uATX CPU cooler in Antec Minuet: Shuriken or Big Shuriken?

[norman-ramsey]

I'm building an HTPC in an Antec Minuet and am looking for a low-profile CPU cooler. I read the favorable review of the Scythe Big Shuriken but am concerned about the difficulty of installation. I'm going for a cheap motherboard with only 2 memory slots, and if the cooler blocks one slot, I am hosed.

I am thinking of trying to downgrade from Big Shuriken to plain Shuriken. The CPU I will be cooling will be the AMD Athlon II X2 Regor with a thermal design power of 65W, or possibly the single-core Sempron 140 Sargas with a thermal design power of 45W. (I'm given to understand that the Sempron is a Regor with one of the cores turned off at the factory.)

Questions:

• * Does anybody have experience trying to install a Big Shuriken on a micro-ATX motherboard in an Antec Minuet or similarly small case?
  * Can anybody suggest whether the plain Shuriken (100mm instead of 120mm) will be up to the task of cooling quietly?

[swivelguy2]

I can't speak to the case, but the Big Shuriken is designed to have its fins high enough to clear standard sized memory sticks. You should avoid memory with tall heatsinks, and you may also have to put the memory in the motherboard before the Shuriken. Depending on your configuration, this can make it pretty hard to reach all of the mounting pushpins.

If you only need 2 GB of DDR2, there's also low-profile RAM, which alleviates any problem you might have, at a small price premium.

[norman-ramsey]

The Big Shuriken is designed to clear standard memory sticks, and there's also low-profile RAM.

Great information! Thanks kindly.