Best low profile coolers?

Soldato
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I have a few options on this little ITX Setup that I am now knocking up.

One option, is simply buying a low profile cooler, but, I am, to be completely honest, not entirely happy about the idea of a low profile cooler.

That said, if I am stuck with having to use a low profile cooler, then can anyone suggest the best ones?

I have roughly, a 3 inch gap, and if I am completely honest, I think its a tad less... Educated guess not measured.
 
What case and components is this 'little ITX Setup'? Knowing what it is makes it much easier to give good suggestions.
 
True!

Well, the case in question is a Coolermaster Elite 120 It currently has an AsRock H77M-ITX in there, but I got a Gigabyte Z170 to go instead.

I also have a Coolermaster Elite 130 and that takes an AIO and so I was thinking that since I have a spare AIO cooler, I could simply buy another Elite 130... The thing is, that my 120 is white and the 130 is black and so I have the black one setup with Linux and the white is my Hackintosh and so if I buy a new one, I can only get it in black and so I was thinking of simply swapping the case cover and the front over so that the white one will be a 130 too! ( I know what Im trying to do )

But if a low profile cooler will stick itself under the hood and run the nice and cool, then I will do that instead?
 
Elite 120 and Elite 130 have 65.0mm / 2.5 inch CPU clearance. I think both have 120mm front and 80mm side vents with fans ?? and exhaust vents on top and side ?? Does PSU mount above CPU socket? If so it will move air from inside of case out the back. Isn't there some venting on side where GPU can draw air in too?

I'm guessing a flat cooler that can have it's fan mounted to draw air up away from motherboard and into PSU vent is best way to keep heated airflow away from/mixing with cool intake airflow.

But without knowing what motherboard and RAM you are going to use I can't say what coolers will fit.
 
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I wouldn't recommend feeding CPU cooler output directly into the PSU intake. Power supplies are often only rated for 30-40°. If your room is 25° you can guarantee the air coming off that cooler in that small case will be over 30.
 
I wouldn't recommend feeding CPU cooler output directly into the PSU intake. Power supplies are often only rated for 30-40°. If your room is 25° you can guarantee the air coming off that cooler in that small case will be over 30.

Do you have some information about that, 30-40 is amazingly low in my mind for PSU components.
 
Do you have some information about that, 30-40 is amazingly low in my mind for PSU components.

Its not a temp rating for the components though, it's about the air temperature flowing into the unit for cooling. You wouldn't want 40°C air flowing into your GPU cooler either.

Check out the JonnyGuru review of the CX650M for instance. He often puts PSUs into a hot-box to test them up against those limits.
 
they dont sell them on here and probably not amongst the best, but i have a Mars branded low profile like cooler, its 6.5mm high or under 7 anyways, i had it cooling an athlon 860k no problem, as it comes with intel brackets i will be using it with my kabylake processor, its rated for like 100w at least and its also quiet, cost me £20 with prime, im sure you will find better brands, was just some input.
 
Hells bells, many thanks for the replies guys... I have been so busy recently, that I have simply let so many things pass me by!

Ok, well yeah the 120 and 130 both have front 120mm fans and side fans ( Removed however and Im stuffed if I know where they went to? ) the PSU is indeed directly above the CPU and what I have done, as a small experiment, is re-wire the current cooler that I have ( Akasa - black fins, yellow fan, I think its a K25 going by google images ) so that rather than it blowing air down onto the cooler, it sucks up... This is so teh air flow goes into the PSU ( As has been mentioned ) and in spite of anything, the air flow inside the case seems to be quite good ( Thanks to the 120mm in front and the 120mm in the PSU ) and the cooling is fine, to be fair, the cooling is ok even with the air blowing down too, however the fan is fairly noisy.

Also to note, I am using a nVidia that has 2x80mm fans on it and that too, while not really noisy, is still audible, and so that isnt helping either... That said, I have been fiddling with a fanless card just to keep the noise down and the CPU cooler makes so much noise that the nVidia fans are a non-issue.

As for things like the PSU temps and especially hot air going into the PSU, I have to say that the air coming out of the PSU even under load, and when its making a noise, is still very cold... In fact, I am hard pressed to feel any warmth at all, and so, sure, this may seem like a non issue, its just not likely that the air going into the PSU is going to be hot if its coming out as cool as it is.

So, I suppose I am sounding a bit iffy now, when Im saying the PC is cool, and then moaning about the cooler not being up to the job, because I mean it is, its keeping it cool as its job title portrays, but, its far too noisy, I have a stupid number of PCs and right now 5 are on in the computer room, and there is zero noise coming from any of them... Nothing, not a gnats fart of a squeak from any of them. but that one, is a little turbine, and when your used to silence and then you turn that cow on, and she whines like the wife... it kind of irritates me... yeah, like the wife!
 
Well, that one failed.
I found an Artic cooler 11 for a fiver, so I jumped at it. and when I went to fit it, I found a huge issue.

The Akasa that I have been using only just fits very snugly, and there is no more than about a 1 or 2mm gap between the Akasa and the RAM on one side and the GPU on the other.

In fact, while I might be able to gain 1mm by using thinner RAM ( Currently GSKill RipJaws ) the back of the GPU has a plastic shield and this has a few scratches on it from simply touching the cooler...

The ONLY solution I have then, is to STFU and make do, and perhaps find the side mounting fan.
 
Got any pics?

I have build numerous ITX systems over the years, and have used many heatsinks, passive builds (ZERO fans) etc so might be able to offer some thoughts.

Is this going to be used with your 7700k? Considered underclocking it, so that it runs more like the 7700T (35w)
https://ark.intel.com/products/97122/Intel-Core-i7-7700T-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3-80-GHz-

Dropping the TDP makes a HUGE difference to the coolers you can get away with... once you are down at ~35w it makes the thermals MUCH easier to manage.
 
Got any pics?

Sure, I can happily get a couple sorted...

I have build numerous ITX systems over the years, and have used many heatsinks, passive builds (ZERO fans) etc so might be able to offer some thoughts.

Is this going to be used with your 7700k? Considered underclocking it, so that it runs more like the 7700T (35w)
https://ark.intel.com/products/97122/Intel-Core-i7-7700T-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3-80-GHz-

Dropping the TDP makes a HUGE difference to the coolers you can get away with... once you are down at ~35w it makes the thermals MUCH easier to manage.

My I7s are all sorted out just fine.

I have AIO Cooling in all my PCs with the exception of the Server ( 4xG34 Noctua ) and this one old i5-2500k

So no, the 7700K is in the Z270 Mobo and has a Corsair AIO in it, and its not being touched.

This would have an AIO in it too, except that the case is the Elite 120 and an AIO does not fit... I got 2 other ITX setups that are in Elite 130 cases and they do fit AIO setups, and so I could cure it by simply getting another 130.

Let me organise some pics then, and see if I cant find my account on any pic store site that I setup and only ever used the once?
 

LOL Yes, thats One setup I have yes, but thats in a 130 and I have NOT got any issues with that setup.

I am talking about a different setup, and older setup. I have so many setups that I often get confused, and so yeah, I will take some pics and upload them now...

Oh and PS - the 6500 is running sweet. Its at stock, so not bothered to clock it. Not felt the need to. I knocked up a Hackintosh with it... Took a while but it went in just great to Mojave and now the novelty has worn off and its a Linux PC... Like the other 2 ITX Setups are!
 
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Ah, I was unable to use the imgur one and so I had to make a new account with these, so I hope these pics are ok?

20181217-124726.jpg

20181217-124751.jpg

20181217-124809.jpg
 
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