler Warranty Years - Věda a technologie
Timestamps:
Price 0:52
Compatibility 1:48
Installation 2:55
Appearance 4:24
Performance 6:23
Warranty 11:18
Conclusion 12:09
Nice comparison, you should give the Scythe Fuma 2 a look, it seems to be the best all-around cooler with its size-compatibility, looks and performance for the price according to the results in this reviews tweakers.net/productreview/216556/scythe-fuma-2.html - www.gdm.or.jp/review/2019/0501/300092
Ninja 5 wins with noctua fans.
@@jlrockafella yeah I really want to see that... still love the look of the ninja. And I think in this case it's the scythe kaze fan's 800 Rpm is keep the ninja back. Need some higher static fans.
Kinda important to note, noctua also ships out free adapters for new sockets. So if you bought your noctua several years ago and want to switch to am4, they will ship a free mounting kit.
Really good explanation and analysis. Well done! Beats most of the major tech tubers in depth and content.
I just subscribed. I really like how you explain different aspects very well. Proves that just because a part looks really cool, doesn't mean it's a good product or installs easy. Thank You.
Great work, concise way of presenting the relevant information. There's nothing irrelevant in this video. Its really great that you add a high end cooler to the comparison. Keep going!
I like the coloring of your charts in this video much better than in your high-end air coolers video. With the colors being this distinctive its much easier to make out the different fan curves and also remember more easily which is which.
What is also a nice improvement compared to your fist video is that you listed the rating on the right side instead of just talking about the ranking. It immediately made the presentation more clear.
Great testing, great, concise presentation of the relevant information. Keep it up!
thanks for the info, been looking around for a few days now and a lot of video's are out of date, like "dude that is perfect" been out of stock for 2 years on amazon
Cant wait for more content. Really like this channel.
Nice roundup! Would like to see the Thermalright True Spirit 140 and Macho Rev B.
Cases have been trending towards less width as liquid cooling have become more popular. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find cases for some of the tallest coolers now, especially because more real estate is being used behind the motherboard tray for cable management, and to hide fan hubs/RGB controllers... I had REALLY liked the Scythe Fuma Rev B in this category because it was only 149mm tall, and really the best performing cooler in that under 150mm category. It looks like they have discontinued that model and released a new model which is 155mm in height, but offers better memory compatibility with an off centered base.
Nice video, I really appreciated the graph explanation.
I like your test methodology the best from all the cooler reviews.
Excellent review with best data presentation. Salute
concise video with a lot of clearly presented stats - helped a lot with purchase decisions thanks
Great video. I have the NH-U14S and I really like it. Keeps my R7 1700 @1.39v and 3.9GHz pretty cool at 67 degrees under full load. The installation (and maintenance) is extremely easy. The only downside is that it's pretty tall so it doesn't fit in many cases, though the meshify C and CM H500 can fit it fine.
Thank you for including Noctua D15S
Not considered midrange.
Love your vids! Keep up the good work :)
Looking forward for your next video👍
Nice videos. Really unique way of reviewing hardware. Keep this up and your channel will grow fast. Subscribed ;)
Great video man, it helped me a lot. Thank you!
Very Good testing. Thanks
I'm a Noctua fanboy, and i approve of this video! 👍
Amazing content!
Great testing and a really useful summary at the end! One cooler I would love to see you test would be the dark rock 4, as I'd love to see the difference in temps it has to noctua coolers and the pro 4.
He tested the dark rock 4 pro in the last clip. Are they not simular?
Thanks for the both videos amazing
Great Video.
Subscribed!
Great review m8 keep them coming.
I'm glad you took my advice and incorporated the high heat load test in your reviews.
Waiting for the mugen 5 review I got mine about a week ago I'm very pleased with it so far especially the noise performance i love the included fan and the fact that I managed to fit it into a very old and narrow case.
Sadly I can't test a high heat load myself the silicon on the cpu I currently have was probably debated on whether to sell it or throw it in the bin... So your input will be very useful on decisions for the next build.
I'll move to a new platform very soon and throw that useless piece of... in the bin myself 😂.
Also if you test the single fan model please do a test with two fans as well
it will be interesting to see if it is cfm starved or heatpipe bottlenecked on the high heatload test.
Cheers.
Own a Frozr and...I don't understand how you're getting performance that bad out of it.
This thing has been great to me, even OC'ing the hell out of my Ryzen.
Its so interesting to see the NH-U12S matching the performance of the much bigger Ninja 5. It really tells you that Noctua knows what they do.
