is it alright to change the heatsink fan?

T

tjmcmahon78

New Member
I am building a new PC for the first time, and one of the things I wanted was a CPU cooler that had an LED fan. I ordered the Cooler Master Vortex Plus and a Thermaltake LED case fan, both of which arrived today. I thought (and still do) I could just pop the Thermaltake fan on the heatsink and think nothing more of it, but upon inspecting both items today, the fan that came with the Vortex is much heavier than the Thermaltake fan I want to use. So now I'm wondering if I can do this safely or if the seemingly less dense plastic will melt. Thanks!
 
They'll work fine, even under load the heatsink should only be warm to the touch, it's no where near the level that it could melt anything. If you're using it for your CPU you should get a fan with PWM, they have an extra pin in the plug that allows the motherboard to tell the fan how fast to spin, so if the CPU is on idle it will be nice and quiet at low RPM, but if it's under load and getting hot, it'll put the RPM up. Case fans will just spin at 100% constantly, which may not be a problem but can sometimes be a bit loud.
 
Why the VP? Does the case require the low profile? You're going to be overclocking, right? 965? And a future gpu?
I'm not saying the VP won't do the job, but it's not going to push the warm air to the back fan.
 
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I was nervous about space with any of the other heatsinks I was looking at. I'm using a MicroATX board and all the heatsinks I'm looking at are huge, and tall. I read reviews on a couple that said I'd have hard time fitting some in a mid-tower case. The VP was the best of the sizes I could find that would still do what I wanted. If it doesn't work, I'll buy a new one and return the VP. Overclocking will be a future endeavor, the ASUS makes it easy.
 
Okay, this is a totally stupid question, but this was part of my concern...I originally wanted to buy the Antec Performance Max fan or the Hyper 212 Plus, which WOULD blow heat towards the back of the case, but it's over 6 inches tall (159mm). I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough room in the case, like I mentioned, but I also think about the fact that this is hanging off of the motherboard, which is mounted vertically. I'm afraid of gravity, and any load it bears on the motherboard. Do I really have anything to be concerned with here? Someone who did install the Performance Max said his did crash.
 
Some cases are slightly too small for the standard 120mm fanned CPU heatsinks, but there are plenty of 92mm heatsinks out there that will fit in easily but still push the air out the back. I have the cooler master Hyper TX3 which does pretty well for a smaller heatsink. I don't know what CPU you're getting so can't say if it's compatible or not... But just have a look around newegg and there's plenty of smaller heatsinks that will push the air out the back.

Heavier heatsinks generally come with a backplate which reinforces the motherboard where the heatsink is screwed in to, to help show gravity who's boss.
 
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Ryan_Fpv said:
But just have a look around newegg and there's plenty of smaller heatsinks that will push the air out the back.

Heavier heatsinks generally come with a backplate which reinforces the motherboard where the heatsink is screwed in to, to help show gravity who's boss.
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I'm using a Phenom II X4 965 and It looks like the TX3 would fit...where was that when I was looking? I also saw a Xion 3 cooler, it says it supports AM3 but doesn't get into specific processors. What do you guys think of Xion?
 
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