CPU Cooler Height in Zalman HD160XT

[bpm75]

Hi folks,

Ordered a Zalman HD160XT Plus case for my HTPC build and was getting round to ordering the other bits when I realised one was never going to fit!

The case height (without feet) is 160mm, once the Asus P6T6 motherboard is installed and the intel i7 940 chip, I then need to put on a CPU cooler, and this is where the problem lies.

The 2 I was choosing between (the Zalman CNPS9000LED and the Silenx IXC-120HA2) are 152 and 156mm high respectively. So not a hope in hell.

Please can someone who owns this case (or this knowledge) please tell me the maximum CPU cooler height, therefore the height between the chip and the case lid?

Thanks in advance.

Barny

 

[theAnimal]

Scythe Ninja Mini should work, only 115mm tall.

 

[bpm75]

I found some web data suggesting that there is 135mm between the motherboard and the case, givng me approximately 130mm from chip to case. Thus allowing the placement of a zalman cnps9500 (logical that they would make a CPU cooler to fit there own cases).

Looking at ths silenx ixc-92ha2 cpu cooler giver a max db rating 24db, but reading into the specs I can see that they have acheived this by limiting fan rpm speeds to 2000rpm thereby giving a maximum tr (thermal resistance) of 0.12C/W whereas I can see that the equivalent zalman with fan speeds of upto 2650rpm and 27.5db can produce a tr of 0.16C/W. A quite substantial difference!

Can someone with superior knowledge let me know if this extra thermal resistance is worth having at the expense of noise? Also whether even the zalman provides enough cooling power to maximise the efficiency of my system whilst minimising noise?

 

[theAnimal]

A good rule of thumb is to disbelieve any dB ratings for fans.

 

[mattcahill01]

did you ever find a good cpu cooler for this box? i own one and am looking to upgrade my fan/heatsink and am running into the same problem as you did... let me know matt.cahill@gmail.com