Another great video, thanks man! Really high quality content, you deserve a much bigger audience.
I'm impressed by how well the U14S is doing, to be honest. Given how substantially bigger the D15 is, the difference in performance isn't that big. Very interesting.
Any chance of seeing Threadripper cooler testing in the future..?
No plans for Threadripper testing at the moment.
Very nice video again. Earned yourself a sub. One small request. Please also mention ambient temps in your testing case and room.
Great Video! 👌👌👌
again, great video.
Thanks for listening my suggestion
You Should watch Tech Yes City's Latest video on coolers, great video as always.
You've just earned a sub.
Thanks man!
perfect video!
I use the NH-U14S with twin fans and it performs almost as well as higher end coolers.
For small cases supporting ITX sized boards, Can you compare the BEST coolers under 150mm height? THANKS I think I’ve rewatched your 120mm fan shootout at least 5x while figuring out my next build!
How did you account for the ambient temperature? How did you measure the temperatures?
Thanks!
Oof glad I found this video. Was contemplating the MSI to go with my Tomahawk mobo so it looks cohesive but not at the cost of that garbage performance. Thanks for taking the time to put this together
Would love to see a refresh with the scythe Fuma 2
Nice vid, I was wondering if the Noctua NH U 14S will be enough for the i9 9900k, I would love to hear your thoughts on that
Great video. I am looking at the dark rock slim with additional fan and the fuma 2. Insure which to go for as I will have all ram slots filled with quite high ram. (Corsair vengeance rgb)
I am looking for a new cooler for my build. I am considering the U12S and the Mugen 5. Rev B since I have space restrictions in the NZXT H210. Between the U12s and Mugen 5, which would you say is the superior cooler? Thank!
what case fan is that?
Very comprehensive thanks. I was going for u12s but now i'm tempted by the u14s.. dilemma
all about compatibility
Could you do a review with the Scythe Fuma 2, it is similarly priced to these cooler in this video.
and from what I can tell, the Ninja 5 is optimized for silence and almost semi-passive with a max of 800 RPM on its fans.
Which one would be best for ryzen 9 3900
The 180w load test was the most useful because barely any CPUs run at 95w unless you manually lock them to slower than out of the box speeds.
Depends on what you're doing with your CPU. During normal use, you'll rarely go over 95W.
@@HardwareScientist depends what normal use is I guess. My pc rarely goes lower than 100% usage XD also you need to cool for the worst case. If you go to 180w 5% of the time and the cpu overheats. That's annoying.
@@HardwareScientist The new Ryzen 5600x tops out at 78w while beating 200w+ Intel in performancr
High quality graphs unlike other reviews. Upvoted.
You omitted the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition. It cools every bit as well as the be quiet! Black Rock Slim for about half the cost.
Budget roundup is coming and it will include that one.
Thanks for making this video. I'm finally upgrading the CPU on my computer to an i7 6700k and purchased the Noctua NH-U12S Chomax and wanted to see roughly where I stand with my decision. I hope to be able to get a small 4.5ghz overclock and decent temps after delidding with this smol cooler. :-)
Edit: Decided against the delid but still got a 4.6ghz overclock with decent temps, 50-65ish while gaming.
How are the noise levels with the nh-u12s? I want one of the chromax coolers cuz the black heatsink look really good, so the only noctua options are u12s and the d15, but I don't think the d15 will fit in my case.
@@Silvers_7 Hmmm... as far as noise levels go... Pretty quiet. I don't have any benchmarks but I have mine tuned pretty aggressively because it's cooling a 6700k to 4.6ghz @1.325v and it sounds quieter than the intel stock cooler that I had on my i3.
This thing is awesome! I like it a lot. The NH-D15 chromax looks awesome too but was more expensive and overkill cooling I'd think.
Running the MSI Frozr on a 2700 OCed to 4.1ghz all core at 3.875v, fan speed 1400rpm, my max temps running prime 95 is 52c, I also have an extra MSI Torx fan so it’s push pull. 27c idle.
I want to have a Scythe Grand kama Cross 3 with two 95mm fans undermounted just for looks on my next build.. wonder if it would be good.. Also it's old so mounting with Am4 will be problem maybe.
it also seems that the one large heat sink in the middle does not preform as well as two separate heat sinks which, combined, are the same size, like the Noctua NH-D15. If you take the Dark Rock Slim and the Noctua NH-12S and add a second fan, you see even better performance.
