Noctua NH-U14s TR4-SP3 fan mounting adjustment?

[Shai Hulud]

The cooler I bought for Threadripper 3970X will not fit with 8 sticks of RAM. Can I move the fan up and mount it like this? Note I havent screwed the heat sink onto the socket so I might have to move the fan even higher by Id guess a couple mm. As it came in the box the fan was just way too low.

 

Motherboard is Asus Rog Zenith II Extreme Alpha. G skill trident z neo RAM. I picked this RAM as it supposedly was designed for AMD processors. To fit the cooler as it came I would have to remove 4 sticks of RAM for proper DIMM channels, according to the motherboard instructions.

 

If my solution is going to cause problems, what is a good alternative? I would prefer not to have to buy another expensive cooler though so I hope this works. I don't care if I lose a couple degrees of cooling performance. I'm planning to liquid cool this system eventually but it will be at least a month before I get all those parts in so I'm air cooling for now.

 

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

15 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

The cooler I bought for Threadripper 3970X will not fit with 8 sticks of RAM. Can I move the fan up and mount it like this? Note I havent screwed the heat sink onto the socket so I might have to move the fan even higher by Id guess a couple mm. As it came in the box the fan was just way too low.

 

Motherboard is Asus Rog Zenith II Extreme Alpha. G skill trident z neo RAM. I picked this RAM as it supposedly was designed for AMD processors. To fit the cooler as it came I would have to remove 4 sticks of RAM for proper DIMM channels, according to the motherboard instructions.

 

If my solution is going to cause problems, what is a good alternative? I would prefer not to have to buy another expensive cooler though so I hope this works. I don't care if I lose a couple degrees of cooling performance. I'm planning to liquid cool this system eventually but it will be at least a month before I get all those parts in so I'm air cooling for now.

 

 

As long as it fits in the case and the temperatures are fine then yes.  Just make sure you have case fans cooling the motherboard.

[Mateyyy]

It'll work just fine. They give you the ability to move the fan up specifically for this reason.

[Shai Hulud]

Lian LI 011 dynamic XL case... it will definitely not fit with the door on. The little bumps on top of the heat sink actually touch the glass. I don't think this cooler would fit even with 4 sticks of RAM.

 

Ugh. This is why I bought the XL to prevent issues like this. Also why i hate air coolers with a passion, noctua lists this as compatible with my motherboard.

 

What happens if I just leave the side window off? If it doesn't tank thermals I guess it's okay...though some cat hair is going to end up in there. Hopefully I wouldnt be running it like this for longer than a month before i get all the watercooling parts.

 

I have 5 case Arctic PWM 120mm case fans atm. Was planning on something like 3 side intake, 1 rear exhaust, 1 top exhaust. No idea where to put them with the side panel off

 

I want to get up and running ASAP

[Shai Hulud]

50 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

As long as it fits in the case and the temperatures are fine then yes.  Just make sure you have case fans cooling the motherboard.

It will not fit with the side window in the lian li 011 dynamic xl. Looks like barely fits without the fan, lian li said 169mm from MB to panel but I am measuring more like 160. 

 

I have 5 case fans how should I arrange them with the side panel off? Had planned 2 or 3 side intake, 1 rear exhaust, 1 or 2 top exhaust but i don't know how the side panel being off changes things.

[LogicalDrm]

54 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

Ugh. This is why I bought the XL to prevent issues like this. Also why i hate air coolers with a passion, noctua lists this as compatible with my motherboard.

Compatibility with mobo means socket fits, and that heatsink clears both RAM slots and 1st PCIe slot. Your RAM is 44mm tall. U14S has room for 41mm. RAM PCB height is 32mm. I can understand your "hate" because air coolers limit some options with other hardware choices. Just don't shift blame for it to Noctua being correct on their listing.

 

54 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

What happens if I just leave the side window off? If it doesn't tank thermals I guess it's okay...though some cat hair is going to end up in there. Hopefully I wouldnt be running it like this for longer than a month before i get all the watercooling parts.

More dust, nothing else really. If you are gonna go with custom loop anyway within few months, shouldn't matter at all. Running without side panel is somewhat close to running in test bench. Difference is that case fans are directing airflow bit better.

[Shai Hulud]

1 hour ago, LogicalDrm said:

Compatibility with mobo means socket fits, and that heatsink clears both RAM slots and 1st PCIe slot. Your RAM is 44mm tall. U14S has room for 41mm. RAM PCB height is 32mm. I can understand your "hate" because air coolers limit some options with other hardware choices. Just don't shift blame for it to Noctua being correct on their listing.

 

More dust, nothing else really. If you are gonna go with custom loop anyway within few months, shouldn't matter at all. Running without side panel is somewhat close to running in test bench. Difference is that case fans are directing airflow bit better.

I did research clearance issues to the best of my ability. The Trident Z Neo is 41mm tall according to the first response on google. I found no dimensions on G Skill's site and assumed this was accurate. I've measured the RAM and you are correct, it is 44mm. I believe the 41mm measurement ignored the heatsink. 

