Studio XPS 9100, CPU Cooler Replacements?

Dell back plate for studio 9000/9100, XPS 630i, 730, 730X, Alienware Area 51 R1 are all the same, DP/N JU616.  It has untapped holes to allow mounting on chassis back wall, and 4 tapped holes for LGA 1366 spacing + 4 tapped holes for LGA775 spacing.

I made an error on XPS630i cooler.  It is only for LGA775 socket, therefore can not be used in studio 9100.

It is an LGA1366 air cooler using a Dell backplate mounted on the back wall of chassis. I guess the screw thread for stock cooler mounting is M3, but not 100% certain.  You can verify that on your broken cooler.  The cooler has a black cylinder air duct to take fresh air in from side vent holes.

Therefore 9100 motherboard has 4 untapped holes allowing most aftermarket LGA1366 air coolers to be mounted with their own back plate.  You just can not use Dell studio 435 MT cooler 5F5NM which is mounted on tapped holes on motherboard.

I would say get a cooler master hyper 212 evo which has best value. You can not overclock on the 9100, so your i7-9xx cpu TDP is going to be stock 130W, or 95W if you have a Xeon X5675.

for many air cooler you will need to uninstall the motherboard and mount the new back plate (and remove Dell back plate) first, then reinstall motherboard then mount cooler.  If you want a direct drop in cooler to save the trouble, you can consider XPS 630i or 730(X) stock cooler, or Noctua cooler that has no back plate designed for Xeon board (only if stock cooler screw thread is M3).

I bought what you recommended. The cooler did not fit the casing.

which one did you buy?  cooler master hyper 212 evo?

yeah. just by a little bit but enough to stop it from closing. 

That is a pity.  Sorry I made the wrong recommendation.  My bad. I did not know this full tower case had this height restriction.  In that case there are not many non Dell lga1366 cooler that may fit this case as the tower cooler design is quite generic.  I can only think of the Intel i7-980x reference heatsink assembly (p.64/72).

”It’s not quite as large as the tower coolers from Thermaltake or Zalman.”

Intel drawing does not provide dimension (height) of heatsink.

Intel Core i7-980X Stock Cooler: Physical Details

The Core i7-980X stock cooler is short tower heatsink with a large
translucent LED fan, four copper heatpipes and a densely-packed array of aluminum
fins. It measures 105 x 98 x 124 mm (L x W x H) and weighs 670 grams, 560 grams
without the fan.

since hyper 212 evo is 158.5 mm tall and just enough to prevent closing, the Intel reference cooler should be fine physically.

Hyper 212 evo

Wow, our XPS failed in the same year, yesterday my XPS 9100 broke the plastic cooler. Could you please tell me which coolest set you bought? I am desperate to repair it because there I have all my projects... Thanks for your replies. Bless

LGA 1366 coolers look to be quite rare now, but the Be Quiet! BK002 Shadow Rock LP (low profile) is still available.  This is a downdraft cooler using heat pipes, so should provide better cooling whilst still fitting in a height-limited case.  It looks to be cheaper here in UK than in US.  You'd need to check that it will fit in with everything else in the case, though.

The Vetroo V5 also lists LGA 1366 in a tower cooler and is ca. 1 cm shorter than the Cooler Master Hyper 212, so could possibly fit.  Again, you would need to do your own checks before buying.

Hi, in conclusion, can someone confirm which cooler works for the xps 9100? thank you