Cooling E3-1265Lv3 [stock cooler not available]

[Johev]

Dear all,

I am building 2 FreeNAS servers at the same time with very similar specifications. As the CPUs were bought in bulk, they didn't come with the stock Intel cooler.

MB: X10SL7-F
CPU: E3-1265Lv3
RAM: 16GB and 32GB ECC RAM (recommended from the sticky thread)
and 6 Seagate NAS 4TB HDDs in RAIDZ2

I have some older Noctua coolers (socket 775 cooling two Intel Q6600 CPU).

• Noctua NH-C12P
• Noctua NH-U12F

There are adapter kits for the socket 1150, which would allow me to mount them on the new motherboard.

Do you think it would be a good idea to use them in this build or should I purchase a couple of ARCTIC Freezer i11 and use them instead?

Many thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Ericloewe]

Let me sum it up for you:

• Noctua's stuff is excellent.
• 120mm fan stuff seems excessive (and excessively heavy) for a server. Especially running a low-TDP CPU.
• Arctic's stuff is average (my experience with the Freezer 13 is less than stellar).
• If the new mounting solution that Noctua sells works with your cooler(s), it's a perfectly viable solution.

 

[Johev]

@Ericloewe
Thank you for your reply, or should I say Obrigado (PT here :)).

Noctual actually provides the adapter mounting kits for free. They will even mail it to you (at least to Belgium) without added costs. Of course you need to prove that you have the cooler with an invoice or photos of the cooler with your ID and the invoice of the 1150 socket motherboard.

I know that it's an overkill, the E3 I'm going to use is a 45W one, however I don't really want to buy sub par coolers (or Intel stock ones) if I have these two very nice coolers already at home.

Do you think that the motherboard is not going to like these big coolers? My cases are Fractal Design Define R5 and my power supplies are Seasonic Platinum 660 :).

Many thanks for your input.

 

[Ericloewe]

Noctual actually provides the adapter mounting kits for free. They will even mail it to you (at least to Belgium) without added costs. Of course you need to prove that you have the cooler with an invoice or photos of the cooler with your ID and the invoice of the 1150 socket motherboard.

I thought they only did that for new coolers and old boards. Maybe I had it the other way around and they offer the new mounting kits for old coolers for free and sell the LGA775/1366 kits for newer coolers.

Do you think that the motherboard is not going to like these big coolers?

It wouldn't be any different from your typical motherboard. I'm a bit paranoid about these things and dislike having these massive coolers supported just by the motherboard, but Noctua tend to know what they're doing and I don't think damage is likely.

 

[Johev]

@Ericloewe
Thanks once again. I'm going to mount them and see. These Noctua coolers come with backplates therefore it's not just the MB wholes supporting the weight.

If you would like, I can post some pictures when mounting the system. :)

As for the X10SL7-F, should I get a 40mm fan for the LSI? I've heard that it can get hot and I'm not mounting several high performance coolers in the case as it's going to stay in my living room (not much space around the apartment).

 

[Ericloewe]

As for the X10SL7-F, should I get a 40mm fan for the LSI? I've heard that it can get hot and I'm not mounting several high performance coolers in the case as it's going to stay in my living room (not much space around the apartment).

It's unnecessary if you have a bit of airflow over the area (say, from the drive bays on most ATX chassis). Some people have found it necessary if they didn't have any significant airflow in the area.

 

[Johev]

@Ericloewe
Does Freenas monitor the temperature of the LSI, or the only way I'll know that I have a problem is when I see the entire pool drop? Sorry for all the questions but I would like to do this right as it's been a considerable investment.

 

[Ericloewe]

@Ericloewe
Does Freenas monitor the temperature of the LSI, or the only way I'll know that I have a problem is when I see the entire pool drop? Sorry for all the questions but I would like to do this right as it's been a considerable investment.

No, I don't think it's even available in software. It's just one of those things you'll have to evaluate when burning in your server...

 

[Bidule0hm]

Intel stock ones

Actually if you replace the thermal pad by some good thermal paste (Arctic Silver 5 for example) they are perfectly fine ;)

 

[Johev]

@Bidule0hm
Thank you for your message. Unfortunately these CPU's did not come with a cooler. If I bought a box CPU with an Intel stock cooler I would be using it. However I don't want to spend money on an Intel stock cooler, unless it's really cheap :).

As I had 2 Noctua coolers for socket 775 lying around, I thought it would be wise to see if they can be used.

I'll keep you posted regarding their performance.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Ok, in this case it makes sense then ;)