look for the dimensions, if the height of the cooler kind of match the case, there wouldn't be a problem

 

Hi, I have Fractal Design Define R5 and Noctua NH-U14S - which is not what you ask for, but rather similar at least,
my case officially supports cpu cooler height of 180mm, Meshify 2 even 185mm
my Noctua cooler is officially 165mm high with fan, NH-D15 surprisingly also 165mm,

additionally, I had Fractal Design Node 304 before, with rated max cpu cooler height 165mm, and I still could totally fit NH-U14S there


Noctua fans can be mounted freely on the cooler heatsink, so you can mount however you need,
that said, rated 165mm height is considered with front cooler fan being 32mm from motherboard - which may obstruct some RAM sticks, so you may need to add up few cm when mounting first fan higher:



I also checked other more recent Noctua choices, maybe you can get Noctua NH-D15S which is slightly offset NH-D15 without front fan, should do fine and you can save money a bit maybe?
I mean, my NH-U14S can totally cool down 4.3GHz OC'ed i7-5820K, so I wouldn't say anything bigger is necessary, but seeing D15S costs almost same, and has just one more ribs, means it shall perform better at passive cooling, might be an interesting choice for silent/idle operation eventually

 

Last edited: Feb 27, 2021

Thanks that info is perfect. It is great to see that it should generally fit. I will now look up how the Noctua is freely mountable and how to set it up higher

 

In my opinion expensive motherboards are not worth the money. Benchmarks show this time after time. They might be worth it if you're dropping an 5950x 16-core CPU in it and then overclock the hell out of it. But for regular use much any x570 board will do.

Look at the motherboard features and only buy what you really need. Do you really need the integrated ESS Sabre soundcard, the 2.5 GBs network, the 3 x PCIe slots for SLI GFX setups and the crazy VRM for an 8-core cpu?

I'm running a 16-core AMD in a Aorus Elite motherboard of 180$, runs as well as any 500$+ board (if you don't need the extra features that is).

 

Last edited: Feb 27, 2021

The B-series might be also worth looking into. Sure it's older hardware but I'm still happily running a B450 on my home box.

Also consider the connectivity and storage. Cheaper boards sometimes disable some SATA ports if NVMe is in use and so on.

I think most mobo soundchips are useful only if a dedicated interface is not available, and I think all of them exhibit interference noise, at least everything I've tried.

But that's just me, but you raise a valid point not going overboard with the mobo.

 

Great choices overall.
1. Make sure your X570 Aorus Master is revision 1.2. It adds a Thunderbolt 3 header not existing in many rev.1.0 models, a slightly revised chipset fan, and typically comes with an updated BIOS, ready for Ryzen Zen 3 series cpus.
2. I 'd prefer a liquid 360 AIO over the standard Noctua. The NH-D15 is great for up to 6 core cpus or low consumption 8 core. A good 360 CLC will have your 5800X about 8-10 degrees Celcius lower than the NH-D15 at full load, with less noise. Still, the Noctua is a great cooler and cheaper than the premium 360 CLCs, except the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360, which is a top notch cooler and goes for about 100-110 euros, if you can find it. The particular cooler isn't licensed from Acetek (which most liquid AIOs are) but instead is designed by Arctic and also does away with all RGB bling, so it manages to offer top notch performance in a low price with a 5 year warranty.
3. Your ssds of choice are just fine. I prefer the Samsung 970 but the Crucial P5 is great as well. You may consider jumping on the pci-e gen.4 bandwagon with a Samsung 980 Pro (7gb/sec max read) although it is more of an expensive niche product, since you won't be able to fully leverage its speed unless you have other ssd media in there which can be equally fast. With that said it is the fastest prosumer drive in the market atm.
Cheers
Ps: For those cheap vs expensive mobos quotes. You get what you paid for in terms of VRMs, mobo longevity, build quality and features. I can bet anything you like, the more unrealistic benchmarks like Prime95 etc, will literally fry a cheap B450 mobo's VRMs when they have a 12 or 16 core cpu installed. I 've tested such scenarios extensively in person :D
AMD test their cpus with two mobos. Gigabyte's X570 Aorus Master and Asus' X570 Crosshair VIII Hero. They may add an MSI X570 Godlike only for oc comparisons as it is very strong in this department. Now you know

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2021

Avoid liquid metal:
Unless you are doing competitive extreme over-clocking the average low percentage gain is not worth it.
Board & CPU must be prepped properly (must know what you are doing).
Must be applied properly. Not too much, not to little.
Must be re-applied every 6 months on average (evaporation, pitting, corrosive effects).

A few reference points:
Liquid Metal Explained: How it works, why it fails (and how to use it)

Liquid Metal Thermal Paste Explained & The Dangers Explored

 

Sorry to hijack, but since op is also looking at 970 EVO and may be pertinent to him too...

Right now (at least here, in Canada) the Samsung 980 (non-Pro) is a decent amount cheaper than either the Samsung 970 Evo or 970 Evo Plus. Is there any reason to go with either of those 970s over the 980? I had read on a review site that even the non-pro 980 was at least on par with the 970 Evo, but wanted to get more opinions. I'm looking at getting another NVMe, myself and mulling between 970 EVO and 980 (non pro).

 

Not entirely true, I have seen videos of people applying it on their compilations with 10 or even 20 degrees cooler.
for extreme overclocking you use liquid nitrogen, so no ... not the only condition
Physical damage??

1 year of use and it didn't have anything you mentioned so no. the only probable situation that should happen what you mention, is when there is some conductive material similar to aluminum or directly aluminum (in fact, it should be avoided)

in short, one of the advantages it has is the best thermal conductivity. What I do agree with you is that it should be applied with great care

 

Extreme over-clocking also applies to air cooling. One of the best air & sub-zero over-clockers Kingpin, uses specialized paste. Others use his paste or Thermal Grizzly paste from De8auer.

Both De8auer & Windell, from level1 techs, have given their opinions & observations of using liquid metal. Both use liquid metal mainly in laptops & when de-lidding desktop CPUs.

Large AIO or CLC are their preferred choice for normal desktop use. From there it is proven Air coolers (Notua, Sythe, Etc..).

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2021

980 over the EVO. Also consider ADATA. Good performance, price & warranty.
Chose the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S11 pro 1TB over the SX8200 almost two years ago. Same performance range but different pricing.
Getting listed speeds consistently with no degradation or overheating.

Another excellent option is the WD Black SN750 (PCIe 3.0) or the WD Black SN850 (PCIe 4.0).

 

You(Or The OP) can read in to these articles to get a better view.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12674/samsung-announces-970-pro-and-970-evo-nvme-ssds

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16504/the-samsung-ssd-980-500gb-1tb-review

https://www.anandtech.com/show/16087/the-samsung-980-pro-pcie-4-ssd-review

 

Thank you quadcore64 and albert001 .

Both of you helped keep me steered towards the 980 (the articles linked by albert001 seem to back up the performance increase in the 980).

 

I've been using Alienware 25 AW2518Hf monitor and it is one of the best monitors I've used. One of my friends suggested me this monitor for fighting games and I regret nothing. If you want to go with this I'm 100% sure you will not regret it.