Upgrading the Supermicro X12SDV-4C-SP6F CPU cooler
Last year, I purchased a Supermicro X12SDV-4C-SP6F for a new NAS build. The motherboard has 10x SATA 3 ports, 2x M.2 interfaces, 2x 25G SFP ports, IPMI, and supports 256GB ECC DDR4 RAM, making it well suited to its use as a NAS.
The motherboard’s one major drawback is its suboptimal cooling. Sporting a minimal passive heatsink, its CPU idled at ~65ºC. While likely well below the Xeon D-1718T’s seemingly unpublished thermal limit, I’d like this number to come down quite a bit.
There was some discussion in the comments of ServeTheHome’s motherboard review about upgrading the cooling. Active cooling would be ideal, but no one had identified a cooler that would fit. One commenter mentioned the Supermicro SNK-C0111AP4L as a potential option.
I decided to try it out. I purchased a SNK-C0111AP4L from Wired Zone for $55 ($72 with shipping and tax). Once it arrived, I removed the existing heatsink and tried to install it.
