Best CPU Air Coolers To Get For Your PC In 2020

When it comes to building your pc, you want everything to be the best in each category though that also depends on your budget. Therefore, choosing the right cooler for your CPU is vital and I’m not talking about the way it looks or fits in your case, I’m talking about how it keeps the thermals of your CPU as low as possible so you don’t see a performance decrease. It helps to have a good cooler that gives maximum performance, has high durability, is not noisy and allows long gaming sessions without you worrying over your temperatures. In this guide, we are going to go over some of the best CPU air coolers that you can buy in 2020.

Why Buy A CPU Air Cooler?

Well, some may argue here that it is a personal preference. Others might say that liquid coolers offer more cooling as they do a tad better when it comes to relocating the heat they gather, which they eventually release outside of the system via the fans of the radiator. In a nutshell, Air coolers offer a better price to performance ratios. They are considerably cheaper when it comes to custom liquid coolers and even some AIOs.

The overall effectiveness of an air cooler depends mainly on its material that’s used in its construction, aluminum is cheaper and provides decent performance, copper, on the other hand, is more expensive but conducts heat better than aluminum.

In the end, you also avoid all the risks that come with liquid coolers, as we all know that if a liquid cooler leaks it can be quite catastrophic for your system and may result in losing your entire system.

While most CPUs do come with a cooler out of the box. If you get the K series SKUs from intel or X series CPUs from AMD then you will need to get an aftermarket CPU cooler. If your default cooler has given up and you need something on a budget then an air cooler is the way to go as they are cheaper than liquid coolers.

If you are interested in spending some more money for better thermals and silent operation then you can check out our recommendations for the best AIO liquid coolers that you can buy in 2020.

Best CPU Air Coolers To Keep Those Thermals In Check

Now that you know how an air cooler works and why you should opt for one, we are going to move onto our list for the best air coolers in 2020.

The following are the best CPU air coolers that we are going to investigate in this article and some of their main features that might help you in deciding which to buy:

Now that we’ve taken a look at their specifications, let’s take a closer look at each of them

Noctua NH-D15

This cooler is one of the most expensive air coolers out there, but there’s a reason for why it’s expensive, Its performance is near similar to many of the AIOs on the market and it even beats some of them in terms of performance.

The cooler has a dual-tower heatsink and it comes in with dual 140mm high airflow fans.  You can hardly hear this beauty even when it’s spinning its fans at 100%! that being said however it is quite big so you’ll need to get a bigger case if you want one of these bad boys.

Pros:

• Excellent performance
• Very quiet
• Well known
• Handles heat very well
• Fits mid tower and full towers
• 6-year warranty
• Thermal paste included

Cons:

• Bulky
• Expensive for an air cooler

Cooler Master MA620M – Best Design

I’ve always recommended people to buy cooler master products. This one comes in black with RGB lighting which looks very cool. It is not cheap but you get a dual tower cooler with 6 heat pipes. Overclocking is going to be pretty good with this cooler. You get a SF120R fan with the cooler.

Pros:

• RGB
• Great cooling performance
• Sleek look
• 6 heatpipes

Cons:

• Bulky for small cases

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO – Best Budget Air Cooler

For people who are veterans in the PC building community, they will recognize this piece. The 212 CPU cooler has been around for well over a decade now and there’s a good reason it’s still here. It has a price tag of a mere $30 and can dish out a good performance and keep your CPU cool.

The hyper 212 gives an increased performance and being a small cooler can fit in pretty much any case.

Pros:

• Very Cheap
• AM4 Compatible
• Slim profile

Cons: 

• Loud

Noctua NH-L12S – Best Air Cooler For Small Form Factor PCs

If your looking for a very low profile cooler for your system then you need not look ahead, this cooler offers premium build quality and high performance. In high-profile mode, the cooling is significantly increased even more.

Pros:

• Quiet Performance
• Low Profile
• Best for small form factor PC builds

Cons:

• Hard to replace RAM while installed
• No RGB

Deepcool Assassin III

This cooler brings its twin cooling towers and a whopping seven heat pipes with two 140mm fans to the playing field. Combine all this and you get an extremely awesome cooling and next to no noise. If you have a big CPU that’s worrying you on thermals, you might want to look into this bad boy.

Pros:

• Budget-Friendly
• Silent
• Excellent Performance
• 7 Heatpipes
• 5-year Warranty

Cons:

• No RGB
• Doesn’t support all AMD and Intel Sockets

Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4

Ah yes, the dark rock pro 4 is an extremely powerful air cooler that can even take on and even beat most of the AIO 240mm liquid coolers. It’s beefy and its performance is exceptional and it’s a silent one even at high RPMs, need I say more? Though if you opt for this cooler you will need a pretty big case and spacing. This cooler is very very big.

Pros:

• Impressive Build Quality
• Not Noisy
• Exceptional Performance
• Nice To look at

Cons:

• Expensive
• Really big and heavy
• Will cover your DIMM slots

These are all the Best CPU Air Coolers that we can recommend for 2020. If you are interested in this kind of content then you can check out our recommendations for the best PC cases that you can buy right now.