Montech NX400 / NX400 ARGB CPU Air Cooler Review

1. Montech NX400 / NX400 ARGB2. Intallation: AM53. Test Results4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

Test System Specifications:

• CPU – AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (65W)
• Motherboard – ASRock Phantom Gaming X870E Nova WiFi
• Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB Modules) Kingston Fury DDR5-6000
• Graphics card: MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming X
• Storage: 1TB Corsair MP600 Elite PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Power Supply: Seasonic Prime TX-1000
• Chassis: Open Test Bench
• Thermal Compound: Arctic MX-6
• O/S: Windows 11 Version 24H2

Testing Methodology:

We are primarily focusing on the performance of each cooler at 100% fan speed and also when locked to 40dBA noise output. We will focus on cooling performance using a manual overclock with all-core frequency and Vcore locked to 4.9GHz/1.12v and Precision Boost Overdrive performance.

• The test data is logged using HWINFO and the final 10 minutes of the data is calculated to find the average CPU temperature and CPU clock multiplier (AMD PBO Test) and then plotted in the charts.
• For testing, we use a 30-minute looped run of Cinebench R23 and record the steady-state CPU temperature at the end of the test. This ensures that the CPU has had ample time to warm up and reach a steady state under all of the coolers.
• The ambient is maintained at 19-21 degrees Celsius. Where there is variation beyond this temperature range, we add extra repeated tests to ensure consistency. However, this is well controlled now with A/C.
• We also test each cooler with at least two fresh installs (typically three) to mitigate the likelihood of poor mounting spoiling results.
• Ambient temperature and humidity are controlled via a mini split air conditioning system inside the test room. Ambient temperature is maintained between 19-21 °C. Temperature delta figures are shown in the charts (ambient temperature is deducted from the measured component temperature).

Test Results:

Acoustics

For a single 120mm fan cooler, the Montech NX400 ARGB is quite loud at 45dBA max. You can see how be quiet!'s long history of fan design shows here with both coolers having fans running at similar RPM, but the be quiet! fan is much quieter. It's a shame the Montech fan is so loud, but let's see how this translates in thermal performance.

Thermal Performance: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (65W)

With fan speed maxed and the CPU running a fixed core clock frequency and Vcore, the Montech NX400 ARGB shows great performance, keeping the average CPU temperature at 41°C, which is a whopping six degrees cooler than the be quiet! Pure Rock 3.

To hit the 40dBA noise limit, the Montech NX400 ARGB fan speed has to be reduced to just under 1600 RPM. However, this doesn't affect thermal performance much at all, but the average CPU temperature between the NX400 and be quiet! Pure Rock 3 are very close now, almost identical.

In the PBO test the Montech NX400 ARGB just edges the be quiet! Pure Rock 3 in terms of clock frequency, being able to hold an average 50.8x multiplier at 65ºC while cooling 126W package power, which is impressive performance from such a small and affordable cooler.

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