# AMD FX Cooling Recommendations



## Roph (Jun 3, 2013)

So I just recently built an AMD FX system, FX-8320, 970-DS3 board, Antec 300 v2 case.





The stock cooler does its job ok, though when pushing the CPU it quickly sounds a little too close to a jet engine for my comfort 

I have to admit that before building this system I didn't keep up much with stuff like cooling, so I'm quite surprised to see how popular closed loop watercooling setups are. Are any of you guys running similar systems to me and have any advice for quieter cooling?

I'm guessing a lowly Corsair H40 isn't beefy enough to dump the 100W+ potential coming off the FX. What are you guys using?

I'm also a little confused that wherever I look, I can't find specs for closed loop systems that tell the average/expected wattage of heat disspiation.


----------



## drdeathx (Jun 3, 2013)

depends what you going to do. Looks like your good with stock cause you did not specify


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 3, 2013)

I would look into the H80i. Do you want to overclock? Or do you just want quieter cooling, while also keeping the temperatures in check?


----------



## Roph (Jun 3, 2013)

I'd like to do both 

Only had the CPU a few days, but I've got it up to 4.5ghz stable (from 3.5ghz stock) without upping voltage. The stock cooler screams like a mother though when pushing it that fast, and it gets close to 65C. For now I'm sticking to 4Ghz.


----------



## Nordic (Jun 3, 2013)

Whats your budget? If its low get a hyper 212 evo. It will do a pretty darn good job. If you want something more an h80i would be a great choice.


----------



## Roph (Jun 3, 2013)

What do you guys think about the Antec Kuhler 620? That and the Corsair H55/H60 seem alright. I'd prefer not to be spending more than £50. The H80i seems a little overkill.


----------



## ZetZet (Jun 3, 2013)

I wouldn't buy little water cooling loops, big chunky air cooler is better on budget imo.
I'm also thinking about building fx rig too, since haswell disappointed me.


----------



## Lazermonkey (Jun 3, 2013)

If you plan to OC I would look into a heatsink for you VRM's

Also, the CM Hyper 212 is a great Air Cooler if you don't want to drop too much $


----------



## Mathragh (Jun 3, 2013)

If you like something mid-way, the Silverstone Argon AR03(TechpowerUp review) might be for you. Its an air cooler, not really as expensive as most closed loop coolers, fairly quiet and the performance is exceptional for an air cooler for that money.

Its a bit like the cooler master evo 2.0, a bit more expensive, but also just as quiet, and has more cooling capacity.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 3, 2013)

Lazermonkey said:


> *If you plan to OC I would look into a heatsink for you VRM's*
> 
> Also, the CM Hyper 212 is a great Air Cooler if you don't want to drop too much $



I would definitely have to agree with this. That Antec 620 unit would do the job, but you should really put money towards a board for decent VRM cooling, or if you can find heatsinks to throw on the VRMs, but a better board with better power delivery, and board cooling would be better.


----------



## RCoon (Jun 3, 2013)

something along these lines, plus a H80i:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Swiftech-...US_Memory_Chipset_Cooling&hash=item3a61487734


----------



## pigulici (Jun 3, 2013)

At my Fx I use Noctua NH-D14, but it have a premium price, so you must tell us the amount of money you want to spend on cooling...


----------



## shovenose (Jun 3, 2013)

My FX-8350 is happily cooled by my Cooler Master 212 EVO


----------



## sttubs (Jun 4, 2013)

I'm using an H70 with my 1090t & love it. The newer H60 (WW model) should be good enough for stock to a mild overclock. But if you're looking to get the most out of your cpu then H80i is the way to go. Which ever cooler you decide on I strongly suggest using two fans in a push/pull configuration. And you definitely need VRM cooling, I'm quite surprised that there is no heatsink on that board.


----------



## drdeathx (Jun 4, 2013)

There is no need to cool the VRM's if your pulling 4.5GHz on stock voltage


----------



## d1nky (Jun 4, 2013)

Roph said:


> but I've got it up to 4.5ghz stable (from 3.5ghz stock) without upping voltage







drdeathx said:


> There is no need to cool the VRM's if your pulling 4.5GHz on stock voltage





that's a gig overclock on stock volts? on top of that a stock cooler? with a motherboard that doesn't have heatsinked vrms and 4+1vrm phase design....

