Completed Noctua bracket for LGA 2011 Narrow ILM

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
I need one for my Project Jolokia build to mount the NH-L12 to the ASRock X99E-ITX/ac motherboard because the L9x65 would interfere with the RAM slots.

It's just two simple brackets, pretty straightforward. Am I the only one still interested in mounting Noctua heatsinks to the ASRock X99 ITX? And if anyone else is interested, what cooler would you want to use so I can check if it fits?

CAD Files: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/resources/noctua-bracket-for-lga-2011-narrow-ilm.159/

Feb 4 Update: They're here!


The brackets are here and I've installed and test them:


The Problem



To review for those not familiar with the issue, there are actually two different mounting patterns for Intel Socket 2011-0 and 2011-3. There is the normal Square ILM ( 80mm x 80mm) on the left, and the Narrow ILM (94mm x 56mm) on the right. ILM stands for Independent Loading Mechanism and is just the fancy name for the metal retention bracket and levers that hold the CPU down.

The Narrow ILM is not something most PC enthusiasts run into though, because it's almost exclusively used on server motherboards to conserve PCB real estate. But that space savings is the exact reason ASRock used it on the X99E-ITX/ac, their crazy X99 Mini-ITX motherboard that everyone else said was infeasible.

Since no consumer heatsinks are compatible with the Narrow ILM, ASRock thoughtfully bundles a Dynatron R24 server heatsink as a backup. They also bundle a bracket to mount the Cooler Master Seidon 240V and a few other AIO water coolers. And there is a similar bracket available from Asetek's eBay store, for Asetek-based AIOs that use their standard mounting.




I don't like pump noise and I'll be flying with the rig this will all eventually go in, so I don't want to water cool. The selection of air coolers that can mount to the Narrow ILM is basically limited to server heatsinks like the R24 that the board comes with though.

And pump noise absolutely pales in comparison to the racket this 2U server heatsink can generate, with the 60mm fan maxing out at 7000 RPM! And the heatsink itself doesn't even cool that well with the CPU under heavy load, so you can actually expect the fan to reach those ear-splitting levels of noise :mad:

Noctua is my brand of choice for heatsinks and fans, and they actually do make workstation heatsinks for the Narrow ILM. But they use a different mounting system than their consumer heatsinks and I need a low-profile cooler like the NH-L12, which isn't available in the workstation line :(




Here you can see the problem with the stock Noctua 2011 mounting bars, they just are too long in this orientation. They're also too short in the other orientation, but even if they weren't, the RAM slots are in the way because everything on this board is an exercise in maximizing space efficiency.

---------------------------
The Solution



I'm crazy and have a poor sense of fiscal responsibility dedicated to solving problems, so obviously the solution was to make my own bracket! XD




This required modeling the NH-L12's stock mounting system (though I modeled the rest of the heatsink for good measure), convincing ASRock to send me a mechanical CAD model of the motherboard to check clearances, and then doing a 3-hour live stream where I put it all together and designed the custom mounting bar:

The actual designing of the mounting bar itself starts about 2 hours and 30 minutes into the video.

Then I made some minor tweaks, got a quote from a local sheet metal shop, and two weeks later ended up with these:



Not much to look at, but they'll do the job :)

---------------------------
Prep work



Here are all the necessary parts:
And I don't even need a screwdriver. The heatsink actually comes with one, 'cause Noctua is awesome like that :cool:




The reason I needed the 2011 mounting kit is that the NH-L12 has a slightly different mounting than the other Noctua heatsinks, because of these fixed mounting screws. The reason for that, is the L12 has the option for a 92x25mm fan mounted to the bottom of the fin array, and that fan would interfere with a taller mounting screw.

But also, there is a subtle difference of 0.5mm in height from the top of the CPU's heatspreader to the top of the motherboard (the stackup height) between Socket 2011-0 (as used in the X79 platform) and 2011-3 (used in X99). Even more confusingly, some X99 motherboards are still using the 2011-0 ILM, so depending on which particular X99 board you get, there could be a 0.5mm height difference that the heatsink has to account for.




To account for these small differences, and to prevent the user from overtightening the screw, the other Noctua heatsinks have spring-loaded screws. Noctua has a spacer kit for the 2011-3 Square ILM available by request, but to be safe, I opted to get the spring-loaded brackets via the NM-I2011 kit. This will prevent me from using a 25mm thick fan on the bottom, but I plan to use the upcoming slim 120mm Noctua on top anyway, so I'm not giving up anything.




Those brackets are attached to the heatsink base with two screws each, so it's a simple swap. And now my NH-L12 is equipped to deal with those pesky stackup height discrepancies.

---------------------------
Assembly

After getting the NH-L12 prepped, the rest of the assembly is basically the same procedure as mounting to the normal 2011 socket:
  1. The 2011 standoffs are screwed into the threaded studs that are part of the ILM
  2. Place the mounting bars on top the standoffs
  3. Install the thumbscrews that hold the bars in place









Part of the reason the live stream was so long is that I did lots of prep work to ensure there was no interference with the ILM, the rest of the Noctua mounting or heatsink, and the various motherboards components.

That work paid off, and the custom brackets clear the VRM heatsink with room to spare :)

---------------------------​

Then thermal paste is applied, the heatsink is screwed onto the threaded studs in the mounting bars, and it's done! A consumer Noctua heatsink mounted to the Socket 2011-3 Narrow ILM :)



Here it is with a FSP500-50FSPT FlexATX PSU and MSI GTX 1050 Ti low-profile card.




And from this angle you can see why the taller spring-loaded screws prevent thicker fans from fitting on the bottom of the heatsink.

