S4 Mini 1080Ti Fin Build, Suggestions?

[H311K173]

Hey SFF gents!

Just came here after watching Josh's new video titled "Teeniest 1080ti PC - S4 MINI and Zotac 1080ti".

Most of the issues Josh talked about I somehow already made it through.

Some background, i got my 1080Ti sometime in September to replace a 1080 due to impulse.

My Build:

CASE: S4 mini - Silver with 3D Frosted Acrylic Bezel
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS ROG Strix Z270i
GRAPHICS CARD: ZOTAC GTX 1080Ti 8GB GDDR5X (ZT-P10800H-10P)
CPU: i7-7700k
CPU COOLER: Noctua NH-L9I LGA115X
DDR4 RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4-3200MHz
SSD STORAGE: Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SATAIII
POWER SUPPLY: HDPLEX 400W HiFi DC-ATX nanoATX Series
POWER SUPPLY: DELL 330W AC Adapter
Monitor: Acer Predator Z35P bmiphz 35" Curved 1800R QHD (3440x1440) NVIDIA G-SYNC

Somethings I have NOT come across are:

- Did not have a chance to fully strip the S4 Mini Case to pieces like in the video. I somehow wedged the 1080Ti in with both 8-pin PCie power cables attached. This was installed after the motherboard.
- No Coil Whine from 1080Ti, this 1080Ti was obtained just at start of September so may have been the first/second batches.
- No mm size difference for 1080Ti, it simply traded placed with the previous 1080 like swapping lego bricks.
- Despite the DELL 300W + HDPLEX 400W unmatching values, I have no throttling power and power is stable. I am looking into the 400w Delta PSU and Eurocom 780w PSU.

Some issues I AM having:

- I have went into BIOs and set the CPU fan to 100% on startup but "occaisonally" the entire PC just stops at a halt and Bluescreens. Upon restart it says my CPU (NOT GPU) has overheated but if I apply an external "120mm blower fan" pointed at my CPU, this issue does not occur (even with 8 hour gaming sessions). Any suggestions of a more powerful mini-ITX CPU fan?

(I have also tried Delidding and Relidding the i7-7700K with Liquid Metal from Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut). This alleviated the issue only slightly hence requiring an external blower as mentioned previously.

I have also made sure to forcefully enable all cores of my 1080TI to be used as much as possible. But still seems to draw off my i7-7700k.

Though do Note, this Overheating only happens without the 120mm External Blower when playing on ULTRA with games such as 7Days2Die, PUBG, Ghost recon Wildlands, and HITMAN^TM.

So basically it works, but I need a more powerful CPU cooler.


Some things I have wishlisted:

- Be upgrading the 2TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD to a 2TB NVME M.2 to eliminate a chunk of power cables and the SATA cable.

- my Final solution would be ordering a 240mm AIO cooler and mounting that onto my S4 mini. Would be distasteful, but something i'm willing to do. Since my 1080Ti is snug in the system with no complaints.


Any suggestions? Thanks!

11/14/17 Update:

EDIT: HeatsinK was originally parallel with RAM, however i later noticed that the long side of the Noctua heatsink was crushing the "top-side" NVME heatsink, hence me rotating it 90" perpendicular to RAM.

EDIT2: I assumed the Noctua fans were Static optimized for PULL. I will be flipping them back right side up for a PUSH-down configuration. (this does make more sense when the Noctua Heatsink is Parallel with RAM).

11/17/17 Update:

Nvidia GeForce Experience Update Ver.388.31 Killed Nvidia Control Panel and my current driver for the GTX1080Ti. My 1440p just went to 720p and in the middle of fixing.

I do have a solution lined up for the CPU cooling and PSU Watt mismatch.

REmoving the VRM top Heatsink did sort of help alleviate the issue only slightly.

Thanks guys!

 

[CubanLegend]

1) your NHL9i needs to be rotated 90 degrees, so fins are parallel to the RAM
2) you can also remove the VRM heatsink towers, that should drop your CPU temps and lessen throttling noticeably.

 

[ondert]

1) your NHL9i needs to be rotated 90 degrees, so fins are parallel to the RAM
2) you can also remove the VRM heatsink towers, that should drop your CPU temps and lessen throttling noticeably.

1) Did you mean 180 degrees?

 

[CubanLegend]

1) Did you mean 180 degrees?

1) nope, make it so the small fins on the NHL9i are parallel to the RAM, it's either going to fit by being rotated 90 degrees one way, or the other way.

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[CubanLegend]

You'll likely experience occasional system shutdowns with the Dell 330W brick and those components when under load. Even if you haven't yet, under heavy load it will eventually happen.

In addition to the rotating the heatsink, you'll want to flip the fan around so the side with the Noctua sticker is facing down.

Also check out this video:

oh yeah, the FAN! didnt even notice that one! Yes, turn your fan around too!

 

[H311K173]

1) your NHL9i needs to be rotated 90 degrees, so fins are parallel to the RAM
2) you can also remove the VRM heatsink towers, that should drop your CPU temps and lessen throttling noticeably.

Hi CubanLegend,

@#1: I purposely rotated the Heastsink 90 degrees as it was crushing the top NVME M.2 Key Slot. Hmmm I can remove the NVME Heatsink and keep it parallel. Josh has posted video of the Noctua Heatsink fins being crushed due to the NVME Heatsink.

@#2: Do you mean these VRM heatsink modules? Won't they overheat?

Haha yea, I flipped the Noctua fan thinking they were Static pressure optimized for a "pull" configuration, I guess I'm inthe wrong here. Gonna see about flipping it right side up in a "push"-down to CPU cooling.

It appears i magically can power the 1080Ti and i7-7700K with a Dell300W + HDPLEX400W but ailed teh silicone lottery on the CPU.
Thanks for the input!

 

[H311K173]

You'll likely experience occasional system shutdowns with the Dell 330W brick and those components when under load. Even if you haven't yet, under heavy load it will eventually happen.

In addition to the rotating the heatsink, you'll want to flip the fan around so the side with the Noctua sticker is facing down.

Also check out this video:

Sorry if this counts as repost, still learning how to do a double quote here.

Hi Ceski,

@#1: I purposely rotated the Heastsink 90 degrees as it was crushing the top NVME M.2 Key Slot. Hmmm I can remove the NVME Heatsink and keep it parallel. Josh has posted video of the Noctua Heatsink fins being crushed due to the NVME Heatsink.

@#2: Do you mean these VRM heatsink modules? Won't they overheat?

Haha yea, I flipped the Noctua fan thinking they were Static pressure optimized for a "pull" configuration, I guess I'm inthe wrong here. Gonna see about flipping it right side up in a "push"-down to CPU cooling.

It appears i magically can power the 1080Ti and i7-7700K with a Dell300W + HDPLEX400W but ailed teh silicone lottery on the CPU.
Thanks for the input!

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[CubanLegend]

Yup @ceski covered it. The nhl9i needs to be in the proper orientation but it can fit with the fins parallel to the ram. And he's right about the vrm towers. Your motherboard is better off without them. Mine was!

 

[CubanLegend]

There's no silicon lottery here. If you run RealBench for a while, and allow that brick to warm up, your system will crash.

WHAT IF, he undervolts the CPU and the GPU?