Prebuilt Solution for Deskmini 110/330 fragile motherboard?

[DeirYassin]

As I read in another thread and as told on YouTube the motherboard of Deskmini 110 and 310 seems to be too weak for Noctua nh-l9i. The motherboard bends or even breaks. To me it isn't totally clear if it is the mounting method with no backplate or the weight of the heatsink that is the problem (or both).

Do you think bending/breaking also would occur with Cooltek/Thermolab ITX30? Otherwise this could be a great alternative since the weight is lower and the cooling performance and the noise is on par with Noctua nh-l9i. It fits the motherboard, see this SFF-like thread on HardForum: https://hardforum.com/threads/mini-stx-1-53l-internal-psu.1923882/

Another interesting question is what does AsRock say about this clear weakness of Deskmini 110/310? I used to think this was a no-brainer buy, but now I'm not so sure anymore.

 

[thewizzard1]

My B250 board flexed quite a bit more than I would have liked... It's now mounted flat to the aluminum frame of my case with the heatsink mounting holes, and the ITX ones.

 

[confusis]

From my experience with the Micro-STX variant , it's a combination of thinner PCB and no backplate. My solution was just not tightening the cooler all the way - something I've done on other systems in the past when I'm not comfortable with the pressure a cooler has exerted on a board. (I found the same issue with Noctua's NH-L9a on a couple of systems too )

But frankly, I think it shouldn't be a thing. I wonder if Noctua's cooler has too much pressure on the board - no matter the board's strength, it shouldn't be bent by any cooler!

 

[XcPNehVYlE4A3C]

just dont crank the screws down all the way.

look at the top of the heatsink mount where the screws come up from the bottom, and alternate tightening opposite corners until you have the same amount of screw sticking up on each corner.

i did mine to just about a mm or so, the heatsink is plenty tight and theres a slight curve to the board but my ITX builds are just as bad

 

[DeirYassin]

Thanks for your input! I will go ahead using your suggestions, but with the Cooltek cooler - if I can find it.