I think youre mobos throttling your voltage so to give a false positive..... 


https://spreadsheets.google.com/spr...D79Joo7tdE9xMUFlMEVWeFhuckJEVF9aMmtpUFE&gid=3


im getting a h100 probably and that's the least it needs to keep temps reasonable at 1.5vcore and above....


----------



## drdeathx (Jun 4, 2013)

d1nky said:


> that's a gig overclock on stock volts? on top of that a stock cooler? with a motherboard that doesn't have heatsinked vrms and 4+1vrm phase design....
> 
> I think youre mobos throttling your voltage so to give a false positive.....
> 
> ...



Yes, I agree. Run prime 95 and see if it is throttling down. FX processors does this. Good call.


----------



## d1nky (Jun 4, 2013)

and run hwinfo64 at the same time.... watch core frequencies.

i got a feeling @4.6 itll be jumping between 4.6 and 3.3

your volts will also be jumping..


if im wrong, your cpu can do a 1000mhz @ 1.3** vcore, and probably oc to infinite and beyond..


----------



## drdeathx (Jun 4, 2013)

d1nky said:


> and run hwinfo64 at the same time.... watch core frequencies.
> 
> i got a feeling @4.6 itll be jumping between 4.6 and 3.3
> 
> ...



Correctamundo Fonzerelli


----------



## shovenose (Jun 4, 2013)

I tried to OC yesterday... 4.5GHz at stock voltage of my FX-8350 (usually a 4.0GHz CPU)... it worked until I opened Prime95 then the computer crashed.
I guess that chpiset just can't handle the overclocking. My motherboard is ASRock 970 Extreme3.
After going back to stock clocks it's working perfectly


----------



## d1nky (Jun 4, 2013)

shovenose said:


> I tried to OC yesterday... 4.5GHz at stock voltage of my FX-8350 (usually a 4.0GHz CPU)... it worked until I opened Prime95 then the computer crashed.
> I guess that chpiset just can't handle the overclocking. My motherboard is ASRock 970 Extreme3.
> After going back to stock clocks it's working perfectly




or lack of core voltage, if you bumped it up one or two then maybe prime wouldnt of crashed. (but make sure you know what youre doing first)


----------



## shovenose (Jun 4, 2013)

d1nky said:


> or lack of core voltage, if you bumped it up one or two then maybe prime wouldnt of crashed. (but make sure you know what youre doing first)



Mmmk, I'm just suggesting the OP not try to overclock on that 970 motherboard. I think a 990FX would be a good improvement.


----------



## drdeathx (Jun 4, 2013)

You can overclock 970 motherboards. They will not overclock as high as 990FX boards. For example, on a Phenom II when they came out, I reached 4.679GHz on Asus 970 board and 4.719GHz on 990 Asus board. Please note: these were high overclocks not stressed plus under water...... Where FX chip plays in, I don't know but 970 boards are very overclockable.... On air, I got 4.4GHz easily.Another note, Asus uses 6+2 power phase so his board may not be as good but I would place $ I could hit 4.4Ghz on air with a PII with his board. FX may be a tad different.... but they overclock better than P II's


http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/asus-m5a97-evo-and-m5a99x-evo/13/


----------



## Lazermonkey (Jun 4, 2013)

I have my FX 6300 OC'd from 3.5 to 4.2 on air.

The chip is @ 1.3 volts and passes Prime95 and OCCT with zero errors.

I am doing this on an ASrock 970 Extreme 4

Yes, you can OC on a 970 board


----------



## TheTechWard (Jun 8, 2013)

I Run a Coolermaster V8 fan.. it performs excellent and looks damn cooL!!


----------



## Aquinus (Jun 8, 2013)

I've been pretty happy with my Zalman CNPS 9900. Cools my i7 3820 really well and still lets you use tall ram.

