Start a Conversation

Solved!

Go to Solution

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

192631

September 9th, 2020 19:00

XPS 8940, Better 3rd party cooler

Hello there

I would greatly appreciate any help to find a new/better 3rd party cooler for my XPS 8940. It came with the thin and small stock cooler and is overheating the whole time. I got a i9-10900 processor with 128 GB of RAM and I need this computer to generate some GIS layers. These jobs take 2-4 hrs every time and I can see that the processor is throttling or C° 97+ all the time.

I tried the Noctua 15S but the problem is there is no space for the bracket under the motherboard. The stock fan screws directly into the chassis from above.

Thank you very much

2 Intern

 • 

798 Posts

September 16th, 2020 20:00

120mm fan based CPU cooler would be better than a 92mm fan based cooler.

@Noorss did a nice video installing a Cooler Master 120mm Hyper TX3 EVO into a G5 5090 with a similar chassis.

No cutting required and no backplate removal....he removed the plastic pins and replaced them with M3 bolts.

Fit was tight under the side panel....needs to be verified that this would fit into the XPS 8940.  It should.

This one fits as well without cutting or drilling,  but is 92mm fan based:  Cooler Master Hyper T2

 

The fact that Dell created a location in the top front of the XPS 8940 chassis for a 3.5" HDD is great.  Was wasted space in the G5.     The Corsair H60 AIO CPU liquid cooler can mount in that front location and would have been great for CPU cooling.  Move that 3.5" HDD mounted in the front location up to that top bracket and install the AIO.  However, in their infinite wisdom they proceeded to block all the airflow through the upper part of the XPS 8940 front bezel.  The G5 front bezel had some nice slats for airflow....the XPS 8940 is a solid upper front bezel......no airflow in that location.     No liquid cooling folks unless you want to modify that rear 80mm fan location for a 120 mm fan on that H60 cooler.   

All you can do is update that rear exhaust fan to a 92mm fan and add an intake fan in that lower front position to help with airflow and update the CPU air cooler.

 The Asetek 645LT is possible in the XPS 8940 case, but a 92mm liquid cooler is for SFF cases where there is no option for a 120mm AIO unit.  Temps aren't that great....ithe 92mm fan and small radiator are limiting and temps are similar to the 120mm air coolers.

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

September 17th, 2020 17:00

Thank you

No, I did not got any error because of the new fans. Not for the exit fan on the chassis neither for the two on the CPU cooler. I'm using the Y-cable included with the fan to be able to connect the two to the same CPU fan header. 

2 Intern

 • 

798 Posts

September 21st, 2020 17:00

@svdgabriel 

I did go back to the beginning of the thread and saw u did modify the motherboard backplate to use the Noctua NH-D9L cooler. 

That cooler does use the same Secufirm2 mounting system as the other coolers known to work on the G5/XPS 8940 motherboard.  I am wondering now if you did have some M3 x 13mm bolts on hand from the hardware store if in fact it would have installed like this:

Bolt

washer

mounting bracket 

spacer

motherboard

 

Little late with this info and fortunately you were able mount yours in another fashion, so do you think you can add the NH-D9L cooler to the list of coolers that can be used without motherboard mods using the M3 bolts?

 

June 3rd, 2021 09:00

@FartManly Im using the vetroo v5 with great results. I didnt use their 120mm fan though, im using an arctic fan that spins at 1800rpm max speed. 

319 Posts

July 21st, 2021 12:00

@karobertsDell  I originally fitted the Arctic Cooler but, after discussion with Arctic themselves, replaced it with the Noctua NH-U9S Chromax.Black with two fans and haven't looked back.  I've also got a 92mm fan at the front and a 120mm and 2 x 80mm fans at the front.

The Arctic Cooler didn't go to waste, as it's now on the i7-6700 in my XPS 8900. 

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

September 10th, 2020 00:00

svdgabriel_0-1599724414719.png

I found this in the manual of the 8940. That cooler pictured is not the one that came with mine, the one I have is like a pancake with a small fan on the top and not heat pipes. However if you look at the image, you will see that the mounting here are just 4 screws that goes through the motherboard into holes on the chassis itself. Once in place there is no space for a third party cooler mounting bracket. I cannot find the part number or where to purchase even a cooler like the one in this picture (since it looks like a better solution than what I have).

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

September 10th, 2020 00:00

Hello,

thanks for your help, I will try again and let you know, I do think the Noctua needs a plate in the back for LGA 1200 sockets, but that interferes with the case, which has holes for the stock cooler to be screw in directly. I will post some pictures 

 

thanks again

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

September 10th, 2020 18:00

Awesome, I will try to use the screws of the stock cooler. I will post my results once I install the new cooler.

thank you!

1 Message

September 14th, 2020 19:00

@svdgabriel how'd it go?

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

September 14th, 2020 22:00

Hello there, I don´t know why now I can´t post any photos? Anyway, I couldn´t figure how to mount the Noctua cooler (NH-D9L) using the original backplate built into the computer chassis. So I ended just using an oscillating tool to remove the studs. The I just mount the cooler into the motherboard using the supplied hardware. This cooler works awesome, despite its small size. It dropped the temperature of the CPU under full load from 97°C to 70°C. I have the one fan configuration but I will add a second one and see if there is any further improvement. I wish I didn't have to do any modification to the case but it worked. I'm happy to share pictures of that as soon as I figure why I can't post photos right now.

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

September 15th, 2020 11:00

  1. 2020-09-11 21.00.42.jpg

1 Rookie

 • 

16 Posts

September 15th, 2020 11:00

I also saw this video on LTT (Can you cool a core i9 10900K for cheap?)

seems like the Cooler Master hyper 212 might be able to mount on to the computer directly without the need of cutting anything. My solution was a bit desperate, I needed it running ASAP and is working great right now.

 

1 Message

September 15th, 2020 21:00

@svdgabriel 
Did you order your XPS 8940 with the 500 watts power supply?

I order a XPS 8940 and one of the component I'm interested since I place the order was the processor fan and heat-sink assembly that is shown in all advertisement Videos and photos from Dell and service manual page 12 for this XPS 8940 in this link:
https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/xps-8940-desktop_service-manual_en-us.pdf

I'm concern because I seen few photos and videos of people that recent purchased this XPS 8940 and shows a different processor fan and heat-sink assembly like the one you mention "like a pancake with a small fan on the top"

I called my sales rep and ask him about this, he asked his manager and the response was that the units with 500 watts power supply comes with the processor fan and heat-sink assembly that is shown in the service manual and advertisements.

I hope this is correct. 

19 Posts

September 16th, 2020 07:00

I have the 8940 non-K i7 and it came with the cheaper fan cooler.   The Dell marketing literature and also the service manual are very misleading as there are no pictures or diagrams showing the cheaper cooler.

No Events found!

Top