Antony Leather is Custom PC’s modding editor @antonyleatherHands on with Der8auer’s OC brackets
AMD’s latest 3rd-gen Ryzen CPUs use
exactly the same socket as its very first
Ryzen chips, and Socket AM4’s familiar
mounting arms mean that a CPU cooler
from 2017 will still physically sit fine
on an X570 motherboard. However,
AMD’s latest Ryzen CPUs are quite
different from their predecessors
under the heatspreader.
Traditionally, there’s just one die on
a CPU, whether it’s a mainstream CPU
or one of Intel’s massive monolithic
high core count monsters. AMD has
changed this, though, with the latest
Zen 2 CPUs sporting several dies on
the substrate, with separate 7nm CPU
chiplets and a 12nm I/O die.
The problem is that the centre of the
heatspreader – the point at which all
coolers and waterblocks focus their
cooling efforts – is no longer occupied
by an underlying die. The 12nm I/O die,
for example, isn’t a component that will
be impacted by many heavy CPU loads
or overclocking, and it sits to the left of
the centreline under the heatspreader.
Meanwhile, the 7nm core chiplet dies
sit way off to the right of that centreline.
If you look at a delidded 3rd-gen Ryzen
CPU, you’ll see a large gap between the
two dies that sits right under the centre
of your typical waterblock. The core
chiplet die is so far away, in fact, that it
WithourDIYwater-coolingsystem,
usingcomponentsfromCorsair’s
HydroXrange,weonlysawa 2°C
dropinthepeakCPUtemperature,
despiteseveralremountsand
thermalpasteapplications.Giventhe
coolingonoffer,thismaybewasn’t
surprising,especiallywiththelarge
contactplateandcoolingareainside
thewaterblock.
OurCorsairH100iRGBPlatinum
cooler,though,benefitedbya massive
5°C,withthepeaktemperaturefalling
from76°Cto71°Cwhenswitching
fromthestockmountstotheOC
bracket.Thecooler’ssmallercooling
areaprobablybenefitedmorefrom
beingfocusedonthehotspotthan
theDIYwater-coolingkit.Bothkits
areavailablefromoverclockers.
co.ukfor£25incVAT,andwecan
certainlyrecommendtheAIOversion,
especiallyif youwanttogetbest
coolingforAMD’s3rd-genRyzen
CPUswitheight, 12 or 16 cores.Thetemplates
allowyouangle
thenewsocket
mountscorrectlyThe AIO cooler kit has adjustable mounts for
repositioning the pump sectionThe DIY waterblock
kit has templates
to alignthe
socketmountsfor
differentCPUsmay even sit outside the prime cooling
zone of some waterblocks too, leading
to higher temperatures.
There is a potential solution, though,
in the form of YouTube star Der8auer’s
latest product – an OC bracket. I reached
out to him and he kindly sent both sets
of these brackets to me – one for all-in-
one (AIO) liquid coolers and another kit
for DIY-loop waterblocks. They work by
displacing your waterblock’s focus in the
direction of the core chiplet dies, and he
claims they boost cooling of the actual
CPU cores by having the waterblock’s
main cooling area sitting more in line
with them.
The AIO liquid cooler kit is compatible
with most Asetek-made coolers that
use the stock mounting clips, replacing
them on Socket AM4 motherboards.
The new brackets come with
adjustable plates and screws that
can be moved to the sides as well as
back and forth. Der8auer includes
measurements for different CPUs
here, depending on whether they
have the full complement of active
core chiplet dies, such as the Ryzen 9
3950X, or just one, such as the Ryzen 7
3800X we used in our testing.
The DIY water-cooling version uses
custom mounts for each hole around
the socket, which enables you to use
several offsets, each moving the
waterblock by different amounts, so it
sits more squarely over the core chiplet
dies. A template is included to adjust
the mounts according to your CPU.