Lower profile air cooler on par with H80/Kuhler920?

T

t_andrews

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 13, 2002
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I'm building a SFF mini-ITX system and am debating between a Corsair H80/Antec Kuhler 920 or air cooler.

  • I only have room in the case (custom) for a heat sink that is 145mm or shorter in height (board is ASRock Z77E-ITX so width is ~100mm depending on heatsink offsets).

  • For airflow considerations in the case I would prefer a side flow type as opposed to a top down airflow type.

  • Noise is a concern, hence why I want to see if there are any decent air coolers out there so I don't have to add the noise of a water pump to the mix.
Anyone know of a side flow air cooler in the same performance range as the H80/Kuhler 920 that is shorter than 145mm in height?

(I've been looking through newegg's site but they don't seem to allow searching by maximum height and some manufacturers don't list it :( )
 
Are you trying to save money or worried about the pump noise? Although some people complain about the Corsairs (and the Antecs) grinding I can assure you that when running properly the pump makes no perceptable noise. I'm using a 620 and added a fan for push/pull in an mATX build, and I don't hear it all. Sometimes they get air in the line, or the "Smart Fan" control sends them insufficient voltage (disable smart fan).

The 620's 60 bux and might save a little space in your mITX build.
 
Thanks for the Noctua suggestion, I looked at some of theirs and the NH-U9B SE2 seems to be the only side flow one that is short enough. However it seems like it doesn't have quite the performance (surface area) of the larger air coolers to compete with the entry level water coolers.

Thanks for the info on the pump noise. I was mainly concerned about noise and was considering the H80/920 because with the bigger radiator so the fans could run slower (quieter) and still achieve the same cooling performance.

After playing around with the case layout I'll probably go for the H80 since I have the space for its width. I have some time to wait before the build so I'll probably wait and see if it gets down to $80 again.
 
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