Low Profile Noctua Killer Alpenfohn Black Ridge

The Black Ridge: A Low-Profile Powerhouse for Slim Cases

When it comes to CPU coolers, often we have to sacrifice performance for size, but the Black Ridge changes that narrative. This low-profile cooler stands at an impressive 47 millimeters in height and can compete with even taller coolers in terms of cooling performance. But how does it stack up against other popular options?

The author puts the Black Ridge through its paces, testing it against a range of popular CPU coolers, including the Cry Rig Z7G and the Noctua NHL 12. In these tests, the Black Ridge proved to be a strong contender, with temperatures that were often even with or better than its more established competitors.

One notable test saw the author compare the Black Ridge against the Knock, which is typically considered one of the best low-profile coolers available. While the Knock did manage to beat the Black Ridge in some tests, the difference was not as significant as expected. In fact, the Black Ridge often outperformed the Knock, particularly when running at higher TDP settings.

But performance isn't the only factor that matters - noise levels are also an important consideration for many users. The author notes that while the Black Ridge can be quite loud, even louder than some of its competitors, a simple fan swap can make a significant difference. By swapping out the stock fan for a Noctua NF-A9 i14, the Black Ridge's noise levels were reduced to almost comparable those of the Knock.

The Black Ridge's versatility is also worth noting. With a slim 120mm fan that can be added on top of the heatsink, this cooler becomes an extremely powerful dual-fan setup at just 62 millimeters in height. This makes it an attractive option for users who need to squeeze maximum cooling performance out of their low-profile systems.

The author notes that even with its lower profile, the Black Ridge can still hold its own against some of the tallest coolers available. In fact, it's often found to be just as effective - or even more so - than these taller coolers when used in a slim case like the Velcro 5 SFX or similar designs.

Of course, there are some limitations to consider. The Black Ridge may not be suitable for all systems, particularly those with high-power processors that require extreme cooling performance. However, for users who need a reliable and effective low-profile cooler, the Black Ridge is definitely worth considering.

In terms of specific tests, the author notes that the Black Ridge can handle the demands of the 9900K, although at reduced power settings. It may also struggle with the demands of the 3900X, although it's not impossible to coax performance out of this processor using aggressive power settings.

