My case (Cooler Master Elite 130) has 65mm of CPU cooler clearance. The spire cooler stock is too tall (69mm if I’m correct). I don’t want to use an 80mm fan on the heat sink because of noise. I also don’t want to waste the heat sink since it’s better than the Cryorig C7 heat sink I originally planned on using. Are there any critical issues for the way I’m planning on mounting a slim 120mm fan to the Spire with these fan grills?
you may need to up the RPM because a good chunk of the air will just go around the cooler and because the additional grills will restrict a bit of airflow but otherwise it should work
Nothing wrong with a nice hackjob!
If you were to build a cardboard funnel to go underneath the fan, you may get better cooling by reducing blow-by.
Hastily drawn illustration:
I’d probably use duct tape, easier than cutting a pattern out of cardboard and should be airtight or nearly so. Make sure to keep a close eye on your temps at first.
only problem is that the dust will accumulate on the sticky part of the tape very easily
zip ties
If I were you I would make a hole in the case. I have a dislike for cm cases.
Try it without ducting and see if your happy with temps before you go making more mods, might be decent enough without extra mods
What CPU/GHZ/Voltage are you using? I have a somewhat similar ultra-hack rig with a Core2Quad cooler, a small Folgers container (sans bottom), and a section of 2x6 with a 4 1/8" hole in it for mounting a 120mm fan, all on top of a Socket 1150 Celeron.
While the concerns mentioned above are true, another large issue is that bigger fans have bigger hubs. Having the hub mere millimeters away from the heatsink means there is a dead air space. Yes, the heatsink also has a ‘hub’ which the fins radiate out from, but you would have to compare that to the hub of your fan. Using a 120mm fan means it probably has a fairly large hub.
Even with all of those inefficiencies, it will probably function to adequately cool the CPU, but it may have to spin much faster (louder) in order to do so. Using a duct, and giving a little space between the fan and the heatsink will allow you to gain better cooling at lower noise. In my case, I went from the stock 92mm fan keeping my CPU @ 39C idle to 32C idle along with noise going from perceptible at idle and a bit annoying at full load to imperceptible to me at all but the heaviest of loads.
To be fair, I heavily undervolted my CPU and it is only a dual core, so I’d imagine my sub-30 watt power draw would be quite a bit different than the overclocked beasts typical of enthusiast forums. If you are not overclocking then dropping the voltage a fair bit can save on heat and noise, usually without any sacrifice in speed.
I’ll be using a Ryzen 5 1600. Still need to get a few things before I begin building it, so I’ll probably start at stock settings and work from there. If I’m not happy with temps I’ll probably undervolt and / or try make a duct using some spare sheet metal.
I’ll check out the hub size in comparison to the vapor chamber.