Cpu Cooler Sag

[JurajD]

Greetings fellow LTT members. I have a question regarding a new build I've put together. I have a Noctua u12a mounted on a 5700x but upon inspection it is clear to me that the cooler is sagging. Prior to this one I've had a Dark rock pro 4 and observed no sagging. I've checked the backplate, the mounts and screws and it all looks tight and proper. If I attempt to force the cooler upwards it has only the slightest ever give. The temps so far have not gone beyond 60c under load. My question is if I should be worried about this sag. Many thanks in advance.

[aledsav1]

temps show its making full contact, I wouldn't worry about it, and i certainly wouldn't try levelling by force. Is the motherboard level...because your cooler my not be level to the planet but the coolers level is dependant on other factors, it might well be level in relation your board/case, or desk etc

[Applefreak]

So it's obvious that your motherboard does not have a top PCI-e or M.2 Slot acting as a gap between the CPU cooler and the GPU. I'd say it's fine but check those motherboard screws as well. If the backplate where the motherboard screws in is a bit off and the bracket holding the GPU is not, that can happen. The fan is plastic so that is not an issue. Vibration is a none issue as well as the GPU's own fans are way worse. Usually you can move the fans on Noctua coolers a bit side to side or up and down. You may have the remove the GPU though and release the clamps, which I would do once you take it out for a proper cleaning because it requires a lot of work and honestly if the system runs fine, there is nothing to worry about. A bit of sag in general is acceptable. You can try to adjust the angle of the GPU slightly if the screw that holds it in place has may room up and down.

[Mark Kaine]

that looks perfectly normal to me?

 

also keep in mind your case might not be completely straight/ flush either (looks flimsy, gamery)

[JurajD]

Thank you all for your replies. Perhaps there is a bit of an offset with the case itself (bequiet 500 fx), or perhaps with the mobo as well, neither of which are cheap-o components but still. Think I'll leave it as is for now due to your recommendations

 

[freeagent]

It’s like that from the factory, the pipes aren’t formed exactly to spec, but looks like it’s within tolerance.

[ZippyKiYay]

I have a theory that most everyone with a tower cooler has a sagging cooler.  You've got a big ol' chunk of metal cantilevered nearly 6 inches past its anchor point, attached to a piece of plastic that is only about 1/16 to 3/32 of an inch thick. 

 

And, no, it's not that the cooler is not making complete contact with the CPU... it is.  It's that the motherboard IS FLEXING.

 

I would be great if we could do sort of an informal survey on this.  If everyone here with a tower cooler (and a small level) could check the horizontal or vertical level of your cooler.  If it's not level, I bet your ram sticks are also off by the same degree.  Then, please post your findings to this thread.

 

Thanks!

[TPCEA]

You'll need to remind me or I'll forget. I noticed the other day that my U12A also seems to be sagging. 

[freeagent]

9 hours ago, ZippyKiYay said:

I have a theory that most everyone with a tower cooler has a sagging cooler.

Feck no. My cooler is 1000 grams before fans..

 

And it is tighter than a nuns yoohoo, no sag.

[ZippyKiYay]

53 minutes ago, freeagent said:

Feck no. My cooler is 1000 grams before fans..

 

And it is tighter than a nuns yoohoo, no sag.

I can be hard to tell by just eyeballing it.  Did you put a level to it?

[TPCEA]

2 hours ago, freeagent said:

Feck no. My cooler is 1000 grams before fans..

 

And it is tighter than a nuns yoohoo, no sag.

So it's true... nuns drink Yoohoo!

[Mark Kaine]

4 hours ago, ZippyKiYay said:

I can be hard to tell by just eyeballing it.  Did you put a level to it?

not if you have working eyes but there you go

 

 

admire it in all its flush glory! ~

 

[Mark Kaine]

5 hours ago, RevGAM said:

You'll need to remind me or I'll forget. I noticed the other day that my U12A also seems to be sagging. 

my sincere condolences (pro tip: the noctua screws make an audible click when tightened properly   )

 

 

[TPCEA]

30 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

my sincere condolences (pro tip: the noctua screws make an audible click when tightened properly   )

 

 

It's not loose...