The author concludes by recommending the Black Ridge as an excellent option for users who need a low-profile cooler that can handle a range of system configurations. With its versatility, reliability, and performance capabilities, this cooler is definitely worth considering - especially in slim cases where maximum cooling performance may be at a premium.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso one of the biggest compromises in small form-factor computing is CPU cooling and although processes are becoming more efficient and a lot easier to call in general as time goes on there's only so much power that you can still cram inside a small form-factor computer now we've tested a lot of CPU coolers like this one here but one that we've yet to test is this guy right here the app and phone blackridge the reason that this one is so exciting from a performance standpoint is because it was actually developed by the creator of the den a for SFX so let's see how far we can really push this thing so before we dive in I'll just say that this cooler is easily one of the nicest that I've come across looks and appearance are usually not something that I mentioned when it comes to CPU coolers because it's mostly irrelevant but this is the first heatsink that I've picked up and said damn that is a nice-looking CPU cooler the entire heatsink is finished in a metallic gunmetal gray which will look nice in pretty much any system and one thing I love is the sheer density when it comes to the fin array from that alone you can tell that the cooling performance is at the top of the priority list another spec that screams performance here are the six six millimeter copper heat pipes that can just squeeze their way onto the copper cold plate for reference many competing low-profile coolers use for heat pipes so on paper at least the blackridge does have an advantage the most important spec worth mentioning though is the height of the low-profile cooler itself seeing as this will limit what cases are compatible and I can only really think of two maybe three cases off the top of my head that aren't compatible with the open phone blackridge the height here comes in at 47 millimeters so it's gonna be a snug fit in cases like the DNA for SFX and the velcro five that also makes the direct competitor to this cooler the cryo rig c7 copper and c7 graphite one thing I love about the black Ridge though is the versatility seeing as this cooler can effectively be used in four different configurations you've got the stock configuration out of the box with the stock 92mph and underneath then if you have some VOP or very low profile memory dims handy you can swap that out for a high-performing slim 120 ml fan or if you have the additional clearance available you can mount a 120 ml fan on top of the cooler whether that's a slim fan or full-sized fan depends on your clearance the mounting brackets are also included in the box and they're nice and easy to use too both for the slim and full sized fans there's no reason why you can't run a dual fan setup like this either bringing the total height to 62 millimetres and that's something that I did get around to testing now I don't have VOP memory here at the moment but if you do have the opportunity to use that in your build then you can use the slim 120 ml fan underneath and spoiler alert that's going to be a very powerful load for while calling option a slim 120 ml fan mounted on top of the cola means that it will fill out the clearance of something like the ghost s1 a little bit better but still leave some room between the side panel also the stock fan is oriented as a push against the heatsink instead of pulling the air through it out of the box this doesn't provide the best thermal results as we'll see in a second the fan itself is a pretty average slim 92 mm fan it spins up to 2800 rpm I definitely recommend swapping this out to something quieter and more effective like the Noctua nfa nine by fourteen I'll leave that linked down below now in terms of mounting the black Ridge it's an absolute breeze just install the mounting brackets onto the cooler and then screw it in from the back of the motherboard same process for both Intel and AMD sockets just different brackets now probably the biggest compromise when it comes to the Alpen foam black Ridge is compatibility although this is a really high performance caller as we will soon see to get that sort of performance they really did have to utilize every square millimeter available that you can get on most motherboards which means that it doesn't actually fit on some motherboards so I'm on the boards with a very tall vrm heatsink or a very tall IO shroud for example like the Strix boards the Irish shroud there will have to be removed just do some research on the specific board that you have because it may or may not fit now let's jump to the thermal results starting with some brief testing with the i-5 8400 so keep in mind this is while running blender for 15 minutes on an open test bench and as I mentioned previously out of the box the black Ridge coolers fan is not oriented in the optimal direction just flipping the fancies about a 5 degree drop for our I 5 with pretty much no difference to noise with the fan running as an intake that's pulling air in through the heatsink and blowing towards the motherboard we see that it's about even with the cry rig z7g and the Noctua NHL 12 at a TDP of just 65 watts though we're not really loading up the coolers that much that's why we don't see much of a big difference between these callers here stepping up to the diluted 8700 k test the heat sinks get the opportunity to soak up a bit more heat here the black route shows that it is in fact the better option over the identical height cry route caused by a couple of degrees but has even more leverage when you swap out the stock fan by swapping to the Noctua nfa nine by fourteen they're slim 92mph and we get a further two degree drop here and certainly that value would be larger with a higher TDP processor and not only do we get a slight temperature reduction but noise levels were much better - we'll take a look at that in