Noctua air cooler to fit the Lian Li Air 011 Air Mini?

PaulW · 11 Jun 2023 at 12:08

trying to fit a Gigabyte 4090 into a Lian Li 011 Air Mini with a 7950x and ATX board. i orginally wanted an 280 Arctic Freezer 2 AIO for it but believe it probably wont fit in the case with the 4090 in the front and questionable on the side.
so i an now thinking an air cooler with a few fans at the top and bottom would be just as good for cooling.

What Noctua options do i have that will fit in this case and cool it at minimal noise, these coolers are are pretty chunky boys and so the height of them is a concern with it being a small case. anyone else using one in there Air mini case?

PS i want a small case

Thanks

P

PaulW · 11 Jun 2023 at 12:29

Ah just found this, very useful Noctua. thanks

Lian Li PC-O11 Air Mini | Case Compatibility | Noctua Compatibility Centre

Max cooler height: 170 mm

ncc.noctua.at

PaulW · 11 Jun 2023 at 14:33

So with that what fan should i get in my small case that will cool the 7950x. the NH-D15S chromax.black for me seems like the best option, but it is big. so can anyone reccomend a smaller Noctua one that might be better for my build?

draken · 12 Jun 2023 at 18:55

PaulW said:
trying to fit a Gigabyte 4090 into a Lian Li 011 Air Mini with a 7950x and ATX board. i orginally wanted an 280 Arctic Freezer 2 AIO for it but believe it probably wont fit in the case with the 4090 in the front and questionable on the side.
so i an now thinking an air cooler with a few fans at the top and bottom would be just as good for cooling.

What Noctua options do i have that will fit in this case and cool it at minimal noise, these coolers are are pretty chunky boys and so the height of them is a concern with it being a small case. anyone else using one in there Air mini case?

PS i want a small case

Thanks

P

What about 240 Arctic Freezer on the side or with radiator offset bracket you could have that on the top.

PaulW · 13 Jun 2023 at 10:44

draken said:
240 Arctic Freezer on the side

hey, i'd love to but i think maybe the 240 won't be good enough for the 7950x. i think AMD reccomend a 280 AIO for it. if you an others think a 240 would be fine to keep it cool without much noise i'll go with it.
i was thinking i could swap the fans out for Noctua one if they were to noisey.

Bencher · 13 Jun 2023 at 15:20

PaulW said:
So with that what fan should i get in my small case that will cool the 7950x. the NH-D15S chromax.black for me seems like the best option, but it is big. so can anyone reccomend a smaller Noctua one that might be better for my build?

The U12A is amazing.

draken · 13 Jun 2023 at 15:22

PaulW said:
hey, i'd love to but i think maybe the 240 won't be good enough for the 7950x. i think AMD reccomend a 280 AIO for it. if you an others think a 240 would be fine to keep it cool without much noise i'll go with it.
i was thinking i could swap the fans out for Noctua one if they were to noisey.

Personally, if noise is your concern, then I would look at a AIO that controls fan speed based on liquid temperature of the AIO.
That way fans speed only increase once liquid get to a specific point, instead of fans based on CPU temperature which can quickly ramp up speed and down which can create more noise.

While I did go for 280 AIO in Lian Li 011 Air Min for my 7800x3d, fans speed has never gone above 30% with playing games all day, of cause thing could be different for you subject to what you are planning to use your 7950x with.
But a good 240 will be fine with your CPU https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-7950x-cooling-requirements-thermal-throttling/

PaulW · 13 Jun 2023 at 16:24

draken said:
Personally, if noise is your concern, then I would look at a AIO that controls fan speed based on liquid temperature of the AIO.
That way fans speed only increase once liquid get to a specific point, instead of fans based on CPU temperature which can quickly ramp up speed and down which can create more noise.

While I did go for 280 AIO in Lian Li 011 Air Min for my 7800x3d, fans speed has never gone above 30% with playing games all day, of cause thing could be different for you subject to what you are planning to use your 7950x with.
But a good 240 will be fine with your CPU https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-7950x-cooling-requirements-thermal-throttling/

intresting, i am planing on undervolting the 7950x as well and using eco mode. So a 240 with that might be fine. i want the 7950x as games will not be the primary use of the system it will be work, else i'd get the 7800X3d for sure.

PaulW · 13 Jun 2023 at 16:24

Bencher said:
The U12A is amazing.

Will look at that one as well thanks

draken · 13 Jun 2023 at 18:14

PaulW said:
intresting, i am planing on undervolting the 7950x as well and using eco mode. So a 240 with that might be fine. i want the 7950x as games will not be the primary use of the system it will be work, else i'd get the 7800X3d for sure.

