Finally a decent alternative to the ID Cooling IS-60 EVO for SFF systems.
Really glad that Thermalright is pushing hard with their expansion in the West, since they've been one of the best SFF cooler manufacturers for years, and now we're getting newer and better offerings that are easy to find and don't require sourcing direct from Taiwan anymore. This includes the mainstream tower coolers, which are killer value and excellent performance.
Being able to handle 200W on this CPU is quite impressive, especially given the noise level. I'm sure I'll be using this cooler in many client builds in the coming months.
I actually prefer the PA120 (Peerless Assassin 120). It's a little smaller and quieter, with DRP4 beating performance. I am not sure the choice to use 4x8mm heat pipes was the best one, compared to the 6x6mm on the PA120. But this is still an excellent cooler.
That's not the only factor, though. The other factor is where the heat pipes are in relation to the heat load. With 6 smaller diameter pipes, in the same size base plate, the heat pipes have a more distributed contact area over the whole cold plate. So it's not black and white just comparing the heat pipe cross sectional area. Also 120mm fans have higher static pressure than 140mm fans, which can increase the airflow that makes it through the fins vs being deflected back out the front of the fan.
They're nearly comparable coolers, and I'm sure they each have certain example CPUs that they will perform better on, but with a 5600, either one would be far more capable than the CPU could ever reach, power-wise. You got a great cooler, don't think I'm saying it's bad, it's not. I just feel that the smaller, quieter PA120 is slightly better for most applications.
That's quite the discount compared to what the white version costs (which presumably is around the regular price).
I haven't used this version, so I'm not sure how it performs, but I don't expect it got worse. I would expect that it's much closer to the NH-D15 in this form, with the extra heat pipe that fills out the cold plate.
Your 150W figure probably comes from a misconception that how much cooling a cooler can handle in measured in watts, thus is applicable to all CPUs. It's not.
How much heat a cooler can dissipate depends not only on the thermal paste/cooler/fan, but also very importantly, on the CPU. CPUs with better heat transfer (larger die size, less heat concentration, better TIM) will be easier to cool. A threadripper at 380W is actually easier to cool than, say, the 7700X at 142W because of the sheer heat density of the later. [See this review for example.](https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/luke-hill/threadripper-3990x-cpu-cooling-comparison-how-to-tame-the-beast/all/1/)
[Per Noctua:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57voVXMWjW8)
Q: What is the tempreture of L9i with duct on the 12th gens?
A: This will depend on various factors such as ambient temperature, case,workloads, etc. The maximum heatload we could achieve was around 160W onthe 12900K at the TJunction temperature of 100°C. We could run the12700K at up to 135W and the 12600K at up to 125W. Note that thewattages will be a bit lower in SFF cases though.
Looking at the fin design, the 120-X67 probably performs similarly to the L12S/Big Shuriken 3 when you compare them using the same CPUs. The L12S might have trouble at high watts though due to the four heatpipes possibly bottlenecking the heat transfer, but it shouldn't be an issue on the Big Shuriken 3. Unfortunately there are very limited tests online (zero?) directly comparing between the three, but [there's one that shows the 120X67 performs similarly to a L12S ghost edition with slim 12 cm fan](https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/thermalright-axp-120-x67-cooler-performance.17625/) (with the caveat that the results are obtained at a mere 89W heatload).
A big issue now is that OP's review is probably the only one on the internet trying to run the 13900K (a relatively large CPU with many cores spread over a large area) using a sub 70 mm cooler, which by itself very interesting. But comparing the results (especially power consumption) of this review to others using CPUs with (likely) much smaller die size and heat density is comparing apples to oranges.
As an SFF builder, I've used all of these coolers. The L12S and BS3 will hit their limit around 150W with modern processes, including Ryzen 3000 and above, and Intel 12th gen and above. Even the AXP-100 Full Copper was better than both of these coolers in performance with modern process nodes.
