Cooling Challenge for M-ITX

kinetis

kinetis

kinetis

Associate
Joined
28 Apr 2012
Posts
22
Hi All,

I've put together a mini ITX rig within a Fractal Design Node 202 case.

Managed to get everything in, but now need to get a slim cooling solution.

The Fractal manual says max 56mm height, which looks pretty low profile indeed! :) Any ideas on products to meet the requirement?

The rig so far.

Asus Maximus VIII Impact Mobo
Intel i5 6600K 3.9Ghz LGA 1151 Processor
KF2 GTX 960 Reference 4Mb Graphics
2 x 8GB Corsair Dominator Platinum memory
2.5" Samsung 500Gb 850 EVO SSD
Silverstone Strider SFX Gold 450W "80 Plus Gold" PSU

Thanks
Ian
 
You'll need to make some specific measurements to be sure, because some of the decent coolers are a bit too big.

Thermalright AXP-100 is 58mm including the fan
Prolimatech Samuel 17 is 46mm without a fan

However, if you don't overclock you could look at the Noctua NH-L9i but it's really only rated for 65W TDP, so may not be good enough.
 
At least in this review, the Thermalright AXP-100 -serie seems to fit.

Nevertheless, I would recommend taking a look at the Noctua, like mentioned earlier. I have the AXP-100's big brother Thermalright AXP-200 Muscle, and the fan that came with it is quite frankly awful. Granted, it moves surprisingly lot of air. But it's very loud, as well. And makes an annoying rasping sound on smallers RPMs. If you go with the Thermalright, then I would at least recommend looking for a new slim fan, as well.

But, if the AXP-100 really fits, then the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 should fit, as well. I think that's been fairly popular among SFF enthusiasts. Although, the Shuriken also has a 120mm fan, so it takes quite a bit more room than the AXP-100 (100mm). But then again, so does the Janus (120mm, and which, btw, seems to be only 15mm thick - OcUK has an error in their specs). One of the main differences between the Janus and Shuriken is that the Shuriken is centered, while Janus is slightly balanced to the other side. Therefore Janus might actually be a better fit for your motherboard.

But also bear in mind, that in Noctua's case (37mm high), you could also replace the slim 14mm fan for a regular 25mm height fan, like the Noctua NF-A9 PWM. Albeit still smaller in the other directions (92mm), when compared to all the others (100/120mm). Then again, with the Noctua you don't have to stress whether the memory and the motherboard components have enough clearance, whereas with the others you might face some unpleasant surprises. (There seems to be two fairly unusual walls on the motherboard, which might indeed interfere with the larger coolers...)

Long story short:
Go with the Noctua, and if money is not an obstacle, then upgrade the slim fan to the Noctua NF-A9 PWM.
 
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