MAXBattle

OK... one more thought... What if I set it up to suck air from the TOP of the case (with a nice mesh filter) with a couple of 140's and then blow it out the back (and maybe even a bit from the front, so an upside-down Y airflow)? Maybe I'd leave the front passive and just have an exhaust fan at the back and a pair of input fans on top. Wouldn't the outbound air at the front keep crap from getting in from the floor? As I mentioned, I'm looking at bequiet cases, like the 500 and 600 and I can do a solid front panel with air inlets down the sides of the front.

I've looked at all of the options for the places it could go (in a small apartment) and it looks like we'll have to find a small stand or table to get it up 6-12 inches off of the ground. Unless... Do I hide it in a closet and use a long video cable and long USB cable and hub for the keyboard and mouse??? DisplayPort can go 50 feet... and nothing will be overclocked. In any case, I think the solution will be something like a bequiet Pure Base 600, which I've built with in the past and for which I've got some extra parts, if needed. I really appreciate everyone's input and assistance. Thank you!

You guys are making me think about old school desktop / HTPC cases... I'm making this as a gift for a family member from mainly my own spare parts (Ryzen 5 3600, ASUS x570-Plus, RX590 8GB Fatboy, Crucial RAM and NVMe SSD... nothing OC). It looks like I'd have to spend $200 on an HTPC case. Unless there are better desktop options? UPDATE... never mind... desktop won't work where the recipient has PC space.

Does elevating it really make that much of a difference? I didn't know that.

What's the best case for a household with a cat that sheds a lot of hair? I imagine easily-cleaned intake filters are a must. Luckily, the box is only for modest gaming with no OC or other heat issues. Likely a floor-standing mid-tower. Anyone have experience with good or bad PC cases for pet owners?

Yeah, I was ready to pull everything apart for the new build when - totally randomly - I somehow stumbled across a post saying the Pro 5 cooler height was a bit taller than some others. My existing cooler, a bequiet Pure Rock 2 Black, is much smaller at 155mm. What bequiet doesn't mention in the body copy of their Dark Rock Pro 5 web page is that its fans are not the more common 120's, but are a combination of a 120 and a 135. Complicating things is the fact that I use this computer for work, so if I pull it apart and stuff doesn't fit, I have to put it all back the old way because I can't wait a couple of days for a different case or cooler to arrive. I have zero PC parts retailers nearby and I don't want the bad karma of sticking the online retailer (or me) with the return for stuff I bought "just in case." BUT... here's the good news: You guys have inspired me to try anyway, just in case that 3mm happens to be inconsequential. Also, it came to mind that maybe I can swap out the 135mm fan on the Pro 5 for another bequiet 120mm fan that I have - just in case that gets me those 3mm. While I'm not about to go "full Linus" and hit my machine with an angle grinder, I need to dig deep and rediscover my old school PC nerd brain that figured out how to make a 14.4 internal modem work in my 80286 machine in the early 90's. THANK YOU!

Had the case been narrower, that would've crossed my mind, but I assumed (yeah, I know) it was OK because it looked like a burlier version of my existing cooler. Bequiet doesn't even mention that it uses bigger fans in the marketing copy on their website. The only place that's listed is in the fine print of all of the tech specs (behind a button). I checked the motherboard compatibility and (stupidly) didn't give it another thought. Lesson learned. Connecting the optical drive isn't the issue. It's not having a 5.25" bay for the drive. That Enthoo looks promising. I have seen other cases with 5.25" bays, but they often had poor airflow, bad noise control and/or looked trashy. If there's one thing the Germans do well, it's minimalist design.

It's comparing the written specs for all involved components, plus that's the number bequiet support stated. I'm hoping they were just reading paper specs, too.

Yes and no. I started, but then stumbled across a random comment online talking about how the cooler didn't fit in some other average-sized case and my brain went, "oh, noooooo." So far, it has just been reading the tiny specs and messaging bequiet support.

That's an interesting possibility. Amazon still has them. Are they pretty quiet?

Best news I've heard all day! Fingers crossed! My other thought was seeing if there was anything to shave down on the cooler (e.g. bolt heads or something). The case side is glass, so no give there. When I asked bequiet tech support (before I tore everything apart), they apathetically said, "buy a new case."

I recently bought the parts to upgrade my ASUS x570-based system to an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. Unfortunately, I only noticed after purchasing (and too late to return) that my new bequiet Dark Rock Pro 5 CPU cooler is 3mm too tall for my existing case, a bequiet Pure Base 600. While I checked motherboard compatibility with the cooler before purchase, I wrongly assumed it would work in the case - and nothing on bequiet's website talks about how some of their air coolers aren't compatible with some of their cases. Now that I've found Noctua's immensely helpful Compatibility Centre database, that'll never happen again. I don't game on this machine, but I crunch big databases and spreadsheets and also do some video and photo editing, so I use a CD/DVD/BR-R/W optical drive fairly regularly. I bought the Pure Base 600 because it is one of the few modern cases I've found with a convenient optical drive bay. For silence and aesthetics, I've used all black bequiet components where available. My conundrum is this: Do I... A. Buy a new bequiet Silent Base 802 case and use the Dark Rock Pro 5 cooler, but then have to use an external optical drive? It's the best cooling option, the USB-C port (for the external drive) is right on top, and I can repurpose the old case for a secondary system. The downside - besides the janky external optical drive (that won't do BR) - is cost. It's about $220 for case & external optical drive. B. Buy a Dark Rock Slim cooler and use my existing Pure Base 600 case? The cooling capacity is lower, but reviews say it can handle the 5950X as long as I don't OC. The upside is the price (only $60) and I can add a second fan to improve cooling by 1-3 degrees. I also keep the optical drive as-is. Besides cooling capacity, another downside is that I'd have to shelve the brand-new Dark Rock Pro 5 until I could use it in the future. C. Buy a Noctua NH-D15s chromax.black cooler and use my existing Pure Base 600 case? This lets me keep the optical drive and the cooling is apparently between the Slim and the Pro 5. The two downsides are cost (about $120) and the same shelving of the Dark Rock Pro 5. I liked the idea of being all-bequiet, but it's not the end of the world to add this cooler since the aesthetics are close enough. Also, this cooler is supposedly a little bit noisier than the two bequiet coolers. I'm leaning toward A because it means no parts end up sitting unused on a shelf and it gives me maximum performance from the 5950X, but I'm open to others' thoughts...

To clarify... The label on the RAM says Ballistix 3200. The FLCK is set at 1800 (Ryzen 5 3600). In the BIOS, I manually set the MCLK at 1800. I don't recall if I adjusted the voltage or any other settings. BIOS reports both FCLK and MCLK at 1800 and machine is rock stable. I think it was CPUID(?) that confirmed RAM running at 3600.

Thank you for all your info. So, I happened to find two Ballistix RGB 2x16 kits for a good price. One is 3600 and one is 3200. Other than just trying the 3200 at 1800 MCLK and crossing my fingers, is there any other way to tell chip quality? An identifier? Or a simple testing suite that works well? I have another Ballistix non-RGB 3200 that happily runs at 1800 MCLK, but it's only 2x8.

Is there any online database that says who uses whose components (like there at least used to be for monitor panels)? Also... I noted on your info that you're running a Ryzen 7 5800X3D with HyperX 3200 CL16 RAM. Are you running both FLCK and MCLK at 1800? I know AMD supposedly compensates, but that 1:1 at 1800 is best.