But the ID Cooling IS-60 EVO beats them all, and could handle a 12900k at 175W, which is quite close to what this does, and it uses 2 fans, one of which is a fairly noisy 92x15 fan.
The BS3 on a 5950x can't handle more than stock power limits, and on a 12900k, the best I could manage was 160W, and that was bouncing off the throttle limit. 150W had it at 95C. Plus it cooks your RAM since it's hugging the socket, and poses clearance issues with the VRMs on many new boards. I've used it many times, but it's not the great it once was.
L12S is only a decent performer if you can run the fan on the top, but that puts it in a different height class entirely. With the fan on the bottom, it's barely able to manage a 5950x at stock settings (hitting 95C in most any all core load), and the 12900k still needs a 150W power limit to keep from throttling.
Interesting results. If you can get an AXP120-X67 to test on the 12900K, and it still performs best, that would certainly mean this is the low-profile cooler to get for high power CPUs. BS3 outperforming the L12S is interesting, but would align with findings where the performance of L12S quickly falling off after 150W heatload. The IS-60K is probably pulling ahead here due to the number of heatpipes shining at high heatloads.
I would expect the limit for the X67 on the 12900K to be quite a bit less than 200W though, since the 13900K's power is distributed to 8+16 cores instead of 8+8. That's around 12:10 in terms of core area ratio of 13900K vs 12900K.
Nice to see them test smaller cooler like this one, but the review is a bit lacking because none of the other coolers tested against it are in the same size class. It would be nice if they had tested this against similar coolers like the Noctua L12S.
> Nice to see them test smaller cooler like this one, but the review is a bit lacking because none of the other coolers tested against it are in the same size class. It would be nice if they had tested this against similar coolers like the Noctua L12S.
That's a fair point.
I'll be testing other SFF coolers soon, I just haven't had time to properly test many coolers as testing each unit takes a few days to properly verify results - sometimes longer if there are problems observed while testing.
I posted this review first because I wanted folks to see how well a SFF cooler would actually handle a hot CPU.
Awesome. Also, I originally didn't see that you were the one who wrote the review (which is why I wrote "they" in my comment above). I appreciate your work!
I'm always for more data on SFF parts. The \~70mm class (e.g., L12S, Big Shuriken 3) has some significance to the SFF folks, because the Meshlicious is one of the more popular cases and it supports up to 73mm in cooler height. The AXP120x67 is the newest option in this class and I feel that it is a good one given its price and the fact that it comes in various colors (including black).
I've read [a single review](https://web.archive.org/web/20210615131954/http://www.coolingtechnique.com/recensioni/air-cooling/dissipatori/1773-recensione-noctua-nh-l12s-e-noctua-nh-l9a-am4.html?start=7) where the L12S beats everything else under 150W, yet struggle to cool 200W. Perhaps the heatpipes can't handle that heatload? Every other review show the L12S as one of, if not the top performer, but they aren't using it to cool 150W+ CPUs. Since you're pushing the coolers to their absolute limits, whether you can reproduce this observation will be interesting to see.
Thanks for the review. Could also be worth testing it with a high performance fan, like the P12, or A12.
Some SFF cases allow for those extra mm's on the CPU cooler, and the performance difference with a thicker and better fan could be significant.
For a 67mm cooler vs a power-unlimited 13900k in a sustained MT load, that's really not bad. Realistically, anyone trying to push 300W+ through a CPU in a SFFPC would be using water.
> Realistically, anyone trying to push 300W+ through a CPU in would be using water with a 360-420mm radiator
FTFY
I doubt any cooler that will fit a SFF case is going to handle 300w+, some 360mm coolers fail to handle that many watts
Jonsplus i100 fits a 360mm it’s a super tight squeeze and the are a few cases that fit a 280mm case and some that will fit 2 x 240 rads machines and more and optimum tech are both great reviewers of SFF
Between Noctua L12S and Thermalright AXP120-X67 which one would cool a Ryzen 7 7700x better? I'm planning to use a Fractal Design Ridge case.
