Find out if you can fit a micro-ATX motherboard in the Cooler Master NR200 small form factor case! This Machinist X79G motherboard is a smaller variant of mATX that can fit in sff cases that have at least a 3 slot GPU space. One of the weaknesses on this Chinese X79 motherboard is the VRM cooling solution - so towards the end of this video I test a large 120mm case fan in both the exhaust and intake positions while monitoring VRM temperatures. The VRM reached 70°C during open air bench testing (no case fans). With the 120mm case fan in exhaust mode, it kept the VRM under 50°C and when flipped to intake mode it kept the VRM under 30°C!
Note that the intake fan is far superior for VRM temps but will elevate the CPU temperate a few degrees from 50°C to 54°C during my testing. A sacrifice I am happy to make, considering I’ve never cooked a CPU to death but have fried motherboards from inadequate venitlation before. I want to keep this cheap chinese motherboard well cooled as I would anticipate it failing long before the Intel Xeon E5-2650 v2 processors would fail.
PRODUCTS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO
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TIMESTAMPS
- 00:00 - Cooler Master NR200 Unboxing
- 02:39 - Opening the NR200 Sidepanels
- 03:48 - 120mm Case Fan and Misc. Parts
- 04:59 - NR200 Front Panel I/O Connections
- 05:27 - NR200 Motherboard Tray
- 06:16 - Position of Top Case Fan for VRM
- 06:55 - Will a cheap Snowman Cooler Fit?
- 09:21 - Side Panel can stay!
- 10:27 - Prep the Motherboard
- 11:30 - Installing Motherboard in the NR200 Case
- 11:54 - Power Supply Placement
- 14:18 - Front Panel Connections
- 16:28 - Re-assemble the NR200 Case
- 17:43 - Preparing for Case Fan Tests
- 18:28 - Testing Case Fan EXHAUST Mode
- 18:58 - Flipping the Case Fan Orientation
- 19:44 - Testing Case Fan INTAKE Mode
- 20:26 - Summary and Conclusions
#benstechlab #homelab #nr200
Posted By Ben
Ben is a software architect and developer who loves all things tech. When he's not at work he likes to play with computer tech, home automation and video production.