Noctua

[PotatoHead]

Hi, first time builder looking for a little help.

As anyone who frequents these parts will know, an NH D-14 is the weapon of choice to stop you toasting that expensive CPU and during my research for a build currently in progress I spent quite some time looking at parts and ensuring compatibility.

So anyway, as I type, I'm mid build with lots of shiny parts just needing bolting on etc and that beast called Noctua doesn't fit.

Mobo: Gigabyte P67 UD4

RAM Mushkin Redline

The Noctua site says both items are compatible, and I'm quite positive that TTL has stated on several occasions during reviews that Mushkin fits just fine. Yes the cooler covers the first RAM slot but should clear the RAM, not so for me :/ (Noctua states that RAM of 44mm height or less will fit, Mushkin seems to be right on this limit)

So, can anyone shed some light on this for me and offer advice?

Does the heat spreader need removal perhaps?

 

[tinytomlogan]

What do you mean it doesnt fit? Ive had the D14 with that ram on a UD7 and it fits fine, I also have the UD4 here and again it fits fine.

Make sure the fans are pushing the air towards the back and you dont have it pointing upwards.

 

[PotatoHead]

Swift reply and from the man himself, I feel honoured

I did decide to orient the fans so were pushing air to the top, given it's all housed in a Fortress FT02 I just figured it would make sense/work best.

I failed to check if a 90 degree rotation would make a difference (foolish? hmm, but why would the rotation affect the clearance?) yet upon doing so, it does now fit.

Thanks.

ps Never underestimate the ability of a noob to make a mess of things ! (Damn, I hope it works when powered up-where does this wire go again?)

 

[tinytomlogan]

just for the sake of arguments post a picture to how you have it fitted now dude. Just so I can make sure 100% its ok.

 

[PotatoHead]

Poor iPhone capture but should do the trick:

 

[AMDFTW]

its best to mount it the other way so the fans are blowing out the back of your case,you have ridgebacks anyway so the fans will fit over them

 

[Stryker64]

I could have sworn the Ridgebacks fit under the cooler. So you should make sure the heatsink is sucking air from the bottom of the case and exhausting it to the top exhaust fans. If you don't your Noctua is firstly sucking hot air from the graphics card, and it obstructs the airflow potentially creating a deadzone.

And don't worry if the Noctua covers the RAM, as long as it fits, it's fine. The RAM won't melt. So in conclusion mount it the proper way, with the fans intaking over the RAM and exhausting over the I/O area

 

[PotatoHead]

Thanks for those replies, at this stage I basically just 'lobbed' it on to make sure that I could actually get it to fit over the RAM, and yes Zeals that was my initial aim to exhaust to the top. As for turning it around I'm not sure if that is any better than current due to the PSU covering the majority of the rear venting.

Anyway, my mind is at rest partially as I know it can fit, now I just need to make it fit in the orientation I initially wanted

....though why it didn't fit rotated 90 degrees to exhaust at the top has me scratching my head right now.

Another attempt incoming and making sure I'm not doing something silly is needed, though there really doesn't seem to be anything you can do wrong, hmmm.

 

[marsey99]

i dont think the are square mate, i know my ifx14 isnt as its wider than deep and most of the big dual tower coolers are the same size.

i need to use slots 2 and 4 for my dimms as it covers the first slot and this ram has big heatsinks but if i use normal ram its fine if i put the ram in before i fit the sink.

i have this blowing out the top because i have a nc-u6 on my nb and it wont fit the other way but it does a good job of keeping my cpu cool.

 

[cbiltsouris]

mount it the other way mate, I have a raven with the 90 degree thing aswell, you get better temps too

thats strange mine fits fine and thats with dominator memory

 

[PotatoHead]

Well, I've no idea what I initially did which meant that it fouled the RAM, but now it suddenly does fit and I have it exhausting to the top, bit of a mystery to me, but all is well so I'll not try and analyse it!

Thanks to all for the input, more 'questions of a noob' to follow

 

[tinytomlogan]

It does fit under the main body of the D14. out the back in a normal case is out the top in yours, Ill put it this way 'towards the ehaust fan near the I/O ports'

Once you have it that way it will all be fine. The only thing you may have to do is move the 120mm fan up slightly

 

[PotatoHead]

Haha, seems like I may have to take it off yet again as judging by what you've just said there, the 120 fan is the intake (thus will be sitting over the RAM) and the middle 140 is the exhaust, in which case it needs a 180 degree swap.

Incidentally, for someone who had almost never been inside a computer case a few months ago, the instructions with all items are fairly woeful, simple things that may be obvious to many of you guys with experience still need to be learnt or understood. A tiny 1 liner saying, "the fans move air in this direction" would be quite useful, and I won't even start on case and motherboard instructions for wiring stuff up, though perhaps companies don't expect people with such little knowledge/experience to attempt a build.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Yep 120mm needs to be over the ram pushing UPWARDS in your case towards the 120 black thats at the top in your case dude.

 

[TMaksimov]

Uhm.. I found the instructions quite sufficient, matey. No PHD in structural mechanics was needed anyway. If you totally don't know what you're doing you shouldn't be building PCs anyway - research should always come first.

 

[PotatoHead]

In order to do, sometimes you just need TO DO. I'm not an idiot and the vast majority of instructions I encountered covered at least 90% of what is needed, however, the remainder omitted can and does deal with important issues (and if you are able to imagine removing your knowledge gained through experience you would appreciate this) I would also add that I have been researching this build for quite some time whilst I waited for SB's release.

When one is trying to exercise care with expensive components it's common sense to try and not make mistakes leading to costly consequences, though in this case it's just a time/convenience thing. Would it really have been hard for Noctua (for this particular example) to have included a single arrow on one of their diagrams showing air flow, I think not. Would it have been hard for them to draw attention with a one liner in the instructions to point out that there are in fact arrows on the fans themselves showing air flow direction, I think not (An arrow that I'd not noticed at the time of posting earlier)

We all probably know what assumptions do, and my comments stand, using those instructions as is, does not tell all someone needs to know, and this applies to one of the more simple components of a build (though aside from this minor issue the instructions are otherwise excellent). Intel instructions are a joke, Seasonic are almost as bad, Silverstone fare a little better as do Gigabyte...I could go on and on but suffice to say, not one manual I used today told me everything necessary to install that particular component.

Thanks for the constructive comments.

 

[JezEngland]

All the fans I've seen and examined are based on similar design

 

[PotatoHead]

All the fans I've seen and examined are based on similar design

And your point is what exactly? Prior to replying you may wish to familiarize yourself with the previous posts in the thread.

Oh and directed at; Sources95 (clearly not OC'd as yet) my temps are around 23 C Idle and the highest seen so far has been 40 C after a fairly short stress test.

 

[JezEngland]

you are/were un-aware about common PC fans. they're designed to blow in the same direction

diificult for me to be breif and exact. the fan is held with a bracket thing in the middle and the air blows through that side/direction

use logic to figure the fan blade design purpose

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18xGzWLFc3s

We are often expected to look on the internet for instructions, modern idea, my case doesn't have instructions. watching a review for it before i got it i found that information.