Aio or Air Cooling 9800x3d

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Scanoe@reddit

9800x3d w/ Phantom Spirit 120 EVO.
OCCT Cpu Stability Test. Depending on Ambient Temp. it will pull between 158 to 162 watts, temps 84 to 90c
[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/WIP2B6W.png)
It can be cooled with Air, which is nice for I prefer Air if/when possible.

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zacharylop@reddit

Air cooler.

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CrimsonBolt33@reddit

If you plan on over clocking at all, go water. Otherwise both work well enough.

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GoldkingHD@reddit

Doesn't matter at all. Any good aio or aircooler will allow a 9800x3d to run at maximum performance.

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GrimSlayer@reddit

100%. Have a DH15S and some AIO cooler in a prebuilt for my two PCs and they both do a great job cooling my 9800x3d in both PCs.

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

Thank you for the reply good sir

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Puzzleheaded-Lion-26@reddit

If you want to know i have a 360 liquid pro freezer iii and its keeping my cpu package at under 50° even when playing rust/bf6/apex at max fps and ultra. Its a good aio for the price + its silent

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Moscato359@reddit

I'd note I get 65C, with dead silence on a phantom spirit se

so it doesn't really matter

The AIO is fine, it just adds cost without adding gaming performance, which could be spent elsewhere

But... it's not like it's hugely expensive

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theofficialLlama@reddit

I would also add that air cooling in my experience is much less of a headache. Only. Thing that can really fail is the fan at which point you just buy another fan for cheap. AIO the pump can fail and then you’re outta luck

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Darth_Murcielago@reddit

I went with an air cooler and the cpu is cool af. (My cooler is a dark rock elite and my case is a fractal torrent) personally i would only go with an AIO if i had space constraints or want a certain look

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Baboiashh@reddit

NH-D15S here, 100% load, max 90C

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dabocx@reddit

These chips won’t throttle until 95c so there’s no real performance benefit between 55c and 65c in your example.

Most people are fine with just a good air cooler, especially for gaming since that’s usually never as stressful as a full 100% all out benchmark like cinebench on loop

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

Thank you very much now I know what I will be buying

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mookiexpt2@reddit

I replaced my Corsair Titan with with a SilentWings air cooler. My temps are slightly higher, but haven’t noticed any performance difference and it’s a shitload quieter. Running a 9800x3d.

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Moscato359@reddit

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CKpRo8haaZ6dVo7vRWRdTU-1200-80.png.webp

Consider this:

Air cooler is surprisingly the quietest

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kaje@reddit

75 is within safe operating temps for the CPU, performance isn't going to better if it's lower than that. A dual tower air cooler would be fine for the CPU anyways. The main reason for going with an AIO is aesthetic value.

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almbfsek@reddit

ays. The main reason for going with an

for me it's not about aesthetic at all. it's the noise reduction you get.

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Moscato359@reddit

Noise reduction is fake

If you adjust fan curves, it can be silent at any temperature including tjmax of 93c

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almbfsek@reddit

physics would disagree. 240mm radiator has more surface. big fans has to move less air compared to tightly packed air cooler also the pitch is higher on air coolers which makes the noise more noticeable. even if you disregard everything I just said, my artic freezer is definitely half the noise of my previous noctua d15

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Moscato359@reddit

I don't think you understand

You can just set in bios for your fans to run at a constant speed ignoring temperature and get the same noise level.

And the pitch comes from your choice of fan moreso than air or liquid

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almbfsek@reddit

That doesn't mean anything. I can also do the same for AIO and still get lower noise then air cooler

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Moscato359@reddit

Actually, at the same fan speed, air coolers are quieter due to lack of pump noise

But you can always set your fan speed to any speed you want on either cooling system

Inaudible is inaudible

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almbfsek@reddit

I can tell you never used an AIO

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Moscato359@reddit

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CKpRo8haaZ6dVo7vRWRdTU-1200-80.png.webp

This is out performing multiple 360mm and 240mm rad

Objective benchmarks

I can tell you have never used a modern air cooler

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almbfsek@reddit

the moment you talked about pump noise you gave it away my guy

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Moscato359@reddit

Pumps make noise. Is it a lot? No

Does a full speed pump make more noise than a modern air cooler? Yes

Does a half speed pump do well enough, and be basically silent? also yes

Do 240mm aio usually out perform modern air coolers? no

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almbfsek@reddit

in my AIO there is virtually no pump noise.