---------------------------
Results

Running Prime95 Blend the Xeon E5-2683 v3 I'm using peaks in the mid 70s celsius, but that's with the Noctua NF-F12 on top only spinning at 1000 RPM. I could easily get better temps, but I prioritize low noise over low temps. If it's under TJ Max I just can't be bothered to care about lowering the load temperatures.

Overall I'm very happy with how this turned out. Everything fit perfectly and now I can hear myself think when the CPU is under load :D

---------------------------
Manufacturing

Unfortunately even though they were made at a local shop, I wasn't allowed to come and take pictures because apparently some of the stuff they work on is under NDA.




But they did give me the piece of sheet metal the parts were cut from, so that's neat :)




An interesting manufacturing detail we can see is the laser cutter's pierce point. When laser cutting, the beam doesn't instantly punch through the metal, it requires a bit of time to "drill" through the sheet. Once the laser pierces the sheet, it can then start moving and cutting the metal.

But as can be seen here, where the laser pierces leaves a bit of bit of melted aluminum on the bottom of the sheet. So it starts the pierce a little bit away from where the part starts, and then starts moving to cut the part out.

---------------------------
So I guess I have a bunch of extra mounting bars, whatever shall I do with them? :p
 
Last edited:

1461748123

Master of Cramming
Nov 5, 2016
489
1,068
Dynatron R24 is the only one I know that is low profile and support NILM..
I never use it before, but on the product page it said it is compatible with 'Intel Sandy Bridge Romley-EP/EX Narrow ILM Processors up to TDP 160 Watts' so I guess it should work pretty well?
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
I'm sure it'll work, but it'll sound like a banshee doing so :p

Hence why I want to make the Noctua NH-L12 work.
 

LukeD

Master of Cramming
Case Designer
Jun 29, 2016
498
1,305
Damn Aibohphobia !!!!!!
You are a bit of a wizard with CAD aren't you ?
Where's the Like X10 button ? ;)
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
Jesus christ ! Don't tell me you modelled that ?!? WOW !

Yup, I was able to borrow one so it just took a pair of calipers to measure everything and 12 hours or so of modeling.

I just noticed, when did you get a CASE DESIGNER thing on the side?

It's been there for a few months I'm pretty sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Soul_Est and LukeD

LukeD

Master of Cramming
Case Designer
Jun 29, 2016
498
1,305
12 hours man ! That's dedication ! just to model 1 thing.
Then again, when i was trying to squeeze everything in my case, because I don't have the CAD tools or skills, and I had to convey everything to Protocase, the process took a long time. I'm sure it was frustrating for them when I'd say ... move this 1mm here, move that 1mm there, now move it 0.7mm back because we moved it too much.
How long did it take you to learn CAD Aibohphobia ?
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
I needed a very accurate model for my Jolokia build because the heatsink will literally be within 1mm of hitting the AC inlet and it'll be close to other parts of the frame.

Oh wow, I thought you had started doing the CAD after the first prototype, that must be quite exhausting going back and forth all time.

My 3D modeling/CAD history is messy. I've been messing with SketchUp on and off for the last 10 years but what would happen is I'd use it heavily for a project for a few weeks then not touch it for months and forget most of the shortcuts and tricks. With the Nova prototype, I designed it in SketchUp two years ago with the layout and rough frame design but Protocase had to turn it into something useable. Which worked, but that gets expensive, time consuming, and prone to errors in communication.

So for Cerberus, I tested out a bunch of CAD programs and settled on SpaceClaim because it's basically SketchUp on steroids and has native import/export for SketchUp files. It's not cheap though, I paid $2700 for it and that was with an end of year discount. I've only learned how to use a small fraction of the program and there's some quirks, but it has a strong sheet metal module so I've gotten moderately good at modeling cases.

I did the bulk of the CAD for Jolokia in about 14 hours for example. I even screen recorded almost all of it and will edit the footage and upload it to YouTube sometime in the next few days.

I've started live streaming and it's usually me messing around in CAD and going over random tips and tricks. More info here: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/aibohphobias-live-streams.1360/

And archive footage of the last two streams here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGSDrv8e4Iey4NvDnD1D-RbJmzUQs8TW6
 
  • Like
Reactions: Soul_Est and LukeD

LukeD

Master of Cramming
Case Designer
Jun 29, 2016
498
1,305
That's awesome Aibohphobia.

I need to learn CAD myself however I haven't had the time, hence I outsourced the work to Protocase and while they did do an awesome job every time, the problem is whenever dimensions would change I would see an opportunity to add more equipment compatibility. And the difference in time would really impact our ability to make small changes quickly.

So I'll need to learn it one day, If i make further cases in the future.

I will definitely watch your streams and the archived streams though. I'm sure they are super interesting :)
With my mum having surgery end of last year, my wife moving to the US tomorrow and me soon thereafter following her, I've just got a TON of stuff to do. Pack and sell everything I won't use. Hence I want to take all the photos and do all the test I can for Project Orthrus because I won't have access to a lot of my equipment for a while.

Its a little unfortunate that my personal life is complicating my pursuit of my project, but then again if its not my personal life its my work life hahaha.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
If you're busy and have more money than time, then I completely understand just handing off the CAD work to someone else.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Soul_Est and LukeD

LukeD

Master of Cramming
Case Designer
Jun 29, 2016
498
1,305
If you're busy and have more money than time, then I completely understand just handing off the CAD work to someone else.

That seems to be the "case" these days. Pun intended :)

Aibohphobia, have you done any thermal / air flow modelling ?
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
SpaceClaim doesn't have built-in support for CFD. They're now owned by ANSYS which is a big CFD company though but that stuff is over my head for now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Soul_Est and LukeD