XPS 8940, Better 3rd party cooler

I will try, the computer is in use right now running some analysis but I will check the new driver ASAP.

Same with contacting Dell for the 500W PS

thanks

@svdgabriel 

That's good work and you are quite resourceful being able to mount that cooler.

Do you get a startup error with the Noctua NF-A9 PWM fan when it's connected to the chassis fan header?    

Thanks for that information.......should be helpful for others following that same exhaust fan and CPU fan upgrades.    The Noctua  NF-AF PWM fan is a nice fan, have used it before.   Great choice as the 92mm exhaust fan upgrade.

 

Noctua NH-U9S should also fit into this case as was installed in the G5 case using M3 x 14mm bolts and matching washers here.

No cutting necessary and uses the A9 92mm fan which is better than the Cooler Master fan and can add dual fans to the cooler very easily.

Try this one for sure vs the TX3.

 

Noctua also makes a NH-L12S 120mm low profile cooler which uses the same type of new mounting system and should be able to use the same M3 x 14mm bolts to secure the 2 mounting brackets to the motherboard.   It also comes with double sided pins which might be usable to install into the existing motherboard mounts. 

Uses that great slim 15mm fan but can be upgraded to a 25mm fan.   It can be mounted with the fan on top for clearance of the ram sticks.....just not sure if the 120mm footprint would fit into that small space.    

I would try this one as well if you use the measurements off the link and see if it would fit that area around the CPU in the case.

 

@Anonymous 

If I had this machine even though they blocked the airflow with the solid piece of plastic on the upper part of the bezel, I would be temped to do some cutting and still try the Corsair H60 (2018) CPU liquid cooler.   I know a 120mm fan fits in that location in the upper intake position.

There is a piece of plastic separating the bottom part of the front bezel which has good airflow,  to the upper part of the bezel where the upper front intake is.  Shown here as this is the only pic I could find of the inside of that bezel. It would be simple to trim away some of that plastic to get the air to the upper half.  Just not sure if it would be enough air for the AIO unit to be effective.  Worked okay in the XPS 8930 mod where the air was coming in from the holes on the sides of the solid front bezel.  

 

I would remove the HDD bracket in the upper intake position, move the HDD to the top chassis bracket, install the H60 cooler and be done with it.......the 92mm coolers are okay with the non-K processors but still limiting. For sure for -K CPU machines and overclocking, and even for non-K machines if users start to put higher end full length GPU's in the machine that throw off a ton of heat in this case with only a 92mm exhaust fan.  

Think it would work?    Not so worried about the fan radiator coupling as much as the airflow restriction across the bezel because it's drawing air from the only the lower front half of the bezel.....

 

 

@HanoverB   Think it would work? Not so worried about the fan radiator coupling as much as the airflow restriction across the bezel because it's drawing air from the only the lower front half of the bezel.....

I agree . . . if you are using a fan to push air through a radiator, you would want to minimize any air flow restriction. The outside top of the bezel is smooth, so easy to work with it terms of fabricating some sort of venting . . . even just drilling a bunch of holes. I saw some crazy guy use a hole saw to open up a bezel like this before  

New Arctic i13x CPU cooler reported to be plug and play as well in the G5 so should fit here as well per this post

At least some options available without having to drill out or cut into the motherboard.

 

CoolerMaster Hyper T2
Arctic i13X

CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 EVO
Noctua NH-U9S

@Flying Elbow    I think I will give NH-L12S a try once my XPS 8940 finally arrives

Why would you choose a 'low profile' model when you have the head room in the XPS 8940?

Neither blowing towards the mobo or away from the mobo are as effective as blowing straight back to your rear exhaust fan.

NH-U12A - can be set-up as dual fan; height is 158mm

 

NH-U12A costs more than double the NH-L12S and appears to be an overkill for what I would typically use the computer for. I guess I want a reasonable upgrade to the stock cooler and from what I could read the NH-L12S does a great job with almost non-existent noise.

But you are right, perhaps I should look at non-low profile alternatives, like NH-D9L.

@Flying Elbow    perhaps I should look at non-low profile alternatives, like NH-D9L.

Yes . . . that would perform better. What CPU & graphics card do you have?

I will have the i7-10700, RTX 2060, 500W PSU, 32Gb RAM, 1Tb Nvme m.2 ssd.

 

I see that NH-D9L's height is 110mm so it will fit. is it clear that Nh-U12A which is 158mm will fit?

@Anonymous is correct 100%.    I did mention that particular 120mm low profile cooler but it isn't optimum for this type of case.  It's quiet and it will get the same 70 degree C temps as the 92mm cooler but an upright cooler with airflow directed back to front is better in the XPS 8940 case.  The air through the cooler exhausts straight out of the back.

It was mentioned that the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO did not fit the G5 case,  it was too tall at 158.5 mm.   

So would need to double check if the 158mm height coolers would fit the XPS 8940.

In regards to the two (so far) Noctua 92mm coolers mentioned that would fit using machine screws for the installation of the mounting bracket, here is a NH-U9S and NH-D9L performance comparison 

 

 

 

 

9L Compatibility OC headroom

RE: 158mm cooler

From this post, @theone0612  measured about 151mm to the side cover...

"this one's height was 136mm with a clearance of about 15mm to the case cover. "

Check the XPS 8940 case, just slide the cover back and check height next to the stock cooler from motherboard to cover.....should be similar.

He also used some M3 x 10mm (body) +6mm hex male-female standoffs to use a spacer to install the TX3 EVO after removing the plastic pins......then used a M3 x 12mm machine screw and washer to fasten the CPU cooler into the threads in the standoff on the motherboard.   Pretty slick.

Pic of his install is on that post.

Standoffs Look like this

 

well, I did not had the hardware to try that, sounds like it should work. I honestly was a bit desperate on getting this running ASAP. I was also concern about the tolerances and the last thing I wanted was a bad mounted CPU cooler. So I stick with modify the case to make the back plate provided with the Noctua fan fit. I hope future users find this and get some ideas about what they can try before cutting anything. I'm sure there will be a lot of people that will benefit from better cooling solutions on these high performance chips. Thank you