OC3D 2020 CPU Cooler Roundup

Thermal Testing – Overclocked i9-9900K

Our overclocked testing is the same as our stock testing, but with the clock speeds and voltages cranked up on our i9-9900K processor. With this change, we can see that a lot more CPU coolers fail our test, as should be expected when sub-£50 coolers are pitted against an overclocked 8-core monster. 

When it comes to air-coolers, only heatsinks like Cryorig’s R1, Noctua’s NH-D15 are able to handle our stress test without major issues, with other air-cooled heatsinks failing when used with low RPM fans. 

For the most part, our liquid coolers had no trouble keeping our system cool under load, with the only exceptions being Cooler Master’s ML240R RGB with low fan RPMs and Corsair’s H115i and H150i with each cooler’s “Quiet Mode”. In the case of these Corsair units, these failures could be due to software, as the smaller H100i RGB Pro XT has no trouble keeping this system cool under the same loads.