Everything You Need to Know to Choose a CPU Cooler

Cooling is an important thing to consider in any PC build. For people building a PC for the first time, this topic can seem a bit complicated (like most other topics regarding PCs). In this post we are going to dive into everything you need to know in order to buy a CPU cooler.

Quick Tips For Buying a CPU Cooler

• Decide your budget and needs.
• Before buying a cooler check for TDP and check whether it fits properly in your case or not.
• Buy an air cooler if you want to save money and you don’t need the cooling performance of AIOs.

A lot of CPUs already come with coolers which are called stock coolers. The quality of stock coolers varies from one CPU to another, so it’s best to do some research and read reviews to know if a certain CPU comes with a cooler and if it is actually a good cooler.

Now, if a CPU doesn’t come with a cooler or the stock cooler isn’t good enough for you then you will need something called an aftermarket cooler which is bought seperately from the CPU.

So, if you find out that the stock cooler is good enough then you are good to go. However if you plan to buy an aftermarket one then you are gonna need to stay with us in this post for a while.

Air Coolers

There are three types of CPU coolers, air coolers, closed-loop liquid coolers and custom loop liquid coolers (also known as open-loop). Air coolers are known for being inexpensive and having a better price to performance ratio in addition to a longer lifespan but this comes at the cost of more noise and lower cooling ability when compared to closed-loop coolers. They are ideal for most users though, especially these days, not everyone needs a closed-loop cooler.

Liquid Coolers (Closed-Loop)

On the other hand we have closed loop coolers also known as AIO coolers. They are the complete oppsite to air coolers. Their cooling ability and quietness make them an excellent option for people that have high-end builds. However they have some problems, their price to performance ratio isn’t that great, they are more expensive compared to air coolers and there is also a tiny chance for the liquid to leak causing damage to your components. The lifespan of closed-loop coolers is generally good but it isn’t nearly as long as the lifespan of an air cooler.

Air Coolers Vs Closed-Loop Coolers

Summary

If you are low on budget choose an air cooler. Not only to save money but also because cheap AIOs have higher failure rates than high end AIOs. Also if you want to set up your system and then forget about it, then air coolers are a solid option; they have a longer lifespan and they don’t really require maintenance as much as an AIO does. Lastly, if your system will not be constantly hot and it’s more likely to experience sudden rises in temperature then an air cooler is enough to get the job done.

Your other option is an AIO cooler (closed-loop cooler) which is extremely useful if your system will need to be cooled constantly, quietly and more properly, something that can’t be achieved with a lot of air coolers.

At the end of the day, it’s not about which is better because each one is made for a different purpose. Your choice should ultimately depend on your budget and your needs.

Liquid Coolers (Open-Loop)

Open-loop, custom-loop and DIY are all names that describe a type of coolers that is both amazing and complicated. Up until now, we were talking about AIO and air cooling but we never mentioned custom cooling; and the reason is that we don’t recommend it for someone reading this guide. As the name suggests, custom coolers can be fully customized, you choose the parts and the components you want to use and you put these parts and components together to make your own custom loop.

As a result of this flexibility in the design and the components of the cooler, custom loop coolers have more room for creativity meaning you can get something that looks better and performs better than any AIO or air cooler. The problem is, this comes at a really expensive price. Moreover, it isn’t easy at all to properly set up a custom loop cooler and even after that it requires a lot of maintenance. Therefore, if someone isn’t experienced enough and isn’t willing to put in the effort and take the risk the outcome won’t be very pleasant.

Factors to Consider When Buying a CPU Cooler

CPU Cooler Compatibility

Each CPU cooler is designed to fit one or more CPU sockets. Thus, it’s important to check if your cooler fits the CPU socket on your motherboard. It’s also worth mentioning that the dimentions of the CPU cooler determine whether you will be able to fit it in your case or not and they also limit the height of the RAM that you can use.

An easy way of checking if your cooler is compatible with your build or not is by using PCPartPicker.

CPU Cooler TDP

TDP is useful for determining the cooling ability of the cooler. When choosing a CPU cooler, you need to look at the TDP of the CPU and the CPU cooler to know if a certain cooler is able to cool a certain CPU.

Tower Air Coolers

Air coolers have two main designs, top-flow (also called downdraft) and tower. The most common Tower designs are U-type (single-tower) and D-type (dual-tower)

The ones that have pipes shaped like a “U” are U-type CPU coolers which have only one tower.

The ones with two towers (as shown in the image above) are called D-type, they typically perform better than single tower ones but they are also bigger. So, before buying one check the dimensions and make sure that it won’t get in the way of other components like RAM or components installed into the top PCIe slot.

Top-Flow Air Coolers

The one shown above is called a large top-flow cooler or C-type. Top-flow coolers blow the air towards the motherboard instead of across the case like tower coolers. There are also low profile coolers which are top-flow coolers that work similarly to C-type coolers while saving up some space.

Top-Flow Vs Tower CPU Coolers

When making a comparison between these two we can notice that top-flow coolers are better for slim cases since most tower coolers won’t fit properly in there. Additionally, they are better than tower coolers at cooling VRMs under special conditions, but in most cases the difference in temperature isn’t that great and VRMs these days would still be fine without it.

Tower coolers on the other hand provide more cooling power compared to top-flow ones, and they are good for almost any build if you have space for them.

U-type, C-type and D-type are names that noctua uses for their coolers. We used them here since a lot of people use them even to describe non noctua coolers, so you might find a lot of people using them instead of single-tower, dual-tower and top-flow.

Conclusion

With your budget and needs in mind you need to know whether you will buy an aftermarket cooler (like most people) or not and then make a choice between air cooling and closed-loop cooling.
After that, what remains is checking for compatibility and TDP, and finally looking at reviews. Alternatively, a lot of people go for reviews right away to get recommendations which is great but you still have to check TDP and compatibility.