Noctua creates its own database after measuring more than 100 PC cases and finding dozens of errors

The Austrian refrigeration giant, Noctuaoffers a wide catalog made up of all types of fans and heatsinks that keep your case and processor at a good temperature. Many of their heatsinks or fans have larger measurements than normal, so you have to be very careful depending on the box in which you are going to install it. However, Noctua has detected that the spaces displayed by many case manufacturers are incorrectsometimes larger and sometimes smaller.

More than half of the boxes analyzed by Noctua have incorrect measurements

That’s how it is, Noctua tells us that it is better not to trust the measures announced by manufacturerssince in many cases the space is greater, but in others there is less space than indicated by the manufacturer. So far, the manufacturer has analyzed more than 100 boxesand the surprising number of 56 have incorrect measurementswhether for better or worse.

Cases where there is more space than announced: NZXT, Thermaltake and Corsair

As an example, Noctua has put the new NZXT H2 Flow recently launched. NZXT has indicated a 75mm heatsink spacing, but Noctua’s measurements have resulted in 79mm clearance. In theory the Noctua NH-L12Sx77 did not fit, but in practice it does fit. The Thermaltake TR100 presents a similar example, since according to Noctua it has 70.7mm clearanceand the manufacturer offers 68 mm. This small difference means that in this box model also between the NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition.

The boxes of Corsair 5000D, 4000D and 4000D Frame They also advertise less space than they actually have, with 10 mm extra reaching 180 instead of the 170 indicated by the manufacturer.

The danger of rounding up: when your heatsink doesn’t fit by millimeters

On the contrary, some manufacturers tend to round upas ASUS with its Prime AP201 where Noctua only measured 168.3 mm instead of the announced 170 mm. Also the Lian Li B4-mATX indicates 168 mm and Noctua measured 164.5mmwhich means that the NH-D15 G2 does not fit in this box even though the manufacturer says otherwise.

Noctua creates a public database to avoid assembly surprises

Noctua is collecting all data on one website that you have enabled for this, and so that all users have the information available when choosing the appropriate heatsink or fans for your new box.