Air Cooling Ncase M1 - Silent and Powerful

[SilentSniper]

Guys can I get some advice on air cooling the M1. I am likely going with an AMD 5900x or 5950x and a 3080 or 6800xt.

I did some research and the Noctua NH-U9S with a second fan seems good for the cooler. Anything better?

Any advice on other fans and the best orientation?

 

[ghenry22]

I'm building an aircooled M1 at the moment also. I went with the Noctua NH-C14S, it's a huge cooler with 140mm fan. Once installed it really looks like it was made for the case as it fits perfectly. I believe it has been reviewed as cooling better in the N1 than the U9S from when I was researching the same.

One thing to take note of is the RAM clearance, gskill trident neo Z modules JUST fit under. I had some Corsair vengeance modules and they're too tall and hit the fan.

I just have a 92mm Noctua on the back of the case for exhaust. Pending delivery of my SSD so I can permanently mount the cooler and power this thing up!

 

[MrFlamey]

I have a 3700x with Noctua NH-U9S (haven't got an extra fan on it) and am thinking about upgrading my gpu to a 3080 (probably ASUS TUF, since it seems to have good thermals and just about fits), but am a bit worried about heat with such a huge, powerful card. I really don't want to watercool anything, so would love to know how your temps turn out.

 

[blaak]

Can we get an update on this? I'm quite interested too

 

[blaak]

Can we get an update on this? I'm quite interested too

 

[Soulforger90]

The C14s is the superior cooler. The U9S is good though, if that's what you really want.

If you check the SFF Reddit and search for u/M1AF he has a spreadsheet that will show you all the different cooling combinations you get do for the M1. It's an extensive amount of work that he did. But the C14s is the better cooler.

I have a C14s cooling my 3950x (at stock settings) and it does a fine job. While gaming for hours (depending on the game) my cpu is 55c on the low end, 75c on the high end. But it's almost silent. I also swapped out the stock 140mm fan for a 120mm fan because I wanted to leave the PSU in the stock orientation in the case.

Going forward, I have a 5900x + TUF 3090 that will be going into my Ncase, and I will be using the same C14s cooler for that build as well.

 

[smitty2k1]

Can the C14s fit on the Asrock B550 phantom gaming without having to move the psu to the front mounted position or without replacing the fan with a 120mm fan?

 

[Soulforger90]

Can the C14s fit on the Asrock B550 phantom gaming without having to move the psu to the front mounted position or without replacing the fan with a 120mm fan?

NO, the C14s on ANY ITX motherboard (B450, X470, B550, X570, etc.) will need to be used with a 120mm fan in order to keep the PSU in the stock position. I have seen someone cram the stock 140mm fan in there and leave the PSU in the stock position, but it causes tension on the cooler and bends it a bit. Not something I would recommend.

The only other way to mount the C14s is in a vertical orientation with the kit you can buy from Noctua. But I haven't had any luck with that kit and my Gigabyte B550 itx board. It's default cooler orientation or nothing with the board, cooler, and GPU that I have.

 

[Mosskovskaia]

I have a Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 that keeps a 5800x under 75C under full load in a Stresstest. It's not a popular cooler in this Thread but it works really great.

 

[Soulforger90]

The Silver Arrow 130 is a great little cooler. It cools just as good as the C14s. I had both but went with the C14s for the looks.

 

[dunknown]

Guys can I get some advice on air cooling the M1. I am likely going with an AMD 5900x or 5950x and a 3080 or 6800xt.

I did some research and the Noctua NH-U9S with a second fan seems good for the cooler. Anything better?

Any advice on other fans and the best orientation?

As another user stated, use M1AF build guide






and M1AF cooling config tests





It is extremely thorough and helped me alot.

NO, the C14s on ANY ITX motherboard (B450, X470, B550, X570, etc.) will need to be used with a 120mm fan in order to keep the PSU in the stock position. I have seen someone cram the stock 140mm fan in there and leave the PSU in the stock position, but it causes tension on the cooler and bends it a bit. Not something I would recommend.

The only other way to mount the C14s is in a vertical orientation with the kit you can buy from Noctua. But I haven't had any luck with that kit and my Gigabyte B550 itx board. It's default cooler orientation or nothing with the board, cooler, and GPU that I have.

This is correct.

I just built my build in January with C14S, 120mm, 5900x and the side mounted PSU.

The parts you will need to request from Noctua support are:
NM-SFC14 - this is the mounting clips for the 120mm fan on the C14S
NM-AMB9 - this is to mount the C14S in vertical orientation so you can use the 140mm fan (with the side mounted PSU)

Get support to send them at the same time, it took me approx 4 weeks from order (that included over 2 weeks of waiting for the actual part to ship).

Just be careful which B550 motherboard you select, some of the other boards have a higher mounted cpu socket. This causes the C14S to be to tall to fit in the ncase.
There is a list somewhere that shows this.
I believe the gigabyte and MSI? have this problem.

But the asrock (double check this) and asus are ok.
I have the Asus B550 ITX and the C14S fits great.

One thing to take note of is the RAM clearance, gskill trident neo Z modules JUST fit under. I had some Corsair vengeance modules and they're too tall and hit the fan.

Also as mentioned above, keep the ram height in mind. I used the Corsair vengeance LPX, which had enough clearance.

Hope this helps

 

[jk47]

I have a Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 that keeps a 5800x under 75C under full load in a Stresstest. It's not a popular cooler in this Thread but it works really great.

Another happy Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 user here. Had it since 2019 and it did a great job cooling my 3900x. Now upgraded to a 5900x and 6900xt and it's still going. I did recently change the fan to a Noctua NF-A12 and have another Noctua NF-A12 on the side panel.

One thing to note for OP is if they consider this cooler, the fins do interfere with the power cord at the back so you have to either move them to create a gap or cut them. Fins are also sharp as a razer too, some editions come with gloves.

 

[Mosskovskaia]

Another happy Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 user here. Had it since 2019 and it did a great job cooling my 3900x. Now upgraded to a 5900x and 6900xt and it's still going. I did recently change the fan to a Noctua NF-A12 and have another Noctua NF-A12 on the side panel.

One thing to note for OP is if they consider this cooler, the fins do interfere with the power cord at the back so you have to either move them to create a gap or cut them. Fins are also sharp as a razer too, some editions come with gloves.

Which board do you have? I have a ASUS B550-I and no problems with he Powerchord no need for a change.
I never used the original Fan and replaced it by a Arctic Cooling SP120(?) Fan. Bought 4 of them when they where on sale on Amazon.
If Noctua brings the NF-A12 in black I will change the CPU and side panel Fan to those. The two under the GPU are fine for me.
The cooler is really cool if you want a tower like cooler but it doesn't have the same popularity as the C14.

 

[smitty2k1]

Thanks for the tips on the C14s. I finally found an AM4 adapter kit for my older Noctua C12pSE14 cooler and am just reusing that with my new ASRock B550 and AMD 5600x. Working great compared to my old Intel i7 4770k