FT03-MINI

Many Mini-ITX motherboards are currently designed based off of Intel’s reference layout, which means the CPU is likely positioned too close to the PCI Express slot and limits the size of CPU coolers that can be installed. Normally if the same size fan is used, a high-end air cooler is more efficient than liquid cooler. However, Mini-ITX motherboard restrictions usually limit air coolers that use 92mm fan or smaller so liquid coolers would have the advantage in the FT03-MINI as the radiator is installed in the bottom of the case and not limited by the space around CPU area. We can fully recommend using liquid cooler in the FT03-MINI as an alternative, our internal testing also shows liquid coolers to perform better than air coolers within the FT03-MINI.

There are two main types of heat pipes used in popular aftermarket coolers, they are groove and powder. Groove heat pipes are very susceptible to gravity while powder heat pipes are less so. To achieve best performance in either heat pipe technology, they need to be placed horizontally or have the heat source side located below the other end of the heat pipe. We recommend choosing and installing components with heat pipes carefully by taking into consideration of the following examples:

Motherboard:

The orientation of an enthusiast motherboard in a normal ATX case


The orientation of an enthusiast motherboard in the FT03-MINI

As the illustrations above show, most enthusiast motherboards with heat pipes will work fine in the FT03-MINI, the heat source is located below other parts of the heat pipe.
CPU cooler:
Horizontal style cooler

Good orientation Good orientation Bad orientation

Many CPU coolers can be rotated when installing on motherboards, the illustration here shows a SilverStone NT06-E

VGA cooler

The illustration here shows a VGA cooler that will not work well in the FT03-MINI because the heat source side (touching the GPU) ends up being located higher than the other end.