What's the Best 1U CPU Cooler

Finding the right 1U CPU cooler doesn’t need to be hard. We already have the most comprehensive range of 1U coolers on the market – from our chosen partners at Dynatron as well as our own range from Logic Case.

The first task when it comes to finding the right CPU cooler is finding out if you want Passive or Active cooling.

Passive cooling is only suitable for specific rackmount chassis – normally 1U or 2U and they must be suited to the size of the case. A 2U cooler won’t physically fit in 1U, but you can’t use a 1U in 2U as the airflow won’t be going through the cool air won’t be pushed through the heatsink properly. It’s also important to check the built in fans in the chassis are suitable for cooling the CPU you intend to use. If you’re not sure, get in touch and we can help.

Active cooling is the most popular. It generally allows for a higher wattage (TDP) CPU to be used and it doesn’t rely on your chassis having suitable cooling. Active cooling however does introduce a mechanical part, a single blower (or normal style) fan – which could potentially fail. If using a chassis with passive cooling then you would generally have 2 or more fans directing airflow over the CPU so in the event of one of those failing then it is less likely the system would overheat.

Once you’ve figured which model of CPU cooler to go with them you need to decide what brand.

We stock and supply Dynatron and Logic Case, but we can also supply from other manufacturers such as Noctua if a quiet solution is needed.

Dynatron

All the Dynatron coolers are an all-copper design and for 1U active these will use a blower style fan. These fans are also of high quality and have a very high MTBF.

Logic Case

Very similar to Dynatron in look and feel, although the range is limited to only 115x/1200 coolers. These also make use of a blower style fan and have an all-copper construction.

Noctua

An example model is the Noctua NH-L9i. This is a low profile cooler and can be used in a 1U system. Do note though that all Noctua coolers use a standard fan – not a blower tyle, so they are not very efficient at cooling. A blower style will “suck” the hot air off the heatsink and through orientating it, would blow it out the back of the chassis. A Noctua fan will just push the cool air on top of the cooler which then disperses around inside the case, with no clear direction of the hot air.

We wouldn’t recommend a Noctua cooler for a business grade server, but for light home lab use or similar and where noise levels are critical then a Noctua cooler would be suitable.