Water Cooler for Lian Li PC-9F Case

[arcitek]

I am wanting to install a cooler master 140 XL or if I have to, a 120 XL in my case. Can someone plese recommend which one will fit in the case? My board is a Sabertooth P67 1155

Nepton 140XL - Cooler Master

[Lian Li Tech]

Re: Water Cooler for Lian Li PC-9F Case

As there is only 27mm between the top of the case and the MB, there is unfortunately not enough space for those AIO units.

[profJim]

Re: Water Cooler for Lian Li PC-9F Case

Are you sure that the Seidon XL120 AIO cooler won't fit in the case?

This attached picture shows the Seidon XL120 mounted in my HAF XB computer case.

note: The anti-vibration rubber pad between the interior fan and the radiator is about 6 - 8mm deep.

[Lian Li Tech]

Re: Water Cooler for Lian Li PC-9F Case

Actually yes. In the rear 120mm fan space, the Seidon 120 XL will fit. However, for the top 140mm fan cutout, hardly any AIO coolers will fit.

[profJim]

Re: Water Cooler for Lian Li PC-9F Case

Actually yes. In the rear 120mm fan space, the Seidon 120 XL will fit. However, for the top 140mm fan cutout, hardly any AIO coolers will fit.

This makes sense as the AIO kits that I'm familiar with have a 27mm or 38mm thick radiators and this doesn't include the 25mm thickness of the standard 120mm cooling fans.

I did some further measuring and from the picture in post #3, the right side of the radiator's tank extends 10mm beyond the right hand edge of the cooling fan. However there might be some interference problems with the OP's P67 Sabertooth motherboard. The VRM heatsinks on my P35 motherboard are ~30mm high and the lower edge of the cooling fan is ~45mm higher than the top surface of my motherboard. The OP's rear panel exhaust fan location in his PC-9F computer case is probably slightly different than my case setup.

To ensure that the Seidon 120XL will fit in his case, he should make a cardboard box with the following dimensions: 150 x 120 x 88 mm and place this box against the inside rear case panel where his exhaust fan is to see if there are any interference issues with his motherboard. A forum member with a HAF XB computer case like mine told me that his Corsair AIO Hxx cooler interfered with his more modern motherboard and he couldn't use his AIO cooler.

If I had installed my 120XL cooler with both fans inside of my case, I would have needed to remove at least one fan if I needed to accesses my 8-pin EPS12V connector or my 4-pin PWM cpu cable and the radiator and fan would have trapped heated air from the motherboard's heatsinks near the rear panel.

A side note: The picture in post #3 was my initial setup with the push/pull fans exhausting air out of the case. Fan noise at low and high air speeds was loud (as expected). I have since changed the XL120's fans to a push/pull air intake setup and surprisingly the fan noise is much lower now at all speeds.

[parsec]

Re: Water Cooler for Lian Li PC-9F Case

This makes sense as the AIO kits that I'm familiar with have a 27mm or 38mm thick radiators and this doesn't include the 25mm thickness of the standard 120mm cooling fans.

I did some further measuring and from the picture in post #3, the right side of the radiator's tank extends 10mm beyond the right hand edge of the cooling fan. However there might be some interference problems with the OP's P67 Sabertooth motherboard. The VRM heatsinks on my P35 motherboard are ~30mm high and the lower edge of the cooling fan is ~45mm higher than the top surface of my motherboard. The OP's rear panel exhaust fan location in his PC-9F computer case is probably slightly different than my case setup.

To ensure that the Seidon 120XL will fit in his case, he should make a cardboard box with the following dimensions: 150 x 120 x 88 mm and place this box against the inside rear case panel where his exhaust fan is to see if there are any interference issues with his motherboard. A forum member with a HAF XB computer case like mine told me that his Corsair AIO Hxx cooler interfered with his more modern motherboard and he couldn't use his AIO cooler.

If I had installed my 120XL cooler with both fans inside of my case, I would have needed to remove at least one fan if I needed to accesses my 8-pin EPS12V connector or my 4-pin PWM cpu cable and the radiator and fan would have trapped heated air from the motherboard's heatsinks near the rear panel.

A side note: The picture in post #3 was my initial setup with the push/pull fans exhausting air out of the case. Fan noise at low and high air speeds was loud (as expected). I have since changed the XL120's fans to a push/pull air intake setup and surprisingly the fan noise is much lower now at all speeds.

First, nice picture. Second, your description of the anti-vibration pad between the radiator and fan said "6 - 8mm" deep? It looks like the standard type of gasket I use where the actual thickness of the gasket material is ~1 - 2mm, and the "flange" around the gasket to hold it on the fan's frame is 6 - 8mm deep.

The main reason I'm commenting is I see you've come over to the "in"-side, as in outside air intake for cooling the radiator. I've always preferred that, even if it seems in some ways less than optimal. But only in the sense that the warmer air exiting the radiator will need to be removed from the PC case. The case you're using is perfect for that, I have a big CM Megaflow 200 fan in the top cover of that case, that has perfect mounting holes and the screws are included with the case. That fan pushes air out of the case fine.

If you read the Newegg reviews for this fan, it seems terrible. My first experience with these fans was in my CM Storm Sniper case, which can mount three of them. There are two reasons for the complaints in the reviews:

The main one is this fan cannot have any restriction of the airflow into the fan. So any fan "filter" screen/mesh just ruins the air flow. When used as an exhaust fan with unrestricted air intake, I could feel the air flow out of the case from three feet away. The side mounting of this fan pulling air through a mesh filter, as found on the Storm Sniper case, is really worthless. I tested this by removing the side panel and running the fan with an external power supply with the fan mounted on the side panel. Any air flow is barely discernible. Even worse is the ~200mm x 20mm fan used in the Corsair 500R case, again used as a side intake. That "fan" is really an eight inch circle with LEDs and a pretty spinning rotor...

The other problem is the version of this fan sold by itself runs at 700RPM max. The version used in the Storm Sniper and other large CM cases can reach 1000 RPM, and the difference in air flow is obvious. The 700 RPM fan is fine and quieter of course, but for those expecting the 1000 RPM version, it's a disappointment.