 

So I should be mad at G Skill, and I am. But I am pretty sure 41mm RAM would not fit either. I had to move the fan up much more than 3mm. It also seems strange to market a product for TR4 motherboards that is incompatible with virtually every high end RAM kit. The only 3600+mhz RAM I could find < 41mm is the extremely expensive Corsair LPX. Lian Li also claims 168mm case clearance but the 165mm cooler bumps against the side panel even without the fan. It is difficult as a consumer to accommodate these giant air coolers with the data available, and most problems Ive had with builds in the past were due to issues with air coolers. That's my perspective anyway, but I suppose it doesn't matter now.

 

So...running without the side panel, I could put two intake fans on the bottom, two exhaust on the top, one in the back? 

 

I don't have any experience with test benches, all my previous builds have been in traditional cases.

[LogicalDrm]

17 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

I did research clearance issues to the best of my ability. The Trident Z Neo is 41mm tall according to the first response on google. I found no dimensions on G Skill's site and assumed this was accurate. I've measured the RAM and you are correct, it is 44mm. I believe the 41mm measurement ignored the heatsink. 

 

So I should be mad at G Skill, and I am. But I am pretty sure 41mm RAM would not fit either. I had to move the fan up much more than 3mm. It also seems strange to market a product for TR4 motherboards that is incompatible with virtually every high end RAM kit. The only 3600+mhz RAM I could find < 41mm is the extremely expensive Corsair LPX. Lian Li also claims 168mm case clearance but the 165mm cooler bumps against the side panel even without the fan. It is difficult as a consumer to accommodate these giant air coolers with the data available, and most problems Ive had with builds in the past were due to issues with air coolers. That's my perspective anyway, but I suppose it doesn't matter now.

I should clarify that I thought you had Trident Z RGB, not Neo. So I guess its bit on both. U14S fan goes lower than 41mm, the 41mm is what heatsink would allow if run horizontally.

 

17 minutes ago, Shai Hulud said:

So...running without the side panel, I could put two intake fans on the bottom, two exhaust on the top, one in the back? 

 

I don't have any experience with test benches, all my previous builds have been in traditional cases.

I would almost say that it doesn't matter. When you don't have sidepanel which would remove airflow on one side, fans become more about point-to-direction than airflow inside the case. So have fans pointing towards intake side of component coolers, and exhausting on exhaust side. Essentially what you suggest there.

[Jeppes]

Use a 120mm fan? Or two 120mm fans.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I don't think its completely unreasonable to think that someone is unlikely to pair the U14S with tall RGB memory modules, as the fans even if they fit will block the view of the RAM.

The U14S looks pretty minimal for cooling a Threadripper to begin with, I doubt its expected to be used for overclocking so again, normal height memory modules make more sense with that cooler.

RGB memory is almost exclusively used by people with water cooling for these reasons.  It doesn't excuse G-Skill not mentioning the height though.

[Shai Hulud]

5 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I don't think its completely unreasonable to think that someone is unlikely to pair the U14S with tall RGB memory modules, as the fans even if they fit will block the view of the RAM.

The U14S looks pretty minimal for cooling a Threadripper to begin with, I doubt its expected to be used for overclocking so again, normal height memory modules make more sense with that cooler.

RGB memory is almost exclusively used by people with water cooling for these reasons.  It doesn't excuse G-Skill not mentioning the height though.

I wasn't looking for RGB memory, and I don't think your generalization about who uses it is true any longer. I wanted a 256GB 32x8 @ 3600 mhz kit. To my knowledge the only 256GB kit at 3200mhz and above with no RGB is the G Skills Ripjaws 5 and the Corsair Vengeance LPX. The Ripjaws at 42mm are still too tall. This leaves only Vengeance LPX as low profile high end kits. The LPX is quite expensive and out of stock everywhere. It was probably available at some point while I was buying parts but I believed (erroneously) the G Skill Trident Z Neo (thought it was 41mm) was short enough.

 

Regardless, I think what you describe as "normal height" memory is no longer the norm, and would guess it is pretty rare in modern high end builds. I also think Noctua realizes this, which is why they make highly compatible coolers like the NH-D15s. I had read they are adapting the NH-D15s for the TR4 platform which will allow virtually any RAM to be used, but unfortunately it isn't available.

 

For the moment I'm just using the NH-U14S with the fan moved up. I could also use two 120mm fans in push/pull and still close the case, but I'm not sure how my Arctic P12s will perform in this respect. May test it later, or buy some Noctua 120mm fans if it takes longer than I expect to get my custom loop stuff

[57chevy]

3 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

For the moment I'm just using the NH-U14S with the fan moved up. I could also use two 120mm fans in push/pull and still close the case, but I'm not sure how my Arctic P12s will perform in this respect. May test it later, or buy some Noctua 120mm fans if it takes longer than I expect to get my custom loop stuff

The Arctic P12s are pressure optimized so they should be able to work just fine as substitutes on the tower. Using the Noctuas as case fans and the Arctics as CPU tower should work fine. 

[Little G]

Hi I know this is a relatively old thread but I just came across it. I have the same issue here with my MSI Creator TRX40, Threadripper 3960X, Corsair Vengeance and the Lian Li 011 Dynamic XL. I am now in the process of designing an aluminium chassis plate to extend the side out enough to allow the NH-U14S to fit comfortably and the glass to attach to it OEM style. Can someone let me know how much clearance is needed for the installation of the cooler with the fans moved up to comfortably clear the memory so I can complete the cad drawings please?