Cooling for threadripper in 4u case

[patm95]

Hi all. In the middle of a build with a super micro 846 4U case. Considering a 2970WX threadripper. However I am realizing that my cooling options that fit in my case are very limited. Noctua has an option but from what I’ve read Temps can still get high when pushing their system. Any ideas for a good cooling system? I’d consider liquid cooling if there was a good reliable system out there. This server will be on 24-7 and be my main server running multiple VMs. Worth considering intel given a lower tdp for given performance? Hate to do that given the TR has so many cores. Thank you. 

[bastl]

@patm95 When I first ordered my 1950x in dec 2017 short after release there where not much good cooling solutions out there. I ordered a Noctua NH-U14S and it worked great with stock cpu speeds. I later decided to push the CPU clocks to see how far I can go. Luckily my chip clocks at 4GHz on all cores with only 1.275V without getting to hot. On full load it barely scratches 70°C with air cooling. I've noticed that with 1.275V only, I had a real good chip on hand. In most reviews you see they needed 1.4 or even more to reach a stable 4GHz OC. I wantet to push it even further and I looked up for all the available AIO's out there.

 

All AIO liquid coolers back than which not fully covered the IHS performed worse in all the tests i saw compared to the Noctua. The only option was Enermax Liqtech 240 and 360 with full IHS coverage which I ordered a couple months later. The 360 brought my temps down in the mid 60s under full load @4GHz. For 4.1 I had to raise the vcore to 1.5 to get it stable. For a 24/7 this wasn't an option and to risky, so I turned it back down to 4GHz @1.275V. 4 months later I noticed some slowdowns and checked my temps. I saw lots of spikes to the 90s and even 100°C showed up on some small work loads. Unfortunatly I had a bad Enermax Liqtech 360 from the first gen with a manufacturing issue which gunked up and corroded inside and prevented the liquid flow. I RMA'ed the thing and since than I'am back to the Noctua NH-U14S. Second gen should be fixed, but wasn't out back than.

 

All in all I never have workloads fully pushing the server all the time, a couple VMs and Dockers, some gaming, some CAD workloads, but thats it. I'am happy with that cooler idling in the mid 30s and on daily workloads it's in the 40s and never passes 60°C using my main gaming VM.

 

I guess it would fit in a 4U (178mm) rack with its 165mm height. More details you can find here:

https://noctua.at/en/nh-u14s-tr4-sp3/specification

 

[patm95]

13 hours ago, bastl said:

@patm95 When I first ordered my 1950x in dec 2017 short after release there where not much good cooling solutions out there. I ordered a Noctua NH-U14S and it worked great with stock cpu speeds. I later decided to push the CPU clocks to see how far I can go. Luckily my chip clocks at 4GHz on all cores with only 1.275V without getting to hot. On full load it barely scratches 70°C with air cooling. I've noticed that with 1.275V only, I had a real good chip on hand. In most reviews you see they needed 1.4 or even more to reach a stable 4GHz OC. I wantet to push it even further and I looked up for all the available AIO's out there.

 

All AIO liquid coolers back than which not fully covered the IHS performed worse in all the tests i saw compared to the Noctua. The only option was Enermax Liqtech 240 and 360 with full IHS coverage which I ordered a couple months later. The 360 brought my temps down in the mid 60s under full load @4GHz. For 4.1 I had to raise the vcore to 1.5 to get it stable. For a 24/7 this wasn't an option and to risky, so I turned it back down to 4GHz @1.275V. 4 months later I noticed some slowdowns and checked my temps. I saw lots of spikes to the 90s and even 100°C showed up on some small work loads. Unfortunatly I had a bad Enermax Liqtech 360 from the first gen with a manufacturing issue which gunked up and corroded inside and prevented the liquid flow. I RMA'ed the thing and since than I'am back to the Noctua NH-U14S. Second gen should be fixed, but wasn't out back than.

 

All in all I never have workloads fully pushing the server all the time, a couple VMs and Dockers, some gaming, some CAD workloads, but thats it. I'am happy with that cooler idling in the mid 30s and on daily workloads it's in the 40s and never passes 60°C using my main gaming VM.

 

I guess it would fit in a 4U (178mm) rack with its 165mm height. More details you can find here:

https://noctua.at/en/nh-u14s-tr4-sp3/specification

 

Thank you for this detailed response. I was looking at that enermax just like you mentioned. But also read about some of the problems with that system that you experienced. Unfortunately the model of Noctua that you have will not fit in my case. I have been looking at the Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 but it seems to not do well with the wx chips. They are more suited to the 180W tdp chips from what I have read. I may have to “settle” for the 16 core chip rather than the 24.  I’m not sure I can justify the extra cost for the intel chipset. I read about a Corsair unit that gets fairly good marks. I am going to see what the 3rd gen TR looks like on Tuesday before making a decision. I don’t really plan on Overclocking but would like to run a few VMs with one being a gaming pc. 

[bastl]

@patm95 In your situation, I would wait for the 3rd gen release and watch what AMD has to offer. I've read yesterday they might delay it to end of november. If you can wait 5-6 weeks for the release and the first reviews, do it. And watching back to the 2nd gen release, I predict the older chips will also drop significant in price.

[testdasi]

9 hours ago, patm95 said:

Thank you for this detailed response. I was looking at that enermax just like you mentioned. But also read about some of the problems with that system that you experienced. Unfortunately the model of Noctua that you have will not fit in my case. I have been looking at the Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 but it seems to not do well with the wx chips. They are more suited to the 180W tdp chips from what I have read. I may have to “settle” for the 16 core chip rather than the 24.  I’m not sure I can justify the extra cost for the intel chipset. I read about a Corsair unit that gets fairly good marks. I am going to see what the 3rd gen TR looks like on Tuesday before making a decision. I don’t really plan on Overclocking but would like to run a few VMs with one being a gaming pc. 

