Ryzen 5 2600X - stock cooler or no? How many Ryzen owners keep their Wraith on?

[AnitaPeterson]

Hello everyone,

While putting to gether my first ITX build using the CPU in the thread title, I stumbled upon an interesting question: should I keep the stock cooler or not?

AMD has definitely one-upped Intel by providing really good cooling solutions to their processors. There's even a youtube video that looks at the Wraith Spire, praises it for having a solid copper core, and then pits it agains a dual 12-cm water cooler with really good results - see here:

Under these circumstances, I'm turning to the AT hive mind with a few questions:

How many Ryzen owners here use the bundled Wraith coolers?
Are you pleased with them? Are they sufficiently cool and quiet?

 

[UsandThem]

I didn't use the AMD cooler that came with my 2700X as I already owned a Noctua NH-U14S. I believe the 2600X still comes with the Wraith Spire, while mine came with the Wraith Prism.

I will say the AMD stock cooler is substantial, and from reading the reviews about it, I would have used it instead and saved the $70. I bought the Noctua because my previous CPU was the 6700k (no cooler). Even if had came with an Intel cooler, I still would have bought the Noctua (because the current all aluminum Intel coolers are a joke compared to AMD's Ryzen coolers).

 

[daveybrat]

I would echo UsandThem's opinion. The Wraith coolers are great and unless you're overclocking, they'll keep the cpu cool and quiet.

 

[scannall]

I have a 2600X and the stock cooler. It works just great. Quiet and cool all the time. High 70's when stress testing.

 

[Markfw]

I use the stock cooler only for emgencies, or to help out friends. I use Nocturas on my threadrippers, and AIO's on my Ryzens. I did try it once on my 2700x, but the motherbard was giving it too much vcore, and then it would overheat and throttle. After putting on the AIO, I figured out that was the problem, but the AIO did keep it a few degrees cooler.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I find stock coolers loud, but then again, I've been silentpcreview member for 10+ years, I hate noise. Any 120mm fan over 700rpm is too loud for me in idle, and it's not just the air whoosh noise, it's also the bearing noise. And unfortunately stock AMD fans have very "clicky" bearings.

My preferred choice of heatsink has been Scythe Ninja since the first revision came out. They have top notch performance while costing good bit less than Noctua.

 

[Muadib]

I use the stock cooler only for emgencies, or to help out friends. I use Nocturas on my threadrippers, and AIO's on my Ryzens. I did try it once on my 2700x, but the motherbard was giving it too much vcore, and then it would overheat and throttle. After putting on the AIO, I figured out that was the problem, but the AIO did keep it a few degrees cooler.

Which AIO did you use on your 3900x CPUs?

 

[Markfw]

Which AIO did you use on your 3900x CPUs?

2 are coolermaster 240 AIO's, and one is a 280mm EVGA. Since the coolermasters are on x470 boards, and the EVGA is on a x570 board, not sure I can make a comparison. Also, I had to mount the 280 in front while the other 2 are on the top. I can say top mounted is probably better, but I could not find a case that worked. They fit 280's, but they don't leave enough space for the motherboard. The VRM heatsinks sick up like over 1 inch, and then you have the 8 and 4 pin CPU power. You need like 2 inches clearance from the motherboard, and I have not found a case that does that.

 

[Muadib]

Thanks Mark that’s very helpful information. I will follow suit when I get my AMD cpu.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The VRM heatsinks sick up like over 1 inch, and then you have the 8 and 4 pin CPU power. You need like 2 inches clearance from the motherboard, and I have not found a case that does that.

Yeah. My CM ML Lite 240mm (original model), barely sort-of fit into a Rosewill Stryker M case at the top-left, with an Asus B450-F STRIX ATX board, with the built-in IO shield, which also has sort of a large plastic shield.

I wish that the whole arrangement had maybe 2-3mm more of clearance.

The end result was that I couldn't get the mobo to seat square (maybe the case was warped a little too, I don't know, it's a Rosewill), and I only was able to put in a sub-set of the mobo mounting screws. So far, though, I haven't had any issues mounting cards into it, neither the top x16 PCI-E slot, nor the bottom x16 PCI-E slot, with a PCI-E x4 ethernet card.