AMD High-End Gaming PC Build: CPU Cooler
While all of the components we are selecting here today are what we would go with, and priced from vendors we trust, it is always a good idea to shop around as deals on these, or other good options, pop up from other reliable vendors all the time. With that said, let’s dive right into the next order of business.
CPU Cooler
Thermaltake Water 3 Ultimate $325.99
60 FPS
- Heavy Duty Cooling Capacity
- Still An Efficient Design
- No RGB Solution For Those That Want It
30 FPS
- Noisy At Full Tilt
- It’s Big
- No RGB Solution For Those That Want It
CPU Cooler Alternate
Noctua NH-U14S-TR4-SP3 & NF-A15 $79.90 + $21.95
60 FPS
- Excellent Performance For An Air Cooler
- Quiet Operation
- No RGB Solution For Those That Want It
30 FPS
- Not Quite As Capable As AIO Solutions
- Tall Cooler
- Need To Buy The Second Fan Separate
When it comes to cooling our Threadripper selections there are, of course, a number of offerings on the market. However, with the kind of power we are dealing with here today, we need a fairly beefy cooler to tame our chips and that means we are just about going to have to go with an All In One Liquid CPU Coolers (AIO), a high-end conventional HSF, or a custom loop.
So, our first choice (because of ease of use and capability) is an AIO from Thermaltake; the Thermaltake Water 3 Ultimate. The Water 3 Ultimate is a high-end AIO that sports three 120mm fans which provide this unit with tremendous cooling potential when coupled with the rather efficient radiator design that it sports. There are of course other options out there for cooling our Threadrippers that can sport similar statistics as the Water 3 Ultimate. However, the Water 3 Ultimate is a proven design (having been on the market for a while) and one that is specifically qualified by AMD for their Threadripper chips. On the downside, like all seriously high-performance options, this cooler can get a bit noisy for some users but it is dissipating a lot of energy and it is a bit expensive. So, we have to cut it some slack there.
Our second choice for those that are less inclined to spend the kind of dough required for the Water 3 Ultimate, or just don’t want to deal with mounting an AIO there are other options, is a standard HSF. The one that we have selected today is the excellent Noctua NH-U14S-TR4-SP3 plus an additional NF-A15 fan. This setup won’t come close to the same kind of performance that the Water 3 Ultimate will give us, but for an air cooler it does an excellent job. As a bonus, it is also very quiet so if that is a concern then this might well be a better option that the Thermaltake Water 3 Ultimate from the get-go regardless of the significant price difference.