 

Not sure where you read about the U9 not suitable for WX chips.

Based on the reviews I read (e.g. below), it's entirely sufficient i.e. it didn't thermal throttle with 2990WX load.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-2990wx-cooling&num=5

 

You won't be able to overclock (which perhaps was how the "not suitable for WX" conclusion came about) but then you shouldn't be overclocking Unraid.

 

About water cooling: the only water-cooling you can trust is one that you build yourself.

Otherwise, avoiding hoohahs like the Enermax gunk problem is more or less hope-and-pray.

And even without a major issue, AIO performance will degrade more over time (compared to air cooling) due to unavoidable liquid lost.

 

[patm95]

1 hour ago, testdasi said:

 

Not sure where you read about the U9 not suitable for WX chips.

Based on the reviews I read (e.g. below), it's entirely sufficient i.e. it didn't thermal throttle with 2990WX load.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-2990wx-cooling&num=5

 

You won't be able to overclock (which perhaps was how the "not suitable for WX" conclusion came about) but then you shouldn't be overclocking Unraid.

 

About water cooling: the only water-cooling you can trust is one that you build yourself.

Otherwise, avoiding hoohahs like the Enermax gunk problem is more or less hope-and-pray.

And even without a major issue, AIO performance will degrade more over time (compared to air cooling) due to unavoidable liquid lost.

 

Admittedly, the info about the U9 and WX chips I read in reviews both on web sites and youtube where the reviewer just stated they were not suitable for WX chips.  But provided no real world info to confirm this.  This is great thing to know that they will indeed work!  I was not planning on overclocking at all anyway.  I was more interested in just having the extra cores.

 

@bastlYou are right!  I will wait until the new gen chips are introduced.  I think they are supposed to have more comprehensive information as early as tomorrow and I can easily wait a few more weeks if I have to.

[Dent_]

Wondering if you found a good 4U option? As of now I have a coolermaster Ml360 tr4 on the way that I will have to slightly mod the case for and would rather not if I don't have to. Also an aio is not my most favorite option in a 24/7 server in a rack that I don't look at often due to possible failure but...not a lot of options I have found. 

[patm95]

23 minutes ago, Dent_ said:

Wondering if you found a good 4U option? As of now I have a coolermaster Ml360 tr4 on the way that I will have to slightly mod the case for and would rather not if I don't have to. Also an aio is not my most favorite option in a 24/7 server in a rack that I don't look at often due to possible failure but...not a lot of options I have found. 

Well, I haven't pulled the trigger yet on the threadripper because I keep thinking prices will come down any day now.  But when I do, I plan on getting this fan https://noctua.at/en/nh-u9-tr4-sp3

Seems like my only option at this point...  I agree on the AIO, I just don't think the reliability factor is there. 

[Dent_]

When ever you do pull that trigger I wouldn't mind hearing how that cooler(or whatever cooler you end up with) works out for you. I picked up a tr 3960x and I don't think that cooler will cut it when the cpu is under heavy load, but I would be happy if I were wrong and could switch to a non aio. 

[patm95]

I’ll let you know. Can’t believe you picked up a 3960. I haven’t seen them anywhere in stock. 

[Dent_]

11 hours ago, patm95 said:

I’ll let you know. Can’t believe you picked up a 3960. I haven’t seen them anywhere in stock. 

I got lucky. Working night shift this rotation so more than the usual amount of free time and was watching all my favorite online computer stores. Some time around midnight the day after launch memoryexpress had one pop up on their site and I made one of those probably not smart snap decisions and bought it. Now I get to spend the next three weeks knowing it is in my "nerd room" as my wife calls it and not be able to play. 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Dent_

[ChewbaccaBG]

On 12/2/2019 at 6:36 AM, Dent_ said:

I got lucky. Working night shift this rotation so more than the usual amount of free time and was watching all my favorite online computer stores. Some time around midnight the day after launch memoryexpress had one pop up on their site and I made one of those probably not smart snap decisions and bought it. Now I get to spend the next three weeks knowing it is in my "nerd room" as my wife calls it and not be able to play. 

What mobo do you plan to use for it? I looked for any info on TRX4 mobos compatibility with unraid, iommu, etc. No info yet

Edited December 4, 2019 by ChewbaccaBG
Forgot something..

[patm95]

6 hours ago, ChewbaccaBG said:

What mobo do you plan to use for it? I looked for any info on TRX4 mobos compatibility with unraid, iommu, etc. No info yet

I'm thinking about ordering  a ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming.  Admittedly, I do not know the compatibility of this mobo either, although I suspect that anything relatively new should be ok. 

[Dent_]

4 hours ago, patm95 said:

I'm thinking about ordering  a ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming.  Admittedly, I do not know the compatibility of this mobo either, although I suspect that anything relatively new should be ok. 

Are you still planning on going with the 2970wx?

[ChewbaccaBG]

6 hours ago, patm95 said:

I'm thinking about ordering  a ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming.  Admittedly, I do not know the compatibility of this mobo either, although I suspect that anything relatively new should be ok. 

That mobo won't work with the 3960x.

[Dent_]

2 minutes ago, ChewbaccaBG said:

That mobo won't work with the 3960x.

That wasn't me, that was patm95 that said he is going with the x399 fatality, which is why I was asking if he is going with the 2970wx. I will try and start another thread on those boards, dont want to go off patm95 thread topic

[patm95]

7 hours ago, Dent_ said:

Are you still planning on going with the 2970wx?

Yep still planning on the 2970wx or maybe go with the 16 core if prices don't come down much.