The Challenges of Small Form-Factor Cases: Cooling Options and Performance

When it comes to small form-factor cases like the Mini ITX, one of the biggest challenges is effective CPU cooling. As anyone who's built a compact PC knows, it can be difficult to dissipate heat from high-performance processors like the Intel Core i7-7700K, which has a TDP of over 100W and can overclock to 5GHz with ease. In this article, we'll explore the options for cooling small form-factor cases and evaluate their performance in terms of temperature and noise.

The Problem with Low Profile Coolers

Low profile coolers like the Cooler Master C7 have become popular among builders due to their sleek design and low profile height. However, they often come at a cost: reduced cooling performance. When tested on a high-performance processor like the i7-7700K, these coolers tend to struggle with heat dissipation, leading to temperatures that are only marginally better than the stock cooler. In contrast, small tower coolers like the Cooler Master M9i or Noctua D9L offer significant improvements in cooling performance.

Testing Small Tower Coolers

To determine whether small tower coolers are worth it over low profile coolers, we put several different models to the test. We used a 60-watt stress test to push the processor and memory cache, allowing us to get reliable data on temperatures and noise levels. The results were striking: small tower coolers offered a significant 10-15% performance improvement over low profile coolers, with some models even beating out the stock cooler by a few degrees Celsius.

The Cryo Rig M9i: A Cost-Effective Option

One of the most surprising findings from our testing was the Cryo Rig M9i, which offers incredible value for its price. With a price tag of just $20, this cooler is an absolute steal compared to other options on the market. In terms of performance, it's not far behind more expensive coolers like the Noctua D9L or Cooler Master M9i, making it a great option for builders who want a cheap and effective cooling solution.

Overclocking with Small Tower Coolers

One of the biggest limitations of small tower coolers is their inability to handle significant overclocking. When we boosted the i7-7700K up to 4.9GHz with 5 volts, all of the low profile coolers started thermal throttling within a minute. This means that if you're planning to do serious overclocking, you'll need to opt for a larger cooler that can handle the increased heat.

