The case that I want to get is the Silverstone FT03 mini itx fridge/wastebacket/ tower as a minimalist gaming pc, and I will replace the bottom silverstone air penetrator with the spcr reference noctua p-14. Vortez reviews says that the case has 90mm clearance for cpu cooler, so that means that the scythe shuriken 2 rev b is a perfect fit as it is 71 mm tall w/ regular sized 120mm fan according to spcr.

I do plan to overclock the CPU to maybe 4-4.5 ghz, so the included fan with the shuriken probably doesn't have enough power to cool it while gaming.

I will also purchase the Asus z77 mini itx deluxe board if that helps and the shriven is compatible.

So which fan or pwm fan do you suggest? While lurking a bit, I see many recommendations for the noctua p-12 pwm and the scythe slipstream 120mm pwm. Are there any better choices, or which of the pair do you suggest to provide optimal cooling for an overclocked i5 3570k at relatively quiet noise levels? Budget is not much of an issue because there are only two fans in the case.

That is a bit on the tight side.

Given that you have 90mm of space, and you are overclocking a i5 3570k. You do not have a lot of good choices.

The Noctua NH-L12 will fit with just an underfan... and will need only 66mm. Because it uses an underfan it doesn't need any headroom... the headroom is build in. SPCR was able to shoe horn in a 120mm Nexus fan into the underfan position on this heat sink.

Check out its compatibility with your motherboard and video card here:
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=comp ... =46&lng=en

Here are the cooling capacity guidelines for this cooler:
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=nh_l ... guidelines

Here is its benchmark performance against other smaller sized heatsinks, including the Scythe Big Shuriken 2... which I wouldn't rely on for adequate cooling capacity in your situation:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1278-page6.html

Also see this discussion here
viewtopic.php?p=562449#p562449

Note that you have an additional problem with the Scythe and any other CPU cooler - that same 80mm space is used for the PSU to suck its air so you'll get two fans trying to suck air from the same very small space. Not good for performance at all... The Noctua NH-L12 could blow its air up into the PSU, that might work better.

I suggest to go for simple, closed loop watercooling for the CPU - which is what this case was designed for. A H55 or H60 can cool your cpu just fine and the radiator fits on the bottom of the case, just over the fan. You can't use the fan supplied with the radiator but that's not a problem.

Good luck.

Hi there, a few suggestions:

-Delid the 3570k and use Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra thermal paste over the cpu die, and any regular tim on the ihs. There's a REALLY good guide here. That should help reduce load temps by 20-30c under load.

-Get Gelid Silent 14 and 12 fans, they are cheap and really silent, yet have good static pressure and are pwm.