Some popular coolers are not compatible with Asus Z690 and B660 motherboards

[midian182]

Why it matters: If you're thinking about upgrading to Alder Lake and want to take your current cooler with you, make sure it works with that LGA 1700 motherboard—especially if it's an Asus mobo, which are having issues with products from big cooling brands, despite the free compatibility kits.

Guru3D reports that cooler-maker Noctua has updated its compatibility list to show that several of its coolers are not compatible or may have issues with certain Asus Z690 and yet-to-be-released B660 motherboards.

Some of Noctua's most popular products, including the NH-D15, NH-U12S, and NH-U12A, are shown as incompatible with the entire ROG Strix Z690 series from Asus, along with some boards from its unreleased B660 line.

The issues are mostly the result of the height of the heatsink covering the VRMs, making the cooler and motherboard combination mechanically incompatible.

One of the boards, the Z690-G Gaming WIFI, runs into problems because the cooler overhangs the top PCIe x16 slot, stopping owners from using the Gen 5 slot, and some mobos are still under evaluation.

Noctua was one of the first companies to announce it would be offering free LGA 1700 Alder Lake CPU mounting kits to owners of its coolers, but it seems some Asus boards are still running into compatibility problems.

The issues aren't limited to Noctua coolers. Both be quiet! and Arctic have released their own compatibility lists. In the case of the former, several Asus motherboards are mechanically incompatible due to their designs. There are also mobos where installed coolers could interfere with the memory.

Arctic Cooling says there are compatibility issues with its Liquid Freezer II line. However, the company notes that removing the water pump's PCB cover that interferes with the VRM heatsink (on certain motherboards) addresses the problem. This solution won't negatively affect the cooler itself.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/92182-popular-coolers-have-compatibility-issues-asus-z690-b660.html

 

[Geralt]

One problem after the other. Intel is very famous for doing this kind of things.

 

[Yenega]

This is to be expected on a new platform. This is up to the cooling manufacturers to fix.

Was people able to re-use their AM3 cooler for AM4? No.

 

[Yenega]

One problem after the other. Intel is very famous for doing this kind of things.

Kidding me right, Ryzen 1000 series was a beta test from launch to end, 2000 series and new chipset 400 series was the "fix"

Tons of issues and this was to be expected too, since it was a brand new platform.

Memory compatiblity issues was not fixed for months and months, people ran their DDR4 memory at lower speed and worse timings to keep their machines stable and lost performance as a result.

And how many took their AM3 coolers and re-used for AM4? Same thing here. New platform = New cooler, most of the time. You can't ensure compatiblity when board layout differs.

If you really want to re-use your cooler, pick a board that will fit it - not hard

 

[Irata]

This is to be expected on a new platform. This is up to the cooling manufacturers to fix.

Was people able to re-use their AM3 cooler for AM4? No.

Yes, that‘s terrible that coolers made for AM3 introduced in 2009 did not work on AM4 introduced in 2017.

You know the funny thing - AM3 coolers that did not need a dedicated back plate, I.e. were mounted to the stock retention module did work fine as the retaining lugs for AM3 and AM4 were identical.

And there were kits for many other aftermarket coolers. So yes, you could in fact use many coolers made for AM3 introduced in 2009 on AM4 introduced in 2017.

Here‘s a Computer Base article on the topic - in German, might want to use Google translate:

https://www.computerbase.de/2017-01/cpu-kuehler-umruest-kits-amd-am4-kompatibilitaet/

Oh, and here from EKWB:

EK confirms AMD® Socket AM4 compatibility - ekwb.com

EK Water Blocks, the market leader in high-end liquid cooling for PC products, confirms that all of its current CPU water blocks will fully support the latest AMD® Socket AM4 series processors (codename Ryzen) as the additional free upgrade.

www.ekwb.com

 

[Yenega]

Yes, that‘s terrible that coolers made for AM3 introduced in 2009 did not work on AM4 introduced in 2017.

