Kinda unrelated, but got the Be Quiet Rock 2 FX for my 5600X, 45€. Seriously, couldn't be happier. Curve Optimizer I've set at -26 (-27/-30 occasional crashes). The Voltage never goes above 1.212V (without curve optimizer climbs at 1.375V) and Temperature never above 55C. Hence it remains at 4650Mhz for the entire duration. I use the latest BIOS with AGESA 1.2.0.A on my X570A-PRO. Can't be happier. I have to say, AMD managed extreme optimizations. Needless to say you don't lose a single drop of performance. All tricks off, it never goes above 70C and after the duration ends, it stays constantly at 4450Mhz. Greater results for 45€ cooler, hard to find. Now, if this one is newer and better let others try it and go for it. EDIT 1: Forgot to mention. It's indeed, quiet AF. You only hear it only if you manually set it at 100% which is completely needless. EDIT2: I have one 980PRO for Widows/Games and the BEST dram-less WDSN770. I just ordered an 990PRO to replace the 770.

I don't know, reading cooler reviews these days can be a bit saddening. Looks like a good air cooler, just that CPUs are a pain to cool these days. No wonder a GPU with the same wattage has a significanly bigger cooling area when you think about it (comparing a GPU cooler to a CPU tower cooler's fin surface area... or even outright blunt weight of the copper used)

fantaskarsef:

I don't know, reading cooler reviews these days can be a bit saddening. Looks like a good air cooler, just that CPUs are a pain to cool these days. No wonder a GPU with the same wattage has a significanly bigger cooling area when you think about it (comparing a GPU cooler to a CPU tower cooler's fin surface area... or even outright blunt weight of the copper used)

To be honest, going by the review, this cooler is still kinda underwhelming, if cheaper coolers from the same brand can do a better job.

emperorsfist:

To be honest, going by the review, this cooler is still kinda underwhelming, if cheaper coolers from the same brand can do a better job.

This is true, but even those "better" coolers don't exactly keep the CPU cool. And it literally shows the temperature test as going up against a LCS, which only cools the CPU to 79°C... while I know that's well within the manufacturer's specification of running the CPU, it's absurd to consider it ideal or desirable...

fantaskarsef:

This is true, but even those "better" coolers don't exactly keep the CPU cool. And it literally shows the temperature test as going up against a LCS, which only cools the CPU to 79°C... while I know that's well within the manufacturer's specification of running the CPU, it's absurd to consider it ideal or desirable...

Agreed. It's true that (especially) these i9s should be watercooled. Air won't cut it - that is best reserved for the i5 equivalents.

fantaskarsef:

This is true, but even those "better" coolers don't exactly keep the CPU cool. And it literally shows the temperature test as going up against a LCS, which only cools the CPU to 79°C... while I know that's well within the manufacturer's specification of running the CPU, it's absurd to consider it ideal or desirable...

At the same time, seeing how much electricity the i9s tend to eat (especially the 14k one), I would in general go for the more reasonable i5s, especially if it's normal gaming one's after. That or the X3D AMD ones.

For a 100€ you get a AIO.