Cooler master Elite 430 mid tower case No room for a cpu cooler??

didoudi · Sep 10, 2015

Ok so i bought this case, and i wanted to replace the stock cooler with a good cpu cooler, but when i look inside to see what could fit inside, i see that its really too tight, i don't think i can put a Noctua d-14 inside because its too tall, or any double radiator liquid cooler.
(space between the top of the case and the motherboard is not there)
i can put a air cooler that is maybe 14-15 cm tall.
Its my first build so I don't know what to choose.

So do you guys have a good option to cool my i7-4790k? i plan on OC a little bit

thanks!

Chayan4400 · Sep 10, 2015

I made the same mistake by getting a cheap case, regret doing so now

. Anyway, you are lucky, the Elite 430 has a top fan mount, so you can use liquid cooling to get around all the obstacles

! Something like the Corsair H80i GT will be your best bet:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($89.24 @ Amazon)
Total: $89.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-10 11:13 EDT-0400

It costs around the same as the Noctua NH-D15, and should perform around the same as well.

capt_taco · Sep 10, 2015

If you're just OCing "a little bit," you ought to be fine with a lower-profile air cooler. Your case's specs say it can accommodate CPU fans up to 163mm high. So that Noctua cooler should fit, but just barely (3mm to spare). Most of the good coolers using 120mm fans fall right into that range of about 158mm to the low 160s.

If you don't want to chance it, I'd say the Zalman CNPS9500 is tops among the coolers with 92mm fans and is only 125mm high. It's done the job admirably for me in cases where I was worried about the height, and handles an overclock well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118003

Water cooling I would not even mess with unless you want to add cost and complexity for roughly the same result. A cheap closed-loop system is not going to give you any better results than air. And when you get into the serious high-end watercooling systems - for the $300 and up you'll spend, might as well have just gotten a more powerful CPU in the first place.

didoudi · Sep 10, 2015

capt_taco :

If you're just OCing "a little bit," you ought to be fine with a lower-profile air cooler. Your case's specs say it can accommodate CPU fans up to 163mm high. So that Noctua cooler should fit, but just barely (3mm to spare). Most of the good coolers using 120mm fans fall right into that range of about 158mm to the low 160s.

If you don't want to chance it, I'd say the Zalman CNPS9500 is tops among the coolers with 92mm fans and is only 125mm high. It's done the job admirably for me in cases where I was worried about the height, and handles an overclock well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118003

Water cooling I would not even mess with unless you want to add cost and complexity for roughly the same result. A cheap closed-loop system is not going to give you any better results than air. And when you get into the serious high-end watercooling systems - for the $300 and up you'll spend, might as well have just gotten a more powerful CPU in the first place.

But the 212 evo would be better than the zalman no?
By OCing a little bit i mean 4,7ghz maybe?

GObonzo · Sep 10, 2015

didoudi :

an i7 @ 4.7Ghz isn't a little bit. that's a pretty decent overclock. you can probably pull it off with a real good case flow and a good CPU cooler. make sure you have good intake and outtake air flow and a good cooler before OC'ing the CPU though.

just measure from the CPU to the case wall, from CPU to the top, and from CPU to memory then find a good rated cooler that fits in that range. if going water cooled, there's plenty of all-in-one radiators that should fit where your top fan\s are now with it's fans hanging attached underneath it. motherboard shouldn't be in the way.

capt_taco · Sep 11, 2015

didoudi :

I have one of each on my two main machines, and personally i think the Zalman is just as good if not better; the 212 EVO is a little cheaper (which is why it gets so much love - really good performance for the price point).

But anyway, if the 212 would fit in the case, there are better coolers out there than both it and the Zalman. The reason you'd choose the Zalman is if you're worried about the height.

For reference, the Zalman cooler I have is on an i7-2600k machine overclocked from 3.4GHz to 4.0GHz. It handled that pretty well. I'd be more worried about overall system stability than the cooler unless you go even higher.

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