Small quiet cooler for mini ITX build

Blue160

Blue160

Blue160

Soldato
Joined
26 Oct 2010
Posts
2,997
Location
Leatherhead
Hello chaps

I've just built myself a HTPC with the following specs:

Compucase 8K01 mini ITX case with 120W PSU
ASRock H61 M-ITX
Intel Pentium G620T
4GB Kingston HyperX Blu
500GB Seagate Barracuda
Sony Blu Ray burner
30GB Kingston SSD

Really pleased with my build so far except the stock Intel heatsink is a bit noisy when it's parked under your telly.

I'm VERY limited for space. The cooler needs to sit virtually within the area of the push-pins.more than 2mm outside and it won't clear the RAM. Also I only have 55mm between the motherboard and the top of the case. I've seen a couple of coolers that will fit, but no information on their noise levels.

Any help gratefully appreciated :)
 
I've got that motherboard on order at the moment and I'm very much hoping that the Scythe Shuriken Rev B will fit!

http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/043/scsk1000_detail.html

I think the height will be an issue for you (it's 64mm tall) but maybe it would fit without the fan?.

Surely a heatsink similiar to the Shuriken would clear the RAM, as the wider part of the heatsink is almost always raised?

As far as I can tell from photos, the H61M-ITX doesn't have its RAM slots any closer to the CPU area than an ATX/M-ATX board.
 
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Looking at that cooler I suspect it will fit the board, although you might have issues if you're going to use the PCIe slot. No way it would fit in my case though! I've no room for any fans so passive cooling is out.
 
Hmmm... can you hear the Intel cooler because the fan speed is variable and it's speeding up and slowing down?

If so, perhaps you could lock the speed to a certain value, that might make the noise less noticeable?
 
That Scythe is the quietest one for that height. Though if you don't mind modding your case then how about the Scythe Big Shuriken? It is 58mm high, so if you cut a hole out of the side of the case the fan can get air directly from outside the case onto the cpu.
 
Engram said:
Hmmm... can you hear the Intel cooler because the fan speed is variable and it's speeding up and slowing down?

If so, perhaps you could lock the speed to a certain value, that might make the noise less noticeable?
Click to expand...

Can't hear the speed changing. It's a constant background hum, just loud enough to be annoying!

The Scythe Kozuti might work, although it may be too wide. I'll do some measuring tomorrow.

Cutting holes in the case is out! To make the Shuriken fit I'd have to take out most of the top anyway.


Many thanks for the suggestions :)
 
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Blue160 said:
Can't hear the speed changing. It's a constant background hum, just loud enough to be annoying!
Click to expand...
May be have a look around in the bios setting and see if there are some settings you can change on fanspeed to lower/restrict max fanspeed to a certain level? These chips would run at very low temp so you can most likely get away with using low fanspeed with the stock cooler.

Also, are you sure the fan humming sound is coming from the CPU fan, not the PSU (if it has a fan)?
 
Thanks Marine. Had a play around in the bios and found the fan set to full on. I've turned it to auto with a target speed of 40% and things are much quieter.

Problem solved. Thanks everyone for your input :)
 
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