You know the funny thing - AM3 coolers that did not need a dedicated back plate, I.e. were mounted to the stock retention module did work fine as the retaining lugs for AM3 and AM4 were identical.

And there were kits for many other aftermarket coolers. So yes, you could in fact use many coolers made for AM3 introduced in 2009 on AM4 introduced in 2017.

Here‘s a Computer Base article on the topic - in German, might want to use Google translate:

https://www.computerbase.de/2017-01/cpu-kuehler-umruest-kits-amd-am4-kompatibilitaet/

Oh, and here from EKWB:

EK confirms AMD® Socket AM4 compatibility - ekwb.com

EK Water Blocks, the market leader in high-end liquid cooling for PC products, confirms that all of its current CPU water blocks will fully support the latest AMD® Socket AM4 series processors (codename Ryzen) as the additional free upgrade.

www.ekwb.com

Intel coolers for mainstream platform has been supported for 12+ years on the same boards, so what are you trying to say?

Socket 115x spands over many generations.

Noctua D14 from 2009 works just fine on a 11900K from 2020..

And with a NM-i17xx-MP83 mounting kit you can continue to use this cooler an Alder Lake and Raptor Lake too ... if board is the right one (who does not check for stuff like this, before buying anyway).

You can find AM4 boards that don't fit some AM4 coolers too, pointless to even talk about this, this have always been the case. Some coolers won't fit on some boards. The compatiblity list exists for this reason.

 

[Uncle Al]

This is not a complicated engineering problem .... sounds like they want to make it exclusive and if they guys in marketing had ANY sense or ANY pull with the CEO it should have been nix'ed from the get go.

 

[Lounds]

This is to be expected on a new platform. This is up to the cooling manufacturers to fix.

Was people able to re-use their AM3 cooler for AM4? No.

I used a Corsair H80 from 2013 on my AM4 motherboard no issues.

 

[wiyosaya]

One problem after the other. Intel is very famous for doing this kind of things.

The overriding issue for me is sIntel's dismal socket compatibility across CPU generations. That will be a factor in not using sIntel for my next build.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

The overriding issue for me is sIntel's dismal socket compatibility across CPU generations. That will be a factor in not using sIntel for my next build.

AMD is so much better, having to be bullied into supporting 2 year odl motherboards, with missing features for those new CPUs. How many 300 series owners are buying ryzen 5000 CPUs? Most builds you see with ryzen 5000 are using 500 series boards, not 300s.

Most people dont replace their CPU every two years. If you are waiting 7-8 years (as you should, there is no reason unless you are doing productivity to upgrade more often) then the changes in platform justify a new board.

 

[Irata]

Intel coolers for mainstream platform has been supported for 12+ years on the same boards, so what are you trying to say?

Socket 115x spands over many generations.

Noctua D14 from 2009 works just fine on a 11900K from 2020..

And with a NM-i17xx-MP83 mounting kit you can continue to use this cooler an Alder Lake and Raptor Lake too ... if board is the right one (who does not check for stuff like this, before buying anyway).

You can find AM4 boards that don't fit some AM4 coolers too, pointless to even talk about this, this have always been the case. Some coolers won't fit on some boards. The compatiblity list exists for this reason.

I was obviously responding to your post stating

This is to be expected on a new platform. This is up to the cooling manufacturers to fix.

Was people able to re-use their AM3 cooler for AM4? No.

The funny thing is that in your latest post, you say that it‘s perfectly normal for older coolers to work on newer boards, contradicting your earlier post.

Lastly, there is a difference between the stock cooler brackets being compatible between generations (AM3 and AM4) and manufacturers being great and supporting multiple gen, in the case of Noctua several Intel and AMD Sockets going back until at least 2006 (AM2).

 

[Ludak021]

This is to be expected on a new platform. This is up to the cooling manufacturers to fix.

