SFF Gaming rig... AIO/Watercooling required?

Associate
Joined
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It does tempt me to build a mini itx build and a nice small case but I really don't want nor like water and electrics and have very bad luck haha!

I could buy the best of the beat aio or whatever and mine would leak and someone with the crappest Chinese Ali express one wouldn't!

Could I get away with just getting an amazing similarly priced hsf setup instead?

Or am I doomed to throttling cpus and gpus and mad amounts of heat?

If so I'll just forget it and stick to a mid size tower under the desk I guess.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Apr 2009
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7,580
Water cooling just allows for the same amount of cooling potential in a smaller package. You can go SFF and use air. But you either need a larger case, or a weaker CPU (and/or you need to underclock/undervolt to reduce thermal load).

The smallest case with worthwhile air cooling is the Ncase M1, using the Noctua D12L or C14S (or the upcoming Dancase C4-SFX, which is smaller) or for something cheaper, the Cooler Master NR200. Smaller than those, you're looking at relatively weak CPU coolers, e.g. the Noctua L9i.
 
Associate
OP
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was going to get an nr200p with a sycthe mugen 5 rev.b but I think I'm just going to stick with a smaller tower now tbh and run fans a bit less. it's under the desk anyway so doesn't matter too much. I just like the sff look haha.
 
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