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Low profile (<80mm) coolers?

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
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Oct 29, 2000
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Hey all,

I'm prepping a Mini-ITX Hackintosh build for my GF's birthday.

I usually build things big, so low profile coolers are something I'm not that familiar with.

I think I have settled on the 54W Haswell Core i3-4330.

The case I have gone with says that max compatible cooler height is 80mm.

The Noctua NH-L12 is 92mm with both fans installed, and 66mm with only the bottom fan, so if I got it, I'd probably be restricted to the bottom fan only, unless I find a super thin 14mm 120mm fan for the top.

I've also looked at the Noctua NH-L9i, which is much lower profile, but I ahven't been able to find any comparisons between the two, where the NH-L12 is run with bottom fan only. I wonder which would perform better in that configuration.

Any other good low profile coolers I should be aware of? This is a relatively low power system which won't be overclocked, so silence is probably a higher priority than temps.

Much Obliged,
Matt
 
Let me add that the Zalman cooler while quiet has two issues. 1) It's a semi-pain to install because the fins block access to the screws used to tighten the heat sink to the board. You are screwing in the screws at like a 20-30 degree angle from vertical and it's easy to strip the screws. 2) You need really low profile RAM and I don't think I can even remove the RAM without taking the heat sink off.

The Zalman is pretty cheap at well.

Good luck. Not a lot of info out there on mini-ITX and air coolers.
 
+1 for AXP-200, or if you want smaller use the AXP-100 is 58mm tall
 
SPCR did a comparison a while back and IIRC found the big shuriken the best performer with low noise
 
Zarathustra[H];1040755939 said:
I'm prepping a Mini-ITX Hackintosh build for my GF's birthday.
Click to expand...

So, a Mac Mini is $600, just how much money are you saving by your Hackintosh setup considering the opportunity cost of putting it together and putting up with every single update potentially breaking your setup.

In addition she may think that you think she isn't worth a proper Mac Mini, and the cost of that conflict could be significant.
 
Mac Mini's are due for Haswell refresh, I'd hold out and go that route as well. The overall form factor is superb.
 
Thuleman said:
So, a Mac Mini is $600, just how much money are you saving by your Hackintosh setup considering the opportunity cost of putting it together and putting up with every single update potentially breaking your setup.

In addition she may think that you think she isn't worth a proper Mac Mini, and the cost of that conflict could be significant.
Click to expand...

I run into this same problem, I WANT to build systems for family as its fun and I get to tinker, but in reality, the setup I can get from dell etc is often the same or better than the one I can build myself for the price. But that is the curse of low end computers.
 
Anyone have experience with a Dell 540s?

I'm looking into upgrades for a family members system and I want to put a Q9450 or better in there but I'm not certain the factory HSF will do so well. I haven't measured yet, but I'm guessing there is less than 3" of vertical clearance from die to case.
 
Thuleman said:
So, a Mac Mini is $600, just how much money are you saving by your Hackintosh setup considering the opportunity cost of putting it together and putting up with every single update potentially breaking your setup.

In addition she may think that you think she isn't worth a proper Mac Mini, and the cost of that conflict could be significant.
Click to expand...

The box I will be building will be higher powered than a mac mini...

Will actually be higher powered than a iMac as well.

Are the maintenance problems really that bad with Hackintoshes? I've never built one before.

If that is the case, maybe I'll just go with a 21.5" iMac. Was really looking forward to the build though...

Really didn't want to give Apple any of my money though. Principle of the thing...
 
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