ITX CPU cooler: Noctua or... Nvidia? I decided to try it...

[Maxxtraxx]

FYI, this post involves a whole lot of amateur engineering(though...that word might be too kind, and indicate some level of competency)

 

I just recently finished assembling a new ITX build as follows:

 

Dan Cases A4(silver)

i7-6700k 

Asrock Z270M-ITX a/c

Noctua NH-L9I

EVGA 980Ti FTW

Silverstone SFX-L 500w

480Gb NVME M.2 Mydigital BPX

16Gb PNY 2400Mhz DDR4

 

However... Amazon sent me the wrong M.2... so i return it and reorder...(actually just got the drive today(2/9/17))

So, everything is assembled save for the drive and therefore the OS. Just to verify that the PC boots and all appears normal I decided to power it up and tour the Bios(this being my first ASRock board).

 

While sitting idle in the bios the CPU temperature sit at a solid 52deg C regardless of what the fan profile is, Low 52C, medium 52C, Full speed 52C.

 

The temperatures I'm seeing at idle are very high(in my mind), my ATX tower idles at low 20C all day long and doesn't hit 50-60c till torture tests/stability testing

 

Well, Obviously the Noctua cooler is only rated for 65W, and the 6700k is a 91w processor so what should I have been expecting? Obviously my expectations were off or I was thinking very obliviously, maybe both.

I decided to check what other cooler options may be available, would fit in the 48mm maximum clearance hight for the cooler to fit in the case and could possibly provide better cooling. I looked but nothing caught my eye as a definite improvement.

 

My mind turned to my old Titan X(maxwell), she ran hot but had a custom bios and was likely producing 300w worth of heat that had to be dispelled by that tiny little reference cooler...

 

So my mind said... that cooler would fit in the case... (what was i thinking?)

Who on earth would use a GPU cooler to cool their CPU... but it is larger AND it uses a vapor chamber design compared to noctua's 2 heat pipes and metal block method.

 

SO, having time on my hand i decided to grab the Cooler from my GTX1080(its currently running an AIO) which is the same as the Titan X's just to gauge whether it may even fit in the allotted space. After retrieving it from the back recesses of my closet, surprisingly it appeared to fit, and have all the proper clearances around it. I proceeded to look up the mounting hole spacing for LGA 115X boards and found it to be a few millimeters larger than the GPU mounting holes but my mind decided to press on.

 

I visualized a design that uses a metal plate that bolts to the bottom of the GPU cooler and has the correct mounting holes to align the motherboard to.

 

Here's what i came up with:

 

FYI: i've not done actual temp testing on this setup yet... but the idle temps in the bios screen dropped 4 deg with the Nvidia cooler vs the NH-L9I

 

This is the final constructed product with fan mounted just before installation

 

The following 2 pictures are from the first test fit to ensure proper cpu centricity, even pressure and good thermal compound spread.

The cutouts are for clearance around the VRM/Chokes

 

Closeup of the side showing how the Cooler mounts to the plate.

 

Test fit on the Board to check for clearances around the cooler.

 

Side shot showing the cooler sitting on top of the CPU while bolted in for a test fit.

 

Finally, what it looks like installed in the system.

 

[shadowbyte]

this may be the jankiest thing I've ever seen

[Droidbot]

it looks awesome with just the HS on the board, it's flat

 

super janky but super cool

[NTDaws]

Janky.

[NTDaws]

1 minute ago, Aleksiandrovich said:

The fuck is Janky?

jan·ky

ˈjaNGkē/

adjective

NORTH AMERICANinformal

 

1. of extremely poor or unreliable quality.

   "the software is pretty janky"

[NTDaws]

Looks good though.