S4 MINI Classic (S4M-C)

Josh | NFC

Not From Concentrate
Original poster
NFC Systems
Jun 12, 2015
1,869
4,467
www.nfc-systems.com
Huh. So by my measurement with my single slot pci-e card in bottom slot I have 38mm of space above it, and the Silverstone TD03-SLIM AIO cooler is 37mm high... I'm guessing there might be airflow issues with actually pulling adequate air through that 1mm gap though?

I'm not an expert, these are just my ideas:

You are trying to fit an AIO and a single slot card card? While that might be possible with the RL-TD03-SLIM it would be a hat trick and I would be fascinated to see it.

You are correct though, fans require some space to operate efficiently and quietly, but I'm not sure you will be gaining anything other than "awesome points" for being unique, as that cooler with the slim fan and the restriction probably wont offer you better performance than a nice air cooler. Now if you could put a good high pressure 120mm fan on it, that changes things completely.

Good luck!
 

vluft

programmer-at-arms
Jun 19, 2016
159
140
I'm not an expert, these are just my ideas:

You are trying to fit an AIO and a single slot card card? While that might be possible with the RL-TD03-SLIM it would be a hat trick and I would be fascinated to see it.

You are correct though, fans require some space to operate efficiently and quietly, but I'm not sure you will be gaining anything other than "awesome points" for being unique, as that cooler with the slim fan and the restriction probably wont offer you better performance than a nice air cooler. Now if you could put a good high pressure 120mm fan on it, that changes things completely.

Good luck!

Yeah, ultimately doesn't seem like I'd probably be getting any better performance than a good air cooler but slim lga 2011 coolers are few and far between, especially when you factor in I need to make it work with a narrow ILM mount. What I currently have in there, which fits with no room to spare, is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A21361W/?tag=theminutiae-20 as a heatsink with an 120x18mm fan wedged on top of it (fan pulled from http://www.akasa.com.tw/search.php?seed=AK-CC4011EP01). https://www.dan-cases.com/faq.html at the bottom has a similar build which apparently works and the specs on the fan he's using are pretty similar to the Akasa. Also gets a bit of airflow from the mobo as well, which is nice. I'll test it when I can and see if it works out, though, particularly with the way I'm pulling air through a heatsink that was designed for high horizontal airflow 1u cases.

Basically, if it's not good enough I'll probably at least give that AIO a try - the fan on it is also 15mm so if need be could go to a 12mm one for the extra space. Hopefully the current setup works though, and then I'll just have to figure out what to put in all that glorious extra space (first time somebody's been worried about that with an S4 I bet ;)).
 

|||

King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
775
759
Yep, minimal spacing with the td03-slim. You could possibly modify the fan & radiator to increase the space.

You'd need to lop off the side of the radiator the fan isn't on. This is dead space that is used when a fan is mounted to keep the fan off of the radiator and give some depth for the screw holes.



You'd also want to get the fan as close to the radiator, so you'd want to cut off the corners of the fan on the side that goes against he radiator so you can sit the fan directly on the fins. You'd screw it to the radiator using the holes on the opposite side of the fan. You'd be able to gain several millimeters doing this. Whether it is worth it or not is another question.
 

Tek Everything

Cable-Tie Ninja
Dec 25, 2015
199
237
tekeverything.com
Yeah, ultimately doesn't seem like I'd probably be getting any better performance than a good air cooler but slim lga 2011 coolers are few and far between, especially when you factor in I need to make it work with a narrow ILM mount. What I currently have in there, which fits with no room to spare, is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A21361W/?tag=theminutiae-20 as a heatsink with an 120x18mm fan wedged on top of it (fan pulled from http://www.akasa.com.tw/search.php?seed=AK-CC4011EP01). https://www.dan-cases.com/faq.html at the bottom has a similar build which apparently works and the specs on the fan he's using are pretty similar to the Akasa. Also gets a bit of airflow from the mobo as well, which is nice. I'll test it when I can and see if it works out, though, particularly with the way I'm pulling air through a heatsink that was designed for high horizontal airflow 1u cases.

Basically, if it's not good enough I'll probably at least give that AIO a try - the fan on it is also 15mm so if need be could go to a 12mm one for the extra space. Hopefully the current setup works though, and then I'll just have to figure out what to put in all that glorious extra space (first time somebody's been worried about that with an S4 I bet ;)).

I would love to see the temps you get with this set up as I was planning on doing something very similar.
 

hat1324

Cable-Tie Ninja
Dec 28, 2015
146
100
So, I mentioned before that my DC-IN socket on my hdplex fused to the power connector. I was able to just pull it off and replace the connector but the new socket I put in had to be glued to the board with JB-Weld...

Basically I want to know how to prevent this from happening in the future since I won't be able to remove this one
 

vluft

programmer-at-arms
Jun 19, 2016
159
140
I would love to see the temps you get with this set up as I was planning on doing something very similar.

Yup, will let you know. Waiting on PCI-E extender right now so I can test in case but then I'm gonna do some stress testing. I'm really just aiming for "doesn't throttle at max load".
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
Just a thought if you're set on this build config and the tolerances are too small for the AIO. On a previous L1 build I used one of these:

http://www.caselabs-store.com/flex-bay-140-1-140mm-fan-radiator-mount/

to create a punch out for a parallel mounted 750ti LP. Just dremel the side panel and screw it in. Looks pretty decent and would likely give you another few mm/cm of space to reduce your dead zone. Here's the build log so you can get a clearer idea of what I mean:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1505888/build-log-brickless-lone-industries-l1
 

Josh | NFC

Not From Concentrate
Original poster
NFC Systems
Jun 12, 2015
1,869
4,467
www.nfc-systems.com
I'l like to clarify a point in case I biased people wrongly...

CUSTOM liquid cooling seems like it would fit great with the right fittings and tubing. The AIO's don't fit well because the tubing is long, stiff, and thick--there is just no good place to cram it. Find a block+pump combo (or hack up a AIO and mod the fittings) and you should have a nice combo with an EK Vardar fan--which should work with little clearance given it's design.

I'm designing a little reservoir for a side-side-side project so I can liquid cool this APU system I bought for testing and never used...
 

vluft

programmer-at-arms
Jun 19, 2016
159
140
Hmm, even going custom I'm having difficulty visualizing a way to managed to cram a radiator & fan in there, except without any PCI-E card.
 

vluft

programmer-at-arms
Jun 19, 2016
159
140
Ahh, right, yeah. If only they'd make a Xeon with an Iris on it I'd be happy, heh. Or just a regular proc with ECC support.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Josh | NFC

vluft

programmer-at-arms
Jun 19, 2016
159
140
yup, though I haven't seen any motherboards integrating those yet. Supermicro has one coming I believe but with only DDR3 ergo only 32gb of ram.
 

vluft

programmer-at-arms
Jun 19, 2016
159
140
Yeah, though they don't include any video output which is odd for something specifically with e3 v5 support. I guess they figure if people use that at all they'll use it for compute? And there's also e3 v5 with no integrated I guess.
 

|||

King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
775
759
Yeah, I didn't pay too close attention :oops: They do have VGA (ha!) and you could run a USB monitor :\