I have the Core Frozen L and I have never had any issues with heat or sound. Now I did use MX-2 thermal paste and not what came with it. My Ryzen 2700 has never seen temps over 70c and I overclocked it to 4ghz. Though the cooler was a pain to install.
can you do a comparison on budget cooler with the best cooler availble, ex. freezer 34 duo vs NH-D15 vs 360mm air cooler? and do please push the temperature to the limit please like 80C
you should test the cooler master ma410m! best looking RGB cooler i've ever seen
Can you show also compatibility with mini itx board in a fractal nano case for example? I like your channel and presentation, keep up the good work. And 2nd thought, better start making some pc chases and fans reviews, it will help your channel, witch ones you think are the best to buy. Keep up the good work!
I will be adding Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX compatibility to my future videos. Case and fan reviews are also on the to-do list!
@@HardwareScientist i wish you the best!
Nice job man, you deserve more subs! Those full load temp. scares me.. What cpu is used for this test? I've to choose between r5 3600 and r7 2700 for 2d/3d/rendering and i hope that nh-u12s, which is my first choice, can avoid load temp over 70.
9700k. You'd probably be better off with something beefier like the NH-U14S for rendering, but the NH-U12s should be ok.
@@HardwareScientist I checked nr600 specs (cm case), total width 209mm, 28mm behind mb, maybe u14s will fits (165mm).. Thanks.
I'm still on Noctua U12P SE2 from 2012 lol. Keeps my Ryzen 3600 70C and below in Prime95.
yeah those Noctua fans last forever, my U12P has been in service since my Core2Duo build in 2008, so over 11years now, I got an extra fan outfitted from day one, so it's basically an SE2 like yours.
Best part buy Ive ever done probably heh and Noctua has supplied free installkit for both my LGA1155 build and lately my AM4 build with the Ryzen 3600.
Same, I wonder how it performs compared to their newer models.
can you overclock with that?
Cryorig H7?
i am so curious about performance of Ninja 5 with higher speed fan
*you dont need warranty for heatsink as huge as the ninja 5, its just a piece of metal that takes ages to wear out lol. Just replace the old fans with something else throughout the years thats it. IMO the Scythe Ninja 5 is number 1 and the price is also near 50% cheaper than the NH-U14s in my country*
Décidément Noctua toujours au top. Mention spéciale pour le Ninja 5 et sa belle gueule, même si la garantie mériterait une petite rallonge.
Impresive review, really like your presentations, only thing that i would recommend is over time get camera with stablization like GH5 or invest on a gimbal for your hand held shots.
One request i leave you, in case you want to do followup to your videos, many on OCN believe the Thermalright True Spirit Power 140 to be superior to the Noctua NH-U14S, specially since it cost $15 less with a very similar offering to the U14S, the only downside of the Thermalright its its height, but would be great to see you compare them both under even conditions. And the last suggestion, since your NH-D15S is your total overall winner, would be great to see a direct comparison to the new Thermarlight Silver Arrow T8.
Thanks I will work on the camera stabilization. True Spirit 140 Power is actually tested in my next video! Silver Arrow T8 looks very interesting and is on my list to test in the future.
@@HardwareScientist Looking forward to your TS 140 power review. Btw i shared your videos on SPCR forums, and they like them, hope to see more from you.
Thanks appreciate you spreading the word!
Would you please change the fan on the Ninja 5? Get 2 Arctic P12 PWM PST for 20 bucks. Then compare the now 80 buck customized cooler to NH-D15S.
Damn big ninja is a beast.
i dunno how to find out what cpu cooler i have, it has weird logo
Next do a best AIO liquid coolers
I've recently bought two of those - Noctua NH-U14S for my pc (R7 3700X) and Dark Rock Slim for my fiancee (R5 3600). R5 is relatively cool even with stock Wraith cooler so with no boosting beQuiet keeps it low temp even under stress 51 degrees playing WoT. 3700X is a different story and with stock Prism went as high as 71 degrees playing WoT, 56 in idle. After mounting Noctua temps dropped down to 55 playing WoT and 38 in idle.
I have no problem with brown fans, I use closed HAF992 case and even if then this brown color is kinda mark of power. It's like a scar on warrior's face.
What could add nicely to the validity of your measuring methodology:
Measuring the peak RPM of a fan and then setting the RPM to real measured values, not just percentages in software. For example if a fan had exactly 1000RMP for 100% load, make sure that for your 80% measurement you tune it so that it really runs at 800RPM. IIRC not even Gamers Nexus does that.
This way you could eliminate the ~10% RPM difference same fan types can have. A perfect example is the NH-U14S compared to the NH-D15S @95W. They have exactly the same fan, but one is a bit louder? Could this be margin of error in measurement, different heatsink geometry or maybe because one NF-A15 fan runs faster than the other at 100% load?