This is an old image, but this is how the aluminum-plated one with blue LEDs looks in my case from a year ago. I didn't feel like taking another picture when I already had one.
View attachment 46556


----------



## buildzoid (Jun 8, 2013)

get a PHANTEKS PH-TC12DX it's almost the same price as an Antec H2O 620 while cooling better
if you want to go cheaper then the Thermalright HR-02 Macho is also a good cooler though I do suggest you get some cooling for those VRMs because if those get too hot your computer will throttle.


----------



## Jstn7477 (Jun 8, 2013)

Cooler Master TPC-812 is a great $70 air cooler (picked one up the other day) and cadaveca recommends it a lot on here. Everyone will likely have different cooler preferences, however.


----------



## Lazermonkey (Jun 8, 2013)

TheTechWard said:


> I Run a Coolermaster V8 fan.. it performs excellent and looks damn cooL!!



It almost looks to me like one of your fans may be leaking grease?

That dust doesn't look like it is completely dry on your CPU cooler.

Maybe it's just the photo?


----------



## Roph (Jun 9, 2013)

Forgot about this thread  

As for the comments about my overclock, yeah I had 4.5ghz stable at stock voltage. I didn't run anything like prime95, though I left it encoding video all day, stressing all 8 cores. It hovered around 65C and was silly loud though, so I've gone back to 4ghz.

And yeah a 1ghz overclock sounds extreme, but the 8350 runs at the same voltage and 4Ghz stock, boosting up to 4.2 I believe. Stock voltage for an 83xx is already comparatively "high". It's not that crazy.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 9, 2013)

drdeathx said:


> There is no need to cool the VRM's if your pulling 4.5GHz on stock voltage



Even if he is not changing voltages, the higher CPU speed alone will pull more wattage, thus more stress on the VRMs. Let alone, on a motherboard not even remotely close to being designed to overclock.


----------



## d1nky (Jun 9, 2013)

add voltage and higher frequencies the vrms get toasty. i have 12+2 phase design, larger vrms, decent heatsink and plenty of airflow, even modded a fan for vrm cicruit. and they still get hot under prime stressing.


and at the gig oc on stock voltages, that would probably crash instantly with prime. and i bet the cores are throttling no matter what.

and to answer the question on a cooler, i wouldnt even bother with air cooling on these 8cores.

i have the xigmatek aegir, two performance corsairs at max 24/7 with pk3 TIM. and its not enough  even at 4.6hz


----------



## TheTechWard (Jun 10, 2013)

Lazermonkey said:


> It almost looks to me like one of your fans may be leaking grease?
> 
> That dust doesn't look like it is completely dry on your CPU cooler.
> 
> Maybe it's just the photo?



Yeah it was the photo sorry


----------



## Durvelle27 (Jun 10, 2013)

shovenose said:


> I tried to OC yesterday... 4.5GHz at stock voltage of my FX-8350 (usually a 4.0GHz CPU)... it worked until I opened Prime95 then the computer crashed.
> I guess that chpiset just can't handle the overclocking. My motherboard is ASRock 970 Extreme3.
> After going back to stock clocks it's working perfectly



I can do 4.5GHz on stock volts but you'd have to take into consideration i tweaked the hell out of my BIOs and have a slightly better board 



OP i suggest getting a nice Air Cooler like the Hyper 212+ and these

Enzotech MOS-C10  Memory Cooling - Newegg.com


----------



## d1nky (Jun 10, 2013)

you lot mad? i woudlnt recommend aircooling the 8core.

AIO......


----------



## RCoon (Jun 10, 2013)

d1nky said:


> you lot mad? i woudlnt recommend aircooling the 8core.
> 
> AIO......



Some air coolers are just as good as AIO. Plus if you're not leaping into 1.4-5v territory, a standard tower air cooler can hold its own fairly well.
But these chips are destined for greatness. Give them copper and water and pour the volts into them.


----------



## d1nky (Jun 10, 2013)

OP did say overclock.

i have a moderate aircool sink with corsair sp120s performance and PK3 paste..... NOT enough!"


