Despite being a couple of years old, the Ryzen 7 2700x is still a powerful processor, especially if you overclock it. But before you attempt to do this, make sure you've got an excellent cooler to keep the thermals from spiking.
The Ryzen 7 2700 stock cooler, the 'Wraith Prism', is a solid unit. However, if you want to keep your CPU overclocked quite often, then I'd recommend upgrading to something better.
So what's the best CPU cooler for Ryzen 7 2700x that you can buy? Read on and find out!
Contents
Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B is a feature-packed air cooler. For starters it's got 120mm fan blades which are capable of operating at a max speed of 1200 RPM. This means that it's able to move out decent volumes of air quite easily while also keeping the noise level down.
The Rev.B comes with a 'fan clip' which allows you to easily attach a second fan in case you need additional heat-dissipating power. However, you'll need to make sure that you have enough space for it first.
This Air cooler comes with a relatively large heat sink (154.5mm in height). However it still offers a lot of clearance for RAM modules, thanks to its asymmetrical, cut-fin design. Hence you can fit in tall RAM modules into the DIMM slots without a problem.
The heat sink features 6 heat pipes and a large copper base for spreading heat quickly and efficiently. As a result, this air cooler can be paired up with CPUs even more powerful than the Ryzen 7 2700x, that have a higher TDP.
Lastly, this unit comes with a thermal compound paste which lets you fill in any tiny gaps that might occur between it and the CPU during mounting. When you’re overclocking an AMD Ryzen 7 2700x thermal paste will ensure that there’s the efficient transfer of heat between it and the air cooler's heat sink.
Pros:
Cons:
Best Liquid cooler for Ryzen 2700x
This AIO Cooler series from EVGA comes in a few different options. For this review, I chose a single 120mm unit (CL12). The CL24 and CL28 come with two fans but the CL36 includes three.
The CL12 has a maximum RPM of 2400, which is double what you get with the Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B. As a result, it's able to move out 74.82 cubic feet of air per minute! Hence, it's well suited for extended gaming sessions.
The CL12 doesn't come with a very large heat sink attached to it which means that you'll have an easier time mounting it inside cramped spaces. It does come with a copper base which allows for fast and effective heat dissipation. Furthermore, the copper base contains pre-applied thermal paste, making sure that there’s better heat transfer between it and the CPU.
The EVGA CL12 comes bundled with proprietary software that allows you to tweak certain settings. It lets you have control of the fan speed, the liquid pump, and even the RGB lighting that’s embedded on the water block.
You can set up fan profiles and save them as presets. Hence, for instance, you could set a max speed profile for overclocking and simply turn it on whenever you're gaming. However, the fan can get noisy and I often found myself reaching for the headphones whenever I wanted to overclock the CPU.
Its cooling block is pretty great too. It's got a large surface area which means quick heat dissipation and it contains sleeve tubing, meaning it won't get damaged easily. Hence you don't have to worry about leaks.
Overall, I think the EVGA CL is the best AIO for 2700x that I’ve come across.
Pros:
Cons:
As implied by the name, be quiet is a brand that focuses on manufacturing coolers that run with minimal noise. The Dark Rock Pro 4 is no exception, reaching only 24.3 dB at max speed. Considering that its fans can reach 1500 RPM, this is quite impressive.
The Dark Rock Pro 4 is a double unit cooler and each unit features a Silent Wings PWM fan on the front. The inlet surrounding the fans is funnel-shaped, helping to create very high air pressure to blow out the heat more effectively.
The heat sinks attached to the fans are made out of alumnium, which is a great conductor. The cutouts on the sinks are present to provide more clearance for mounting RAM. However, it won't spare enough for 64mm modules. The tallest RAM modules that you can fit are 40mm ones.
The Dark Rock Pro 4 contains seven copper heat pipes fitted on top of the unit. These increase the surface area available for heat dissipation, stopping your Ryzen 7 2700x from heating up during overclocking.
The Dark Rock Pro 4 includes a free tube of thermal paste and a Y-split cable which means that you can connect both fans to one PWM header.
Pros:
Cons:
The Thermaltake Water 3.0 comes in a variety of different options. I ordered the 120mm edition, which comes with a single fan unit.
