Thermalright TRUE Spirit 120M BW Rev.A enough for the 9900K?

Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
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My motherboard AND CPU fried this past week. Going to replace with a Z390 board + 9900K.

Looks like the 9900K runs hot. Would my current heatsink be good enough?

TRUE Spirit 120M BW Rev.A
http://thermalright.com/product/true-spirit-120m-bw-rev-a/


It's in a Corsair 380T. The airflow goes straight through, front-to-back:


GviKZiR.jpg

 
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ttechf

Senior member
Jun 11, 2012
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I'm going to be honest with you, I wouldn't air cool an i9-9900k. I just made a thread similar to what you are asking because I am concerned about thermals on the i9-9900k and months ago I was prepared for this launch the best I could and I purchased a 240mm AIO water cooler. Even that is going to have it's work cut out for it. I saw one review of someone running the i9-9900k with air cooling but it was the Noctua-D15 I believe. Something like that. Beefy air cooler with 3 fans on it. And it was just at stock. The cooler you linked to in my opinion isn't enough for the i9-9900k.

My case will also have 3 120mm fans in front, a 120mm fan in the back and the radiator will be placed up on top to vent out.

I don't know, maybe someone else will comment here. Just my 2 cents and such.

Good luck though!

PS - your main text is white so I had to highlight it just to read it, haha.
 

dualsmp

Golden Member
Aug 16, 2003
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"Thermal design power: 160watt"

I wouldn't use any cooler rated less than 250w for 9900k
 

Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
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I'm going to be honest with you, I wouldn't air cool an i9-9900k. I just made a thread similar to what you are asking because I am concerned about thermals on the i9-9900k and months ago I was prepared for this launch the best I could and I purchased a 240mm AIO water cooler. Even that is going to have it's work cut out for it. I saw one review of someone running the i9-9900k with air cooling but it was the Noctua-D15 I believe. Something like that. Beefy air cooler with 3 fans on it. And it was just at stock. The cooler you linked to in my opinion isn't enough for the i9-9900k.

My case will also have 3 120mm fans in front, a 120mm fan in the back and the radiator will be placed up on top to vent out.

I don't know, maybe someone else will comment here. Just my 2 cents and such.

Good luck though!

PS - your main text is white so I had to highlight it just to read it, haha.

Not sure how that happened. Should be readable now. Thanks for the fyi!


"Thermal design power: 160watt"

I wouldn't use any cooler rated less than 250w for 9900k


Looks like I'm gonna have to get that Corsair H100i Pro. in my Amazon cart or find someplace in the US that sells the Thermalright Silver Arrow ITX-R...
 

Lordhumungus

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Jan 14, 2007
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Probably not any easier to find, but you may want to also look at the Alpenföhn ATLAS or Be Quiet! Dark Rock TF if you don't want to do an AiO
 
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Synomenon

Lifer
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Not able to check atm how tall those are, but the case has a max heatsink height of 150mm.
 

Lordhumungus

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Not able to check atm how tall those are, but the case has a max heatsink height of 150mm.

I checked before recommending. The Alpenföhn is similar in design to the Silver Arrow ITX, but I believe is a slightly better performer, being rated at 200w TDP and is 125mm tall. The Be Quiet is horizontally mounted, but is an absolute beast and rated for 220w TDP and is 130.8mm tall.
 
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Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
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Another thing I forgot to mention in the OP; I normally run the computer long periods of time (it can be on for weeks between shut-downs). I'm guessing an air-cooler would be better in that use case.

I was able to find the Silver Arrow ITX-R at Amazon UK and ordered from there. Thermalright's specs. say that with its single 130mm fan, it's rated up to 320W.
 
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ClockHound

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Nov 27, 2007
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The Silver Arrow ITX-R is a gorgeous looking cooler. But, the little Scythe likely will outperform it.

The only tests of both I can find with the rig show this result for the ITX-R at Techpowerup from 2015:

CPU_OC_max.gif


And this for the Fuma at Techpowerup:

temp_oc_aida64_fpu.png


The over-pressure issue for the Fuma mount was addressed with the B rev. Also lost some performance...it's secret was mo' pressure. LOL!

About the mounting pressure, see ehume's Fuma review

All of these tests were performed on old obsolete 95W quad cores. Please let us know how the cute little Silver Arrow performs on that scorching hot octal core beast.
 