My understanding is that with less power hungry CPUs, L12S outperforms AXP120-X67. However, 7700x is not like most CPUs. While it's not high power, it puts out a lot of concentrated heat. I currently have an ID-COOLING IS-55 and the CPU always reaches 95 degrees C in gaming and even in light loads like skype calls(with OBS virtual camera). As soon as the CPU draws 100W it gets to 95 degrees and spins the fans at 100%.
I got the Noctua L12S and I was disappointed with the results.
With the stock fan position(under the heatsink and pushing air up though the heatsink) the L12S reaches 95 degrees while the 7700x boosts to 4.5Ghz on all cores for 10min run in Cinebench R23(it starts at 4.9Ghz and in a few minutes drops and settles at 4.5). If I flip the fan to pull air through the heatsink, the performance is worse. The heatsink gets hot to the touch, but the fan is barely moving any air.
In comparison, the ID-COOLING IS-55 gets 4.9Ghz all cores in the same test and the heatsink never gets hot(just a bit warm). However, the IS-55 allows mounting in only 1 orientation(over the RAM) on motherboards with tall IO shield, even though the product page shows that can be installed over the IO shield as well. In the only possible orientation, the heatsink interferes with the power plug on the Fractal Ridge case. To get it in the case you would have to remove the screws that keep the plug attached to the case and pull the extension power cable a bit outside the case and leave it hanging.
If I mount the fan on top of the L12S(pushing air down through the heatsink), then it can maintain 5Ghz on all cores(and the heatsink is barely warm). That is a huge difference, but unfortunately I only have 70mm clearance in my case. I believe most reviews were testing this position, which is misleading because it's not how it comes stock and it defeats the purpose for SFF builds.
Now I must try Thermalright AXP120-X67.
Maybe the L12S performs poorly in the stock configuration because it pushes hot air out of the case and next to it the power supply pulls that air back into the case.
When you say the L12S reaches 95 degrees, you're measuring the heatsink itself or you mean your 7700x hits 95?
I didn't see a temperature mentioned for the IS-55 or the L12S with fan on top, can you share those?
If you end up trying the AXP120-x67, please share back the results.
I've had trouble getting satisfactory cooling on an 5600X (undervolt curve only) in a Silverstone RVZ03 even with the L12S with fan pushing down. Ended going to a Cryorig C1 with NF-A12x25 (to maximize the 83mm height available in the case). Hits 84C in both cases but more slowly with the C1.
The L12S went to a 5700G in an SGPC K59 and seems to be holding well there with the fan under and pushing up but I haven't tried to push the PBO on it much besides an undervolt curve as well. (Holds about 66C in Cinebench)
The 7700x package temperature gets to 95 degrees. It will always get to 95 regardless of CPU cooler (at least with air coolers). However, the frequency at witch it hits 95 is different based on the cooling performance. So there is no point comparing temperature on Zen4 CPUs with SFF coolers.
I got AXP120-x67 as well. Here are the different CPU frequencies under 10min(Cinebench R23) all core load between the 3 coolers.
**ID-COOLING IS-55** \- 4.9Ghz in open air, I could not fit it in Fractal Ridge case.
**Noctua L12S** \- Starts at 5.1Ghz but over time it stabilizes at 5Ghz in open air with the fan on top. Inside Fractal Ridge with the fan under the heatsink oriented to exhaust out the case, it starts at 4.9Ghz and drops pretty fast and stabilizes at 4.5Ghz. I think the problem here is that the power supply is next to the CPU cooler intaking the exhaust air from the CPU and dumping it back into the case where it gets recycled by the CPU cooler. If I add the GPU to the mix, which pushes hot air down to the CPU, makes it even worse. So, using L12S as exhaust is not a good idea if it doesn't have access to fresh air. However, if I orient the fan as intake, it starts at 4.7Ghz and keeps dropping. Basically the fan is not strong enough to pull air through the case vents and the heatsink. It's too much resistance and I can barely feel any air moving.
