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Lian Li O11 Air - Threadripper Help

Hey guys,

 

So I am currently building a Threadripper 1950X rig for 3D rendering and am having trouble with the cooler/case.

I have a Lian Li O11 Air on pre-order, but I've just discovered that the Noctua NH-U14S AND U12S don't fit in the case (according to Gamer Nexus, even some GPUs are struggling to fit in width-wise).

 

"What!? An air focused case that doesn't fit in top-of-the-range CPU air coolers?" - Yeah, I know...

 

I don't think the NH-U9S will be good enough for a rig that's going to be rendering lots overnight, as well as some issues with RAM clearance. I also hear the only AIO cooler that is compatible is the Enermax liqtech TR4, but it's been getting terrible reviews for pump failures and leakages - I don't want to risk an expensive investment for a new business with something that is prone to failure, hence why I'm aiming for aircooling.

 

What would your suggestions be? Go for a bigger case, such as the Corsair Air 740, which can fit in a beefy Noctua NH-U14S for reliable air cooling, find a semi-decent AIO that doesn't have failure ratings and maybe cools as good as the Noctua cooler, or suck it up and do some EKWB liquid cooling in a case made for airflow?

(If that's the case, I should have bought the O11 Dynamic).

 

Any suggestions or help would be awesome!

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Thanks guys. Yeah, I definitely can't risk the Enermax TR4. I can't believe the O11 Air has such a huge design flaw when it comes to CPU Air coolers.

I'm cancelling my pre-order and going for either the Meshify C or the Corsair Air 740, unless you have any other recommendations?

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It is a stupid error on Lian Li's part. I just don't get the logic. It would be one thing if they were marketing this as a watercooling case, but they're not. All the pics on their product page show air cooled builds, and the majority of the marketing blurb suggests this is its intended purpose. Yet you can't use top end air coolers! It's nuts. The Dynamic is the same (they share a chassis), but at least that case seems to be aimed more at watercooling enthusiasts. The Air doesn't look as good and falls down in the one area it SHOULD excel. It's made even more perplexing by the fact that it does actually perform very well. The GN review highlighted the flaw with the front filter, but that's easily resolved. It goes to show that were it possible to fit a top end air cooler, the Air had the potential to be one of the best performing air cooled cases ever.

 

The Fractal Design Meshify is a good shout... probably one of the better air cooling cases you can get right now, and looks great.

System: Ryzen 7 5800X - Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master - Noctua D15S Chromax - 32GB 3600 RAM - EVGA Black 2080Ti

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