This is particularly about the Antec NSK-3480 case. I notice several people on these boards using Thermalright's HR-02 (macho?) heatsink in the NSK3480.. I've based a lot of my heatsink research on this. Are you using the rev.A or B version of the cooler? it's pretty important because the 'macho 120' is 12mm shorter than the rev.A version (150 and 162mm respectively) according to Thermalright's website.. also, how much clearance is there between the side panel and the heatsink?

This goes out to other people using the largest of HSF's in the NSK3480 too.. I'm planning to fit either a Noctua NH-D14, Alpenfohn K2 or a Phanteks TC14PE - basically, dual radiator coolers.. i initially planned for the D14 but its lack of pwm fans and me going for a motherboard that really, needs pwm fans put me off it. If the older 162mm HR-02 fits i should be able to get any of the above units in and i'm tempted to go for the TC14PE due to its easily replaceable pwm adapted fans and (ever so slightly) better performance than the D14 in reviews

does anyone have a dual radiator/140mm fan cooler in one of these cases? how well does it fit? i'm not ruling out the HR-02 but if i'm going to spend that much on a heatsink i might as well fit the best, if it fits.. fiddly isn't a concern or i wouldn't be going micro ATX in the first place. actually fitting, of course, is

man i love building pc's.. been too long

In case it's of any use : viewtopic.php?t=58524

Nice one! that answered my question

i'm going for the D14 anyway but the socket 2011 version, which does come with PWM fans.. I'll be buying the socket 1155 mounting kit for it (5.99) which should make it fit my maximus v gene - i just found out you could buy the mounting kit today

Just saved me either running an inelegant solution (tc14pe), a less than ideal solution (D14 1155 version @ fixed rpm) or spending 50 pounds on fans. Now i only have to purchase one fan for this whole build (nb-eloop)

Project: Shoehorn is GO! A quest to have eventually the most hardware fitted inside an nsk3480 ever

edit: in case anyone else looks at this thread, i'm planning to mod my 3480 to take a single 120mm front fan, to get lots and lots of cold air directly at my graphics card. I can't decide which graphics card to get. Cost isn't so much an issue to me as temperatures and power consumption are. I'm looking at Radeon 78 series cards as they strike me as the best performance per watt going in a fairly good card. I'm not really sure how much wattage of heat the NSK will be able to deal with modified in that way - i intend to run a noctua P12 PWM fan front, and a noiseblocker nb-eloop PWM fan rear. I do want the maximum games performance that i can get but i'd like to keep temperatures as low as possible.. My choices i've narrowed down to the MSI 7850 twinfrozr IV, Sapphire HD 7870 GHz Edition, or the MSI 7870 TwinFrozr III (i'd like to go for the hawk 7870 twinfrozr IV but it has that gpu reactor and it'll foul the cpu heatsink) - i've checked and it looks like the longer 7870s fit, but the thermal output on the 7870 is much higher - 130w (ish) as opposed to 100w (ish) for the 7850

rest of the rig that makes a difference to temps during gaming is i5 3570k at some overclock yet to be determined but won't be too mad, i'll be happy at 4.2ghz, 16gb samsung green (30nm) ddr3, maximus v gene, and a couple of SSDs. Gaming noise isn't actually an issue for me as i'll be using headphones - my interest in a silent pc is for general usage/media playback, and idle noise

the question is can i keep 130w of graphics card cool (preferably, with its stock heatsink but i can change the fans if necessary) with that lot in this itty bitty little wonder of a case?