ASRock FM2A85X-ITX low profile cooling solution?

[mh76]

I was waiting to purchase the new FM2A85X-ITX mini itx motherboard of asrock on fm2

i was planning to use a noctua L12 cooler for an a10-5800K on this m/b

i read about incompatibility of the L12 with the a75 minitix motherboard of asrock so i sent a question to noctua for the a85x model.
The answer was the following

"The FM2A85X-ITX has the same problem as the A75 board from ASRock, with lots of components in the keep out area of the backplate, thus you can't use a cooler with a backplate on this mainboard. None of our coolers, and none of our competitors products which use a backplate, are compatible with this mainboard, sorry."

does anybody know if there are other low profile coolers, equally capable and quite that could be applied on the FM2A85X-ITX motherboard or is this a general problem that will apply to all?

will asrock publish a list maybe that will make it easier for us to choose, and not wonder if we will be wasting money by buying one over another?

[- wardog -]

will asrock publish a list maybe that will make it easier for us to choose, and not wonder if we will be wasting money by buying one over another?

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for ASRock to publish. IMO, that the responsibility of the HS/F manufacturer(s), not ASRock.

You're going to find it hard goings finding a high-performance HS/F for this board. Be it low profile or not. The only ones will be push-pin mounting using the existing holes or one that employs the std FM2 mounting.

Something along the lines of the Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 Plus - Alpine 64 PLUS · CPU · Cooling · ARCTIC

[mh76]

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for ASRock to publish. IMO, that the responsibility of the HS/F manufacturer(s), not ASRock.

You're going to find it hard goings finding a high-performance HS/F for this board. Be it low profile or not. The only ones will be push-pin mounting using the existing holes or one that employs the std FM2 mounting.

Something along the lines of the Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 Plus - Alpine 64 PLUS · CPU · Cooling · ARCTIC

thank you for the reply.
the reason i said that asrock should/could publish such a list is because i am not really sure the hs/f manufacturer will point so clearly the incompatibility. i hope that i am wrong on that.

overall i believe that it will be very difficult to identify the compatible ones. Even your example, for which i thank you, gives comparability with the cpu not the m/b.

How can it be identified when a cooler uses the std FM2 mounting?

anyway any other suggestions on coolers that could be mounted or anything specific that could help in separating them apart is appreciated.

[- wardog -]

Most of the HS/F manufacturers have compatibility listed, somewhere.

For instance, the NH-L12 / FM2A85X-ITX compatibility you emailed Noctua about:
Noctua.at - sound-optimised premium components "Designed in Austria"!
(clearly states the NH-L12 is not compatible with both FM2A75M-ITX and FM2A85M-ITX for the reason "Components at the back prevent installation of the backplate")

And then sometimes you have to look at the HS/F manual when the manufacturer doesn't do as nice a job as Noctua does when providing compatibility listings.
http://www.arctic.ac/fileadmin/a64p/manual_en.pdf
(clearly shows (re-)using the standard FM2 mounting)

[mh76]

Most of the HS/F manufacturers have compatibility listed, somewhere.

For instance, the NH-L12 / FM2A85X-ITX compatibility you emailed Noctua about:
Noctua.at - sound-optimised premium components "Designed in Austria"!
(clearly states the NH-L12 is not compatible with both FM2A75M-ITX and FM2A85M-ITX for the reason "Components at the back prevent installation of the backplate")

And then sometimes you have to look at the HS/F manual when the manufacturer doesn't do as nice a job as Noctua does when providing compatibility listings.
http://www.arctic.ac/fileadmin/a64p/manual_en.pdf
(clearly shows (re-)using the standard FM2 mounting)

indeed noctua has a comprehensive list. but i have checked before emailing and the only thing mentioned was the fm2a75x incompatibility. the reference to fm2a85x-itx must have been added afterwards.

[ram.zes]

Hello, yesterday I bought FM2A85X-ITX and figured out that it has no backplate and, of course, isn't compatible with any coolers with backplate. I already have CoolerMaster Gemin II M4 and I'm going to try to use it without backplate (it can be used such way but I will use additional plastic spacers to not damage MB by nuts). This cooler has pretty low weight (less than 300 grams) and I hope that everything will be OK. You can take a look on it too.

[parsec]

I was considering mentioning the CM GeminiII, which I have used in the past, but on an Intel board, so I'm not familiar with the AMD mounting. It's a good cooler for its size IMO, and you can use almost any 120mm fan with it.