My workplace was throwing out some super old servers. One of the cases looked kinda cool to me. Turns out it had a standard E-ATX form factor on the inside with 2x 3.5" hard drive bays with 3x 5.25" bays which I put an adapter in to fit a 3rd drive+SSD.. So a grabbed this case and gutted it out and put my main rig into it. Along with a small rack. The case is 4U high. Once I got my main rig inside I quickly found out that my Be Quiet - Dark Rock 3 Cooler which is 160mm tall is about 5-10mm TOO TALL ಠ╭╮ಠ. Now I've been searching around for so long now that I've given up for now. I need some help finding either a really good performing low profile air cooler or a 150mm tall cooler. My other alternative is to take a dremel to it and cut off the top fin. Keep in mind this is a Intel i7-5930k which is 2011-v3 socket. So The cooler needs to be rated to both fit 2011 socket and handle a TDP of 140W. I'm not really going crazy with the overclock so I don't really need something insane. With the dark rock 3 (non pro) I was getting a temp of about 52C under load on the hottest core. I'd be fine with a max of like 70C at full load.
Finding a cooler under 150mm that "performs" well is tricky, but not impossible.
I know that the Thermalright True Spirit 120M was build for small form-factor builds, and it stands at 145mm tall. Likewise, the Thermalright Macho 120 stands at 150mm. Those are two that I know of off the top of my head. Their website says they are compatible with that socket.
Tom's Hardware did a review of Noctua's NH-U9DX i4 ( http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dynatron-r27-r24-noctua-nh-u9dx-i4-cpu-cooler,4168.html ) which fits the bill, but you'll pay that Noctua-premium cost.
Zalman used to be great at offering good cooling solutions that stayed at a height of 154mm, but they have not released much in terms of new air coolers to the market in the last several years, and I do not know if they would be compatible with that socket.
Well, I feel stupid but I went on noctua's site and just looked at their "server" stuff and yea, that NH-U9DX i4 seems perfect. Also, anything under the price of the Dark Rock 3 which was $90 is cheap to me. and the NH-U9DX i4 is $56 on amazon. Perfect. I'm not a huge noctua fan or anything tho. But I guess its worth a try. Thanks!
CM GeminII is also an option. Though that Noctua should fit the bill.
The U9DX is a great cooler. Another option might be the Noctua NH-C14S. I use a C14 (the older version of the C14S) to cool a Xeon E5-1650 V3, which is essentially a 5930K. With two 140mm fans, you get more cooling capacity than the dual-92mm U9DX with less noise. I have mine mildly overclocked to 4 GHz, and there's still a bit of headroom left. If you attach both fans, it maxes out at 142 mm in height.
Two potential drawbacks to the C14S in your use-case. One, it's a top-down cooler, which may not be ideal. Two, installation on a Square-ILM socket is a breeze, but a Narrow-ILM socket is tricky.
There's also watercooling. Good AIOs are reliable, easy to install, and great perforners.
That's an interesting cooler lol. but you're right, in my use-case it wouldn't be wise. There is no breathing for the top side so the fans wouldn't be facing the right direction. I recently got my air cooler I have now. I upgraded from a AIO that was getting old and even though it wasn't showing any signs of wear, I wanted to start running my system 24/7. That being said I actually tried to put my 240mm Corsair H100 inside this case. But there was really no where to put it. There just isn't a good configuration in this case for it. With a better server case I could easily have done that, but those also cost money. This server case was given to me free
Ah, I see. Yes, then the NH-U9DX i4 is looking like a great option. I've had Noctuas run for years and years on 24/7 machines. I'm curious as to what temps and OC performance you can achieve, so please keep us updated when you install!
I've used a number of their fans, and their thermal compound, but have yet to personally use their heatsinks. I have a friend who has an NH-D14, and he's more than happy with it. I think they certainly make good products, but there does seem to be a good amount of hype around them that makes people overlook other products.
All the hype is exactly why I've been avoiding them. In recent years I've quit gaming, got a Network Engineer job at a local bank, took out all the LED's in my computer, blacked out the colors, started my own photography thing, and now I'm finally getting into server grade components. As much as I try not to be like Linus, he is kind of doing the exact same thing. He just moved his personal rig into a custom server case, their doing many more things with higher end components and less with gaming things, We even had the same phone for awhile until he changed, and I have been trying to save up for a Dell XPS 15 and he posted the other day on his instagram that he is doing a new review on the 15 and I know that he will probably want to switch to it as his daily. As much as I try to go the opposite direction he is wayy too similar lol. But who am I to really care about all this. I don't really just saying
It might be a little while because I am going to wait for my roomate to build his build he has been planning. I convinced him that if he bought the Noctua that I want I will give him my dark rock 3. So he really wins in that situation. But I'm also not just loosing $90 im just looking like $40. Plus the case has nothing ontop of it pushing down on it right now, so the lid having a 5mm gap only in the back isn't really a huge deal.
Doesn't fit 2011 socket fam, but tiz hilarious