Noctua NH-L9x65 With I7-9700K? - Cooling - Linus Tech Tips

• Landons

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• 14

I am building a custom PC out of an old G4 PowerMac (pics of the stock system to planned system [stole picture off the internet, different paint scheme planned] attached) and am having to get kind of creative with my cooling solution.

My original plan was to go with an old AIO that a friend was sending me and cutting/extending the tubes to allow for the proper length so as to be top mounted and to allow the side door where all the hardware sits can open fully. That plan is scrapped due to that package being lost in the mail and I don't want to butcher a brand new AIO. I don't have the funds to custom water-cool it currently nor so that is off the table.  That leaves me with very limited "ok" cooler options. I was thinking of pairing my $200 Micro Center sale i7-9700k (no overclocking, cant find an overclockable mATX board) with the Noctua NH-L9x65. This cooler will have enough clearance to not have have any issues when opening/closing the case but I cannot go much larger. Airflow in the case will be 4 120mm Noctua Redux PWM1300 fans mounted at the top and bottom of the case, not decided on airflow yet. 

My main question is, will the system perform "ok" with the Noctua NH-L9x65 or will I run into large thermal throttling issues when pushing the PC at the stock clock speed? I am not expecting it to be extremely cool like it would be with a large tower but size is an issue here. Any other cooler suggestions that are lower profile?

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• CommanderAlex

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• Forces are stressing me out
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42 minutes ago, Landons said:

My main question is, will the system perform "ok" with the Noctua NH-L9x65 or will I run into large thermal throttling issues when pushing the PC at the stock clock speed?

Depends on if you have a lot of airflow coming into the case to provide fresh air for the cooler to cool the processor off. Otherwise, it's just going to recirculate the waste heat and heat up inside the case. You did say you will have, "...4 Noctua Redux PWM1300 fans mounted at the top and bottom of the case, not decided on airflow yet. " so this should not be a problem at all. I would recommend having the bottom fans be intake and the top fans exhaust, or reverse the flow of the top fans and have them all as intake. 

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Main System Specifications: 

CPU:AMD Ryzen 9 5950X||  CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Air Cooler ||  RAM:Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB(4x8GB) DDR4-3600 CL18  ||  Mobo:ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero X570  ||  SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2-2280 Boot Drive/Some Games)  ||  HDD: 2X Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB(Game Drive)  ||  GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming RX 6900XT  ||  PSU: EVGA P2 1600W  ||  Case: Corsair 5000D Airflow  ||  Mouse:Logitech G502 Hero SE RGB  ||  Keyboard: Logitech G513 Carbon RGB with GX Blue Clicky Switches  ||  Mouse Pad: MAINGEAR ASSIST XL ||  Monitor: ASUS TUF Gaming VG34VQL1B 34" 

• Landons
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• Landons

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Thank you for the response, I figured this was the answer but wanted some community advice before I go for it. Now to wait for a reasonably priced GPU....

• CommanderAlex
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