[SOLVED] With Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme ALPHA and Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3, can I use PCI slot 1?

[andreasoberg]

Hiya,
I'm considering getting either
With Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme ALPHA or Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme
If I use the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3, will the PCI slot 1 actually be possible to use? I read some reports that it covers PCI slot 1, but that was on other boards.

Sacrificing one PCI slot is not really an option for me since I normally always get my PCI ports full.

Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

According to this image:

pulled from Noctua's support site for the cooler, it looks like the cooler will the same length of a stick of ram. You should be fine but you may find it close to the first PCIe slot for your GPU. Also, you can't orient the cooler in another manner.

I'd advise on getting an AIO, for a more sleeker approach, heck even go custom watercooling for that platform.

 

[Lutfij]

According to this image:

pulled from Noctua's support site for the cooler, it looks like the cooler will the same length of a stick of ram. You should be fine but you may find it close to the first PCIe slot for your GPU. Also, you can't orient the cooler in another manner.

I'd advise on getting an AIO, for a more sleeker approach, heck even go custom watercooling for that platform.

 

[andreasoberg]

Thanks I read around more. And it seems you need to move the fans higher up from the RAM sticks. They also say that it will hit your first PCI slot on the Alpha board. I'm also checking out the Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme card, that is a little bit bigger.

AIO could be something, I never used that before so would be the first time.