u/Animag771

The push clip inside the handle of my JX-Pro finally decided to give out, after 5 years. I searched for a way to fix it myself instead of spending money on a replacement which will probably just fail again. My search brought me to this post by u/kspes which explained how to fix it by gluing ball bearings to the metal shaft and handle. I really liked the solution but I tend to over engineer things.

I wanted to come up with a solution that didn't require gluing anything to the shaft. I also wanted to incorporate a spacer between the bearings to eliminate any potential shaft play which could loosen the parts up over time. Lastly if it does ever fail, I wanted it to be easily repaired.

My solution.

2x MR126-2RS bearings

1x 8x12x15mm sintered bronze bushing

1x 3.5mm stainless steel e-clip

A few drops of super glue

Instructions:

1: Remove the plastic insert inside of the handle using the method explained by u/dtzgr in this video, which pretty much says to thread a large screw into the plastic insert and pull it out. I didn't have an appropriately thick screw but I did have a screw extractor which worked perfectly for this task.

2: Once the plastic insert has been removed, you can pull the broken push clip out of the handle, if it hasn't fallen out already. I had to use a thin piece of metal to fish it out of mine.

3: Assemble the new parts onto the shaft in this order.
Bearing → bronze bushing → bearing → e-clip

4: Put the handle knob back onto the shaft and press the entire assembly into the handle knob. It shouldn't give you too much resistance but should fit fairly snuggly.

5: That bottom bearing is probably not going to want to stay inside the handle, so put a few drops of super glue on the outside edge of the bearing and push it in. Set the handle upside down on the counter for a few hours so it can dry without sliding back out.

Done! Hopefully this repair will last forever but the worst thing I see happening is the glue might eventually give out in that bottom bearing. A few more drops and it would be back in business. Also if the e-clip ever fails it should pull apart easily enough since most if it is friction fit, aside from a few drops of super glue.

In the quest to find the best cooling solution for my 4L console (44mm cooler clearance), I had the idea of cramming an AXP90-X47 Full Copper into my case by swapping the stock 15mm thick fan for an even thinner 80x10mm slim fan... essentially turning it into an AXP80-X42.

While I was at it, I figured I might as well test the effect of the fan swap on my L9a, just in case someone out there is chasing a sub 36mm cooling solution.

That's when things got out of hand.

In the process of mounting the 80x10 onto the L9a, I realized that there was just enough clearance to fit **two** 80x10 fans if I overhang the m.2 heatsink. This snowballed my testing (and added a few hours), but it also unlocked additional fan configurations I hadn't planned on trying. The L9a with 80x10 Twin and eventually the AXP80-X42 Twin.

The results honestly surprised me, and I'm very happy that I stumbled into that rabbit hole of extra tests. Scroll through the pics to see the results.

Test Config

Hardware	Model
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX
CPU	Ryzen 5700X (-30 All-Cores)
Thermal Paste	Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
GPU	Zotac 4060 Solo (with 70x10 fan swap)
RAM	Oloy Owl 4000MHz CL18 (@ 3600MHz for 1:1 FCLK)
Storage	Crucial P3 Plus 4TB m.2
PSU	Complicated... Dual 200W AC/DC converters + PicoPSU
Benchmark Test	Cinebench R23 Multi-Core

Test Conditions

• Ambient air temperature: 20C
• Fan speed: 100% RPM
• Noise normalized test included for the X47 80x10 Twin at 30dB (=70% RPM)
• Noise was measured with a phone app from 18" (98cm) away.

Notes

• I did not test the L9a 80x10 single fan at 105W because it was already reaching thermal limits at 88W.
• I only tested noise levels when the configurations were inside the case, as case panel turbulence is the largest contributor of fan noise in most instances.
• I did not test the X47 A9x14 inside the case because it literally will not fit... Which is the whole reason for this entire experiment.

If anyone wants to expand on this data with an L9a 80x15 Twin and/or an X47 80x15 Twin that would be awesome, as it would complete the roster for these ≤47mm cooler options. I think those additions may clearly show that the best option for a given size is always a twin fan for these coolers. It's not a gimmick, performance improved across the board when switching to twin fans.

My assumptions:
Best 47mm = X47 80x15 Twin
Best 42mm = X47 80x10 Twin
Best 38mm = L9a 80x15 Twin
Best 32mm = L9a 80x10 Twin

This also opens up the door for twin fan configurations on even larger coolers where things like RAM clearance isn't an issue.... Could we fit two 92x14mm fans on an AXP120-X67 for better performance and 1mm less height? Could we upgrade the L12 Ghost to outperform the L12S-77 by putting two 80x10 fans on top for a total height of 76mm? So many new configurations that I had never considered. I don't have the hardware to test every combination, but at this point I'm convinced there's more cooling potential being left on the table. If anyone wants to take this further, I'd love to see what you come up with.

I was doing some thermal testing while trying to cram an AXP90-X47 Full Copper into a 4L console build (more on that later), and ended up testing something unexpected on my NH-L9a.

I originally ordered two ID-Cooling 80x10mm fans for a GPU experiment / possible CPU fan swap, and tested a single one on the L9a in case anyone running ultra-slim (≤32mm CPU cooler height) setups might find the data useful. While doing that, I realized I could actually fit two of them on the heatsink. So I ran some comparisons vs the A9x14.

Test Config

Hardware	Model
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX
CPU	Ryzen 5700X
Thermal Paste	Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
GPU	Zotac 4060 Solo (with 70x10 fan swap)
RAM	Oloy Owl 4000MHz CL18 (@ 3600MHz for 1:1 FCLK)
Storage	Crucial P3 Plus 4TB m.2
PSU	Complicated... Dual 200W AC/DC converters + PicoPSU
Benchmark Test	Cinebench R23

Open Air (20°C ambient)

88W PPT | 90A TDC | 140A EDC | -30 CO All-Cores

Cooler	Idle	Max	Score
L9a 80x10	29°C	86.5°C	14487
L9a 80x10 twin	27.5°C	78.0°C	14932
L9a A9x14	28°C	80.5°C	14896

105W PPT | 120A TDC | 170A EDC | -30 CO All-Cores

Cooler	Idle	Max	Score
L9a A9x14	28°C	89.5°C	15198
L9a 80x10 twin	26°C	87.8°C	15260

Inside Case (20°C ambient)

88W PPT | 90A TDC | 140A EDC | -30 CO All-Cores

Cooler	Idle	Max	Score	Noise
L9a 80x10	33°C	91.3°C	14375	28 dB
L9a 80x10 twin	29°C	84.5°C	14728	28 dB
L9a A9x14	29°C	87.5°C	14628	30 dB

Summary

• Ambient temps were essentially identical across tests
• Single 80x10 was used as a baseline/reference for ultra-low profile configurations
• Dual 80x10 consistently ran cooler than A9x14 (~3°C in case)
• Minor R23 gain (+100 pts vs A9x14)
• Noise: ~2 dB lower than A9x14 in my setup
• No meaningful scaling at higher wattage due to thermal throttling (~100W effective)
• The L9a appears to be airflow limited at 88W but heatsink limited at 105W