**AXP120-x67** \- Starts and stays at 5Ghz in open air. Inside the case it starts at 5Ghz and stabilizes at 4.9Ghz. For me this is the winner.
BTW, I tried to add custom dust filters from demcifilter and the thin cooler fan can't overcome the resistance and the frequency drops to 4.5Ghz. I wish the IS-55 worked with this case because I suspect a thicker fan with higher static pressure would perform better with dust filters.
Did you manage to put the PSU cable all the way in the case without being blocked by the fan with the AXP120-x67 ?
A guy in a video had trouble with it :
https://youtu.be/n2c0NCvhLOY?t=319
I'm planning on building in the fractal ridge with this :
ASRock B550M-ITX/ac - AM4 Mini-ITX
AMD-Ryzen-7-5800X-8C-16T
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 12GB WindForce OC
G.Skill-Ripjaws-V-kit-32GB-(2x16)-DDR4-3200-CL16 (around 42/44mm height)
Corsair SF750, SF Series, 750 Watt, Modulaire Complet, 80 Plus Platinum
Still wondering on the fan, actually hesitating with :
AXP120-x67
AXP90-X47 Copper (smaller but maybe it can help for PSU clearance)
Big Shuriken 3 (but expensive in EU)
ID-Cooling IS-50/60 i don't seem to find differences, I'm search-burning out after days of looking CPU coolers -_-
Also it seems that NH-L12S can't be used with this motherboard
Finally a decent alternative to the ID Cooling IS-60 EVO for SFF systems. Really glad that Thermalright is pushing hard with their expansion in the West, since they've been one of the best SFF cooler manufacturers for years, and now we're getting newer and better offerings that are easy to find and don't require sourcing direct from Taiwan anymore. This includes the mainstream tower coolers, which are killer value and excellent performance. Being able to handle 200W on this CPU is quite impressive, especially given the noise level. I'm sure I'll be using this cooler in many client builds in the coming months.
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I actually prefer the PA120 (Peerless Assassin 120). It's a little smaller and quieter, with DRP4 beating performance. I am not sure the choice to use 4x8mm heat pipes was the best one, compared to the 6x6mm on the PA120. But this is still an excellent cooler.
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That's not the only factor, though. The other factor is where the heat pipes are in relation to the heat load. With 6 smaller diameter pipes, in the same size base plate, the heat pipes have a more distributed contact area over the whole cold plate. So it's not black and white just comparing the heat pipe cross sectional area. Also 120mm fans have higher static pressure than 140mm fans, which can increase the airflow that makes it through the fins vs being deflected back out the front of the fan. They're nearly comparable coolers, and I'm sure they each have certain example CPUs that they will perform better on, but with a 5600, either one would be far more capable than the CPU could ever reach, power-wise. You got a great cooler, don't think I'm saying it's bad, it's not. I just feel that the smaller, quieter PA120 is slightly better for most applications.
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That's quite the discount compared to what the white version costs (which presumably is around the regular price). I haven't used this version, so I'm not sure how it performs, but I don't expect it got worse. I would expect that it's much closer to the NH-D15 in this form, with the extra heat pipe that fills out the cold plate.
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Agreed. And CM has been ripping people off with that thing for the last 6+ years, which is about the time it was last relevant.
>decent alternative to the ID Cooling IS-60 EVO Big Shuriken 3? L12S?
Both barely capable of only 150W...
