Hi everybody,

TL;DR; I found a nice Air Cooler. Now I seek a proper Chassis to match it.

-fox


I CAN READ; BRING IT ON; As I said in another thread, now I am kind of stuck in finding a good Air Cooler and the Chassis to house it. Looks like all Intel 9th Gen processors easily run hot.
For a while I searched for the best air cooler for the i7-9700K and always the same few names would pop up. Is there actual merit in them, or is it because word of mouth repeated without first-hand knowledge on the subject?
So I searched for benchmarks both from reputable sources and from less known parties.
The general consensus is that a 120mm fan-based air cooler is not going to keep the i7-9700 cool enough in all scenarios. Some such air coolers are better than others at this, but eventually all of them are outmatched when the i7 is under load for extended time periods -- and overclocking is pretty much out of the question.

Soo... a 140mm air cooler is required.
And with it comes a bulky (large + wide + tall) heatsink which takes a lot of volume in the chassis.
There also is the problem of the co-existence with the RAM banks. Most 140mm [fan-based air] coolers will collide with the 4th RAM slot. Either live with it, or use short RAM sticks... as if it is that easy a pick.

For the moment I am eyeing the Noctua NH-D15S 6-pipes air cooler. It is big, 140mm (the fan), very effective, pretty silent (as a boon), and keeps somewhat clear of the RAM. More precisely, it hangs over the 4th RAM slot at an height of 65mm. Of course, plugging and unplugging RAM in said slot while the heatsink is mounted ranges from difficult (if the RAM stick is low-profile) to impossible (if the stick is high-profile). Thus, one has to choose well which banks to mount and where.
I appreciate a lot that the D15S is offset to the side to keep distance from the graphics card

Last, but not least, the fan is easy to remove & reinstall for when I want to dust off the heatsink. Living in a dusty environment like I do, dust IS a prime concern; it is everywhere and in just 2 days a thin veil appears on most surfaces. You cannot even imagine what settles inside the chassis after 6 months.
The problem with the NH-D15S heatsink is that it wants 160mm clearance in height. It is no short device and I have to pick a proper chassis for it.
And since dust is such a problem, I would like the chassis to have filters (which is easy); possibly magnetic ones (heh -- not that easy anymore).

So my next quest is to find a Mid-Tower chassis with magnetic dust filters and 160mm (or more) clearance for the CPU heatsink.
And it appears that I will have to cope with the RGB craze. Ahhhh, fine, so be it

-fox

Been using a Fractal Design case for some years - ticks all my boxes! Their latest models look pretty good too.

fox wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:33 am

1: Looks like all Intel 9th Gen processors easily run hot.

2: Is there actual merit in them, or is it because word of mouth repeated without first-hand knowledge on the subject?

3: The general consensus is that a 120mm fan-based air cooler is not going to keep the i7-9700 cool enough in all scenarios. Some such air coolers are better than others at this, but eventually all of them are outmatched when the i7 is under load for extended time periods -- and overclocking is pretty much out of the question.

4: Soo... a 140mm air cooler is required.

5: And with it comes a bulky (large + wide + tall) heatsink which takes a lot of volume in the chassis.

6: There also is the problem of the co-existence with the RAM banks. Most 140mm [fan-based air] coolers will collide with the 4th RAM slot. Either live with it, or use short RAM sticks... as if it is that easy a pick.

7: For the moment I am eyeing the Noctua NH-D15S 6-pipes air cooler. It is big, 140mm (the fan), very effective, pretty silent (as a boon), and keeps somewhat clear of the RAM. More precisely, it hangs over the 4th RAM slot at an height of 65mm. Of course, plugging and unplugging RAM in said slot while the heatsink is mounted ranges from difficult (if the RAM stick is low-profile) to impossible (if the stick is high-profile). Thus, one has to choose well which banks to mount and where.

8: I appreciate a lot that the D15S is offset to the side to keep distance from the graphics card

9: Last, but not least, the fan is easy to remove & reinstall for when I want to dust off the heatsink. Living in a dusty environment like I do, dust IS a prime concern; it is everywhere and in just 2 days a thin veil appears on most surfaces. You cannot even imagine what settles inside the chassis after 6 months.
The problem with the NH-D15S heatsink is that it wants 160mm clearance in height. It is no short device and I have to pick a proper chassis for it.
And since dust is such a problem, I would like the chassis to have filters (which is easy); possibly magnetic ones (heh -- not that easy anymore).

10: So my next quest is to find a Mid-Tower chassis with magnetic dust filters and 160mm (or more) clearance for the CPU heatsink.

11: And it appears that I will have to cope with the RGB craze. Ahhhh, fine, so be it

-fox

Hello Fox

A general bit of info about cases:

When you buy a case (and are not on the strictest budget) paying a bit more for things like good included fans, a fan controller, ease-of-building, anti-vibration mounts, noise insulation etc etc. All of these features are things that will be well appreciated over the years you will end up using the case.

I have cases here that i have used for more than 10 years. And aside from some scuff marks on the edges.. you will not notice it.

With that out of the way. On to the festivities


1: They dont run hotter than they are designed to. (a lot of review sites have gotten their pants in a twist about it, but fact is, the cpu's have a warranty etc)

2: A good quality cooler can last for many years. Case in point, Noctua normally sends you a free upgraded socket mount if a new socket is introduced that your current model of cooler can easily handle. Noctua as a brand has the respect it has because it only does one thing and it does it really well. Consider buying noctua as the tried and true choice. (if that makes sense)

3: Bah, humbug! (see point 1.) There is a tradeoff between noise and heat. That is the core challenge of cooling any cpu.

4: no, but it is preferred for noise reasons.

5: Please do tell, what else are you going to use that space in the case for? (there is a dedicated area around the cpu that is intended for the cooler, so there is no downside to the cooler taking up that space)

6: This is only a problem if the mainboard and ram in combination are chosen poorly. Finding ram that fits will not be a problem. Again, you are not going for a display build, so it does not matter if the ram itself is ugly as sin.

7: Very solid choice. re: worries about it fitting etc: Dont. (because realistically, it will not be a problem for you)

8: I appreciate it too, but as long as it does not touch, it does not matter.

9: Dont worry too much about dust. (this is another reason why people prefer big lumps of metal as CPU coolers) It does not really matter all that much.

10: That is simple to solve for you. https://www.bequiet.com/en/case/1504 <- Pure Base 601 (black/black) that one is rougly 100-120 euro (depending on the specific colour you want it in (the pure black is ofc the most expensive of them)

11: Nope, no RGB this time.

I can be so dense!
I discovered that Noctua keeps various lists of objects compatible with their coolers.
One such list is about chassis: https://noctua.at/en/nh-d15s/ccomp -- a very welcome service!

There are so many to examine that it will take a while.


-fox