Not a lot of tower coolers less than 125mm. Noctua have a couple NH-D9L (110mm), NH-D9S (125mm).

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by doyll

Not a lot of tower coolers less than 125mm. Noctua have a couple NH-D9L (110mm), NH-D9S (125mm).

Would I be better off going with a top-down cooler?

The NH-U9S is currently looking like the best tower option. Looking at reviews it performs better than the NH-D9L and it's quieter.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by twerk

Would I be better off going with a top-down cooler?

The NH-U9S is currently looking like the best tower option. Looking at reviews it performs better than the NH-D9L and it's quieter.

The D9L does slighy better job
http://www.overclockers.com/noctua-92mm-heatsink-review/

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by PontiacGTX

The D9L does slighy better job
http://www.overclockers.com/noctua-92mm-heatsink-review/

The SPCR and Guru3D reviews say that with one fan the U9S is better. With two fans they are neck and neck.

I am thinking it may be wiser to go with the D9L and put two fans on it. It's quite a bit shorter so clearance won't be any issue.

 

What Twerk said.

Both work quite well.

 

Any other options at all? Or is it going to have to be Noctua?

 

I don't like top down as well because it's much harder to keep the cool intake air separated from the heated exhaust air .. and air gets heated before entering cooler which results in higher CPU temp. Generally just changing them to bottom up improves cooling. Reason is fan pushing air into cooler hits mobo, turns out and hits RAM, GPU, I/O housings, etc, turns up past cooler and fan sucks int back into cooler. Turning fan over means air flows over mobo, RAM, etc to cooler, up through fan and out of side vent or into case airflow and out the back or top.

I'm sure there are some other coolers. I'm just not familiar with them. The smallest tower I have is the Macho 90 and it's 135mm tall

 

Arctic cooling makes a few great coolers at 130MM of you can squeeze it in. Not sure of what case you're using so I'll ask, have you considered a AIO liquid cooler?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by bavarianblessed

Arctic cooling makes a few great coolers at 130MM of you can squeeze it in. Not sure of what case you're using so I'll ask, have you considered a AIO liquid cooler?

It's a Fractal Design Node 605. No room for AIO, although I prefer air anyway.

 

Maybe the Cryorig C1 with a thicker fan? I got one on the way to me as we speak but as it ships, it is about 75mm high only. You also need to account for some space above the fan with top-down coolers so getting close to the limit that way won't be great.

 

top flow coolers, like a NH-C12P.

EDIT : hmm NH-U9S / NH-U9B looks tailor made for the case. i do prefer side flow coolers personally.

 

Fractal Design are often have several millimeter more clearance than spec says. My Define R2 spec is 165mm but 171mm fits.

But as stated clearance for Node is 125mm, the Noctua NH-U9 cooler definitely check all the boxes.

 

I have a node 605 with a 3570K and ASUS Z77-Deluxe. I was using an NH-L12 for quite a while in it, then swapped to a Cryorig C1. Both were good, but not great in that case. I recently went over to the NH-D9L and it made a tremendous difference. The top down coolers just don't get the necessary flow in the 605.

 

The NH-U9S is ordered. Thank you all!

 

Good!
Please let us know how it performs.