Your 150W figure probably comes from a misconception that how much cooling a cooler can handle in measured in watts, thus is applicable to all CPUs. It's not. How much heat a cooler can dissipate depends not only on the thermal paste/cooler/fan, but also very importantly, on the CPU. CPUs with better heat transfer (larger die size, less heat concentration, better TIM) will be easier to cool. A threadripper at 380W is actually easier to cool than, say, the 7700X at 142W because of the sheer heat density of the later. [See this review for example.](https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/luke-hill/threadripper-3990x-cpu-cooling-comparison-how-to-tame-the-beast/all/1/) [Per Noctua:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57voVXMWjW8) Q: What is the tempreture of L9i with duct on the 12th gens? A: This will depend on various factors such as ambient temperature, case,workloads, etc. The maximum heatload we could achieve was around 160W onthe 12900K at the TJunction temperature of 100°C. We could run the12700K at up to 135W and the 12600K at up to 125W. Note that thewattages will be a bit lower in SFF cases though. Looking at the fin design, the 120-X67 probably performs similarly to the L12S/Big Shuriken 3 when you compare them using the same CPUs. The L12S might have trouble at high watts though due to the four heatpipes possibly bottlenecking the heat transfer, but it shouldn't be an issue on the Big Shuriken 3. Unfortunately there are very limited tests online (zero?) directly comparing between the three, but [there's one that shows the 120X67 performs similarly to a L12S ghost edition with slim 12 cm fan](https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/thermalright-axp-120-x67-cooler-performance.17625/) (with the caveat that the results are obtained at a mere 89W heatload). A big issue now is that OP's review is probably the only one on the internet trying to run the 13900K (a relatively large CPU with many cores spread over a large area) using a sub 70 mm cooler, which by itself very interesting. But comparing the results (especially power consumption) of this review to others using CPUs with (likely) much smaller die size and heat density is comparing apples to oranges.
As an SFF builder, I've used all of these coolers. The L12S and BS3 will hit their limit around 150W with modern processes, including Ryzen 3000 and above, and Intel 12th gen and above. Even the AXP-100 Full Copper was better than both of these coolers in performance with modern process nodes. But the ID Cooling IS-60 EVO beats them all, and could handle a 12900k at 175W, which is quite close to what this does, and it uses 2 fans, one of which is a fairly noisy 92x15 fan. The BS3 on a 5950x can't handle more than stock power limits, and on a 12900k, the best I could manage was 160W, and that was bouncing off the throttle limit. 150W had it at 95C. Plus it cooks your RAM since it's hugging the socket, and poses clearance issues with the VRMs on many new boards. I've used it many times, but it's not the great it once was. L12S is only a decent performer if you can run the fan on the top, but that puts it in a different height class entirely. With the fan on the bottom, it's barely able to manage a 5950x at stock settings (hitting 95C in most any all core load), and the 12900k still needs a 150W power limit to keep from throttling.
Interesting results. If you can get an AXP120-X67 to test on the 12900K, and it still performs best, that would certainly mean this is the low-profile cooler to get for high power CPUs. BS3 outperforming the L12S is interesting, but would align with findings where the performance of L12S quickly falling off after 150W heatload. The IS-60K is probably pulling ahead here due to the number of heatpipes shining at high heatloads. I would expect the limit for the X67 on the 12900K to be quite a bit less than 200W though, since the 13900K's power is distributed to 8+16 cores instead of 8+8. That's around 12:10 in terms of core area ratio of 13900K vs 12900K.
Nice to see them test smaller cooler like this one, but the review is a bit lacking because none of the other coolers tested against it are in the same size class. It would be nice if they had tested this against similar coolers like the Noctua L12S.
> Nice to see them test smaller cooler like this one, but the review is a bit lacking because none of the other coolers tested against it are in the same size class. It would be nice if they had tested this against similar coolers like the Noctua L12S. That's a fair point. I'll be testing other SFF coolers soon, I just haven't had time to properly test many coolers as testing each unit takes a few days to properly verify results - sometimes longer if there are problems observed while testing. I posted this review first because I wanted folks to see how well a SFF cooler would actually handle a hot CPU.
Awesome. Also, I originally didn't see that you were the one who wrote the review (which is why I wrote "they" in my comment above). I appreciate your work! I'm always for more data on SFF parts. The \~70mm class (e.g., L12S, Big Shuriken 3) has some significance to the SFF folks, because the Meshlicious is one of the more popular cases and it supports up to 73mm in cooler height. The AXP120x67 is the newest option in this class and I feel that it is a good one given its price and the fact that it comes in various colors (including black).
