Best air cooler no taller 155mm?

Goose · 5 Jan 2019 at 14:10

I returned a BeQuiet AIO because the pump was so noisy and decided to replace it with an Alphacool Eisbaer which i also found to be too noisy for my liking.

I've decided to stick with air cooling for now until i pluck up the courage (and funds) to do a custom water loop.

NH-D15's and Dark Rock Pro4's are too tall for my case so i'm looking for an alternative that is no taller than 155mm.

Thanks

TangoEchoAlpha · 5 Jan 2019 at 14:47

@Goose Lian-Li PC-O11D by any chance? I had exactly the same issue and ended up going for a Noctua NH-U9S to tide me over until I do a custom water loop. Best other option I could find was the CR-H7, be that the single or dual fan version.

Height of 145mm, so should do you the job - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cryorig-h7-plus-cpu-heatsink-with-2-x-120mm-fans-hs-010-cy.html

chippy08 · 5 Jan 2019 at 15:57

Another one to look at is the Deepcool Gammaxx 400

doyll · 5 Jan 2019 at 17:12

Another thread for same 155mm cooler height limitation:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/what-am4-air-cooler-must-be-less-than-155mm-tall.18841800/

GoRedwings19 · 8 Jan 2019 at 05:39

Just ordered another cpu cooler for the collection. Bought a noctua u14s but found it wouldn't fit in my mitx case shame as I thought it would for some reason.
Ordered a Corsair h75 but it has substantial pump noise then I was expecting and drives me crazy. My other h115i pro is nowhere as noisy. So am now replacing it with a noctua nh-cs14s.

doyll · 8 Jan 2019 at 15:39

NH-CS14S is not a bad cooler, but being a pancake means when fan/s are flowing toward motherboard it's almost impossible to keep it from re-using it's own heated exhaust airflow. Reason is air flowing toward motherboard turns out at motherboard, then up at RAM, GPU etc. flowing up alongside cooler and fan/s to where it is drawn back into fan on top. I found even using an open bench test station with a 140mm fan flowing air over CPU area of motherboard the air was 5-6c warmer than room, and when I switched the cooler fan so air was flowing away from motherboard CPU temps wer 5-6c cooler.

So it might be worth trying fans pulling air away from motherboard instead of usual pushing air toward motherboard. Also try fan under finpack vs over finpack.

If your case has a vent that lines up with CPU cooler. Then you could make a short duct from cooler fan to case vent to either draw cool air into cooler or push cooler's heated air out of .. and that way being able to keep heated exhaust air from mixing into cool intake air and increasing component temps.