The first thing you’ll notice about this unit is that there’s a lot of focus on RGB lighting. Both the fan and the pump come fitted with LEDs that you can tweak using the included LED control. There are 7 light modes and 9 colors to play around with. In addition, you can sync this up with multiple motherboard RGB software including Asus Aura, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, and MSI Mystic Light.
This CPU cooler features a water block with a copper base plate, which is excellent for heat conduction. Its cable is a reinforced sleeve type which means that you won't have to worry about any leaks. The block has a relatively large surface area too which makes for a high rate of heat dissipation.
The fan in this AIO unit is pretty quiet, reaching a noise level of around 25 to 26 dB at max speed. It's got a max RPM of 1500 that allows it to push out 56.45 cubic feet of air every minute. Hence, when you’re overclocking your Ryzen 7 2700x temperature readings won’t go off the charts.
The radiator present on the back of the fan has a height of 151mm, which means that it can support RAM modules that have a height of around 50mm.
Pros:
Cons:
The Noctua NH-D15 is a dual-fan CPU cooling unit with a lot of features to offer. For starters, it includes NF-A15 140 mm fans which feature Noctua's flow acceleration channels. These are essentially grooves carved into the blade that reduces flow separation. In other words, they prevent the air from being dissipated into multiple directions, ensuring higher efficiency and reduced noise.
Each NF-A15 has an RPM of 1500 which is fairly decent for supporting overclocked CPUs. They’re pretty quiet while in operation too, with noise levels capping off at around 24 dB.
Related Posts:
Each fan comes with its heat sink which contains recessed fins to allow some clearance. However, it's still recommended that the NH-D15 should only be used with standard-height or low-profile RAM modules (32mm) if you plan on using both fans. The unit as a whole includes 6 heat pipes, providing a large surface area for heat dissipation.
Each purchase comes with a Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste and splitter cable that allows you to connect both fans to one fan header on your motherboard.
Pros:
Cons:
Personally, I’m partial to liquid coolers and AIO units because they’re better at dissipating heat. Therefore, I would choose to pair up with an overclocked Ryzen 7 2700x with an EVGA CL12 unit. Its fans can reach 2400 RPM, making them the fastest on this list and its water block is both sturdily built and highly efficient at removing heat.
If you prefer having an air cooler, then I’d highly recommend the Noctua NH-D15.
CPU coolers might not seem like a big deal at first but they greatly impact your processor's ability to overclock. In addition, the CPU cooler can make a difference in the overall noise output from your machine. Hence, you must consider a couple of things before you go ahead and buy a cooler:
Air coolers dissipate heat via spinning their blades and making use of copper base plates to spread the heat. For a lot of uses including moderate amounts of gaming, air coolers are enough to keep CPUs functioning at optimum temperatures.
However, there are a couple of drawbacks to air cooling. First of all, some aftermarket air coolers can take up a lot of space because they're fitted with heat sinks. This can be a problem if you don't have a large tower case. In addition, they can get quite loud, especially when you're overclocking.
Liquid coolers are more efficient at cooling a CPU, simply because water is better than air at transferring heat. In addition, they're much quieter because they don't work with fans. Hence, if you’re someone who needs to squeeze out a lot of performance from your CPU for extended periods, then a liquid cooler is probably the better option.
The main drawback with liquid coolers is that if there's a leak, water can run out and damage other components in your rig, including the CPU.
If you want the best of both worlds, you can go for an All-in-One (AIO) Liquid Cooler.
Whether you're going for air, liquid, or an AIO cooler, make sure that:
a) it's not too big for your PC case
b) it's compatible with your CPU
As mentioned above, air coolers tend to come with heat sinks attached to them. Hence you'll need to look at your PC case specifications to understand what size of heat sink it supports. PC case product specs will usually list the maximum cooler height it can accommodate so make sure to cross-check it with the dimensions of the particular cooler you're interested in buying.
Typically, DIMM slots (where you mount RAM modules) are fixed right underneath where you place the CPU on the motherboard. If you're using particularly tall RAM modules, also make sure that the heat sink attached to your air cooler allows enough room for it.
If you're trying to mount a liquid cooler, check your PC case's product specs to determine the quantity and size of radiators it can support.
All you need to do is cross-check what type of socket both the CPU and cooler is compatible with. In the case of the Ryzen 7 2700x, it can only be mounted onto an AM4 socket on the motherboard. Hence, you'll need to look for coolers that are also compatible with AM4 sockets.
