• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

3950x short cooler recommendations?

tabascosauz

Moderator
Supporter
Staff member
Joined
Jun 24, 2015
Messages
7,457 (2.33/day)
Location
Western Canada
System Name ab┃ob
Processor 7800X3D┃5800X3D
Motherboard B650E PG-ITX┃B550-I Strix
Cooling PA120+T30┃AXP120x67
Memory 64GB 6000CL30┃32GB 3600CL14
Video Card(s) RTX 4070 Ti Eagle┃RTX A2000
Storage 8TB of SSDs┃1TB SN550
Display(s) 43" QN90B / 32" M32Q / 27" S2721DGF
Case Caselabs S3┃Lone Industries L5
Power Supply Corsair HX1000┃HDPlex
Personally I've used the Noctua NH-U9DX i4 with my server. They fit nicely in my 4U chassis, with some room to spare. My dual Xeon 2683 v4's never go above ~65C even at full load. Not sure if they have an AM4 mount for that one though.

This isn't some sort of novel discovery. They're Xeons that are capped at a sub-3GHz clockspeed under heavy load, already binned out of the factory for the best possible volt-freq within their CPU family, strictly adhering to 120W TDP, with physically massive dies and heatspreaders, governed only by a "dumb" Turbo table and Tjunction, and made on a much older process with zero thermal density issues. Power draw (and even then, 3900X and 3950X are allowed to draw ~142W package power) means next to nothing in relation to temperatures that a 3950X will reach, that's not how they work.

As to @burn query, this guy faced a similar issue finding air coolers for a 3900X in a 4U case and settled on the Fuma Rev B:

It looks like it'll have to be a <150mm cooler to fit in most 4U cases. The one 120mm tower that fits the bill is the Scythe Fuma Rev. B, but it'll have to be picked up from leftover stock or second hand as I doubt they make it anymore (and probably needs an AM4 mount too). Otherwise, as has been already explained, 4U would be limited to top-down coolers and 92mm towers; the former might be starved for air in a 150mm tall case, and the latter would be howling at full speed to keep thermals under control. Which might or might not be a problem, people don't always use rackmount cases in their envisioned role. OP never said where exactly he would put it, only that he has a 4U case.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/cgrbm4
 
Joined
May 28, 2020
Messages
752 (0.54/day)
System Name Main PC
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Motherboard ASUS X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)
Cooling EKWB X570 VIII Hero Monoblock, 2x XD5, Heatkiller IV SB block for chipset,Alphacool 3090 Strix block
Memory 4x16GB 3200-14-14-14-34 G.Skill Trident RGB (OC: 3600-14-14-14-28)
Video Card(s) ASUS RTX 3090 Strix OC
Storage 500GB+500GB SSD RAID0, Fusion IoDrive2 1.2TB, Huawei HSSD 2TB, 11TB on server used for steam
Display(s) Dell LG CX48 (custom res: 3840x1620@120Hz) + Acer XB271HU 2560x1440@144Hz
Case Corsair 1000D
Audio Device(s) Sennheiser HD599, Blue Yeti
Power Supply Corsair RM1000i
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair Strafe RGB MK2
Software Windows 10 Pro 20H2
This isn't some sort of novel discovery. They're Xeons that are capped at a sub-3GHz clockspeed under heavy load, already binned out of the factory for the best possible volt-freq within their CPU family, strictly adhering to 120W TDP, with physically massive dies and heatspreaders, governed only by a "dumb" Turbo table and Tjunction, and made on a much older process with zero thermal density issues. Power draw (and even then, 3900X and 3950X are allowed to draw ~142W package power) means next to nothing in relation to temperatures that a 3950X will reach, that's not how they work.
I wasn't saying it was a novel discovery, I was only sharing my experience. I realize a 14nm Xeon is very different from a 7nm Ryzen; very different thermal outputs, thermal densities and load patterns.

...the former might be starved for air in a 150mm tall case, and the latter would be howling at full speed to keep thermals under control. Which might or might not be a problem, people don't always use rackmount cases in their envisioned role.
Again, OP mentions a "facility", so It sounds to me like it's a datacenter where noise is of no concern. In which case, put some jet engine 92mm's on it and call it a day. But if noise is a concern, then yes, might want to look elsewhere. In fact, I'd probably say if noise is a concern then 4U isn't exactly the best option. 5U and 120mm fans would be ideal... but no rackmount cases with standard layouts are 5U+, afaik, not to mention the added cost of renting additional rack space. Or, watercooling, but that's not an option.
 
Top