Cooling an i5-13600k in a shoebox - help!

[Bob Jim]

Hi all,

 

I've just bagged an amazing deal on an i5-13600k, but the issue is that it's an up to 150W CPU. I have a Silverstone SG13 with an ATX PSU, giving me 61mm of CPU cooler clearance. The best low profile coolers seem unable to cool the i5-13600k, leaving me with AiOs. The issue is that this case can only support 140/120mm AiOs, and no one seems to make a 140mm one.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for cooling this CPU in this case? Or is it a better idea to replace the case? I'd like to be able to run at full whack on most cores for extended periods as I will be using the PC for CFD workloads. If a case replacement is needed, does anyone have any recommendations for the smallest ITX possible that would support a 240mm AiO? Or, would it be better to replace the PSU with an SFX one? That would give me 70mm of clearance.

 

Thanks for any help!

[1300ny]

no clue if it is any good or available but I have found a 140mm one: https://www.raijintek.com/en/products_detail.php?ProductID=84

 

Other than that a Noctua NH-L9i-17xx with a bigger fan on top might be able to cool it at least somewhat. But you can pretty much forget about noise and overclocking and it probably won't turbo very high.

 

Edit: A decent 120mm aio is probably your best bet.
 

 

[Agall]

27 minutes ago, Bob Jim said:

Hi all,

 

I've just bagged an amazing deal on an i5-13600k, but the issue is that it's an up to 150W CPU. I have a Silverstone SG13 with an ATX PSU, giving me 61mm of CPU cooler clearance. The best low profile coolers seem unable to cool the i5-13600k, leaving me with AiOs. The issue is that this case can only support 140/120mm AiOs, and no one seems to make a 140mm one.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for cooling this CPU in this case? Or is it a better idea to replace the case? I'd like to be able to run at full whack on most cores for extended periods as I will be using the PC for CFD workloads. If a case replacement is needed, does anyone have any recommendations for the smallest ITX possible that would support a 240mm AiO? Or, would it be better to replace the PSU with an SFX one? That would give me 70mm of clearance.

 

Thanks for any help!

Optimal configuration for an SG13 is a front mounted 120mm AIO. There's a few 'kinky' things you can do with the SG13 though with a little creativity.

 

You can mount a tall air cooler if you front mount the PSU. If the PSU uses a 120mm fan, you can just mount the PSU by its fan screws in the front. I've fit a hyper 212 in an SG13 using this.

 

You can chop open the top and externally mount a 240mm AIO, where the tubes route externally.

 

In any of these configurations with AIOs, you want the PSU to intake from the CPU and exhaust out the rear btw.

 

I've bought 6-7 of these cases over the years and have done some really weird mods with them. I'll attach a picture in a minute of the hyper 212 mod, but I don't think I have a picture of the 240mm AIO mod.

 

 

 

 

Since this picture was taken, I salvaged the rear from an old PSU that properly mounts the passthrough and fills the hole.

 

 

An SFX-L PSU should fit this way and not take up the PCIe slot length. This is a full sized PSU doing this...

[Bob Jim]

25 minutes ago, 1300ny said:

no clue if it is any good or available but I have found a 140mm one: https://www.raijintek.com/en/products_detail.php?ProductID=84

 

Other than that a Noctua NH-L9i-17xx with a bigger fan on top might be able to cool it at least somewhat. But you can pretty much forget about noise and overclocking and it probably won't turbo very high.

 

Edit: A decent 120mm aio is probably your best bet.
 

 

Thanks, yeah unfortunately that one doesn't seem to be available without £25+ overseas delivery. Cheers - thinking I might go with the LS320 DeepCool 120mm AiO based on this HardwareCanucks vid.

[Bob Jim]

24 minutes ago, Agall said:

Optimal configuration for an SG13 is a front mounted 120mm AIO. There's a few 'kinky' things you can do with the SG13 though with a little creativity.

 

You can mount a tall air cooler if you front mount the PSU. If the PSU uses a 120mm fan, you can just mount the PSU by its fan screws in the front. I've fit a hyper 212 in an SG13 using this.

 

You can chop open the top and externally mount a 240mm AIO, where the tubes route externally.

 

In any of these configurations with AIOs, you want the PSU to intake from the CPU and exhaust out the rear btw.

 

I've bought 6-7 of these cases over the years and have done some really weird mods with them. I'll attach a picture in a minute of the hyper 212 mod, but I don't think I have a picture of the 240mm AIO mod.

