Okay so here is the deal, I purchased a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo and the side panel of the NZXT Source 210 (this one) would not close, the heat pipes needed about 4mm of clearance. Luckily copper heat pipes will still work when grinded down right!? Wrong. I the end I destroyed the heat sink and the only thing I got out of it is some aluminum and a decent 120mm fan. So should I purchase another one (not repeating my mistake) and simply drill holes in the windows to accommodate the heat pipes or go with something that will cool my cpu with out spending to much? If so what would you guys recommend? I already have two fans purchased for the push pull configuration that I want to use.
Personally I'd grab something like a corsair H55. Looks to be a $25 difference on newegg, to me that would be worth it.
A quick look at other 120mm tower style heatsinks showed them all to be around the same height if not a tad higher. Drilling holes in the case is going to look pretty damned ugly, they'll have to be large holes otherwise you won't be able to slide the case side forward/backward when you're putting it on/taking it off.
thank you, I am going to go with the H55 but going to toss out that default 120mm or use it as an intake fan. My idea was to us draw a dot where the heat pipe on the right would be and a dot where the heat pipe on the left be and do this for the 4 rows of heat pipe pair. Once I got my full range on the window, I would drill on the two dots and drill between the 2 points then with a dremel and a small bit smooth out the pathway for the heat pipes.
Yeah, just seemed like it could lead to long term problems hey. If you change motherboards, the new boards socket could be in a slightly different place, and you're up for new holes again, stuff like that.
You can still use the H55 with push/pull fans too. I have my H50's set up that way.
http://ocau.com/pix/6eewq
I used the same screws that are used on powerpoints and light switches, they're the right size for the radiator, and long enough to go through even a 38mm fan. You can get shorter ones for 25mm fans or just cut them down. I elected to go with one fan outside and one inside for better airflow through the case, but you can pretty much do as you please.