I'm on the hunt for a Christmas gift for my brother, who gaming on a Ryzen 5 7600 with the stock cooler. He often experiences high temperatures—around 90°C or more during medium-demand games—which is concerning. I want to grab him a more efficient CPU cooler. I initially thought about getting a Thermalright Phantom Spirit like the one I use in my 7800X3D build, but I'm worried it might obstruct his Corsair RGB RAM sticks that he loves. I've looked into single-tower coolers, such as the Thermalright Burst Assassin, but I'm unsure how beneficial it would be compared to the stock cooler. Another option is an AIO cooler; however, that might be overkill for his setup unless I go with a 240mm model. I'm also considering a 140mm single-tower air cooler to match his case, which has 140mm fans, but I'm having trouble finding suitable options. What do you think?
1 Answer
I've been using the BeQuiet Dark Rock Slim single-tower for quite a while on my Intel system, and it has worked wonders. It comes with AMD mounts as well, and in a tight ITX setup, it didn't interfere with my RGB RAM at all. It’s much cooler and quieter compared to the stock cooler I used before.
Just a heads up, though—the older BeQuiet Dark Rock models don't perform as well on AMD systems because the CCDs are offset, especially on AM5. The Pure Rock 3 is okay, but many have found the Dark Rock coolers lacking.