Cooling Looking for a top-tier cpu air cooler that will fit

[sealard]

I have an ASRock Z390M-ITX/AC board and it currently has stocker intel 115x cooler. I would like to upgrade to Noctua but I don't think it will work.

Can anyone advise me on the highest performing air cooler that will fit?

I have close to zero clearance on two sides as shown in the picture below, over ram and to the top. For reference I believe that intel coolers are 95mm x 95mm and that it a 120mm fan shown. Height can be an absolute maximum of 165mm, impacting case side panel.

 

[tinyitx]

Typed in the name of your motherboard into pcpartpicker.com and it yielded a list of completed builds with this mobo.

Completed Builds Using ASRock Z390M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard

pcpartpicker.com

Look at the list of CPU cooler on the left pane and it seems three Noctua coolers fit (NH-D9L, NH-L9i, NH-L12S).

 

[sealard]

Funny. The smaller noctua coolers (U9S and D9L) won't work because while they conform to the intel 95mm size, they are much taller and I have a little overhang on the ram. They would touch and there would be some pressure on the heatsink.

I'm actually thinking I can do something else with that 3.5" disk and could squeeze either a U12S or even a U14S. This works because they scallop one side, while the 90mm ones are square.

If I go this route I have to position the fan on the left which is not ideal. I am left with either having cpu cooler in a pull configuration (already have two 120mm fans in the front pulling air from outside) or have it in a push config, but pushing against all the other air in the case. (that 120mm fan in the back is exhaust). Any ideas on this?

 

[Smanci]

TS 120i?

TS 140 BW Rev. A?

Mounting mechanism also allows a tiny (I means few mm absolute max) bit off-centre placement. You might not need a fan on the cooler at all if the chip isn't a hot one.

 

[sealard]

The off centre mounting of the TS140 is cool. Can be 69mm clearance!

And I definitely need active cooling.

 

[Smanci]

Forgot the Macho 120 Rev. B. Measure everything twice in any case - this socket location should be banned by some regulation.

 

[neilhart]

I have an ASRock Z390M-ITX/AC board and it currently has stocker intel 115x cooler. I would like to upgrade to Noctua but I don't think it will work.

Can anyone advise me on the highest performing air cooler that will fit?

I have close to zero clearance on two sides as shown in the picture below, over ram and to the top. For reference I believe that intel coolers are 95mm x 95mm and that it a 120mm fan shown. Height can be an absolute maximum of 165mm, impacting case side panel.

When I saw this photo I immediately thought of the noctua NH-D9L cpu cooler. I used that cooler in one of my Apple G4 Cube hacks. Note that I also modded the cooler as it was too wide for my application (see the details here; https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/a-skylake-cube.197843/ and the cooler specs here: https://noctua.at/en/nh-d9l/specification ). And in that system I was dealing with a low power cpu.

Then in my current project ( see https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...air-cooled-abs-prototype-mini-itx-case.10495/ ) I am again using the NH-D9L on a i9-9900K on a ASRock Z370M-ITX/ac with great success in a three fan configuration where I control the air flow path with a tunnel shroud.

Anyway my view is that you can mod components as needed. I call it "doing it my way" and hurry on to the next integration problem.

Neil

 

[sealard]

I just noticed that the Noctua U12A is slightly off-centre as well. Can anyone find a schematic similar to the above showing how far from the centre the fans sit?

Edit: Found schematic seconds after posting...