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Moscato359@reddit

Yes... because it's not running at full speed by default.

In my air cooler, there is virtually no *any* noise.

I'm going to keep pointing at that toms hardware image.

The phantom spirit se out performs any known 240mm rad on a 125w workload.

My 9800x3d uses 65w while gaming.

You need a 360mm rad, and a higher workload for aio to be quieter than air cooler.

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

Perfect that is what I wanted to understand thank you very much

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Tpyn@reddit

It depends on personal preferences. Personally, I take AIO with a huge TDP margin to ensure the system always stays silent

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Moscato359@reddit

You can be silent at any temperature if you adjust fan curves

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Moscato359@reddit

I have a top 1% overclock with an r23 score of 24422 on a 35$ aircooler

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Ill_Difference_4039@reddit

a good air cooler is all your need for all gaming cpus and x3d cpus in particular are very cool/efficient

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Any-Veterinarian-194@reddit

Giving my 2 cents here for your consideration. My friend and I have almost identical hardware in our builds, only difference is that he's got a 9070 XT and I'm running a 7900 XTX, both including the 9800X3D.

I cool mine with a Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black, a big ol' aircooler and he is running the same AIO as other commenters have mentioned, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 mm.

Both systems have no issues keeping the chip at good temperatures allowing it to always be using max boost when gaming. Even in high intensity games, no issues. My chip only goes over ~ 80 C° pretty much when loading demanding shaders when launching in games like Space Marine 2, BF6 and so on. And even then only for the little moment of peak demand.

His temps, both idle and under load are consistently ~10-15 C° lower than mine, but like some other comments mentioned, it doesn't make a difference in performance if the chip is at 50 or 65 C° as long as it stays in the thresholds that allow for max boost.

Environmental variables that may affect these results are that his case is way bigger than mine and the fact that my Corsair 4000D airflow is filled to the brim with iron with the big aircooler and my humongous hunk of a GPU. I also play in 4K and he's on 1440p, if that matters here. So I probably could improve my temps if I swapped into a bigger case so the innards of my case weren't restricting airflow as much, but alas I like what i have.

The AIO is cheaper than my Noctua and even cheaper still would be the Thermalright Peerless Assassin, that's very similar to my cooler and has matched its performance to mine in tests and it's around a third of the price.

So you'll be fine with either way you go and these three coolers for example would serve your purposes great.

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Copponex@reddit

I hit 85c in some games with s phantom spirit. It should not matter, but use that for what you want.

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Meatslinger@reddit

I'm using a Peerless Assassin 120 SE air cooler to cool my own 9800X3D inside a fairly restricted case compared to newer ones: the Fractal Design Define R4 with just two front intakes and a rear exhaust. My idle temperatures are usually around 40°C and I have my PBO limit set to 90°C. Obviously, if I run it up to speed it will try to take advantage of all the power that it can, but for the most part in everyday gaming it's usually around 60 or 70.

Air works great on this chip.

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Ed-Pavlov@reddit

The cooling system should be designed as a whole, not as separate components.

What kind of system is installed on the case? How much airflow is there for intake, and how much for exhaust?

