Dark Rock Pro 4 and Trident Z memory on Maximus X Hero Motherboard

[Falcon_569]

I am getting ready for my first build but the I am stuck on getting RAM that actually fits with my CPU air cooler. I have my eye on 2x Trident Z RAM for a total of 32 GB. I am worried that they will not fit with my Dark Rock Pro 4 air cooler. I have done a bunch of research and I have read that Trident Z Ram will fit with this CPU Cooler but I would have to raise one of the CPU cooler's fans a little bit. I also read that people have switched the fan, that is usually hovering over the RAM slots, to the other side of the CPU Cooler. But I heard that is a bad idea. I just want some other opinions. Do you think they will fit together? 

 

And btw the motherboard I plan on getting is a Asus Maximus X Hero

[NickPickerWI]

What you have read is correct. You will have to raise the front fan a little, put the front fan onto the back, or leave the front fan off entirely.

 

If I recall correctly, the center fan is larger and pushes more air on a DRP4, so putting the front fan onto the back seems like a bad idea. It will fight against the center fan. Having it in the front allows the center fan to suck up all the air from the front fan as well as air it can get from the sides, through the fins. Having it in the back means the center fan will be trying to push air out faster than the outside fan will be able to pull it away, which will create back pressure onto the center fan (and turbulence around the cooler) making it work less efficiently.

 

The best bet is to raise the front fan a little. Removing it will drop performance of the air cooler somewhat, whereas raising it will give you very close performance to "normal." That's assuming it will still fit in your case with the fan raised.

 

With the kind of hardware you're putting in, you may consider an AIO. However, since you're talking about the BQ DRP4, I'm assuming you don't want the noise.

 

Good luck.

[NickPickerWI]

Also, with the Hero, I don't know that putting the front fan on the back of the cooler is possible. The heatsinks on that board sit pretty tall iirc.