You can easily become one of the most popular you tubers if you do more consistent videos.
New video coming next week 🙂
Fantastic!
NH-U14S is 70€/$78 and NH-D15S is 77€/$86 here so it makes no sense to get it here, unless width wise doesn't fit your case. But as fan in on the middle in D15S it can sit lower than on U14S where it's on top of mounting screw. Either way nice performance if the price difference in your country is bigger.
If you trow Better fans on the ninja 5 it's going to be the best cooling performance heatsink if you have 4 fans on it that you can do will perform as good of a nh d15s
How would the Dark Rock 4 (non Pro version) and Fuma 2 compare to these?
Fuma 2 is around the U14S, DR4 is around the ninja, it is a beefier dr slim.
Really nice video, thank you for that. I am between the noctua nh u12s and the dark rock slim due to case restrictions. I could get the dark rock 4 at the same price in my country but i dont want to block ram for a possible future upgrade. I am aiming towards the dark rock slim due to better looks. Do you think i should skip the looks and go with the noctua nh u12s? My cpu is the i7 9700 non k not overclockable. Thank you :)
Dark Rock Slim should be ok if you aren't overclocking.
@@HardwareScientist thank you mate, im going to give it a try
I hope next time you include the default cooler from AMD or Intel. So that we would know how much performance increase we could get. BTW, nice vid :)
My next video includes the Intel stock cooler 🙂
One important thing you don't mention in these videos: RAM clearence. The ninja 5 basically completely covers all ram slots, while the dark rock slim doesn't hang over the ram slots at all, meaning the height of the heat spreader doesn't matter. For the ninja 5 you are limited to low profile sticks and you won't see the ram at all. Something to add to future videos?
How about another followup to this one and the previous one? I'd love to see your test results from looking at air coolers in the $30 to $50 range or perhaps in a slightly tighter $35 to $50 range or $40 to $50 range. There are plenty in that range to choose from, and I think it is a really good price point for folks using some of the lower TDP cpus and building to a tighter budget, especially with so many of the popular Ryzen chips down in the 65 watt range. Such a test would include some interesting competition with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, the Noctua NH-L9x65, and the Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B among others.
A budget cooler roundup (below $50) is coming soon!
deepcool gammaxx 400 for $20. it doesn't have the bells and whistles but it destroys anything at the moment in it's segment when comparing price to performance.
What if you compared them all with equal amount of fans
Great video, but I don't understand why Hyper 212 evo isn't in here? Is it TOO cheap? I would say it is without a doubt the most popular cooler for good performance for the money.
Hyper 212 will be included in my budget roundup!
Would this be applicable to a stock i9 9900k since their loads are around the same?
According to Noctua the U14S, D14, D15, D15S are good for 9900k, U12S is okayish.
Scythe Mugen I think needs to be in the mix here as well.
Mugen is tested in my next video!
@@HardwareScientist In the same vein, the Fuma 2 has received very little coverage and would be interesting to see how it compares if you can get your hands on one.
Core frozr L wont fit in my case cause it's so big. IDK who told you short height 155mm is a beastly size.
Chose diagrams in the beginning lol. Reminds me of highschool powerpoint presentations
Missed the Arctic arctic cooler 34 esports duo that had a 10 year warranty?
What would you recommend between deep cool castle 240ex vs be quiet dark pro 4, going for pure performance temp wise?
Dark Rock Pro 4 should outperform most 240mm AIOs.
I personally think the dark rock pro 4. On amazon (Britain) you can save £40 by going for the pro 4 instead of the castle 240, and they have similar temps. The only negatives for the pro 4 would be compatibility and looks.
If you don’t care about appearance, then DRP4. But an AIO will look much cleaner, since DRP4 will block your ram. SO forget about getting RGB Ram.
@@HardwareScientist thanks for quick reply, just bought it on Kijiji for 100 cad, should have it in 30mins.
It's surprising how many of these have airflow fans instead of static pressure fans.
That's why I went for a NH-U12A... Its got them gucci NF-A12 pwm fans on it, and two of them to boot. Its expensive, but its probably the best 120mm air cooler you can get.