----------



## Johan45 (Jun 10, 2013)

It's not the chipset as much as the underpowered board that will be the OP's issue. My buddy measuured his system the other day. 600w at the wall 4.7 Fx8350 with an OC'd gtx580. His 650W PSU tripped when he tried to go faster than 4.8

My advice would be to save your money and get an upgraded board and H/S if you want a good experience with this chip.
You are going to end up with very high socket temps on that board even with a goos H/S and fan.


----------



## d1nky (Jun 10, 2013)

i coudlnt agree more.

these chips need rock solid power delivery and efficient cooling!


----------



## Durvelle27 (Jun 10, 2013)

d1nky said:


> you lot mad? i woudlnt recommend aircooling the 8core.
> 
> AIO......



My CM Hyper 212+ w/ 2x High Performance Fans keeps my FX 8320 @4.5GHz under 55C Full Load


----------



## Sempron Guy (Jun 10, 2013)

Corsair H100i user here configured in push/pull w/ additional corsair SP120s. FX-6300 @ 4.6ghz is kept under 58c full load, gaming hovers around 52c. For the record my previous Antec Kuhler 620 also in push/pull can't keep it below 65c and that is on a much lower overclock and voltage. The Kuhler 620 is around Deepcool Ice Blade Pro performance.


----------



## Johan45 (Jun 10, 2013)

For $30 the Hypers are awsome coolers have one on my PII 965 HTPC barely hear it running. Like the sempron guy says the AIO are good for moderate OC'ing. I'm using the Thermaltake water 2.0 extreme got it for $80 on sale. For what it is I can't dis it. At a sustained Prime 95 load at 1.58Vcore it sits at 63°, not too shabby in my opinion. 
But anyone looking for the big numbers of 5.0 + you really need a water loop to kep them cool and stable.


----------



## Lazermonkey (Jun 10, 2013)

My 6300 with the CM 212+ with a push/pull will max in the low to mid 50's while gaming.

That is with a OC at 4.2 with 1.3 volts.


----------



## cdawall (Jun 10, 2013)

He can't clock very high due to the board if all he is looking for is lowered noise and better temps a 212+ will fit his needs everyone needs to stop blowing this out of proportion and answer the simple question.


----------



## Johan45 (Jun 10, 2013)

That's probably more from the Asrock board than the cooler. Hard to keep the power section cool so the socket heats up.


----------



## d1nky (Jun 10, 2013)

what is this guy trying to oc too?

obviously the higher clock/voltage more heat and these tower coolers dont cut the mustard.


----------



## cdawall (Jun 10, 2013)

d1nky said:


> what is this guy trying to oc too?
> 
> obviously the higher clock/voltage more heat and these tower coolers dont cut the mustard.



So you are telling me for $25-35 you can find a better upgrade than taking the stock cooler out and replacing it with a CM Hyper 212+? He wanted lower noise and better cooling. Not to be scared away from the forums by some ebully with a hard on for anyone who doesn't water cool an FX chip. It is on a cheapy board he can't overclock that far. So what he wants to overclock to doesn't matter he asked a simple question give a simple answer not some skewed opinion about *your* hot running CPU.


----------



## Lazermonkey (Jun 10, 2013)

Nothing wrong with the CM 212+ or EVO.

I can run my 6300 with the CM 212+ OC'd @ 4.2-4.3 all day.


----------



## d1nky (Jun 10, 2013)

calm down! 

its agreed for a budget aircooler the hyper is best price /performance.

the OP mentioned a ghz overclock and said the stock was screaming loud, and as already seen has been messing with high clocks.

and what you on about me bullying, im talking from experience that a large heatsink isnt the best option when overclocking these chips. 

i like the look towers more than watercoolers, if a megahalems performed better than most water set ups allowing me to overclock by 1ghz, i would choose it in a heartbeat. 

and i might add all fx 8cores when overclocked are hot, not just mine. also not all need to be watercooled.


a reminder....



Roph said:


> The stock cooler does its job ok, though when pushing the CPU it quickly sounds a little too close to a jet engine for my comfort
> 
> I have to admit that before building this system I didn't keep up much with stuff like cooling, so I'm quite surprised to see how popular closed loop watercooling setups are. Are any of you guys running similar systems to me and have any advice for quieter cooling?
> 
> ...