[TPCEA]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

my sincere condolences (pro tip: the noctua screws make an audible click when tightened properly   )

 

 

And, I used a level to check both the case and the cooler. It's not sagging - the case is leaning.

[Mark Kaine]

9 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

And, I used a level to check both the case and the cooler. It's not sagging - the case is leaning.

uh- oh, but... if the cooler is flush  , but the case isn't... how do you even measure this then? lol

 

btw, because of this topic i noticed my "tv stand" isn't entirely flush.... i think its because the floor isnt either at that point,  overall not too bad, but far from ideal lol, oof...

 

 

ps: i was actually checking this... the table (ikea cube) my pc is on is entirely flush too, i guess that's what it is a lot of times, people think their cooler is "sagging" but in reality their whole setup is "slanted" 

[ZippyKiYay]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

not if you have working eyes but there you go

 

 

 

admire it in all its flush glory! ~

 

Thanks for posting pics of your cooler.... it's perfect.  

 

Now, I'm attaching photos of my setup.  The 2nd pic shows that the case itself is level. The 3rd pic shows how significant the sag of the cooler is. The 4th pic shows that the RAM sticks are also not level, indicating that the mobo is flexing.

[ZippyKiYay]

Here's the cooler...

[ZippyKiYay]

Here's the RAM...

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, ZippyKiYay said:

Thanks for posting pics of your cooler.... it's perfect.  

 

Now, I'm attaching photos of my setup.  The 2nd pic shows that the case itself is level. The 3rd pic shows how significant the sag of the cooler is. The 4th pic shows that the RAM sticks are also not level, indicating that the mobo is flexing.

no problem! 

 

and yah, especially that cooler doesn't look good... but now we'd have to figure out why its this slanted... hmm. i agree, mobo flexing seems likely but without further evidence that's just an educated guess, and just because it sounds logical,  doesn't make it true necessarily...

 

Maybe the mobo just isnt mounted properly instead of "flexing"? That would be an easy fix...!

can you check the area around the i/o, that's often where mobos seemingly don't "fit"?

 

 

for the record i haven't even used all screws for my mobo (who knows where they are honestly... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)  and it doesn't seem to "flex" at all , unless i use a lot of force, but not by much, and that's also normal tbh)

 

also case stiffness does make a difference for sure,  my case (the glorious inwin 301 ) is extremely sturdy, the metal is about twice as thick as gamery "high performance" (read: trash) cases on average iirc.

 

even the gpu, which is a pretty big and heavy 3070 vision oc doesn't sag *at all* 

 

 

 

*this is honestly my opinion,  for example extremely expensive "high performance" cases ala fractal design torrent, which make a lot of sense airflow wise, are built very flimsy,  with paint coming off even when new, very cheap and thin "glass panels" etc....

 

 

i bought one, immediately returned it due to low built quality,  which i frankly found offensive considering the high price...

[freeagent]

You bought it and immediately returned it.. to me it sounds like the memories of your case are driven by pure emotion. All of your complaints are not what I have found at all. The top of the case is plastic, but it isn’t flimsy. I lay my case on the back glass panel and it is fine.. and all the paint is where it should be.

[Mark Kaine]

12 minutes ago, freeagent said:

You bought it and immediately returned it.. to me it sounds like the memories of your case are driven by pure emotion. All of your complaints are not what I have found at all. The top of the case is plastic, but it isn’t flimsy. I lay my case on the back glass panel and it is fine.. and all the paint is where it should be.

tbf, i had it for a few days on my cupboard,  immediately was more meant like i didn't even bother to build because:

 

A) was severely scratched on the bottom with damaged feet and paint coming off. yes, its on the bottom but not a good look and says something about "QA" too...

 

B) the glass panel was very thin, didn't fill me with confidence, and the mechanism for it (thumbscrews iirc?) just didn't feel comfortable to use at all, that combined with how thin it is just didn't fill me with confidence. 