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BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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The Silver Arrow ITX-R is a gorgeous looking cooler. But, the little Scythe likely will outperform it.

The only tests of both I can find with the rig show this result for the ITX-R at Techpowerup from 2015:

CPU_OC_max.gif


And this for the Fuma at Techpowerup:

temp_oc_aida64_fpu.png


The over-pressure issue for the Fuma mount was addressed with the B rev. Also lost some performance...it's secret was mo' pressure. LOL!

About the mounting pressure, see ehume's Fuma review

All of these tests were performed on old obsolete 95W quad cores. Please let us know how the cute little Silver Arrow performs on that scorching hot octal core beast.
Only shown in one of your posted comparisons, the Le Grand Macho (LGM) has been shown in other similar reviews to be 1C more effective than the NHD15, and the swept-back design accommodating a rubber accordion duct vented to the rear case output doesn't pose any problem for tall memory modules. I used the LGM for my Skylake 6700K.

But this is an i9-9900K, although with the nominal 95W TDP spec. I'm just thinking that overclocking such a beast is at minimum unnecessary. The processor shows a return to a solder TIM with the integrated heat spreader.

Some watercooled solutions won't do much better than 5C cooler than an LGM. Maybe someone could report on "safe-range" overclocking of the i9-9900K using an AiO like the Kraken. You'd already be starting with 5Ghz in the stock spec. How far does it go? And how hot does that get?

I was just scanning customer reviews of the i9-9900K at the Egg. Someone remarked that it "only" gets up to 65C to 75C at stock settings with beefier coolers, but not the best of them. None of those reviews mentions which stress test was used. But for running at stock settings, there are enough air-coolers that will handle it.
 
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Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
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Won't fit it my case. Max heatsink height for the 380t is 150mm.

I do have the Thermalright Silver Arrow ITX-R now though. Got it from Amazon UK.
 

Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
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Ok everyone, what if I got a 9700K instead of a 9900K, would the original HSF in question (TRUE Spirit 120M BW Rev.A) be enough?
 

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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Ok everyone, what if I got a 9700K instead of a 9900K, would the original HSF in question (TRUE Spirit 120M BW Rev.A) be enough?

Yup* :)

*It also depends on how far you are going to try and take that CPU. If you throw enough voltage and speed at your overclocking endeavor, you could end up pushing the cooler to its limits.

It looks to have similar performance to what you'd expect from a similar cooler like the CM Hyper 212 EVO (although the EVO has a higher RPM fan). However, running at the same RPM, they seem to line up. You have a very open case, so it won't be a problem getting plenty of cool air in, so that should help you as well.

You could always throw a better 120mm fan on there, and that should increase it's overall performance (if needed).
 
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Synomenon

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Dec 25, 2004
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Thanks. I've replaced all of my fans with Corsair ML120s. Don't plan on overclocking, but if I do I'd probably shell out for the new H100i platinum and do push/pull ML120s on its radiator.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Thanks. I've replaced all of my fans with Corsair ML120s. Don't plan on overclocking, but if I do I'd probably shell out for the new H100i platinum and do push/pull ML120s on its radiator.

Running that CPU at stock, you'll be golden.
 

ehume

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Nov 6, 2009
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Maybe you should think about getting a new case. Good cases are cheap.

I did a review on the Fuma. I actually have it cooling my daughter's gaming machine, an i7 4790k; but for her image-processing machine (64GB RAM, i7 8700k CPU) I put in an NH-D15 and de-tuned the beast to 4.9GHz (all-core OC, AVX decrement = 0). The D14 and the D15 are my go-to heatsinks.

But think hard about cases. Case limitations should not inhibit your heatsink choice.

BTW -- if you go AIO, consider a 280. Of course, you would need a new case for that.
 
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Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
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I always thought the case I currently have was a good case. It's certainly large for an ITX case.

I like small cases.
 

ehume

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I always thought the case I currently have was a good case. It's certainly large for an ITX case.

I like small cases.
Then you will have to live with limits. Consider how you might make an AIO fit.
 

Synomenon

Lifer
Dec 25, 2004
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Then you will have to live with limits. Consider how you might make an AIO fit.

I've learned to live with ITX limits. I've been building and using ITX systems for a couple of years. Just not an expert on airflow and the limits of these new 9th gen. CPUs.