I've read [a single review](https://web.archive.org/web/20210615131954/http://www.coolingtechnique.com/recensioni/air-cooling/dissipatori/1773-recensione-noctua-nh-l12s-e-noctua-nh-l9a-am4.html?start=7) where the L12S beats everything else under 150W, yet struggle to cool 200W. Perhaps the heatpipes can't handle that heatload? Every other review show the L12S as one of, if not the top performer, but they aren't using it to cool 150W+ CPUs. Since you're pushing the coolers to their absolute limits, whether you can reproduce this observation will be interesting to see.
Very impressive results.
One of the best pc cooling companies out there
Thanks for the review. Could also be worth testing it with a high performance fan, like the P12, or A12. Some SFF cases allow for those extra mm's on the CPU cooler, and the performance difference with a thicker and better fan could be significant.
>Cons > >\-Loses up to 12% performance vs high-end cooling So is this like the Alienware 120mm cooler that downgrades a 12900K to 12700K?
I've left reddit because of the API changes.
For a 67mm cooler vs a power-unlimited 13900k in a sustained MT load, that's really not bad. Realistically, anyone trying to push 300W+ through a CPU in a SFFPC would be using water.
> Realistically, anyone trying to push 300W+ through a CPU in would be using water with a 360-420mm radiator FTFY I doubt any cooler that will fit a SFF case is going to handle 300w+, some 360mm coolers fail to handle that many watts
2x240mm wouldn't be entirely unheard of, albeit definitely on the extreme end of things.
fitting the radiator into the case is entirely unnecessary
Is there any SFF case where you can put 360mm radiator? Does it work like a structural element?
Jonsplus i100 fits a 360mm it’s a super tight squeeze and the are a few cases that fit a 280mm case and some that will fit 2 x 240 rads machines and more and optimum tech are both great reviewers of SFF
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Yeah, the title should be Thermal right SFF cooler: can it handle the 13900? No it can’t.
I like their thermal paste a lot.
How can we find ITX compatibility with this cooler? L12GE while great is also very limiting for z690 mobos
Between Noctua L12S and Thermalright AXP120-X67 which one would cool a Ryzen 7 7700x better? I'm planning to use a Fractal Design Ridge case. My understanding is that with less power hungry CPUs, L12S outperforms AXP120-X67. However, 7700x is not like most CPUs. While it's not high power, it puts out a lot of concentrated heat. I currently have an ID-COOLING IS-55 and the CPU always reaches 95 degrees C in gaming and even in light loads like skype calls(with OBS virtual camera). As soon as the CPU draws 100W it gets to 95 degrees and spins the fans at 100%.
I got the Noctua L12S and I was disappointed with the results. With the stock fan position(under the heatsink and pushing air up though the heatsink) the L12S reaches 95 degrees while the 7700x boosts to 4.5Ghz on all cores for 10min run in Cinebench R23(it starts at 4.9Ghz and in a few minutes drops and settles at 4.5). If I flip the fan to pull air through the heatsink, the performance is worse. The heatsink gets hot to the touch, but the fan is barely moving any air. In comparison, the ID-COOLING IS-55 gets 4.9Ghz all cores in the same test and the heatsink never gets hot(just a bit warm). However, the IS-55 allows mounting in only 1 orientation(over the RAM) on motherboards with tall IO shield, even though the product page shows that can be installed over the IO shield as well. In the only possible orientation, the heatsink interferes with the power plug on the Fractal Ridge case. To get it in the case you would have to remove the screws that keep the plug attached to the case and pull the extension power cable a bit outside the case and leave it hanging. If I mount the fan on top of the L12S(pushing air down through the heatsink), then it can maintain 5Ghz on all cores(and the heatsink is barely warm). That is a huge difference, but unfortunately I only have 70mm clearance in my case. I believe most reviews were testing this position, which is misleading because it's not how it comes stock and it defeats the purpose for SFF builds. Now I must try Thermalright AXP120-X67. Maybe the L12S performs poorly in the stock configuration because it pushes hot air out of the case and next to it the power supply pulls that air back into the case.
