Hi all, new to posting here but lurked looking at a few 3480 builds for a few weeks, inspired by some of the nice builds here to finally ditch my ancient (originally AT with the punch out backplate to make it ATX, it had a 486 in it when i got it) old full tower and go micro atx.

Question is as titled really, it looks like it fits from the measurements and looking at Zenphic's build with the similar height U12P but i've been unable to find one fitted on the net. I'm trying to find out how much space there is between the front edge of the frontmost radiator, and the front metal panel of the chassis, to see if i can still use the 3.5" drive slot at the top of the motherboard chamber, but turned through 90 degrees so the drive runs side to side in its longest dimension.. as far as i can tell, it's going to be really close if it fits.. i'm working off pictures on the web and using the ODD bay screws as reference. by my workings i need minimum 105mm between the heatsink and the front metal panel

motherboard is to be either an ASRock EX4-M or Asus Maximus V Gene. Running an i5 so will be retaining the middle fan of the D14. I'm thinking about chopping the bottom 92mm front fan mount out and replacing it with a single 120mm fan mount, blocking up what's left of the top fan mount.. then using that 120mm mount for the spare fan from the D14. Not decided on a case rear fan yet, but i used to love the old 38mm thick YsTech fans, they were so quiet yet still powerful on 5v.. looking for a 38mm thick quiet PWM fan for the rear if i can find one (no luck yet).. the end rig doesn't have to be utterly silent just very very quiet.

cheers

For an i5, the NH-D14 is total overkill. You just don't need that kind of cooling power, so why not save yourself the hassles of trying to fit this oversize cooler into a tiny box? There are many smaller coolers that will do just as good a job.

The old 38mm thick YSTech fans are history... and utterly outperformed for quiet airflow by today's best fans. You should start with the provided case fan anyway, samples vary and you might get a really quiet one

I did consider the U12P SE2 and even the 92mm version but really if i remove the 120mm fan from the D14 it doesn't seem any bigger in any way that matters (of course, it is bigger but if it actually fits, why not?) The D14 is pocket change more expensive than the U12P here and I really like the idea of also getting ram/VRM cooling from the bottom bit of the mid mount 140mm fan. Hassle isn't really an issue as long as the thing actually fits with the other bits i want. I agree that it's total overkill but for me that's in its favour. means i can turn the mid fan down (or remove it entirely) and still keep the temperatures super low.. I'm really obsessive about CPU temperatures - keep the temperatures lower whilst overclocking too?

For me there is no why, there is only why not. sounds like a daft thing to say when i type it like that but its true - if i can, then why not? I have a goal in mind with this build, and that is to fit a high end (ish) system into a tiny case, inaudibly and with the temperatures i like which, ideally, are significantly sub-50*c at full load.

Yep, i looked for the old FD1238s, or their modern equivalent - just thinking how good a 38mm thick fan would be with all the modern tech that makes todays best 25mm thick fans so good. Also, i figured that with the extra performance of such a fan, I could fit a 25mm thick model to the front at the same RPM as the rear and still get a bit of negative pressure to suck some air through the pci backplate (which i intend to fit dust filtered covers to) and the grille next to them which i can also dust filter. I intend to add dust filters throughout the case, on every intake vent. Irrelevant anyway because i haven't been able to find such a fan, hoped someone here would know of them if they exist which they don't appear to.

My friends actually do call me king overkill but i'm happy with that, makes me feel like i'm overachieving.

EDIT: to save on double posts i'll edit this post. I see what you're saying sir and tis a good point. I always knew that a D14 would be TIGHT on the 3.5" bay turned 90* even with the D14's 120mm fan removed. Because drive bays are more important to me than going from high end to elite air cooling (my current rig is custom, overkill watercooled and has been since the days of the first socket A AXIA athlons) what i'm going to do is do the drive bay mod first and i may try to fit an old HD bracket from an old case with multiple bays then take my measurements and decide on heatsink then. The D14 only appears to be a little bit longer at each end with the 120mm removed than a U12P with the fan on the front end of the heatsink so going U12P wouldn't gain me any significant space at that side. I've seen coolers slimmer and cheaper than U12P that should work fine but if i can fit D14, then i would always regret not doing so if i didn't... i just visualise the case and can see the airflow from the 3 fans i want in my main chamber (not including GPU cooling) and in my head it looks better with D14 than anything else.. largely because of that 140mm fan in the middle

edit 2: I have managed to find 120x38 fans from Panaflo, Sanyo Denki(look like old tech from the numbers), Scythe (ultra kaze 3000rpm), the similarly 'No.' Delta fans, and silenx's ixtrema pro (18dbA, 90cfm) haven't decided on that silenx yet i may just fit another, probably cheaper 120x25 but based on all of about 10 seconds of research the ixtrema looks very promising

Mike is as always spot on. Everyone loves a healthy dose of overkill, but there is a point where it becomes pure waste.

FYI, I have a Xigmatek HDT-1283 which is not even in the top 20 best CPU coolers in the SPCR rankings, add to that an AC F12 Fan instead of the included fan and it can keep a 95W AMD CPU that is overclocked by 500MHz and over-volted a little at 50C with the fan running at 700-800rpm with all 4 cores maxed out in a warm room - this is evidence enough that you can easily cool a 77W CPU with a substantially poorer cooler than the one I am using.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article818-page1.html

Flip through a few pages and have at the 92mm fan version of my CPU cooler, its pretty good as well, especially with a "cool" CPU like yours.

I hope that my experiences help your decision making.


Andy

Don't do it. silenx began with a shoddy rep and we have no clear indication that they've improved. Don't trust manufacturer's claims about fan noise. Trust SPCR reviews of fans.

based on your advice.. i'm overkilling it even more

Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 version comes with PWM fans, and the mounting kit for socket 1155 is pocket change.. really worth it to get PWM imo as my motherboard doesn't play nicely with 3 pin fans (maximus v gene). I don't expect to need the 120mm fan that it comes with on my CPU, just the middle 140mm one. I've checked and the cooler fits (although it's tight). The thing that really pushes me towards the D14 is the middle fan protruding under the towers, allowing airflow on the ram and VRMs.. I've set my heart on the D14 for that reason and because i've always been OCD about temperatures. CPU temps in the high 50s-low 60s are not acceptable(even if not an issue for the cpu) especially if i can keep it in the 40s or less. Fiddly to fit isn't so much of an issue for me because once it's in there it's probably staying there for a good 4-5 years or more

The motherboard airflow, overkill cooling, and extra fan to use as case fan makes the cooler quite a bargain, when you consider all the accessories it comes with that i'll use - silicon fan mounts, thermal paste, i might use the low voltage cable.

the 120mm fan from the D14 i plan to either: use as case front fan, or sell it and replace it with a noiseblocker multiframe M12-P/PS to match my case rear fan.. I've got a cheapish 120mm, the 120mm tricool the case came with, and a pwm noctua to sell and a friend of mine offered me enough for them that i could get a pair of M12-P's

it is never, ever a waste to fit a bigger heatsink, especially on an overclocked pc which is on 24/7. If nothing else, it may mean i can turn the cpu fan down more than i otherwise would or overclock another multi

edit: i'm also fitting a hd7870.. with that heat plus all the other stuff - i've just fitted a 3xHD bracket in place of the 1x3.5" FDD bracket - creating heat, the overkill heatsink might make quite a difference to temperatures