Need help with a heatsink in a tight spot

agm · Jan 25, 2014

I am building a mini-itx setup in a Rosewill Legacy V3 Plus-B ("Cube"). I have a ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ and Rosewill HIVE-550 and I need a CPU heatsink for an AMD 760k (100w). On the case description it says the heatsink should be 80mm tall MAX, but I'm wondering if I can get away with a little more (specifically 113mm for SilenX EFZ-80HA3 80mm)? I am worried about the AMD stock cooler, the temps are around 53c idle. I am getting a new fan for the whine in case I can't switch out the stock heatsink (Noctua NF-R8 PWM 80mm, which could also be used in push-pull on the SilenX). Some measurements I got for the parts are 7.87" case width, 4.39" for the PSU. I was excited about the ZALMAN CNPS8900 but the way it's oriented on the motherboard the heatpitpes touch the RAM... Any help would be greatly appreciated! (BTW I have all the parts except the case (of course lol) and didn't get the SilenX cooler.)

Outlander_04 · Jan 26, 2014

The teo best low profile coolers I know of are

Scythe Big Shuriken 2

Noctua NH L12 [ with the top fan removed ]

Noctua make a point of confirming their cooler will definitely clear RAM on an itx board and its an awesomely well made cooler . But more expensive

agm · Jan 26, 2014

Going with the Noctua for now. Hoping for the best. I should get it in a couple/few days and I'll report back. Thanks a bunch!

agm · Jan 31, 2014

Hi! Finally got everything to fit inside the case, and I'm still monitoring temps (~43C so far idle. High I know), but TECHNICALLY the Noctua fit. The 92mm bottom fan did not clear the RAM, by about a centimeter. I had to bend the heatpipes very very slightly away from the RAM sticks (Low profile heatsinks BTW). It was a mixed blessing because I was able to get the 120mm fan on the under-side and that felt like a small victory. With the heatsink bent at the angle they were however, there is ~1cm between the heatsink and the back side of the PSU. Still worried about temps in the long run and going to to a lot more testing in the coming week, but it works... technically

Thanks for your help!

Outlander_04 · Jan 31, 2014

In my HTPC and an H81 m-ATX mb I could only mount the Noctua in one orientation , and even then I had to move the lower fan as far towards the heat pipes as it would go .
Then it cleared the Vengeance low profile RAM by about 1 millimeter

bull3t · Feb 18, 2014

agm :

Hi agm, I'm in your same situation, FM2A88X-ITX+ and Noctua NH-L12, but my problem is that I dunno how the fasten the cooler to the motherboard since it is not provided of any backplate; how did you solve that?

Regards

agm · Feb 18, 2014

bull3t :

indeed. I didn't mention that I luckily had a spare AMD backplate that a friend had. I think the noctua manual says you can contact them directly for a backplate.

good luck to you. Let me know if you have any other questions. I am all set with my build now and very happy with the temps and volume.

Sorry about the phone typing

bull3t · Feb 19, 2014

Thanks agm. I contacted noctua and they told me that the motherboard isn't supported (since not following AMD specification). They say that is not possible to use a backplate without damaging several components at the back of the mainboard and suggested to try with screws, nuts and non conductive washers. What is your experience?

I ordered a backplate on ebay. My intention was to cut it at the corners and use just those four little parts.

agm · Feb 19, 2014

bull3t :

agm · Feb 19, 2014

that's too bad. like I said I had a spare AMD backplate that I could use. I used it totally unmodified and haven't experienced any problems with it so far. I was a little worried while I was getting it back there, and took extra care to avoid any damage. my advice is modify away if you feel comfortable! or be really careful if mods aren't your thing. It would be a shame to bend the backplate. I hope you get it to work soon! these mini-itx builds can be frustrating but it was worth it in the end for me. Let us know pls

bull3t · Feb 25, 2014

I finally received my backplate. I carefully mounted it without modifications and it worked. Then I mounted NH-L12 without bending pipes: I just moved the 92mm fan close to heatsink pipes. The fan touchs the ram module but this should not be an issue. After a couple of days the system is working fine and temparatures are normal: CPU +31-32°C in normal conditions.

Thanks for your help

agm · Feb 26, 2014

bull3t :

Excellent. Happy to hear it!

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Need help with a heatsink in a tight spot

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