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

So a simple breakdown would be

MSI tomahawk x870e, 9800x3d as for the case antec flux pro on windows 11, (still need to get the case, mobo and cooler lol) Im honestly lost on a fan set up since the case has so many options and comes with 6 as it is https://www.amazon.com/Antec-Included-High-Airflow-Radiator-Full-Tower/dp/B0DDNS2SY3/ref=sr_1_3?sr=8-3 if possible id fill all of it with many fans

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Ed-Pavlov@reddit

If you install all 6 fans, 5 of them will draw air in, and one will blow it out. The residual pressure will escape through the vents and mesh. I think both air cooling and water cooling would work well in this configuration. Go with whichever is cheaper and appeals to you more. Air cooling is generally easier to install. If you choose water cooling, you can skip the rear panel cooler, since AIO will be blowing air out.

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

My thoughts were if I get an air cooler, my top area would be free so I would have install 3 fans there as exhaust no? for example this build I found on pc part picker https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/b/Wd6rxr this person uses one fan as exhaust which is really confusing to me, wouldn't 3 be better, then the added a 3rd fan on top of the psu shroud, right on top of the psu, does this keep it cooler? sorry for asking multiple questions I just don't know anyone personally to ask these questions too.

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Ed-Pavlov@reddit

Of course you can, but I don't think you need it.

The golden rule is that you need more intake fans than exhaust fans to maintain positive pressure inside the case, which will push hot air from the CPU and GPU out of the system.

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

So my train of thought is this

Aio route- 6 fans with the case 5 intake, 4 exhaust, now I can add one more to the psu shroud and make it 6 intake and 4 exhaust

Air cooler- 6 fans with case 5 intake, 3 exhaust I think if I get a dual tower air cooler since it has 2 fans, then the fan in the rear, now I can fill up the psu and top with fans but that'll be 6 intake and 6 exhaust, which would be bad correct?

Again sorry for asking multiple times like a goof

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Ed-Pavlov@reddit

6 intake and 6 exhaust, which would be bad correct

If you configure them so that the intake fans always spin slightly faster than the exhaust fans, the internal pressure will still be positive. But you’ll need to carefully adjust the settings.

Why do you want so many coolers? If it’s for complete silence, I won’t try to talk you out of it. But if you’re just worried about cooling, I can reassure you - there won’t be any problems.

I have a Ryzen 7 9850X3D and a GeForce 4080 in a 24-liter mini-ITX case. Three intake fans and three AIO exhaust fans. I’ve never seen the CPU go above 65 degrees, and the fans have never spun up to 100% either. Though they aren’t exactly quiet at 70% :)

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

No just wanted to know lmao, I don't know much about it and was wondering why everyone who air cooled left the top or only added the one fan which was always above the air cooler, then the extra on the psu shroud

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Ed-Pavlov@reddit

In terms of temperature you will be fine with the default case setup.

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broken_soul696@reddit

Same mobo, same chip, slightly different case but same number of fans, using a Peerless Phantom Digital air cooler and I have absolutely no problem with temps at all

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dabocx@reddit

These chips won’t throttle until 95c so there’s no real performance benefit between 55c and 65c in your example why do you want a x870e board? There’s no performance benefit to it over a b850e board. There’s is just more connection options.

Very few people “need” a x870e board and you can save the money and use it elsewhere

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

Honestly don't need it I just want the dumb amount of usbs even though I don't need it lol

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Ed-Pavlov@reddit

I would say that even b650e chipset will be enough :)

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Gunther482@reddit

On an Antec Flux Pro an air cooler will be more than adequate since that case has very good airflow and thermals.

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mighty1993@reddit

Fuck AIOs a good air cooler is plenty for that CPU.

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Plenty-Industries@reddit

Air coolers are very affordable, and very reliable - the only thing to go bad on them is the fan. Fan dies? You can replace it with any fan for cheap.

AIOs have multiple points of failure: pump dies, clogging, leaks, evaporation of the coolant through permeation of the tubes, higher potential to be DOA.

9800X3D is not a hard CPU to cool. It barely consumes 100watts of power, even less with some very minor undervolting.

I want pure performance, unfortunately do not know enough to understand, if for example 55c-65c with an aio playing cyberpunk at 4k will be greatly different in fps at 65c-75c with an air cooler. (just making numbers up for reference)

This is not really a thing that happens. CPU's will maintain their boost clocks until they approach the thermal limit.

