SOLVED CPU Cooling, help? :S

Hey all,

I've gotten into the whole "PC building" obsession and the urge to always upgrade hardware and change components in my PC. Something that has been bugging me lately is my CPU cooler, it's so damn huge and actually hits my side intake fan. This causes the side panel of my case to slightly bulge out...

Now, the cooler for my CPU does its job and manages to keep my i7-860 relatively cool under load. But I'd like something that doesn't ram into the side of my case and still does a great job of cooling ( I assume aftermarket cooling would be better than the stock intel CPU coolers.. ).

Earlier I mentioned I had recently gotten into the hobby of building PCs (blah blah) but I don't know how to find out if certain coolers are compatible, let alone how to isntall it...

So, the reason I am posting here is to get some insight/help on CPU coolers and how to know if they are compatible with my motherboard. I'll post a picture of my mobo just later on in my post. Also, if you guys find some options which are compatible, and arn't insanely huge... ^^ By all means, post a link.

Here is some relevant info...
PSU - DC output 750w
CPU - Intel core i7-860 (quad core @ 2.8ghz with turbo boost to 3.46ghz and hyperthreading )
Case - Techsolo TC-72, it is 200mm x 415mm x 490mm (width, height, and depth) The case supports ATX and I have an mATX board installed at the moment.

Here's a picture i managed to find of my motherboard ( I didn't think it would be as clear taking a pic of the inside of my comp, so yea.. )

What cooler do you have now that's against the side fan? Is it the stock cooler? If so, you're really not going to find much in the way of high performance heatsinks that are low profile. You'll see some P4 era stuff that's 775, but not much 1156 stuff at all.

The cooler I have now which is against the sidefan is the stock cooler. I'm not demanding a "high performance" CPU cooler but I'd like something which doesn't have a GIANT tube sticking out bashing into my side fan/panel.
I'm not interested in overclocking, if that helps, but you say that i won't find "high performance" CPU coolers compatible with 1156? I'm sure there are solutions which do provide decent cooling which I assume is better than the stock. Any examples of coolers that would maybe fix my problem of bashing into the sidepanel?

P.S. I might mark this post as "solved" soon cause I've been doing some reasearch and found out what to look for in a CPU cooler. Thanks for the reply though.

You need to read more carefully What i SAID was that you won't find any LOW PROFILE high performance coolers. Everything that's high performance these days is 160mm+ tall. Tower coolers have proved to be significantly better than top down coolers and as such, dominate the high performance market. I don't think the stock cooler has any tubes on it...been a while since I used one though

If you want to see the stuff that's high performance in today's world, look at the TRUE, venomous X, Megahalems, NH-D14, and the silver arrow. They are all very highly regarded as coolers and you won't find many who say anything bad about them. For a lowerpriced 1156 specific option the MUX120 is a great choice that is only a little bit off the others listed in terms of performance.

That MUX 120 has caught my attention, it is at the limits in height, but considering it's not so wide the height shouln't matter. My stock cooler is damn wide, if i removed the fan in my sidepanel I'd fix the problem of the sidepanel bulging out. It wouldn't matter if the cooler was over 160mm, as long as it isn't wider than around 80mm I'm good to go. Thanks for listing some good air CPU coolers.

Jandre said:

That MUX 120 has caught my attention, it is at the limits in height, but considering it's not so wide the height shouln't matter. My stock cooler is damn wide, if i removed the fan in my sidepanel I'd fix the problem of the sidepanel bulging out. It wouldn't matter if the cooler was over 160mm, as long as it isn't wider than around 80mm I'm good to go. Thanks for listing some good air CPU coolers.

Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but AFAIK, height is measured by how high it comes off the motherboard. In other words, the height of the cooler if the motherboard was laying flat on a horizontal surface. If you're basing it off the HxWxL measurements on a specs page, you want to seriously consider this...

Thanks for some vital tips/info, gonna whip out my handy tapemeasure and check out my limits spacewise for CPU coolers. After knowing my limitations I'll compare some coolers that I'm interested in and make a choice this weekend, hopefully...

What case do you have? I find it amazing that this hasn't been asked yet


That's the i7 stock cooler. Do you have that? If not, you may already have an aftermarket cooler. Can you take a pic of your heatsink? Most of us would be able to tell ya what it is from a gander at it

As far as cases go, I have the Thermaltake Tsunami which is 8.27" wide. The motherboard sits on standoffs and the CPU socket itself is a few MM above the surface of the motherboard, so I don't really get the whole 8.27" to work with. I have a side fan that's 120x25 (the case doesn't come stock with a 120) and if I were to get a TRUE or Megahalems, I'm 99% sure I'd have to remove the 120x25 (maybe get a lo-profile) due to the same problem you are describing.

If anything, how wide is your case?

What case do I have? I've already mentioned earlier in the thread along with its dimensions but just for the sake of it I have a Techsolo TC-72 (I don't live in the USA just incase you're wondering what on earth is Techsolo?). The width of my case is 20cm - 2-3 cm with the motherboard tray and all that. So I have around 16-17cms space in height.

I do as a matter of fact have the stock i7 cooler, BUT I have this huge tube ontop of the fan which is causing my problems. If I could find a way to remove it so I have what you're showing of the i7 stock cooler in the picture then I wouldn't need to purchase a new CPU cooler.

I've taken a moment to inspect my CPU cooler when I was doing some cable management and couldn't see any way to remove this giant tube thing.

The real problem isn't the actual size of the case, it's the fact that this giant tube-like thing ontop of my CPU cooler is bashing with my side case-fan thus causing my sidepanel to bulge out. I'll see if I can find a way to remove this tube thingy (sorry if I'm not using a better word to describe it, but what can you say...) and post some pictures of my problem. If i can't remove it I'll show you my new cooler in comparison to the old one.
However, if I do manage to remove this "tube.." I'll post a series of before and after pics xD

the thermaltake frio is a good hsk with tow fan , the cooler is not so expensive
and were do you live in which country ?

I've lived in The Netherlands all my life, still do.

Here's an update, I managed to take that tube thing off my CPU cooler so now my problem is solved ^^. My idle temps are around 33-34 celcius which I guess is alright.
On heavier loads for example when I'm gaming and I've got some internet tabs open and maybe something like Skype/Ventrilo my temps are around 50-55 celcius at their max.
I remember hitting the 60 celcius mark when I had this "tube thing", but I also did have much worse cable management back then. Now, along with my cable management, and this "tube thing xD" removed My temps have lowered a generous amount. So I'm happy

Sorry if anyone's interested in seeing pics atm. Havn't got a camera handy, maybe tommorow or something ;p

I guess I won't be buying a new CPU cooler afterall..

Glad to hear that you managed to get that tube deal off the side of the case and you solved your problems, Jandre. I had a few older cased that came with that tube thing too, which like you I ended up removing.