I'm building a new rig, and since CPU speed matters to me but I'm sick of Intel, I'm going with Ryzen. Now, in the past it seems overclocking was more relevant, but these Ryzen chips don't seem like they overclock much. Is it even worth it to get a beefy cooler, or even, a custom loop?
Seemingly, the best cooling possible would be a custom loop with a large radiator and good thermal paste or even liquid metal. But for what gain? Can you actually get, say, a Ryzen 2700X to be even 20% faster on single-thread performance? Because just the cooling would be the difference between the 2700X and a threadripper, or more RAM (Infinity Fabric makes RAM influence CPU speed).
Seemingly the cheaper route would be something like a Hyper 212 Evo, which is on par with shitty AIOs, or something beefy like a Dark Rock Pro 4, which is on par with the expensive AIOs. It doesn't seem as AIOs are better than the good air coolers.
But is third-party cooling even worth it on AMD, seeing as they make better stock coolers than usual now?
Another difference with Intel that I forgot to add, is that AMD solders their chips - some people de-lid their Intel chips and apply liquid metal to get the same effect, but AMD is seemingly sold at the top of its potential already.
Thermal paste is obsolete the new thing that people are using is thermal graphite sheets. They last forever and the newest variant from Panasonic has much better thermal performance than the best thermal paste. Even the older generation version that is sold on Amazon for PC builds is better than thermal paste. Just check out the threads about it on Overclock.net to see for yourself.
And that wraith cooler that comes with a Ryzen seems more than adequate, I wouldn't bother with a third party cooler.
I have the stock cooler for my Ryzen. I've never had any cooling problems
Nathan Bell
I only saw a couple references to those thermal pads. Are you trolling?
Indeed, the only possible jump would be to a big-ass custom loop that may or may not improve performance. I can't imagine overclocking is power-efficient too...
I've overclocked every CPU I've owned since the mid-90s on stock coolers. Only one that died was a first-gen P3. Generally stock cooling is fine. An aftermarket air cooler is better. Liquid cooling is typically retarded unless you're looking to break a record. They're cool to look at though just a pain in the ass to maintain.
Anthony Young
If you have the case for, take one of those bigger heatsink that has a larger fan that can rotate slower. It makes less noise for the same heat transfer.
Jack Scott
The included coolers from AMD are better than what Intel provide for their chips (my Ryzen 5 1600 came with one that had a copper core). But I still recommend using a third-party air cooler for OCing. Preferably one of the beefcakes if your case is large enough.
Asher Moore
Only really matters if you're OC'ing. You can get by with some relatively cheap air coolers if you're not doing that (like an Evo with a 7700k can still technically work).
Jason Lee
Don't people use those for 24/7 stable overclocks?
This is what's making me shy away from it. I had a cheap AIO (Corsair) and it died, and people seem to agree that they last a couple of years. A cooler shouldn't die sooner than a hard drive. Also the danger of leaks worries me.