----------



## Roph (Jun 21, 2013)

Update, Antec Kuhler 620 finally arrived 

Ended up setting up push and pull, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to properly remove the case fan (attached to case switch)
































After loading all cores for a while, I'm hovering around 43C, versus ~63 on the stock. And it's not super loud. Chuffed


----------



## Johan45 (Jun 21, 2013)

20° is nothing to sneeze at! Looking good. My only concern would be the VRM's. Now that you have the Antec in there you're going to have very limited airmovement in that socket area. Typically with an aircooler you'd have the turbulance swirling around down ther but that's gone. I had that issue when I first went with the TT AIO cooler. I also had the M5A 99FX pro board. The combination was putting my socket temps about 20° higher than my cores. 
If this happens then your board is going to throttle that CPU to keep the VRM's cooler.


----------



## Roph (Jun 21, 2013)

I've thought about perhaps flipping the top case fan so it's sucking air in rather than blowing it out. Or perhaps putting it down in the front of the case, again sucking in.


----------



## Johan45 (Jun 21, 2013)

If you don't have a fan in the front I'd put it there any way. Having that open grille will let the cooler pull cool air in right from the top.  What can help, I know it'll sound hackish but take a 50mm chipset fan and some two sided tape and stick it right on the mosfets. Also if you have a cutout behind the cpu in the mobo tray you can put a small fan there. I stuck one right on the cooler bracket back there


----------



## Roph (Jun 22, 2013)

Ordered these for now


----------



## Roph (Jul 6, 2013)

Heatsinks arrived; just so I don't mess it up, it is *these* components that get toasty, right?







I don't want to put them on the wrong thing


----------



## d1nky (Jul 6, 2013)

yea theyre the ones that get hot and need cooling!

be careful not to make any shorts/contacts!#

that fan see if you can put spacers or something so that the fan is tilted towards the vrms drawing more air straight from socket and vrms.

i.e take the screws out closest to side (towards you) loosen the other two, tilt it facing the vrms. use longer screws or something to lock the space/gap and then tighten. it helped on my fx4100 rig, with the vrm heatsinks!


----------



## Roph (Jul 6, 2013)

After measuring, there's plenty of clearance all around on the copper sinks, and they have pre-applied pads on the bottom.

And I hope you don't mean that fan on the left, there's a radiator stuck to it with another fan on the other side of that 

I leave the top fan spinning (exhaust) and I have intake at the bottom front, there's noticeable airflow around there. Added with that I'm not going to overclock much, I'll be fine.


----------



## d1nky (Jul 6, 2013)

Roph said:


> And I hope you don't mean that fan on the left, there's a radiator stuck to it with another fan on the other side of that



LOL couldnt see that!

good luck man!


----------



## Roph (Jul 12, 2013)

Well, I've been running for a week or so now with it all setup, pretty nice 






I was concerned at first that they might not stay stuck there due to the potentially high heat from the VRMs, but if anything the heat seems to have strengthened the bond. I tried removing one to test and I gave up out of fear that I was going to pull the chip underneath off with it.

I also taped up the little gaps between the fans and the radiator, *except* for the ones on the bottom, facing the VRMs. I can just get a pinky finger in there, and there's some noticeable airflow coming (or leaking) from the push/pull fans down there. I'm happy


----------



## d1nky (Jul 12, 2013)

LOL when i modded my vrms on my other board i felt the same.

especially as if they fall they will fall on the gpu, and they wasnt light lil things. 

yea the glue sets like a rock. i used a blade to get mine off


----------



## wiak (Jul 21, 2013)

pigulici said:


> At my Fx I use Noctua NH-D14, but it have a premium price, so you must tell us the amount of money you want to spend on cooling...


i upgraded to a NH-U9B SE2 and the temp dropped over ~10c less on load compared to stock on my FX-8350, i have also tested a H60 watercooling unit and that was hotter than the stock at 70c+ on load (must be a faulty unit)


----------

