Chenbro Case – Low profile case and HSF

[jrandeck]

The manufacturer’s page says this one is 47mm tall:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103086

Just to give you more options 🙂

[kataleen]

I’ll just keep posting my findings here for anyone looking into the same thing, which is low profile i3/i5 heatsinks.

I just found out that Silverstone has made an LGA1156 version of the Nitrogon NT07-775. This is a 36mm HSF apparently able to keep up with the i3/i5 CPUs.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=NT07-1156&area=usa
And a brief review: http://www.techpowerup.com/126500/SilverStone_Intros_Nitrogon_NT07-1156_CPU_Cooler.html

This should fit the bill for the Chenbro case.

[quote]The manufacturer’s page says this one is 47mm tall:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103086%5B/quote%5D

Thanks, the COOLER MASTER DP6-9EDSA-0L-GP is also a good option. However, if Silverstone is right when they say the 35mm HSF is very efficient and compares to bigger ones, I’d prefer to pay the premium and go for Silverstone and have more room (airflow) above the HSF.

[mikinho]

My issue with the Silverstone is the push pins, can’t stand them.  When I built my i3-540 + DH57JG in a M350 I tested 8 low profile HSF combos.  I ended up going w/ a 1U server heatsink and replaced the fan with a 70mm quiet fan instead.

[kataleen]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
My issue with the Silverstone is the push pins, can’t stand them. 
[/quote]

Is there anything wrong with them in particular? Or just hard to work with?

[mikinho]

Just hard to work and in my opinion a less stable heatsink which can lead to a lower heat transfer efficiency.  I’m glad to see more and more retail heatsink manufacturers moving away from them.

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

[quote=”kataleen”]
And a brief review: http://www.techpowerup.com/126500/SilverStone_Intros_Nitrogon_NT07-1156_CPU_Cooler.html
[/quote]

Did you happen to read through any of the comments?  They’re essentially saying this is a stock Intel cooler rebranded by Silverstone.  It does bare a striking resemblance to Intel’s heatsink designs.  Based on that, personally, I’d stay away.  Stock Intel coolers aren’t exactly known for their performance.  It might be just fine for your application, but I’d just as soon go with a non-stock design for, hopefully, better performance.

I also agree with Mikinho that push-pins should be retired by the industry.  I don’t think any aftermarket heatsinks use them anymore.  At least, none of the ones I’ve seen or used recently.

[jrandeck]

[quote=”Skirge01″]
[quote=”kataleen”]
And a brief review: http://www.techpowerup.com/126500/SilverStone_Intros_Nitrogon_NT07-1156_CPU_Cooler.html
[/quote]

Did you happen to read through any of the comments?  They’re essentially saying this is a stock Intel cooler rebranded by Silverstone. 
[/quote]

I think the comments on that site are missing the fact that it’s about half the height of the Intel cooler.

The version I have isn’t an amazing cooler, it’s not something you’re going to switch to for better cooling efficiency, but it’s adequate for my needs and it fits in a very low profile case.

Yes, the push pins can be a pain, especially if they get bent a little.  The one caveat I have for mine is that although it’s working, I would prefer that it clamped just a little tighter to the CPU.  It takes about half the force to get the last pin in place than the stock Intel cooler does.

[kataleen]

[quote]I think the comments on that site are missing the fact that it’s about half the height of the Intel cooler.[/quote]

I agree with you. Most people there rant about how Silverstone rebranded the stock HSF from Intel. I don’t care about that too much as long as Intel did not make a 35mm HSF.

However, I’d like to know if anyone knows any other suggestions for a LGA1156 low profile HSF. So far I have these:

[list]
[*]Silverstone Nitrogon NT07-1156: http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=NT07-1156&area=usa%5B/*:m%5D
[*]COOLER MASTER DP6-9EDSA-0L-GP: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103086%5B/*:m%5D
[*]Thermaltake Slim X3: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1417&ID=1966#Tab1%5B/*:m%5D%5B/list:u%5D

What do you think of the third one? Couldn’t find reviews yet, but everybody seems excited about it.

[mikinho]

I have the Thermaltake Slim X3 and for a low profile it works well enough.  I didn’t use it in my M350 as the 80mm was about 5mm too wide.

The fan isn’t that great but easy enough to interchange especially for the low price.  Out of these 3 it is the only one I would use.

[mikinho]

btw, I should mention that not every motherboard will support bottom mounting brackets w/o some adjustments, most mini-ITX don’t.  For instance my my DH57JG I had to Dremel the bracket into 4 smaller parts.

I can provide photos if interested.

[kataleen]

Please do. Would be nice to see.

[mikinho]

I only have a few of the images uploaded so far: [url=http://picasaweb.google.com/117627790920000581249/MissingRemoteBlogDH57JG?authkey=Gv1sRgCOeegZyjobWpwQE#]http://picasaweb.google.com/117627790920000581249/MissingRemoteBlogDH57JG?authkey=Gv1sRgCOeegZyjobWpwQE#[/url]

The last picture shows how I cut the bracket to work.

I tested ~12 heatsinks and an additional 6 fans trying to find one I was happy with.  Between an i3-540, i5-670 and i7-860 I tested close to 25 Intel 1156 heatsinks.  I am planning on doing a review of each but haven’t had the time.

I don’t expect to have the DH57JG + i3-540 + M350 blog done for another week and the individual heatsink reviews I’d like to start publishing 1 a week starting August 9th.

[kataleen]

Thing is, I don’t have any experience with this type of mounting as I only used the push pin type coolers. (Just getting out of the cave)

As I mentioned in the first post, I am planning on using the H55ITX-A-E.

As a side note, the review will be more than welcome.

[mikinho]

The H55ITX-A-E has the same issue (I’ve setup several of them as well), most mini-ITX do as they tend to put components on the back of the board that run along the processor socket location.  These interfere with the mounting bracket.

The Thermaltake Slim X3 for instance would need to be modified to work.  Not a show stopper by any means but something to know ahead of time.

[kataleen]

Here’s a pic of the back of the board:
http://www.anandtech.com/Gallery/Album/598#1

And here’s the pic with the cooler brackets:
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Upload/Product/Product/1966/Photos/1171b3f1-ca03-43b0-a3d3-1b1a6cefc35e/B_Package%20Accessories.jpg.jpg

I am not sure though how the brackets are mounted on the back of the board in that picture, vertically of horizontally. Either way, in the upper part there seems to some problems.

[Author]

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