Upgrade advice needed - top mounted cooler blocking DIY RAM upgrade

[SamTre]

Hi, I hope this is the right place to ask these questions, I purchased a desktop for gaming last year (I will post specs below), I would like to upgrade the RAM from the 16GB it has to 32GB RAM. The problem is while I have always upgraded my own RAM in the past with this PC my cooler is top mounted and so it is blocking the RAM from being taken out or put in. When I took the side off the wiring is so neat and tightly wired that I don’t think I could remove the cooler without causing chaos in the wiring department and I wouldn’t even know which wires are the ones going to the cooler, so am I making this is more complicated than it needs to be, could I do this myself and if not, if I send it in for PC Specialist to add the RAM what do I need to do in terms of: Do I create a Guest account on Windows !1, do I have to share any passwords to my Microsoft account, or do they not need any of that? I’m wondering what the safest way in terms of security of my accounts is to send it in for an upgrade? What do others do? And from the photos I’m attaching and specs could anyone tell me how I can get around the cooler problem and fit the RAM myself? I really don’t want to have to hand over my precious PC to a delivery driver and spend the next few days not sleeping wounding if it reached its destination o.k (I’m a worrier lol), any advice will be greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance
Spec:
Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Intel® Core™ i5 10-Core Processor i5-12600K (3.7GHz) 20MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Extra Case Fans
1 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fan
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ FX
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit -

 

[Steveyg]

The only wires going to the radiator should be for the fans and they are usually fairly forgiving and shouldn't be too tightly wound. You should be able to simply unscrew the radiator from the roof and just move it aside, slot the new RAM in then put the radiator back on without interfering with too much

To see what's going on inside you really need the remove the glass side panel, I just see reflections and glare in the photo so it's hard to see exactly what's going on in there

 

[SamTre]

The only wires going to the radiator should be for the fans and they are usually fairly forgiving and shouldn't be too tightly wound. You should be able to simply unscrew the radiator from the roof and just move it aside, slot the new RAM in then put the radiator back on without interfering with too much

To see what's going on inside you really need the remove the glass side panel, I just see reflections and glare in the photo so it's hard to see exactly what's going on in there

Many thanks, it’s def closely packed inside but if there’s lightly to be a bit of play in the wires I will give it a go, thanks again

 

[SamTre]

The cooler is only held to the roof by 4 screws, one on each corner....if you have another person who can help, unscrew the screws then ask the person to hold the cooler where it is then lower it a little and tilt it towards you..there should be enough play in the cables to allow it to be titled an inch or two forwards

Many thanks, I have so,some with a spare pair of hands so I will give it a try, thanks again

 

[Martinr36]

Another option is front mount the rad, and put its fans in the roof, so the front fans push air into the case and the roof fans extract it

 

[SamTre]

Another option is front mount the rad, and put its fans in the roof, so the front fans push air into the case and the roof fans extract it

Thank you, I will keep it in mind 👍

 

[B4zookaw]

Yeah easiest option is to just detach the radiator temporarily, by unscrewing the screws at the top of the case (don't unscrew the fans off the radiator in other words). Probably 8 screws total, as it's a 240, so 4 per fan is the norm. Get your helper to hold the radiator while you remove the current modules and replace with the new ones, then screw the radiator back in. Prob best to keep case upright so you don't introduce bubbles to the pump.

 

[B4zookaw]

Also, looks like you might have dust filter in place on the top of the case? If so, remove it, the fans under it are set to exhaust, so you don't need to worry about dust intake, the fans will blow dust out if anything and the dust filter just adds impedance to the exhausted air.

 

[SamTre]

Yeah easiest option is to just detach the radiator temporarily, by unscrewing the screws at the top of the case (don't unscrew the fans off the radiator in other words). Probably 8 screws total, as it's a 240, so 4 per fan is the norm. Get your helper to hold the radiator while you remove the current modules and replace with the new ones, then screw the radiator back in. Prob best to keep case upright so you don't introduce bubbles to the pump.

Thank you, hadn’t thought about bubbles so that’s a great tip and I will make sure I keep it upright 👍

 

[SamTre]

Also, looks like you might have dust filter in place on the top of the case? If so, remove it, the fans under it are set to exhaust, so you don't need to worry about dust intake, the fans will blow dust out if anything and the dust filter just adds impedance to the exhausted air.

Yep there’s a dust filter on top, it came that way so didn’t give it much thought but your absolutely right and I will be taking it off when it’s switched on 👍