Best Cooler for Amd fx 8350

Bhavesh0723

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Mar 1, 2015
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future build:
fx 8350
asus crosshair v formula z
gtx 970

I want to overclock fx 8350 at its max.

1.Best coolers both from air and aio water.
2.Stock case fans and aio water or aftermarket case fans vs aio water?(we also have to take care of mobo power phases to run cool)

high end air cooler>high end water cooler aio or vice versa?

If the air cooler is noctua nh d14 or 15 suggest me budget cases too
 

holyrage

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the H240X is a custom loop in it self coz u can add into it later however it is pre-filled and sealed from the factory like your AVG CLC except that u can modify it into a full loop later on if u want

also the rad is made out of all cooper which is miles better than the aluminum in CLCs (wish i went with a H240X) instead of my h100I

anyways IMO get either the H240X or a Cryorig Ultimate/NH-D15

CLC's are noisy
 
For air cooling, any of the dual-tower cooling solutions from the quality brands will do the trick nicely. Ideally, a tall, thin tower solution (like the Noctua NH-U14S) will be the most cost-effective, since you will have more issues cooling VRMs than cooling the CPU.

I, personally, have a Thermalright Archon SB-E X2, which handles my FX-8320 clocked up to 4.7 ghz. However, my VRMs start to get nice and toasty at 80C, so I usually run my OC at 4.4 ghz.

For watercooling, I'm not an expert. I do know, though, that if you plan on getting those high clocks you'll have to make sure those VRMs aren't going to overheat as well.
 

Bhavesh0723

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so which coolers can cool both processor and its surrounding areas(vrm,power phases,etc)
also do you still need case fans ?(I heard u only need case fans if you on water because water cool will(clc) only cool the cpu not the vrm)
 
For either Air or Water cooling, you still require case fans. You will want at least one intake, on the front-lower, and one exhaust, on the top-rear.

Air coolers, by their nature, pay more attention to VRM cooling than water coolers. If you plan on doing some extreme overclocking, you'll have to find some way to get some more direction air-cooling onto the VRM heatsink.
 
Some people do a lot of airflow experimentation, and/or install more fans. Others jerry-rig something, like finding a way to zip-tie a small fan directly over the VRMs.

I think there are also special little gadgets that essentially do the same thing (fan over the VRM), but I can't find any at the moment.

Top-down air coolers provide some more direct airlfow to the VRMs, but you may not get the performance you want out of them.
 


Noctua NH-D15 or Phanteks TC14PE. Both are fairly large. Make sure they will fit your case.

With a CLC or even a custom loop, you don't get CPU fan to blow much air over VRM and socket. If you go with a CLC, get a case like the Rosewill Blackhawk that has a backside vent and toss in an 80mm fan to cool the back of the MoBo. It made a 6-8c improvement in socket and VRM temps on my FX 9590 build.

A short list of very good CLCs for performance and noise:

http://www.frostytech.com/top5_liquid_heatsinks.cfm
 
$30 Hyper 212

$60 Phanteks PH-TC14PE (good of 7-10C over the $30 solution)

$90 Noctua DHH-15 (good of 2C over the $60 solution)

$140 Swiftech H240-X / H220-X (Good for 4C above $90 solution)

There's no CLCs on the list because no CLC in the above price ranges can compete with the above
 

holyrage

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t if u want the best the H240-X is there

plus u have one of the best Overclocking boards ever VRMs are well cooled etc... so u can get a H240-X and if your case has decent air flow u should get 5GHZ with a good chip even more if you're lucky