Conclusion

When it comes to small form-factor cases, effective CPU cooling is a major challenge. Low profile coolers may offer a sleek design and low profile height, but they often come at a cost: reduced cooling performance. Small tower coolers, on the other hand, offer significant improvements in cooling performance, making them a great option for builders who want a cheap and effective cooling solution. The Cryo Rig M9i stands out as an excellent value proposition, offering incredible performance for its price.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso if you're subscribe to the channel guys you know my main rig is a tiny in case m1 this case is so optimized you can fit a full-length GPU and up to five two and a half inch drives but it's not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to small form-factor cases like the m1 effective cpu cooling can be a bit of a dilemma especially if you have a high TDP processor like until 7700 K as I do this one that I've got here can overclock to five gigahertz and above no problem but dissipating all of that heat takes a lot of work for the CPU cooler for the last couple of months I've been swapping between the Caribe c7 and m9 i and for the life of me I just can't make my mind up I love the low profile look of the c7 but with that I can barely overclock the 7700 K and this does slow down my editing workflow and of course gaming the m9 is much stronger in this regard but quite frankly the looks just bored me a little bit and it's cheaper price does reflect its build quality so I wanted to explore a few options that I've got here today and answer a couple of questions that have been floating in my mind firstly what is the difference between low profile coolers such as the popular Craig C 7 and small tower callers such as the m9 I or even knocked to a d9l I want to get some valid numbers here and see if small tower callers really are worth it over the low profile callers next is it even worth picking up a low profile caller at all I mean sure they look much better than the stock cooler but I'm interested to see what both the temperature and noise differences are between them and lastly what is the difference between cryo rig and Noctua when it comes to their low profile and small tower models this is an interesting conversation because knocked or does come in significantly more expensive of course the packaging is better and knocked OA is renowned for the quietest fans around but I want to know whether that extra cash means extra performance in the form of better acoustics or better temperatures now I won't be exploring liquid cooling here today even though the m1 and larger mini ITX cases like the fractal design nano s and the NZXT Manta do support it as I'm betting most of you will opt for air cooling when it comes to your small form-factor PC as generally it is cheaper less cramped and less of a hassle in the long term also I will be testing the knocked or d9l the largest cooler of the bunch in a few different configurations these will be out of the box with the stock single NFA 9fen in the middle then swapping done out for the quieter and in my opinion much better looking an FB 9 Redux fan and finally with dual Redux fans I'm mostly doing this out of curiosity because I'm personally pretty interested in what the best setup will be here I don't want to run brown fans in my PC but the read axes are a little weaker compared to the traditional nfa 9s obviously two fans are going to be the strongest but by how much ok so on to the testing I'll be using either 60 for stress testing the CPU floating-point units and the memory cache this provides the most stress overall and produces the maximum heat on the CPU and for each test I allowed the CPU to run for 20 minutes under full load allowing the temperature to plateau so that we could get reliable data the 7700 K that we're using today for testing has been deleted and this did improve temperatures by about 15 to 20 degrees Celsius so just keep that in mind when we take a look at the results first up let's take a look at how all the coolers did when the 7700 K was set to its tock clock speed of 4.5 gigahertz also all of the numbers that you see here have been adjusted to reflect an ambient temperature of 20 degrees Celsius as ambient temperatures inside my apartment did fluctuate by about 5 degrees over the course of the testing so straight away you can see that that Intel stock cooler is failing miserably and it's no wonder that Intel don't ship these coolers with their higher TDP processors such as the overclockable I 5s and i7s I did expect it to do pretty bad but not this bad switching to an aftermarket low-profile cooler such as the cry or exceed 7 or knocked or l9 I does give us a considerable bump in performance the c7 does beat the online I buy exactly two degrees here but as we'll see later it was much quieter the small tower coolers are a considerable improvement over the low profile callers with about a 10 to 15 percent performance improvement the stock d9l is a couple degrees called in the m9i however at almost tripled the price it's hard to recommend based on this alone switching to the redox bands does reduce performance a bit as I expected as these fans do run slower and also move less air at a second fan though and we're seeing a small lead over the stock and we're also quieter as well what I was most interested to see it was how all the call was handled overclocking he we've boosted the 7700 K up to 4.9 gigahertz at one point to five volts and all of the low profile coolers were thermal throttling within one minute can you get away with a bit of gaming though sure but if you're running CPU intensive workloads that we are here and want to overclock then you're definitely going to need a bigger cooler the cry rig m9i is definitely proving itself here as a very cost-effective option and not only $20 it's keeping up with the Noctua d9l now these numbers are all well and good but let's take a look at how each cooler sounded under full load from loudest aquarist so low-profile coolers were significantly better than the stock cooler from Intel and both the cryo Rick see seven and knock doors l9 I are both great options if you're looking for a stealthy cooling option in your Mini ITX build the c7 is a couple of degrees cooler than the l9 I but I did find the nock to a fan on the l9 I to be significantly quieter both options should be okay though for some light overclocking if you want to do some significant overclocking like myself though then you're most likely going to have to step it up a bit the small tower callers are much better for overclocking as you'd expect and I found the system was significantly cooler and quieter okay so between cry rig and Noctua then well knock TOA are definitely the quieter option so if acoustics are critical to you then I'd highly suggest spending that bit of extra cash in terms of performance though they are very similar but what I'm excited most of that is that Joule Redux fan on the Noctua d9l I'm so happy to be finally running my overclocked 7700 K with virtually silent performance from the fans and this is going to make editing and gaming much more enjoyable and also we can't forget the insane performance from the $20 and 9i here cry Rica offering some insane value for the money here so look no further if you need a small and cheap cooler as always guys a huge thanks for watching don't forget to like the video if this helped you out and also you all in the next one\n"