Cooling Best Low-Profile CPU Cooler on the Market?

[stree]

Back in the days of ATX and tower cases,, I always used Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro Rev 2...any CPU worth having seemed then to be around 100w TDP and the Freezer Pro coped well, never being a gamer or overclocker.....The useful aspect of these coolers was that for the first year or so they were all but silent, ( especially in an Antec Solo case) and when they did get noisy, buy another for £15, swap the fans and good for another couple of years.
Yes, swappable fans is definitely a bonus.

 

[Thehack]

Not sure if this applies to this thread or not, but since we're on the subject of CPU coolers... Silverstone released their AR10 series. Saw it a couple weeks ago and finally saw one pop up on Ebay. Non-server low profile tower-type, 70mm fan, 80mm height.

Hopefully they will release an 80mm/92mm fan version. Those are what I want to see. I wonder how they stack up against something like the NH-L9x65.

 

[stree]

That might struggle to be defined as low profile though,

 

[Thehack]

That might struggle to be defined as low profile though,

For a tower cooler it is! It is the shortest tower-type for consumer sockets I've seen.

 

[stefan33]

http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-l9a
http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-l9i
both of them can support a bigger fan:
http://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a9-pwm

Very interesting this: that seams they decide to produce in two versions :27 and 37 mm...
http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002957
It's new and I can't find any review.

 

[Thehack]

http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-l9a
http://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-l9i
both of them can support a bigger fan:
http://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a9-pwm

Very interesting this: that seams they decide to produce in two versions :27 and 37 mm...
http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002957
It's new and I can't find any review.

We have one member with the Engine 27. The NH-L9i has been well discussed in this thread.

 

[stefan33]

And how does the Engine 27 works? Thank you.

 

[Thehack]

And how does the Engine 27 works? Thank you.

https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/thermaltake-engine-27-unbox-test.1241/

 

[Phuncz]

Very interesting this: that seams they decide to produce in two versions :27 and 37 mm...
http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002957
It's new and I can't find any review.

The Engine 27 has only been on the market since the end of 2016, the Engine 37 has been announced at CES 2017 just last week. I would expect the Engine 37 to take a atleast a month or two to reach people's homes, but it did look production-ready at CES.

We have one member with the Engine 27. The NH-L9i has been well discussed in this thread.

I think we even have three members that have given their impression and test results on the forum. This is the main thread about the cooler, a lot of info is in there, especially the last few pages.

 

[Sean Crees]

And how does the Engine 27 works? Thank you.

The impression i have taken away after reading a few reviews of it is it's more expensive and not as good as the NH-L9i, but it is shorter. So if the NH-L9i at 37mm is too tall for your application, then it's worth a look.

 

[Kmpkt]

The upsides on the Engine 27 are aesthetics and height, the downsides would be noise and less effective cooling. If you're not super sensitive to noise and you're not pushing the limits of its TDP with a K chip then the Engine 27 is probably a fine choice. If you prefer the fan on your CPU cooler to be as ugly as sin then the L9i is probably the better choice.

 

[Sean Crees]

If you prefer the fan on your CPU cooler to be as ugly as sin then the L9i is probably the better choice.

lol, its not THAT bad, and you can always paint it. I'll probably be painting mine black.

 

[sergiiua]

http://www.thermalright.de/kuehler/66/axp-100-rh - can be the best low-profile cooler.

 

[stefan33]

http://www.cryorig.com/c1.php
It's a little bit higher but this one may be could be more powerfull... but now we are not talking about LOW profile....

 

[lordzahl]

http://www.thermalright.de/kuehler/66/axp-100-rh - can be the best low-profile cooler.

65mm is not low profile.

I am also looking for a new cooler at the moment, with similar height constrains (~42mm).
I don't need massive cooling performance, but i want a silent system. The Noctua NH-L9i seems to be very good for this, but it is also expensive (~40€) and where is the fun in not modding anything?

The Cooltek LP53 is 53mm high, The fan is 25mm. So i i would replace this with the NF-A9x14, I am exactly at 42mm... Did anybody test this combination? (But this is even more expensive at 36€ + 14€)

 

[cleveland]

65mm is not low profile.

I guess it is.

 

[lordzahl]

I guess it is.

Well ok, depends on the use case, or for most people it probably is. So you may be right. But it is far from OPs required 45mm height.

 

[cleveland]

But it is far from OPs required 45mm height.

Fair enough. I concede ont that point.

 

[Zerofool]

The Cooltek LP53 is 53mm high, The fan is 25mm. So i i would replace this with the NF-A9x14, I am exactly at 42mm... Did anybody test this combination?

Dan has tested it, there's a comparison chart on the previous page.

I have the LP53 and I'd like to warn everyone that it may not be compatible with all motherboards, specifically the Asus Z170I and the Z270I models. They have VRM circuits both over the CPU socket and to the left of it.
I have the Asus Z170I and no matter how I turn the cooler, some of the heatpipes are pushing against a VRM heatsink. The only way to use the LP53 with it is to remove one of the RAM DIMMs and turn the tips of the heatpipes towards the DIMM area. This basically makes it a bad choice for this MB unless you're into modding (which I haven't experimented with).
So if you want to use the LP53 / ITX30, you'll need a motherboard that has just one group of VRM components, preferably at the top of the MB, leaving the space between the CPU socket and the rear IO area empty (like the MSI Z170I/Z270I for example, though I haven't tested them myself).

 

[michaelmitchell]

Well LP53 + NF-A9x14PWM certainly blows NH-L9i out of the water

https://hardforum.com/threads/thermolab-cooltek-lp53-review.1923635/