Prolimatech Samuel 17 winner
For the second part of this thread, I will post pictures and the results of my tests with the Prolimatech Samuel 17 I received from Aibophobia. I have definitely come to appreciate what a beautiful and powerful little cooler this is, and perhaps you can too!
Unboxing the shipment and photos
Outer case
As you can see the outer case has attractive colors and details about the cooler.
Inner case
Prolimatech kept the contents simple. There is the cooler itself, a small hardware kit, and instruction sheet. Here you can see the six nickel-plated heatpipes and a large stainless steel fin array, with threaded holes for 120mm fans on top.
Hardware kit contents
One detail I like about the Samuel 17 is Prolimatech includes two sets of fan screws, one for regular width and one for slim width fans. This makes it very convenient to use either type. There are also brackets for LGA 1366, 775, 1155-6, and AM2 sockets. A 2oz syringe of thermal paste is included for installation.
Installation, round 2!
Here you can see the photo after everything is installed and ready to go. But why “Round 2” I hear you wondering. Well, in Round 1 I installed the cooler and everything else inside the case, but I forgot to plug in the 4-pin 12V connector to the motherboard first! With the Samuel 17 cooler installed, it is impossible to connect the 12V plug in my motherboard (Intel DQ67EP) after the fact, due to there being less than 15mm clearance to work in.
No clearance
Having fat fingers and no tools, I had to remove everything and re-do the entire process over again. But I did learn a valuable lesson! For all the mini-ITX motherboard owners out there with big 120mm coolers like the Samuel 17, make sure to plug in your fan and power headers before installing your cooler, if you aren't sure.
Result:
After rummaging through my parts boxes I was able to find a spare Scythe Slipstream 120mm fan to work with. At 25mm width I was hoping it would do the trick. However....
Case won't close
The Samuel 17 and Scythe Slipstream are literally millimeters away from fitting. Very close but no cigar. I will have to run the tests with the top off until I can figure out a better solution.
