CPU Cooler Question?

[roberts_zak]

Hey,
first off, sorry if this is in the wrong place, but it seemed like the correct place?

i am building my first rig, and i have been stalking around reading the threads and articles here for advice, and pretty much got everything i wanted to know, but i do need some advice.

The case i have is an Ultra E-Torque Midsize ATX. It is set in stone, becuase i won it at a local lan party, so i already have it and it was free (found here).

the motherboard i was looking at was the ASUS M4A87TD Evo Mother Board
with 8gb of G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB and a AMD 965 quad BE.

now onto the question.

i was wanting to overclock the CPU a little, and was looking at coolers for it. Originally i was looking at the Hydo H70 but liquid cooling makes me too nervous since this is my first build and the 800 dollars is alot for me and i don't want it to leak and fry everything.

so that brings me to air cooling, and the one i am currently looking is the Noctua NH-D14 by the recommendations it was getting here.
but i'm nervous as to whether or not this will:

A) actually fit inside of the case and

B) still give me access to the 4 ram slots.

so if anyone has some experience with this kind of setup(AM3 with the noctua and G.Skill Ram) and could confirm that it all fits before i buy it all.

heres some measurements so you don't need to look for them

Ultra Etorque - 17"(431.8mm) H x 19.5"(495.3) D x 7.5"(190.5) W

Noctua NH-D14 - 160 x 140 x 158mm (heat sink dimensions)

i realize i will need to take off the air vent to the CPU to get it to fit no matter what, but i do want to know if it will fit once i do.


also, if anyone sees some major flaw like that ram won't work in the motherboard, that would be nice to know as well, lol.

thanks for any and all help
~Zak

EDIT- Forgot to add, if the noctua dosn't fit, recomendations on a good cooler that would fit would be greatly apreciated.

 

[saint19]

Hi roberts_zak and welcome to Tom's forum.

The cooler fit without problems in the case and u will not have any problem in use the four RAM slot.

 

[abully]

I noticed the case is 190mm in width; this is ample to install the NH-D14 which is 160mm. Taking the mobo/CPU offset of 15mm that still gives you additional 15mm space on top of the cooler.

Noe the mobo - hmmm...... its gonna be tight with the RAM bus close to the cpu area...... but i did look at the coolers compatibility list and its there (http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_gen&products_id=34&lng=en#AM3)

The NH-D14 provides 44mm clearance for near-socket components so ensure that your RAM does not go above 40mm. Ripjaws are OK'd by Noctua (http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_ram_gen&products_id=34&lng=en) so shouldn't be a problem.....

 

[roberts_zak]

Best answer selected by roberts_zak.