Noctua NH-D15 is blocking RAM/PCIE

[dice1337]

hello,

i have a question about a tradeoff i need to make.
My Noctua NH-D15 is with it's dual fan setup is either blocking the first pcie slot, or the 3rd and 4th ram slot, depending on wheter i put the heatsink in horizontally or vertically.

a) should i block the first pci slot? then my graphics card would be on the second pcie, wich is far away from the cpu.

b) should i block the 3rd and 4th ram slot? then i don't think dual channel is working properly on my msi z170-a pro. i think i need to use 1 and 3 or 2 and 4, altough they have all the same color? my case doesn't allow to put the fan higher on the heatsink sadly.

c) should i forget about the 2nd fan? none of my components/slots are getting blocked, but my cpu will be more hot, and the single fan should have a higher rpm under less load, which is louder.


what would you do? any tips? what do you think is the best tradeoff?

 

[synphul]

Try it with one fan removed. Temps may increase a little but shouldn't be by that much. What ram are you using? It may or may not fit under the cooler/fan. Typically larger air coolers are better paired with lower profile ram (aka something other than vengeance or dominator with really tall heatsinks).

 

[dice1337]

hi synphul,

thanks for the answer. i use g-skill ripjaws, they are rather large. they fit under the heatsink (cooler), but not under the second fan.

So in your opinion a few extra degrees on the cpu (i7 6700k) is better then blocking the first pcie lane, and use the second for my graphics card right?

 

[synphul]

Either that or try with the cooler facing up. Usually boards have multiple pcie slots and the top is x16 with the bottom being x8, that board has 2x x16 slots. Meaning the bottom slot shouldn't be any slower than the first one for your gpu.

Another option might be to swap the front fan with a 120mm fan. It would mean purchasing a different fan if you don't have one already which could be a pain but it's a viable option. The fan mounts should work, the included 140mm round fans use 120mm spacing for their mounts. That's similar to how the dark rock pro 3 cooler overcomes ram height, instead of using two larger 140mm fans it uses a 130 or 135mm fan in the center and a 120mm in front.

They do make a single fan nh-d15s and here's a comparison of several coolers including the d15 and d15s. Temps were nearly the same. The d15s is slightly different in that they offset the heatpipes some so it's a bit different than just removing the front fan but it's basically the same. The fan included is only the center fan in the d15s.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7301/noctua-nh-d15s-style-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

I'd be surprised if you lost more than a couple degrees of cooling by leaving the front fan off.

Here's another testing the nh-d15 with both fans and single fan. Around a degree or so difference.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2014/05/01/noctua-nh-d15-review/2

 

[dice1337]

hi and thanks again,
yeah i should have bought the d15s
i will use it wih a single fan (i installed the second noctua fan as an additional case fan, which is ok for me), and if i feel it gets too hot after overclocking my new build, i can get still a second smaller fan as you suggested.