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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

Looks like that 499 will include a cooler too. Id probably not use it (liquid cooling is better imho) but an included cooler is a perk.

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I absolutely love that AMD includes solid coolers with all of the Ryzen chips. I run my R5 1600 with the stock cooler, and, though it runs hotter than it would on liquid or a top tier aftermarket cooler, I've still never felt the need to worry about temps. Plus it's relatively quiet.

I think the cooler is a forgotten value add over Intel chips, since any chip you buy from them, whether it comes with a stock cooler or not, is going to require an aftermarket cooler in order to get decent temps/noise levels.

Same on my 2700X, it's got a nice industrial design for a stock (if that is you thing) as well.

I wish they had a slightly cheaper option without a cooler. I already have a good air cooler from Noctua.

Ditto. I end up not buying their X chips because I don't want to pay for another high end cooler that I'm not going to use.

In my country stores are selling OEM Ryzen CPUs for the same price as BOX versions.

It is amazingly cheap (compared to the intel's 1.1K), wonder what could be the reason behind it.

I imagine their manufacturing costs are far lower than Intel's equivalent chip - the 3900X is essentially one and a half of a 3600X (since it has two CPU dies, and one interconnect), while Intel is still in the monolith business.

A modular approach! Kudos to AMD for making it work nicely (anyone remember the first Pentium Ds, that were just two Pentium 4s clobbered together to make a dual-core chip?).

Apart from that, I think you meant two-and-a-half, not one?

Nope, one-and-a-half! Two of the CPU dies, one interconnect die - that's going to be somewhere between one and two!

And their interconnect tech seems like it's going to be of huge importance in the server space - I can only imagine the yields on 8x4 core modules will be far higher than on a monolithic 32 core chip.

> I can only imagine the yields on 8x4 core modules will be far higher than on a monolithic 32 core chip.

The next EPYC's going to be up to 8 chiplets x 8 cores, competing against Intel's current 28-core monolithic die (or their dual-die non-socketed 56-core). How many cores remain enabled on a hypothetical next-generation Threadripper is an open question, but they would probably go beyond 32 cores total. And a 32-core Threadripper would probably not have 8 chiplets but rather four fully-enabled active chiplets and four mechanical spacers.

They probably have something secret to counter intel in the 1k range. Probably 128 cores spread across a square-foot of silicon. Enough output that you can boil your coffee while gaming.

Or bake a pizza, some cookies. Maybe they’ll offer a cast iron skillet version at some point? Play crysis AND get a good sear on dinner.

Isn't that what AMD GPUs are for? They'd be eating their own market share for PCs that double as frying pans/ovens!

If you're basing that comment on TDP, think again.

NVIDIA redefined TDP to their convenience, to mean something more like "averages". So their numbers can't be compared directly.

Always look at third party measurements. I'm looking forward to Navi's, while on the topic, as they've announced large improvements in power efficiency.

Yeah, I know. AMD GPUs also run a lot cooler as of the last time I checked. They've made a lot of progress, although the jokes from the R9 2xx-3xx era of a few years ago are still tempting.

In response to what you said about Navi, I'm also excited about that. I'd really love to see some really strong competition to Nvidia's offerings that might be able to give them a good fight.

Their dominance and tendency to push for proprietary features seems quite bad for the industry as a whole.

If your use case is to fry some meat, I believe Intel still holds the crown.

I'm expecting some new, crazy high binned, extremely expensive Intel CPU with sky-high TDP to be announced soon.

You can do a reasonable drip coffee off 300 watts, so that future is already here!

Intel is just woefully overpriced?

I'd say it's more relevant for something like the 3700X - air cooling is very reasonable for a 65W TDP chip.

You can get practically silent air coolers for ~$40 now too. The only reason I would do liquid cooling now is for the fun of putting one together.

Isn't AIO liquid cooling still a good solution for decent overclocks without emptying your wallet for a custom loop?

To my knowledge, those $40 silent air coolers perform well but still can't match a big liquid radiator.

I can't find the link but a youtuber tested various AOIs and air coolers and a Noctua air cooler did the best job cooling. Unless you like AOIs for some other reason (e.g. some people don't like all the space air coolers take), if you aren't running a custom loop you're probably wasting your money when water cooling.

Interesting. Do you have any idea as to which Noctua cooler it was? Their highest end ones run really close in price to the lower end AIOs.

NH-U12A. And yeah, it's fairly expensive for an air cooler.

Thanks! Been a couple years since I built a new PC, and it's helpful to have that info for anything I might build soonish.

If you don't know about it, pcpartpicker.com is a fantastic resource for building a new system.

It makes researching and comparing a bunch of brands and parts as well as waiting for the best times to buy a breeze.

Yeah, I know about PCPP, used it to research/design my last build. The reason I was asking sbov questions is that I've kinda fallen off the wagon in terms of keeping up with hardware news since I did my last build.

Thanks for the recommendation, though; it really is an awesome resource.

Add to that the extra hassle and maintenance you have to invest in water-cooling (plus the danger of leaks!), air cooling really starts to shine.

Was it the following video by Optimum Tech?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxcDeq4SQII

I recently purchased an NH-U12A and can confirm it is excellent.

Linus Tech Tips recently published a video called "why you shouldn't water cool your PC"; they found that a Noctua NH-U12A ran cooler and quieter than an AIO liquid cooler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23vjWtUpItk

> To my knowledge, those $40 silent air coolers perform well but still can't match a big liquid radiator.

The best air coolers can match AIOs. Specifically Noctua's air coolers can go toe to toe with most commercial AIOs, with one fewer point of failure (pump). At least according to Gamer's Nexus and similar sites.

The biggest arguments for AIOs is:

- Appearance/aesthetics

- Space around the CPU block (air coolers in this league are HUGE)

- Improved small form factor build flexibility

In terms of raw performance, only custom loops really challenge high end air cooling.

With air cooling you typically save some money (even a high end Noctua is often 40% or more cheaper than a branded AIO). No leak issues. Fewer points of failure.

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