9800X3D's thermal limit is 95c. Its designed to hit up to 95c 24/7 and adjust voltage and clocks to maintain that. Any air cooler can keep that CPU running at 60-70c.

The only time you should see the CPU hit its thermal limit, whether air or liquid cooled, is when running synthetic CPU benchmarks like Cinebench or Prime95.

$35-40 for a Thermalright Phantom Spirit is plenty.

For a short while I ran my 9800X3D on a Thermalright Frost Commander 140mm cooler and it stayed as cool as my custom cooling loop with 1x 360mm radiator and 1x 420mm radiator.

The only time anyone REALLY gets an AIO, is for aesthetics and if you are running a power-hungry CPU like a 14900K that can hit 300-350watts.

If you still want an AIO... you can get them pretty damn cheap these days now.... ID-Cooling has a 360m AIO for like $60.

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Takr33m@reddit (OP)

Thank you very much for taking your time with this reply, Ill go for the Air Cooler then since it sounds like the difference is very negligible, what I do want to know is if I get a air cooler, should I fill the top of the case with fans since this case has the option for it, because I can buy 4 more fans, one 120mm fan for the psu shroud area and three 140mm fans for the top.

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Plenty-Industries@reddit

You can. Its not a huge deal if there arent fans mounted to the top if you go with air cooling.

If you go with AIO, you can just mount the AIO at the top because the case comes with 3 fans mounted on the front.

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jhaluska@reddit

AIO is more for aesthetics and very minor noise improvements. People like the high end air coolers for their lower cost and better reliability. And a high air coolers start at like like $35 for the Thermalrights.

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WTFsteven@reddit

Funny, I have a 9800X3D inside of an Antec Flux Pro being cooled by a BeQuiet Silent Loop 420mm AIO haha. I love it! Keeps the chip nice and cool but what I wanted the most out of it was quiet performance and it delivers on that front. Set the pump speed to 50% and off you go!

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xCookieSlayer@reddit

I have a 9800x3d, being cooled by a air cooler, peerless assassin 120mm. It has a negative -15 PBO. Under load I get max temperature of approx 67c, usually averaging around 55c to 60c depending on the game. (highest in games I saw was 67c). Under stress tests (cinebench) I've hit max 74c.

Air cooler is absolutely fine :)

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webjunk1e@reddit

I'm air cooling a 9950X3D. You'll be fine.

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MadFonzi@reddit

I've used both the peerless assassin and currently a be quiet! silent loop 420mm radiator in the antect flux pro and both of them worked well, only reason I got the 420 AIO was because it was cheaper at my local store than even the cooler master 360 AIO which everyone raves about and the temps have been amazing I always sit around 47-49 degrees under load.

I'm about to move on from the flux pro as it's just too big and my PSU killed my 4090 which was the reason I built in this case for the thermal performance, but if you are looking for good temps then you will be quite happy with this case and whatever AIO or air cooler you choose.

Just a sidenote to consider as this has impacted me, skip out on a 420mm AIO for a 360mm if you do choose to go this path because that way you can use it in smaller case builds in the future as not many will support a 420mm AIO.

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Accomplished_Emu_658@reddit

420mm is not necessary at all for this chip. It’s just extra honestly. A good air cooler or 280mm or higher aio will do amazing job. 240 can cool it too, but i noticed they run it a little hotter

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LegitimateBeing1044@reddit

I run a 5080 + 9800x3d, which I cool with a phantom spirit 120 evo. I have encountered no heat issues so far. Playing Helldivers 2 for 1-2 hours on 4k@120fps and the CPU temp is not higher than 70c. Of course the temperatures will also depend on your case/fan setup.

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Sentient_Rock239@reddit

Anything above 240mm you’ll be fine, but if you want to OC/UV then go with a 360mm so it doesn’t heat soak horribly