P55 boards: CPU coolers and RAM clearance.

Pete.Dakota · 5 Oct 2009 at 20:04

I'm currently speccing a new rig would like to know which mid-range P55 motherboards have decent, or the most, clearance between a given aftermarket CPU cooler and the RAM sticks. I've read about some people not being able to fit fans onto the front of some coolers, or having to fit them higher than they would like, as the first RAM stick is in the way.

I'm looking at the following boards:

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4
Asus P7P55D
MSI P55-GD65

and probably either this Noctua cooler, or this Zalman.

Any help or user input would be really helpful.

Regards,
Pete.

MeatLoaf · 5 Oct 2009 at 23:37

Well on My P7P55D the 1st ram slot is blocked by even a modest cooler such as the akasa 968 X4 so i dont like the chances of an even bigger cooler leaving ,uch more clearance.

kevpuk · 6 Oct 2009 at 17:37

Just jumpin' on the s1156 wagon myself......still doesn't seem to be much choice in the way of coolers

Gone for a i750 and P7P55D Deluxe - any advice on cooling (air) ?

MeatLoaf · 6 Oct 2009 at 17:50

kevpuk said:
Just jumpin' on the s1156 wagon myself......still doesn't seem to be much choice in the way of coolers
Gone for a i750 and P7P55D Deluxe - any advice on cooling (air) ?

Well the askasa i mentioned above isnt bad, depends on your budget really.

kevpuk · 6 Oct 2009 at 18:13

Hhmm, not sure about budget....had a Scythe Ninja+ on my Q6600 and always found it good.....I guess it is early days on s1156 !
Going to put on the stock fella initially, and look around for the 'right' cooler to replace.....I guess circa. £30-40 is what I will be looking at...

As for the Akasa - how does it compare to stock cooler ? Temps ?

entireweb · 6 Oct 2009 at 18:17

I have 8gb of Corsair dominator

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-199-CS

The noctua fan touches the first ram stick of ram on my msi p55 gd80. Its just touches, it doesnt effect operation of the ram or even removal.

Its because the heatsink on the ram is too tall. With normal height ram it would be OK.

If I remove the fan closest to the ram then the heatsink is well clear. I was thinking of getting a smaller width fan eg 120mmx120mmx12mm but since it all works well now, I cant be bothered.

Pete.Dakota · 6 Oct 2009 at 19:35

entireweb said:
I have 8gb of Corsair dominator

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-199-CS

The noctua fan touches the first ram stick of ram on my msi p55 gd80. Its just touches, it doesnt effect operation of the ram or even removal.

Its because the heatsink on the ram is too tall. With normal height ram it would be OK.

If I remove the fan closest to the ram then the heatsink is well clear. I was thinking of getting a smaller width fan eg 120mmx120mmx12mm but since it all works well now, I cant be bothered.

That's the trouble. If one has an aftermarket CPU cooler, one is probably overclocking; if one is overclocking, they probably have top-end RAM with heatsinks sticking out the top.

I guess the H50 wouldn't come close to the DIMM slots...

hyperst · 6 Oct 2009 at 23:03

dont forget that you use the second ram slot first, so if your using 2x2gb sticks your first ram slot next to the cpu is actually free

Pete.Dakota · 7 Oct 2009 at 21:58

hyperst said:
dont forget that you use the second ram slot first, so if your using 2x2gb sticks your first ram slot next to the cpu is actually free

Yeah I know. Unless some new must-have game or something I was is released that will need more than 4GB DDR3, I don't plan on going up to 8GB. So the clearance isn't a huge problem.

I do like a tidy case, though; don't want it to look all cramped and awkward.