Was people able to re-use their AM3 cooler for AM4? No.

If they bought the new mounting kit for their old cooler then yes, of course. I've been reusing old coolers for over a decade almost. Megahalems and some Thermalrights...

 

[BadThad]

An overhang issue with the VRM's? Ever hear of a Dremel tool? Just chop down the physical part causing the problem. I've done it plenty of times when a cooler blocks the memory slot, just shave it down a little and it's good!

 

[wiyosaya]

If they bought the new mounting kit for their old cooler then yes, of course. I've been reusing old coolers for over a decade almost. Megahalems and some Thermalrights...

I'm a Thermalright fan myself.

AMD is so much better, having to be bullied into supporting 2 year odl motherboards, with missing features for those new CPUs. How many 300 series owners are buying ryzen 5000 CPUs? Most builds you see with ryzen 5000 are using 500 series boards, not 300s.

I cannot say that I am sympathetic to AMD's dilemma. Perhaps they should not have said that future CPUs were going to be socket compatible and then, perhaps, people would not be complaining that they were/are not doing what they advertised?

Most people dont replace their CPU every two years. If you are waiting 7-8 years (as you should, there is no reason unless you are doing productivity to upgrade more often) then the changes in platform justify a new board.

As I see it, this example is only one of many use cases/reasons to upgrade. There are plenty of other avenues to upgrade. There's a huge used CPU market on e-bay for those that cannot afford or do not want to spring for a new system every so often, and being able to go to a faster/newer CPU (even if the MB does not support newer features that may bring questionable performance gains) may well be worth it for some rather than having to lay out substantially more money for a completely new platform.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Oh look an all new platform is having teething problems, never heard of that before.

 

[Watzupken]

I feel this is an early adopter problem. And another hurdle for people looking to upgrade to Intel's Alder Lake, which unfortunately at this point, there are many hurdles.That is probably the reason why ADL is not flying off the shelves like Ryzen 5000 series processors at launch. Just to name a few based on my experience as I was thinking of trying out ADL,
1. Low availability of DDR5 memory. Even if you can find it, it can easily double the cost of a good pair of DDR4. You can use DDR4, but,

2. Limited availability/options for motherboard and everything is based on Z690 chipset. Great for "overclocking", but how many people can and will overclock their processor?

3. Limited availability of cooler - So far, most manufacturers are releasing mounting kits either for free or paid for. But when I look up for a new cooler, they may not support LGA 1700 by default... So with this news, there are even lesser options available

4. Software limitations - Need to Windows 11 for maximise potential, despite it being very buggy at this point. Some software can't figure out e and p cores and don't work.
ADL is a big jump in performance and also features, but unfortunately there are many hurdles to adoption at this point. Best to wait till the dust settles.

 

[Hysc84]

If platform size not changes, cooler fan manufacturer also cant bring new product

 

[Danny101]

Now you're informed. Nothing to get snippy about. They'll work it out. They always do.

 

[Yenega]

Now you're informed. Nothing to get snippy about. They'll work it out. They always do.

And this is why you don't buy 1st gen of anything new.

Ryzen 1000 was a disaster too. Only sold "okay" because of dirt cheap pricing. Memory compatibiliy issues especially were huge. People lost alot of performance because of this.

However 12nm GloFo was and is a terrible node, hence the insanely low clockspeeds too, on 1000 and 2000 series.

 

[Danny101]

And this is why you don't buy 1st gen of anything new.

Ryzen 1000 was a disaster too. Only sold "okay" because of dirt cheap pricing. Memory compatibiliy issues especially were huge. People lost alot of performance because of this.

However 12nm GloFo was and is a terrible node, hence the insanely low clockspeeds too, on 1000 and 2000 series.

The first generation of a new design will usually have issues. I did jump. But in 2018. Even with it's flaws, it was a leap from where I did upgrade from. Phenom II-940. From the looks of the construction nodes, it may have been the true upgrade.