 

 

 

 

Since this picture was taken, I salvaged the rear from an old PSU that properly mounts the passthrough and fills the hole.

 

 

An SFX-L PSU should fit this way and not take up the PCIe slot length. This is a full sized PSU doing this...

OK, you win most ingenious solution, that's seriously impressive! Alas I've got an RX5600XT which wouldn't fit without going down to SFX. I am gonna keep this in mind for the future though... If you reckon front mounted 120mm AiO is best short of these solutions I'm probably gonna go with the DeepCool LS320 120mm AiO and pray it does the job I think, I was leaning towards it. Thanks!

[1300ny]

1 minute ago, Bob Jim said:

OK, you win most ingenious solution, that's seriously impressive! Alas I've got an RX5600XT which wouldn't fit without going down to SFX. I am gonna keep this in mind for the future though... If you reckon front mounted 120mm AiO is best short of these solutions I'm probably gonna go with the DeepCool LS320 120mm AiO and pray it does the job I think, I was leaning towards it. Thanks!

Looking at @Agalls pictures and your concerns with the rx5600xt. You should be able to  fit the GPU and the PSU in the front if you go with a SFX PSU not deeper than 130mm. The one in the Picture is 160mm deep (Sorry not fluent in freedom units). That way you should have enough room for the GPU. Still kind of a janky solution. I'd probably just stick  with the 120mm AIO.

[Bob Jim]

11 minutes ago, 1300ny said:

Looking at @Agalls pictures and your concerns with the rx5600xt. You should be able to  fit the GPU and the PSU in the front if you go with a SFX PSU not deeper than 130mm. The one in the Picture is 160mm deep (Sorry not fluent in freedom units). That way you should have enough room for the GPU. Still kind of a janky solution. I'd probably just stick  with the 120mm AIO.

Yeah, you're probably right. It's tempting but I need this thing working fairly quickly so I think I'm gonna stick with my ATX PSU and just get a 120mm. Cheers though!

[Agall]

11 minutes ago, Bob Jim said:

Yeah, you're probably right. It's tempting but I need this thing working fairly quickly so I think I'm gonna stick with my ATX PSU and just get a 120mm. Cheers though!

I've thought about making an adapter plate to do a similar mount from the 120mm fan hole to a standard SFX which use like a 92mm fan. I should be able to just make a steel plate with hole adapters that'll afford for more room in the front. Otherwise a 120mm mount to SFX PSU is probably a thing that someone makes or can make easily with a piece of sheet metal.

 

I will mention that I can fit an Asrock Arc A380 with this setup, but it is a pain to install. The GT1030 in the picture is only in there because the CPU is a 3950x, therefore doesn't have an iGPU.

 

 

Amazon.com: Silverstone PP08 Universal SFX to ATX Power Supply Adapter Bracket, Black, SST-PP08B : Electronics

 

Could always take one of these, bend the bottom part in a vice to make it an L shape, then just use the included holes or drill others to mount it to two holes of the front 120mm fan mounts. Sometimes PSUs come with something like this even.

[Agall]

41 minutes ago, 1300ny said:

Looking at @Agalls pictures and your concerns with the rx5600xt. You should be able to  fit the GPU and the PSU in the front if you go with a SFX PSU not deeper than 130mm. The one in the Picture is 160mm deep (Sorry not fluent in freedom units). That way you should have enough room for the GPU. Still kind of a janky solution. I'd probably just stick  with the 120mm AIO.

Hey, the PSU has 4 screws mounted, I think. I wouldn't call it janky outside of the not required modification to add an externally modular ATX power cable.

 

Now what is janky is the externally mounted 240mm AIO with the tubes routing out the back, but it was durable enough to survive as a totally not authorized media server out at sea with a 4790k (front mounted 120mm AIO) and top mounted 240mm AIO ghetto mounted to a Titan X (maxwell).

 

I'm a function > form radical though, so I could care less how janky it looks. Looked better than the same mod on a Silverstone Raven with an externally mounted 240mm and 120mm AIOs  I do have a photo of that setup, same hardware, different case.

 

 

You dare call this janky? Peak mITX performance from 2015. Tubes were internal since I was able to cut a channel that would prevent all but the terminals going into the radiators from being external.

[RevGAM]

On 7/11/2023 at 4:27 PM, 1300ny said:

Sorry not fluent in freedom units

Don't apologize. They are not called freedom units, they are called imperial units. That is because, it seems, they originated in an empire. Presumably, the UK.

 

The US is also an empire. All hail the king president!