Mini ITX cooling

[Kylla4]

Hi guys,

I am still trying to build this mini ITX. I have:

Coolermaster Elite 120
i5-2500k
Asrock Z77E-ITX
MSI Radeon 7770 GHZ edition
Corsair 650HX
GSkill 1600 8GB
ASUS CD/DVD ROM drive
WD Caviar Black 1TB


I had read reviews that this case has good cooling and, of course, after I bought it I'm reading reviews that it doesn't. Am I going to be ok with stock cooling? If not, do I have to buy an aftermarket cooler or can I just buy another 120mm fan that would be mounted behind the drive bays? I don't believe I'll be able to overclock the chip with this case and that's fine, but I don't want to burn anything up. I haven't played anything other than Diner Dash kind of games, so I don't know what the other kinds of games do, in terms of heat, but I'm sick of these kinds of games.

Also, I am a smoker - yep, kill me now 🙂. This rig is going in the garage with a nice ASUS 23" monitor. Do you think putting an electric blanket over the ITX and the monitor on low will work to keep it warm enough without condensation so that I don't have to carry it in every night?

I thought I was done ordering parts, so I'm hoping stock cooling and the 2 fans that came with the case are enough, but if not I guess I should know now before I build it in a few days...

Thanks so much!

 

[jmsellars1]

If you're not going to overclock, get the i5-3470 or something. Better performance, probably cheaper and lower TDP so less heat.

I imagine you should probably be OK in terms of heat, it will probably be quite noisy though.

 

[Kylla4]

If you're not going to overclock, get the i5-3470 or something. Better performance, probably cheaper and lower TDP so less heat.

I imagine you should probably be OK in terms of heat, it will probably be quite noisy though.

Actually, I already have all those parts - I took the 2500k from another build. If it's ok with stock cooling then I have everything I need to put it together. If it needs another fan, I don't have one. How can you tell the temp of the cpu when it's running?

Thanks!

 

[sadams04]

Ideally you will need a low profile CPU cooler in order to overclock. The stock cooler may support a small overclock, but I wouldn't mess with it without an aftermarket cooler. Unfortunately I can't help you as to what fits that case specifically... Add to that two case fans (an intake and exhaust) and call it good. No reason why you couldn't support a good overclock with that setup.

To check the temps, ASRock should have a utility that shows hardware temps while running stress test tools. Be sure to consult an overclocking guide and monitor temps in the process.

 

[Kylla4]

Ideally you will need a low profile CPU cooler in order to overclock. The stock cooler may support a small overclock, but I wouldn't mess with it without an aftermarket cooler. Unfortunately I can't help you as to what fits that case specifically... Add to that two case fans (an intake and exhaust) and call it good. No reason why you couldn't support a good overclock with that setup.

To check the temps, ASRock should have a utility that shows hardware temps while running stress test tools. Be sure to consult an overclocking guide and monitor temps in the process.

Oh, great, then I don't need anything else right now anyway because the case comes with a 120mm fan in the front and an 80mm on the side - I don't know how to overclock and I probably won't notice the difference coming off the silly games I have played :lol: Thanks for telling me how to find the temps; I will check on that as soon as I build it.

Thanks!

 

[jmsellars1]

CPUid Hardware Monitor is my favourite tool for monitoring system temperatures.

 

[AMD Radeon]

it is fully suggested to put custom cooling for mini itx.

for example samuel 17 or deepcool gamma archer (for not overclocking)