Noctua NH-D14 in Bitfenix Prodigy

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attacus

attacus

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I've currently got a NH-D14 in a Bitfenix Prodigy with a CD tray. This means I had to use a 1/2 inch fan as an exhaust instead of one at the front. These schematics show that the heatpipes are not equidistant from the center of the cooler. Before I tried it, I wanted to know whether mounting the cooler backwards so the longer side faces the exhaust would let me plant a fan on the front intake facing the cd tray.

Here's a picture of the schematics. Notice the 68mm distance vs the 62mm. http://noctua.at/media/wysiwyg/images/faqs/nh_d14_measurements_1.jpg
 
Solution
Karadjgne
Op wants to know if he can mount the cooler 180° so that he can use 2x fans on the cooler. Correct?
Correct orientation for that cooler is the larger heatsink by the exhaust, smaller heatsink by the cd tray. In the Prodigy, this'll mean you get to fit both stock Noctua fans on the cooler, but at the expense of no exhaust fan. Testing done on this revealed that since the cooler rear was so close to the exhaust vent, lack of an exhaust fan there really didn't make much difference overall as there were other sources of exhaust capable in the case.
The main issue will be the mobo. Most itx boards are not designed for the highest OC standards so heatsinks on the VRM's is limited. Some, however, are and as such have relatively huge heatsink...
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attacus

attacus

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Thanks for the quick response. What I meant is the way the cooler is positioned is so close to the exhaust grill, that there isn't space for a regular sized fan. what I wanted was a push/pull configuration on the heatsink with the shorter heatpipe with 2 120mm pwm fans. If I had the shorter heatpipe facing the CD tray and the longer heatpipe facing the exhaust, then I thought it might be able to fit a fan on the front whereas currently I can't.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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I think I understand.
The NH-D14 has massive heat pipes to get heat off of the cpu die.
The single center 140mm fan is plenty good enough to move cooling air through both sets of pipes and out the exhaust at the rear.

All of the cooling air for the case is coming in from the front 120mm fan which is less airflow capacity that the 140mm cooler fan.
If, for whatever reason you need more airflow, replace the stock front 120mm fan with a higher rpm version at the expense of more noise.


 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Op wants to know if he can mount the cooler 180° so that he can use 2x fans on the cooler. Correct?
Correct orientation for that cooler is the larger heatsink by the exhaust, smaller heatsink by the cd tray. In the Prodigy, this'll mean you get to fit both stock Noctua fans on the cooler, but at the expense of no exhaust fan. Testing done on this revealed that since the cooler rear was so close to the exhaust vent, lack of an exhaust fan there really didn't make much difference overall as there were other sources of exhaust capable in the case.
The main issue will be the mobo. Most itx boards are not designed for the highest OC standards so heatsinks on the VRM's is limited. Some, however, are and as such have relatively huge heatsink arrays around the cpu. Since the one heatsink is on the rear face of the board, its possible it'll interfere with the heatpipes on that side of the cooler. (happened to me, personally)

Best thing I could say, go buy a tube of decent paste, some coffee filters and some 91%or better isopropyl and experiment with the orientation. Those big-air coolers in smaller cases have tight tolerances at times, so it's sometimes pot-luck whether things work exactly the way you want.
 
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attacus

attacus

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Thanks for all the responses, everyone. I've just finished putting it together. I found that the cooler can be turned 180°, and having the short end (with the 120mm fan in the picture) facing the exhaust gives enough space for a full sized fan either on the cooler or screwed to the case. You just have to reorient the fans so the airflow is exiting the case. I have a 230mm intake at the front of the case and a 120mm outtake above the cooler as well (4 fans in total).
 
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