My new CPU included a "free" liquid cooling system, but it is way too big for my tiny mini-ITX case.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

My new CPU included a "free" liquid cooling system, but it is way too big for my tiny mini-ITX case. I don't know why I didn't anticipate this. Now I have to either buy a new case or a new cooler, and it turns out finding a small cooler for this power hungry CPU is challenging, so I'm going with the former...it was fun having a tiny cube computer while it lasted, back to mid-tower land, like we did it in the 90s. I would have bought a bigger motherboard if I'd known...

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Also, they gave me one fewer fan lead on this new motherboard, it only has two! I figured since it was also a Gigabyte Aorus like the previous, it'd mostly be plug and play dropping it into the old case, but, nope. But, I guess I'll have a different fan situation in the new case, so I'll figure that out when it gets here. Probably need fewer case fans, anyway, since the liquid CPU cooler vents directly out of the case.

I think I like building computers, but this is all annoying.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

I'm gonna be mad as hell if the liquid cooler has loud fans and I have to figure something out with that. I always buy the ridiculous expensive Noctua fans so they'll be quiet, and very few manufacturers care about making their fans quiet.

[tokyo_0@mas.to]

@swelljoe The one time I built a computer, a component on the motherboard exploded. To this day I don't know if it was something I did wrong or a fault with that unit. I returned it for replacement, and the next one worked, but maybe I wired it differently 😅