I prefer AIO 280 over 240 or 360 due to the larger quieter fans, but I do have two 120 fans on side of the case which are nice and quiet and probably would have been fine for me in AIO on the side which would have allowed me to go for ATX motherboard instead of ASUS x670 gene MATX.

That the thing with building pc I spend ages reviewing and looking for quiet components but I never know how it going to end up till I’ve put it all together, I very sensitive noises so even went has far as getting GPU that likely not to have coil wine.

PaulW · 13 Jun 2023 at 20:42

draken said:
ASUS x670 gene MATX

haha i have an excel sheet with this as an option as well precisely for using the 280 in the top. Really wished Lian Li had extended the case just a bit so you could put a 280 in at the top with an ATX board.

draken · 14 Jun 2023 at 12:30

PaulW said:
haha i have an excel sheet with this as an option as well precisely for using the 280 in the top. Really wished Lian Li had extended the case just a bit so you could put a 280 in at the top with an ATX board.

If case was any bigger might as well go for Lian Li EVO. The O11-Dynamic-mini has option to fit a AIO 280 on the side but you need an SFX-L PSU to fit in that case.

An AIO 240 will be fine for the CPU you are going for and even more so if you looking to under volt and run in eco mode, which was same idea I had gone for 7950x or 7950x3d.
And for even quieter options you can replace stock fans for Noctua fans, the general recommendation is if you can go for 280 or 360 then better to do so.

I've set my 4090 to 70% power limit for similar reasons.

Simon Belmont · 14 Jun 2023 at 16:18

I used a Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black with the mini air for nearly a year and that cooler is the best air cooler I've ever used. It's not cheap, but well worth it

Hostile_18 · 15 Jun 2023 at 10:25

Simon Belmont said:
I used a Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black with the mini air for nearly a year and that cooler is the best air cooler I've ever used. It's not cheap, but well worth it

Came here to say the same. Beats every AIO for me as no pump noise. Fans are inaudible under 1100rpm. Build quality top notch.

WoZZeR · 19 Jun 2023 at 23:41

Rather randomly, looking at the Lian Li list got me wondering whether the NH-P1 would work with top, front and bottom fans all sucking in and no rear fan. Kind of expensive but would look nice.

PaulW · 20 Jun 2023 at 12:17

Hostile_18 said:
Came here to say the same. Beats every AIO for me as no pump noise

if i am going air coolling, which i probably will do now. The NH-U12A chromax.black seems the best. its smaller for better airflow around the case with the big 4090 and about 2-3 degrees cooler that the D15 from some reviews. thanks to all those who recommended it.

Drumroll · 20 Jun 2023 at 21:04

Great choice. I would only recommend (from Noctua) the NH-U12A or the NH-D15S. The regular NH-D15 or the Dark Rock Pro 4 would seat too close to the GPU. A pain to release the GPU if your motherboard doesn’t have the release push mechanism.
For AIO, 280mm or 360mm would be the only ones that I would consider, but the Arctic as it is thicker, would perform slightly better than similarly sized AIO. The advantage would be the quieter pump which is easy to keep quiet yet performing as required.
Just one thing I would check with your case, make sure you have the revised panels. Every now and then some older, more restrictive panels version, pops around. If that is the case, contact Lian Li and in few weeks you should receive the revised panels.

PaulW · 22 Jun 2023 at 21:05

Drumroll said:
Every now and then some older, more restrictive panels version, pops around. If that is the case, contact Lian Li and in few weeks you should receive the revised panels.

oh right had no idea about this, which panel do you mean? what should i look for.
also i see you are in Cambridge, i am too what do you do here? i work on the science park and live in the north of the city near the A14.

Drumroll · 22 Jun 2023 at 22:31

PaulW said:
oh right had no idea about this, which panel do you mean? what should i look for.
also i see you are in Cambridge, i am too what do you do here? i work on the science park and live in the north of the city near the A14.

All the perforated panels. Lian Li was supposed to correct the issue before shipping the cases for customers, as the issue was flagged by GamerNexus.
Despite that, twice I received panels with the “faulty” panels. (Changed cases too often looking for the perfect one).
A quick search online and you will be able to spot if yours is affected or not.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lianli/comments/r2sef2/o11_air_mini_updated_side_panel_arrived_today/

Basically you can notice the updated panel have a much larger ratio of holes to metal, and the wrong panel is mainly metal. Airflow gains are huge.
As mentioned, their customer service was quick to send the correct panels.

I work for a wine supplier. Living in Cambourne now, after 10+ years in Cambridge.

PaulW · 23 Jun 2023 at 08:12

Drumroll said:
Airflow gains are huge.

Hey, thanks for the info. As soon as you mentioned it i watch the GN video on it. Yeah i see what you mean the difference is staggering with the new panels. i'll make sure i get an up to date version