Air Cooling an FX-9590

[Leyawiin]

Hey guys. My nephew is an assistant manager at a large electronics store who's clearing out their AM3+ stock. With his employee discount he can get me an FX-9590 for $70. I have a compatible motherboard that's been sitting in a closet for a year (Gigabyte 990FX UD5 R5). I have a full tower case with excellent ventilation (Cooler Master Stack 830 SE). Plus 16GB of DDR3 ram.

My question is I have an unused Thermalright True Spirit 140 that's rated at 300W cooling performance. I don't want to have to buy a liquid cooler - it would spoil the deal since I have everything else. Do you think a good air cooler like this 140mm unit would be sufficient in a well ventilated case? Do you think I'm mental for considering spending $70 on that CPU? I mean, that would be the total cost of this system (I even have a Windows license for it).

 

[dave_the_nerd]

According to this review of the True Spirit 140: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/71...irit-140-bw-rev-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

The only air cooler that outperforms it is the Noctua NH-D15.

Thread for 9590/D15 rig w/ temps:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?82338-Air-Cooled-(Noctua-NH-D15)-FX-9590-Log-and-Notes

His conclusion was it will work, but will run hotter than a lot of people like. And the TS140 should be slightly hotter. I might try undervolting it, but IMO you should just plan on liquid and get a big honkin' rad.

 

[Leyawiin]

His ambient temperature is 30C (86F). My home is 75F. Undervolt it a bit and use two fans (which I have) in push/pull it might be OK.