When considering the CPU Cooler to purchase for your desktop computer, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind. The size and compatibility of the cooler will be important if you're building a system in a smaller form factor. Some want the strongest possible cooling available to enable overclocking, no matter how loud the cooler gets. I generally prefer to purchase the best quiet CPU cooler, because while I understand why people prefer to have the strongest possible cooling, there is very little performance gained with a loud cooler in a typical desktop build.
As an example, Cooler Master's 240L Core AIO can cool 239W on average during my tests and it's noise levels reach 48.5dBA by default which is rather loud in this author's opinion. Limiting it's noise level to 37.3 dBA, which is less than half as loud, results in total cooling capacity dropping from 239W to 222W. If you do the math, that's a 7% drop in total cooling dissipation - but power consumption doesn't translate linearly to benchmark performance. Single Fan Cpu Water Cooler
The real world benchmark score doesn't change by much when imposing a lower maximum noise level, with Cinbench R23 multi-core scores dropping by 2% - a figure that is almost margin of error. In anything other than a maximum intensity workload, like gaming or application loading times, there is no performance difference whatsoever with a lowered noise level.
With these things in mind, I've put together a guide for the best quiet coolers available on the market today.
Without a doubt, my favorite quiet cooler on the market today is Thermalright's Phantom Spirit 120. I was so impressed by this cooler after testing it that I titled my review "Simply the Best". It offers performance comparable to Noctua's NH-D15 and DeepCool's AK620 while running quieter than it's competition. Not only does it perform well and run quietly, it's available for a rather low price of only $35.59 USD on Amazon.com
The 2nd best quiet cooler on the market I would consider to be DeepCool's AK400. I was rather impressed with its performance when I reviewed the digital version with a fancy LCD display. Despite only having a single tower radiator, it outperforms other quiet coolers on the market with dual towers like BeQuiet's Dark Rock Pro 4. While it doesn't perform quite a strong as Thermalright's Phantom Spirit 120, it also offers slightly lower noise levels. The AK400 is currently available on Amazon.com for $42.99 USD
If budget isn't a consideration, BeQuiet's Dark Rock Elite is the current king of quiet cooling. It features a toggle switch to allow one to switch between "full performance" and "low noise" modes. The "low noise" mode runs at a maximum of 38.9 dBA while cooling over 230W on average. The Dark Rock Elite has an MSRP of $99.90 USD, and is currently available from Amazon for $114.90 USD.
Another strong performing quiet air cooler to consider is DeepCool's Assassin IV which features a checkerboard matrix fin design in a square package that some say is reminiscent of a Borg Cube from Star Trek. It also features a toggle that allows one to change from "quiet" to "performance" modes at the flick of a switch. It runs no louder than 38.9 DBA in its low noise mode, while still cooling an average of 228W when paired with Intel's i7-13700K. DeepCool's Assassin IV is currently available for $109.99 USD on Amazon.com
Fractal's Celsius+ AIOs are currently what I consider the best options on the market for low noise liquid cooling. Like DeepCool's Assassin IV it offers low noise and full performance modes which can be changed by a switch, but unlike the air coolers it is controlled by rotating the CPU block. In its low noise mode, Fractal's coolers run quieter than any competitor on the market with a noise level recorded of only 36.4 dBA - which is about as low as my noise meter can reliably measure.
While Fractal's Celsius+ AIOs are my current favorite quiet AIOs on the market, availability is currently limited and as a result prices are higher than expected. The 240mm version of this cooler is currently available for $146.65 on Amazon.com
The next best option for a quiet liquid cooler is Arctic's Liquid Freezer III line up of AIO liquid coolers. These include a VRM fan atop of the CPU block in order to help cool your RAM and VRMs in addition to your CPU. I haven't tested the most recent model (check out the review from Gamers Nexus), but when I tested the Liquid Freezer II it was much quieter than most competing AIOs which typically run 47-50dBA (or louder!) at full speed. The best part of Arctic's Liquid Freezer III is the price - while it has a MSRP of $115 USD, it is currently on sale at Amazon for the next 30 days for only $90 USD!
I personally think that 120mm AIOs are overrated and that most users would be better off with a good air cooler - but there are certain niche configurations where a 120mm AIO will be the most ideal solution.
Enermax LiqMaxFlo is overall the best 120mm AIO I've tested. It features a fan atop the CPU block which can help keep VRM and RAM temperatures in check - which I imagine would be especially useful in SFF cases that don't have a lot of airflow. It has a maximum noise level of 39.6 dBA, which is much quieter than most competing 120mm AIOs on the market. Enermax LiqMaxFlo has a MSRP of $79.99, but can frequently be found on Amazon.com for up to $10 less.
Corsair's H60x Elite is the most silent running 120mm AIO that I've tested thus far, with a maximum noise level of 38.2 dBA. You can find the H60x Elite on Amazon.com for $79.99 USD.
If you're particular about a quietly running system, you can't get any quieter than a system without fans!
Noctua's NH-P1 is a cooler unlike any other, and is the best fanless CPU cooler currently available on the market. It is a very large heatsink, and as such you'll need to insure your case is appropriate for its size - or run on an open bench. I tested Noctua's NH-P1 with AMD's Ryzen 7700X on my personal blog, Boring Text Reviews, and found it strong enough to handle the CPU in eco mode. With a more hotter Intel i9-13900K CPU, it was still capable of cooling over 125W in long term loads! A fanless cooler this strong doesn't come cheap - it is currently available for $109 USD on Amazon.com
Cooler Master's Cooling X is one of the only fanless pre-built systems that you can buy on the market, engineered for top performance while running silently. Its design utilizes the entire chasis of the computer as a giant heatsink to effectively cool the AMD Ryzen 7950X3D CPU and Nvidia RTX 4080 graphics card.
This sort of niche system is like a work of art - and it's priced like a prized Picasso piece. If you're interested in a completely fanless prebuilt system with this level of power, you're looking at a price of $6,999 USD.
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