 

C) glass side panel gaps were *huge* only adding to the overall poor impression, and would also mean unnecessary noise and a lot of dust (why the heck are the gaps about twice as large than on my inwin? not sure, but i didn't find it acceptable tbh)

 

 

So idk, would you have kept a damaged case like that?

 

i mean,  i like the design and everything but as said i do expect *much* better quality from a 200 euro case lol... sorry.

[ZippyKiYay]

17 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

and yah, especially that cooler doesn't look good... but now we'd have to figure out why its this slanted... hmm. i agree, mobo flexing seems likely but without further evidence that's just an educated guess, and just because it sounds logical,  doesn't make it true necessarily...

 

Maybe the mobo just isnt mounted properly instead of "flexing"? That would be an easy fix...!

can you check the area around the i/o, that's often where mobos seemingly don't "fit"?

 

also case stiffness does make a difference for sure,  my case (the glorious inwin 301 ) is extremely sturdy, the metal is about twice as thick as gamery "high performance" (read: trash) cases on average iirc.

 

even the gpu, which is a pretty big and heavy 3070 vision oc doesn't sag *at all* 

 

 

 

*this is honestly my opinion,  for example extremely expensive "high performance" cases ala fractal design torrent, which make a lot of sense airflow wise, are built very flimsy,  with paint coming off even when new, very cheap and thin "glass panels" etc....

 

 

i bought one, immediately returned it due to low built quality,  which i frankly found offensive considering the high price...

I triple checked the mobo mounting. It's correct as it can be in the case and all screws are super tight.  

 

Could it also be that my mobo is: 1) Used. Who knows what the previous owner attached to it?; and 2) it's not a top of the line board, and is therefore maybe not as thick as a $250+ board would otherwise be?.  It's an MSI B450M Bazooka.

 

I think you have an excellent point about the case stiffness / quality too.  I put a level to the backplate of the mobo and it's slanted at the same degree as the cooler (pic attached).  I also put a level to the piece of metal the mobo attaches to and it also is off plumb (pic attached).

 

My case is a Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh.

[freeagent]

11 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

So idk, would you have kept a damaged case like that?

You didnt say it was damaged, you just said it was a POS. I have to question whether it was a real one and not counterfeit

[Mark Kaine]

30 minutes ago, ZippyKiYay said:

I triple checked the mobo mounting. It's correct as it can be in the case and all screws are super tight.  

 

Could it also be that my mobo is: 1) Used. Who knows what the previous owner attached to it?; and 2) it's not a top of the line board, and is therefore maybe not as thick as a $250+ board would otherwise be?.  It's an MSI B450M Bazooka.

 

I think you have an excellent point about the case stiffness / quality too.  I put a level to the backplate of the mobo and it's slanted at the same degree as the cooler (pic attached).  I also put a level to the piece of metal the mobo attaches to and it also is off plumb (pic attached).

 

My case is a Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh.

yeah, thats exactly what im saying,  a lot of these gamery "airflow" cases are actually low quality  - as you just found out. i mean if the backplate is slanted that obviously explains why the cooler is slanted by the same degree...

 

i doubt it's the mobo, its not like this is a low quality board, its just not top of the line (which often isnt necessary either) 

 

i have a b550m mortar wifi, also far from the most expensive,  but it does have a very solid feel and vrm cooling etc seems good too!

 

even the wifi works (surprisingly )

 

 

hmm, im not sure how to fix this outside of replacing the case ,either rma or buy a new one.... i mean this *is* a quality issue,  if the mobo is slanted like this thats definitely not good for longevity (thats also why your ram is slanted too lol, oof)

 

 

personally i can only recommend inwin, because you probably don't get any warranty (lol) but their built quality is top notch and they have "airflow cases" as well

 

or otherwise segotep (yes)

https://www.segotep.us/collections/case

❤❤❤

 

 

they also make true airflow cases, if you want that, with immaculate design! 

 

 

 

 

 

but yes, be warned they're expensive,  cause they're actually *high quality*