Noctua Reveals Inaccuracies in PC Case Cooler Height Specifications

Noctua produces a range of cooling solutions, from low-profile air coolers and massive dual-tower air coolers to AIO liquid coolers. When fitting a large tower air cooler inside a case, PC case manufacturers list the maximum cooler height their chassis can accommodate. Recent testing by Noctua has revealed that more than half of the tested cases deviate from their original specifications. The room for error varies from being 3.5 mm less than the specified CPU cooler height to providing up to an extra 10 mm of cooler height. After testing over 100 cases, Noctua found that around 56 cases deviate from the manufacturer-provided specifications, mostly offering more space than advertised.

This is good news for case buyers, as there can be up to 10 mm more room for a CPU cooler. However, some cases are advertised with more space than they actually provide. For example, the ASUS Prime AP201 case claims to have 170 mm of CPU cooler headroom, but real-world measurements show it to be 168.3 mm. This means that when using the Noctua NH-D15 G2 dual-tower cooler, there's no way to increase RAM clearance by moving the front fan, necessitating the use of RAM kits that are only 32 mm tall. Anything taller will interfere with the CPU cooler. Another example is the Lian Li B4-mATX, which measured at 164.5 mm instead of the advertised 168 mm, making the NH-D15 G2 incompatible with this case.