Nocdua NH-D15 ram cleareance issue, advice?

[code99]

Long story short, yesterday i spent almost 4 hours building my new gaming system with the following specs:

 

Ryzen 5800X

Noctua NH-D15 air cooler

ASUS ROG STRIX X570 F Gaming 

ASUS TUF 3080 OC

32GB (16x2) 3200Mhz, CL18 Corsair Vengance RGB Pro 

Corsair HXi Series HX850i, 80+ Platinum, 850W

BeQuiet Pure Base 500DX case

 

 

The issue is with the height of the RAM. I wasnt able to place the second fan on the cooler.

At this moment, the cooler has only 1 fan in the middle, the other one i moved to the front of the case.

 

I have a few questions regarding this:

 

1. How much of a cooler performance am i losing by not having the second fan on the cooler?

2. Should i keep it like this?

3. Should i replace the ram with a shorter one? If so, which one would you suggest?

4. Should i try and replace the cooler? I think i can still return it, i got a few more day i believe. (id rather keep it, its a fkn amazing cooler)

5. Should i place a smaller fan on the cooler instead of the 140(?) mm that came with it? (is this even possible? if i get a smaller fan, does it come with a metal bracket to install on coolers or not?)

 

What would you do in my situation?

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention, i wasnt able to run any games or tests to check on temperatures yesterday so i dont know what temps im getting. Ill do it this evening.

Was wondering if anyone else ran into this issue and have a suggestion or something

[Prodigy_Smit]

2 minutes ago, code99 said:

How much of a cooler performance am i losing by not having the second fan on the cooler?

As long as the temps are in control then its fine and with good air flow that would not be an issue.

4 minutes ago, code99 said:

Should i try and replace the cooler? I think i can still return it, i got a few more day i believe. (id rather keep it, its a fkn amazing cooler)

You have a good idea of what to do. It is a beast of a cooler.  

[Bobbysixjp]

I had a similar issue, but instead the second fan was touching the glass of the case (NZXT H510).

I replaced the orginal fan with a Noctua NF-A12x25 120 mm fan (see picture below), which is good for both radiators/heat sinks and as case fans. 

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a

They have released a Chromax version if I remember correctly if you don't appreciate the Noctua colour scheme. Noctua also do other 120 mm fans in black such as the NF-F12 Chromax which is optimised for radiators and heat sinks.

Personally I wouldn't use the 140 mm fan from the heat sink as a case fan because it is probably not optimised for airflow. 

You could also leave the second fan off altogether - I have read reviews where it only makes a small difference to temperatures. 

After and before:

 

[code99]

54 minutes ago, Bobbysixjp said:

I had a similar issue, but instead the second fan was touching the glass of the case (NZXT H510).

I replaced the orginal fan with a Noctua NF-A12x25 120 mm fan (see picture below), which is good for both radiators/heat sinks and as case fans. 

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a

They have released a Chromax version if I remember correctly if you don't appreciate the Noctua colour scheme. Noctua also do other 120 mm fans in black such as the NF-F12 Chromax which is optimised for radiators and heat sinks.

Personally I wouldn't use the 140 mm fan from the heat sink as a case fan because it is probably not optimised for airflow. 

You could also leave the second fan off altogether - I have read reviews where it only makes a small difference to temperatures. 

After and before:

First ill run some tests and see how temps are atm without the second fan and depending on how it goes I will look into getting a smaller fan as you suggested.

 

Do they come with the metal bracket to attach it to the cooler? I suspect the one that came with the 140mm fan wont fit on the smaller one ...

 

 

When i do the tests i will remove the 140mm fan i placed as intake and see if there are any noteworthy changes in temperatures.

[Bobbysixjp]

I used the metal bracket from the original fan - the NF-A12x25 doesn't come with it. It did fit the new fan because the holes are the same width apart (105 mm I think).

 

[code99]

37 minutes ago, Bobbysixjp said:

I used the metal bracket from the original fan - the NF-A12x25 doesn't come with it. It did fit the new fan because the holes are the same width apart (105 mm I think).

 

Oh ok, good to know thanks!

[Bobbysixjp]

31 minutes ago, code99 said:

Oh ok, good to know thanks!

No problem- let me know how the tests go - I might end up removing the first fan if there is not much of a difference. 

[DoctorNick]

3 hours ago, Bobbysixjp said:

I had a similar issue, but instead the second fan was touching the glass of the case (NZXT H510).

I replaced the orginal fan with a Noctua NF-A12x25 120 mm fan (see picture below), which is good for both radiators/heat sinks and as case fans. 

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-performance-comparison-to-nf-f12-and-nf-s12a

They have released a Chromax version if I remember correctly if you don't appreciate the Noctua colour scheme. Noctua also do other 120 mm fans in black such as the NF-F12 Chromax which is optimised for radiators and heat sinks.

Personally I wouldn't use the 140 mm fan from the heat sink as a case fan because it is probably not optimised for airflow. 

You could also leave the second fan off altogether - I have read reviews where it only makes a small difference to temperatures. 

After and before:

 

This is the way to go. Also looking good!

[code99]

A bit late with this reply but ive been very busy and wasnt able to do much testing

 

But, with  the amount of tests i did, temps were pretty good. Never exceeding 70 degrees on the cpu or gpu.

 

I still need to do some more prolonged tests but so far so good, i might not need a second fan on the cooler :)