just a second at this point we're about on par with knock - as NH L twelve although at a slightly higher noise level but at around 20 mils of lower clearance I also found it to beat knock towards l9 by 65 which is again a slightly larger cooler in summary at 47 millimeters in height the blackridge can compete with callers about 20 mils taller that's pretty neat if you own a DNA for SFX velcro 5 or a similar slim case the versatility is pretty impressive - by adding in a slim 120 ml fan on top of the heatsink making this a powerful dual fan setup at 62 millimeters in height I found the blackridge to be a few degrees better than still taller options and be about even with knock tours NHL 12s the L 12s comes in at 17 millimeters tall and has a much larger heatsink although not as dense as the black Ridge and by adding in a full size 120 ml fan stretching the height to 72 millimeters it's the most powerful low-profile heatsink that I've tested on this chart although I struggled to recommend a case for this configuration out of the box though the black ridge is really loud even louder than the cry rig see seven at full blast and man those Creek fans are practically hate jet engine so the Noctua fan swap can't be recommended enough the black ridge also seemed a bit higher pitch in terms of noise compared to the other low profile callers even with the knocked off fan swap and I think that was due to the higher density of the fin array when installed inside a case though I don't really think that's going to be much of an issue here's an idea of what that sounds like so usually when it comes to CPU coolers you can pretty much well estimate how they're going to perform based only on the CPU cooler high but at 47 millimeters this cooler is really impressive I mean it's competing up against calls that a 60 65 even 70 mils in height so really this is an easy recommendation from me if you have a Velcro five this is the caller to get if you have any case that requires a CPU cooler that's under 50 mils in height even under 60 mils in height I would consider this but yeah definitely under 50 mils in height this is the call to get also if you have a DNA for SFX I mean it's a pretty much a no-brainer there it was designed by the creator of the tanning for after all are the only better option there would be the 92mm AIO but everyone wants to go down that route also if you do have VLP or very low profile memory not this this is just regular low profile memory but if you do have the very low profile memory you can then put a 120 mil slim fan underneath and that's not a configuration that I got around to testing today because I don't have VLP memory but I can't even imagine what the coin performance would be like there that would be pretty insane now I always get asked about the limitations of coolers for example can this run the 3900 X can this run a 9900 K it definitely won't run a 3900 X it might run in 9900 K if you reduce the power limit this can definitely run a 3,800 X the new rise an eight-core and it should have no problem running the 9700 K either so that's it from me guys if you are interested in this you can find out where to grab it down below as always a huge thanks for watching consider subscribing down below and I'll see you all in the next oneso one of the biggest compromises in small form-factor computing is CPU cooling and although processes are becoming more efficient and a lot easier to call in general as time goes on there's only so much power that you can still cram inside a small form-factor computer now we've tested a lot of CPU coolers like this one here but one that we've yet to test is this guy right here the app and phone blackridge the reason that this one is so exciting from a performance standpoint is because it was actually developed by the creator of the den a for SFX so let's see how far we can really push this thing so before we dive in I'll just say that this cooler is easily one of the nicest that I've come across looks and appearance are usually not something that I mentioned when it comes to CPU coolers because it's mostly irrelevant but this is the first heatsink that I've picked up and said damn that is a nice-looking CPU cooler the entire heatsink is finished in a metallic gunmetal gray which will look nice in pretty much any system and one thing I love is the sheer density when it comes to the fin array from that alone you can tell that the cooling performance is at the top of the priority list another spec that screams performance here are the six six millimeter copper heat pipes that can just squeeze their way onto the copper cold plate for reference many competing low-profile coolers use for heat pipes so on paper at least the blackridge does have an advantage the most important spec worth mentioning though is the height of the low-profile cooler itself seeing as this will limit what cases are compatible and I can only really think of two maybe three cases off the top of my head that aren't compatible with the open phone blackridge the height here comes in at 47 millimeters so it's gonna be a snug fit in cases like the DNA for SFX and the velcro five that also makes the direct competitor to this cooler the cryo rig c7 copper and c7 graphite one thing I love about the black Ridge though is the versatility seeing as this cooler can effectively be used in four different configurations you've got the stock configuration out of the box with the stock 92mph and underneath then if you have some VOP or very low profile memory dims handy you can swap that out for a high-performing slim 120 ml fan or if you have the additional clearance available you can mount a 120 ml fan on top of the cooler whether that's a slim fan or full-sized fan depends on your clearance the mounting brackets are also included in the box and they're nice and easy to use too both for the slim and full sized fans there's no reason why you can't run a dual fan setup like this either bringing the total height to 62 millimetres and that's something that I did get around to testing now I don't have VOP memory here at the moment but if you do have the opportunity to use that in your build