Letting the heatsink fall out of the case.

[Phryq]

So, just another idea. I could put a bigish BeQuiet cooler on my CPU, cut a hole in the case lid (will build my own case from aluminium sheets), and let the heat-sink/fan sit above the case. No dust will touch the motherboard, and airflow will be great.

My worry would be that, in a backpack, there would be nothing to protect / support the cooler. Maybe I'd need a second case to go around the cooler for travelling.

I'm thinking any of these coolers would work well.

http://www.bequiet.com/en/motherboardcheck

 

[Kwirek]

Looks like an excellent leaver for cracking motherboards that. Some sort of cage around it would probably be necessary to prevent things bumping into it during transport.

 

[neilhart]

So, just another idea. I could put a bigish BeQuiet cooler on my CPU, cut a hole in the case lid (will build my own case from aluminium sheets), and let the heat-sink/fan sit above the case. No dust will touch the motherboard, and airflow will be great.

My worry would be that, in a backpack, there would be nothing to protect / support the cooler. Maybe I'd need a second case to go around the cooler for travelling.

I'm thinking any of these coolers would work well.

http://www.bequiet.com/en/motherboardcheck

I would not put a tall cooler on your proposed system, I suggest that you look at the Shadow Rock LP and only have the fan exposed out the top of your case ( or even mount the fan to the top of the case instead of to the cooler).

Neil

 

[cmyk78]

 

[VegetableStu]

You joke, but over at /r/sffpc:

 

[Phryq]

Thanks. Yes, it's my same worry, and so I think I'd need some sort of transport cage.

And that last picture was exactly what I was thinking.
I could make the case-section even smaller.

But I wonder if it would really fit in my backpack.

So maybe something like the ShadowRock LP is better, (it still supports 130W, so I should be able to cool and overclocked 7700k pretty silently?)

I wish they would make the same thing with 8mm heatpipes.

 

[Dyson Poindexter]

Placing a cardboard box over the cooler (maybe the one the cooler came in?) should protect the fins. That's the only thing I would worry about, the fins getting dinged up.

I routinely install coolers on motherboards before I install them in the case, and swinging the entire motherboard/CPU/RAM assembly around by the cooler while putting in the case has never caused problems. If you're on direct-die cooling then I would be careful, but a factory IHS is nearly indestructible.