Which non-tower CPU cooler for up to £30 would be fine for a Ryzen 5 5600X?

[King Mustard]

I have a small case, so can not use a tower cooler.

I will not be overclocking or doing anything too heavy.

Are there are go-to low-profile / top-blow coolers (I think they are the names of the type of cooler I am looking for?) in 2023, or should I just grab an AMD Wraith Prism? (£29)

If it helps, a list of potential is here: https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=cpucool...-Blow-K%FChler

[Jonj1611]

I always found the Wraith Prism to be just fine if not doing anything particularly heavy.

No doubt a bequiet or Noctua would be a good premium buy.

Depends on what you want to do with it

[Rob_B]

I use one of these (although I am going to move to a tower cooler soon as I've now got a bigger case) - https://noctua.at/en/nh-l9a-am4-chromax-black
The black/normal versions go for around £30 on eBay.

If you want to go with the Prism (not exactly low profile but a decent chunk of metal) you can pick them up from eBay for under £25

This shows a few, the L9A vs Wraith Stealth so bear in mind the prism will perform a bit better than the latter
https://youtu.be/81KqYZE3HI8?t=766

[DanceswithUnix]

I only use the Wraith Prism coolers because they got bundled with CPUs so I already have them. So they aren't bad (if they were bad I wouldn't use them at all), but if spending money I stump up the extra for a Noctua for low profile applications.

[cptwhite_uk]

I've recently purchased a Thermalright SI-100 Black (silver is slightly cheaper). Build quality is getting on to Noctua levels, absolutely beautiful cooler for £23. It also comes with a very nice quality fan, but if you need a slim 15mm fan to make it fit there's a 15mm equivalent:

Cost about £30 all in, highly recommended

Black version: £23.90
Silver version: £19.90

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BRP86H...t_details&th=1

15mm fan (if needed)

£6.59:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BNT1P6...t_details&th=1

Cooler comes with fan mounting brackets for 25mm and 15mm options included, but only a 25mm fan.

It's not the cheapest cooler, but I can almost guarantee you at this price point it has the best build quality.

[DanceswithUnix]

6 heatpipes seems like overkill, I like that

I checked my order history, and the wife's shoebox PC is running a Noctua NH-L9x65 which does an adequate job of cooling a 5600X cpu in a confined space.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N27QWFA/

So that Thermalright is half the price and with a 120mm fan (vs 92mm in the Noctua) it should give much better cooling as well. I wonder if I could crowbar one into the wife's PC. It's now had the ATX psu replaced with an SFX one to give some more room, so it might squeeze in there.

[cptwhite_uk]

I was pretty dumbfolded when I unboxed it, it looks more like a £40 cooler.

[cptwhite_uk]

I only use the Wraith Prism coolers because they got bundled with CPUs so I already have them. So they aren't bad (if they were bad I wouldn't use them at all), but if spending money I stump up the extra for a Noctua for low profile applications.

I always prefer to "upgrade" the cooler - The Wraith Prism coolers I feel are ideal for the 65W CPUs, typically the 6 core variants, or the lower end 8 cores - like the 5700X or which have lower clock frequencies and 65W TDP

Anything above 65W and they will cool okay, but ramp up the fan and get quite load.

A budget tower cooler from Thermalright / Deepcool is better for anything upto 100-ish W

[DanceswithUnix]

I always prefer to "upgrade" the cooler - The Wraith Prism coolers I feel are ideal for the 65W CPUs, typically the 6 core variants, or the lower end 8 cores - like the 5700X or which have lower clock frequencies and 65W TDP

Anything above 65W and they will cool okay, but ramp up the fan and get quite load.

A budget tower cooler from Thermalright / Deepcool is better for anything upto 100-ish W

I'm much the same. I've seen that I get higher clocks from using even a cheap tower cooler, as well as even though I wouldn't be surprised if it is the same decibel rating I get a nicer fan sound from a larger fan.

But the last machine I built, using a Ryzen 7900 at work, well it's a 65W CPU so I used the bundled Prism.