then you can use the slim 120 ml fan underneath and spoiler alert that's going to be a very powerful load for while calling option a slim 120 ml fan mounted on top of the cola means that it will fill out the clearance of something like the ghost s1 a little bit better but still leave some room between the side panel also the stock fan is oriented as a push against the heatsink instead of pulling the air through it out of the box this doesn't provide the best thermal results as we'll see in a second the fan itself is a pretty average slim 92 mm fan it spins up to 2800 rpm I definitely recommend swapping this out to something quieter and more effective like the Noctua nfa nine by fourteen I'll leave that linked down below now in terms of mounting the black Ridge it's an absolute breeze just install the mounting brackets onto the cooler and then screw it in from the back of the motherboard same process for both Intel and AMD sockets just different brackets now probably the biggest compromise when it comes to the Alpen foam black Ridge is compatibility although this is a really high performance caller as we will soon see to get that sort of performance they really did have to utilize every square millimeter available that you can get on most motherboards which means that it doesn't actually fit on some motherboards so I'm on the boards with a very tall vrm heatsink or a very tall IO shroud for example like the Strix boards the Irish shroud there will have to be removed just do some research on the specific board that you have because it may or may not fit now let's jump to the thermal results starting with some brief testing with the i-5 8400 so keep in mind this is while running blender for 15 minutes on an open test bench and as I mentioned previously out of the box the black Ridge coolers fan is not oriented in the optimal direction just flipping the fancies about a 5 degree drop for our I 5 with pretty much no difference to noise with the fan running as an intake that's pulling air in through the heatsink and blowing towards the motherboard we see that it's about even with the cry rig z7g and the Noctua NHL 12 at a TDP of just 65 watts though we're not really loading up the coolers that much that's why we don't see much of a big difference between these callers here stepping up to the diluted 8700 k test the heat sinks get the opportunity to soak up a bit more heat here the black route shows that it is in fact the better option over the identical height cry route caused by a couple of degrees but has even more leverage when you swap out the stock fan by swapping to the Noctua nfa nine by fourteen they're slim 92mph and we get a further two degree drop here and certainly that value would be larger with a higher TDP processor and not only do we get a slight temperature reduction but noise levels were much better - we'll take a look at that in just a second at this point we're about on par with knock - as NH L twelve although at a slightly higher noise level but at around 20 mils of lower clearance I also found it to beat knock towards l9 by 65 which is again a slightly larger cooler in summary at 47 millimeters in height the blackridge can compete with callers about 20 mils taller that's pretty neat if you own a DNA for SFX velcro 5 or a similar slim case the versatility is pretty impressive - by adding in a slim 120 ml fan on top of the heatsink making this a powerful dual fan setup at 62 millimeters in height I found the blackridge to be a few degrees better than still taller options and be about even with knock tours NHL 12s the L 12s comes in at 17 millimeters tall and has a much larger heatsink although not as dense as the black Ridge and by adding in a full size 120 ml fan stretching the height to 72 millimeters it's the most powerful low-profile heatsink that I've tested on this chart although I struggled to recommend a case for this configuration out of the box though the black ridge is really loud even louder than the cry rig see seven at full blast and man those Creek fans are practically hate jet engine so the Noctua fan swap can't be recommended enough the black ridge also seemed a bit higher pitch in terms of noise compared to the other low profile callers even with the knocked off fan swap and I think that was due to the higher density of the fin array when installed inside a case though I don't really think that's going to be much of an issue here's an idea of what that sounds like so usually when it comes to CPU coolers you can pretty much well estimate how they're going to perform based only on the CPU cooler high but at 47 millimeters this cooler is really impressive I mean it's competing up against calls that a 60 65 even 70 mils in height so really this is an easy recommendation from me if you have a Velcro five this is the caller to get if you have any case that requires a CPU cooler that's under 50 mils in height even under 60 mils in height I would consider this but yeah definitely under 50 mils in height this is the call to get also if you have a DNA for SFX I mean it's a pretty much a no-brainer there it was designed by the creator of the tanning for after all are the only better option there would be the 92mm AIO but everyone wants to go down that route also if you do have VLP or very low profile memory not this this is just regular low profile memory but if you do have the very low profile memory you can then put a 120 mil slim fan underneath and that's not a configuration that I got around to testing today because I don't have VLP memory but I can't even imagine what the coin performance would be like there that would be pretty insane now I always get asked about the limitations of coolers for example can this run the 3900 X can this run a 9900 K it definitely won't run a 3900 X it might run in 9900 K if you reduce the power limit this can definitely run a 3,800 X the new rise an eight-core and it should have no problem running the 9700 K either so that's it from me guys if you are interested in this you can find out where to grab it down below as always a huge thanks for watching consider subscribing down below and I'll see you all in the next one\n"