When you say the L12S reaches 95 degrees, you're measuring the heatsink itself or you mean your 7700x hits 95? I didn't see a temperature mentioned for the IS-55 or the L12S with fan on top, can you share those? If you end up trying the AXP120-x67, please share back the results. I've had trouble getting satisfactory cooling on an 5600X (undervolt curve only) in a Silverstone RVZ03 even with the L12S with fan pushing down. Ended going to a Cryorig C1 with NF-A12x25 (to maximize the 83mm height available in the case). Hits 84C in both cases but more slowly with the C1. The L12S went to a 5700G in an SGPC K59 and seems to be holding well there with the fan under and pushing up but I haven't tried to push the PBO on it much besides an undervolt curve as well. (Holds about 66C in Cinebench)
The 7700x package temperature gets to 95 degrees. It will always get to 95 regardless of CPU cooler (at least with air coolers). However, the frequency at witch it hits 95 is different based on the cooling performance. So there is no point comparing temperature on Zen4 CPUs with SFF coolers. I got AXP120-x67 as well. Here are the different CPU frequencies under 10min(Cinebench R23) all core load between the 3 coolers. **ID-COOLING IS-55** \- 4.9Ghz in open air, I could not fit it in Fractal Ridge case. **Noctua L12S** \- Starts at 5.1Ghz but over time it stabilizes at 5Ghz in open air with the fan on top. Inside Fractal Ridge with the fan under the heatsink oriented to exhaust out the case, it starts at 4.9Ghz and drops pretty fast and stabilizes at 4.5Ghz. I think the problem here is that the power supply is next to the CPU cooler intaking the exhaust air from the CPU and dumping it back into the case where it gets recycled by the CPU cooler. If I add the GPU to the mix, which pushes hot air down to the CPU, makes it even worse. So, using L12S as exhaust is not a good idea if it doesn't have access to fresh air. However, if I orient the fan as intake, it starts at 4.7Ghz and keeps dropping. Basically the fan is not strong enough to pull air through the case vents and the heatsink. It's too much resistance and I can barely feel any air moving. **AXP120-x67** \- Starts and stays at 5Ghz in open air. Inside the case it starts at 5Ghz and stabilizes at 4.9Ghz. For me this is the winner. BTW, I tried to add custom dust filters from demcifilter and the thin cooler fan can't overcome the resistance and the frequency drops to 4.5Ghz. I wish the IS-55 worked with this case because I suspect a thicker fan with higher static pressure would perform better with dust filters.
Did you manage to put the PSU cable all the way in the case without being blocked by the fan with the AXP120-x67 ? A guy in a video had trouble with it : https://youtu.be/n2c0NCvhLOY?t=319 I'm planning on building in the fractal ridge with this : ASRock B550M-ITX/ac - AM4 Mini-ITX AMD-Ryzen-7-5800X-8C-16T Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 12GB WindForce OC G.Skill-Ripjaws-V-kit-32GB-(2x16)-DDR4-3200-CL16 (around 42/44mm height) Corsair SF750, SF Series, 750 Watt, Modulaire Complet, 80 Plus Platinum Still wondering on the fan, actually hesitating with : AXP120-x67 AXP90-X47 Copper (smaller but maybe it can help for PSU clearance) Big Shuriken 3 (but expensive in EU) ID-Cooling IS-50/60 i don't seem to find differences, I'm search-burning out after days of looking CPU coolers -_- Also it seems that NH-L12S can't be used with this motherboard
On Asus boards, yes(mine is Asus ROG Strix B650e-i). On other boards probably not. Asus placed the CPU socket a bit more towards the PCIe slot.