I was reluctant to upgrade the cooler on my Ryzen 2700x because the RGB fan looked so good and it did an okay job of cooling too. But it constantly span up to high RPM that was loud. In ten minutes it would do that several times. It was really annoying. It took me ages to decide what to get. I wanted RBG because I actually like it after initially thinking it was a silly gimmick. But in the end noise and cooling took priority. I still do not trust AIO coolers, so air is what I preferred. I did not want a massive Noctua or Dark Rock dual heat sink. I ended up choosing a NH-U12A. Not mid range price, but the quality, cooling performance, smaller size, and low noise made it worth the extra to me -- especially considering Noctua have a strong record of providing mounting solutions for new sockets, which means the cooler can serve for many years. The colour does not bother me so much. The RGB inside the case reflects off it, so it's not so plain and meh as it looks in pics. It also has the look and feel of a high quality piece of kit.
Down side is that I dropped my CPU doing the upgrade and bent pins. Now I can not get the B channel of my memory to work. Not the cooler's fault though. Install was easy. Party the stock cooler's fault though maybe, because the pre-applied thermal paste set like concrete and made the cooler stick. The CPU went flying when I was trying to separate it from the cooler. Pissed me off. Lucky it still works. I will have another go at getting the pins right. Apparently they only have to be a bit off to not make contact. I dunno if that is true though. Might just leave it alone and get 18 months from it and go to Zen 2 then. Should be on clearance by then (i do not like paying early adopter's tax. I wait until prices drop and bugs are sorted. Same with games. I wait a few months and they are patched and cheaper).
p.s. That is one of the better cooler round up vids I have seen in a while. Good work. Stick at it and stay on the side of the consumer if things take off.
btw. I noticed some commonality of science and engineering between CPU fans and propellers of nuclear subs of all things. Modern subs need to be really quiet to remain hidden. Most of the noise comes from propulsion. Blade design minimizes that. The blades on modern subs often have a shroud surrounding them that helps reduce noise and improve flow etc. The blade is precision engineered to have as little gap between its edge and the shroud as possible. This makes it more effective. It's exactly what Noctua say about their blades and why they are brown. The brown material allows the blade to be really close to it's surround, which gives better flow and reduces noise.
Fuma 2 is best in this category IMO.
Hey there, I'm in the middle of buying an air cooler for my i7 8700 non-k as it is reaching above 90C with stock. Unfortunately, none of the coolers in this video are available in my country except Noctua. Also, Nh-u14s will not compatible with my motherboard. The only option is Nh-u12s but it is priced at 72$. And there is one cooler that I wishlisted, Coolermaster Ma620p which is priced at 60$ and it has twin tower and 6 Heatpipe. Can you review this cooler . I would like to hear your opinion on this.
By the way thanks for making this huge comparison, It's really helpful👍
Check out the Arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO if you are on a budget. It's very good. Also NH-U12S is not bad. It would have placed #3 in this roundup. I would not recommend the MA620P. I actually tried it, but it wouldn't even fit on my motherboard.
@@HardwareScientist thanks for the reply. Sadly arctic products are also not available. Coolermaster, deepcool, Antec, Noctua,Thermaltake are available in my region . In the noctua website, it mentions nh-u14s will contact with graphics card when using my motherboard (gigabyte z370m d3h). But heightwise it will fit. Ma620p don't have that issue with my motherboard.
@@josephtgeorge8842 deepcool gammaxx 400, deepcool gammaxx gt, coolermaster hyper 212. all three performs like noctua nh-u12s for half the price.
Could I ask for your personal opinion please? I have a Ryzen 3 (not the hottest apu but it’ll do for me) I would like to change the stock cooler for either one of these or a midrange AIO liquid cooler. What would you suggest please?
I would definitely recommend going air over liquid for midrange.
Hardware Scientist thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. I’ll go for the Nocturnal NH U14S or the Scythe Ninja 5 then. Thank you again 👍🏻
I have a Fuma 2 on my 3600x - it's handling the standard gaming loads I hit and is extremely quiet under normal loads. What did you go for on the end?
Quirinale D I went for an Arctic freezer 34 esports duo. It’s superb!
@@littlegrizzlybiggins151Nice! Yeah that one was on my list too but I got a good price on the Fuma 2 and bought it - both seem to be excellent coolers for a reasonable price:)
Fan speeds on the cooler? Or on the case fans?
Both cooler fans and case fans are adjusted from lowest to highest speeds.
Hardware Scientist Ok, I always found that the fan speed on the cooler is not as important on tower coolers. Because it’s the heat dissipation performance of the coolers metal fin and heat pipe structure that determines the TDP.
COMPLIMENT.... !!!!
Dark Rock Slim's performance is kinda disappointing, wonder how the Dark Rock 4(non pro) would perform in comparison.
i hate those one fan coolers that dont come with the bracket to put another fan on the other side