What is better for silent gaming operation? Noctua U9s or a 280mm AIO?

Cooling Processors quietly

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Nsona
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What is better for silent gaming operation? Noctua U9s or a 280mm AIO?

Post by Nsona » Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:52 pm

Hi all. I currently have a 3700x and the stock coolers performance is crap. The cpu will hit high 80's and the fan noise is horrible.

Due to my case (corsair 280x) I'm limited to cpu cooler that is 150mm tall.

I really value silence, and I'm just curious on which is better. The liquid cooler has more thermal mass, but the noctua has less moving parts.

If you have a cooler suggestion I would love to hear it.

CA_Steve
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Re: What is better for silent gaming operation? Noctua U9s or a 280mm AIO?

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Dec 06, 2020 10:05 am

Welcome to SPCR.

Oh, for the want of another 5mm :) 155mm would open up most of the favorites that use 120mm fans. 150mm and below mostly relegates you to 92mm fans. Which would need to run faster and (if you throw a fair bit of money at it) an AIO could potentially be quieter.

Are you overclocking/overvolting?
Is there a Gfx card? If so, what make/model?

Have you tested to see if your CPU cooler is mounted well? A couple of poor mount indicators:
- High idle temperature
- When you unload the CPU, the temp curve slowly drops over time instead of instantly dropping 20-30C and then slowly dropping over time.

dori
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Re: What is better for silent gaming operation? Noctua U9s or a 280mm AIO?

Post by dori » Tue Dec 08, 2020 4:05 am

Noctua is considered to be the best cooler for silent operation.

Abula
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Re: What is better for silent gaming operation? Noctua U9s or a 280mm AIO?

Post by Abula » Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:33 pm

I would probably start searching for builds on the 280x, sometimes manufactures don't list correctly the height of the cpu coolers or the give some tolerance that in this case would be useful, as if you can get away with 155m then coolers like Mugen5 would be a great option.

Checking for 10min on pcpartpicker found the following build, [urlhttps://es.pcpartpicker.com/b/bgHhP6]Mid Range 2600/1070ti Micro ATX Build[/url], which is using a ARCTIC Freezer 33, according to the website is 157mm tall, but i didnt see any pictures with the side panel on, so im unsure if it can be closed or not, my guess is that you can but its up to you to cross check this. If it can, then coolers like Scythe Mugen4 or Fuma2 which are 155mm should work out great.

Another option that can work, but its expensive, Cryorig H7 Tower Cooler has 145mm height and still uses 120mm fan, you can always swap the fan if you don't like it.

Another option that could work out, is Noctua NH-C14S, even with the fan would end up 140mm tall, still enough room to breath.

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