Not sure for my A 64

Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
edited March 2005 in Hardware
I have narrowed down the choice of coolers for my DFI NF4 Ultra-D and XP3000 Winchester core. None are totally perfect and I have personal pros and cons with all 3 coolers that I am considering. I would appreciate any input or suggestions. All of these will fit on my board with no mods and there is a lot of room in my big extra wide case.


Thermalright XP-90
Personal Pros
  • Small and light
  • Easy to install
  • With the right fan can be relatively quiet
Personal Cons
  • Not sure it will be enough for high overclocks
  • The XP-90 has the potential to be quieter


Thermalright XP-120
Personal Pros
  • Highest cooling potential?
  • Probably be the quietest
Personal Cons
  • Big enough to overwhelm the inside of any case
  • Installation is a pain in the butt on my board due to size of HS and board layout


Cooler Master Hyper 6 ELIMINATED due to extreme weight
Personal Pros
  • Good cooling potential
  • Warm air from HS will exhaust directly out the back case fan
  • Looks real cool
Personal Cons
  • Extremely heavy, it worries me
  • Does not seem to have the highest potential for quiet

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    XP-120. Anything less than the best is just silly to me.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    For me, I would have to weigh my objectives for the system. I do enjoy overclocking, but I also increasingly value quiet. Quiet is a quality of life factor. That's one of the reasons why I purchased a home on a mountainside with woods around me. Were it me making the decision, assuming all coolers are within 2 to 3*C thermal dissipation of each other, I'd go with the one with the lowest noise level.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Leonardo wrote:
    For me, I would have to weigh my objectives for the system. I do enjoy overclocking, but I also increasingly value quiet. Quiet is a quality of life factor. That's one of the reasons why I purchased a home on a mountainside with woods around me. Were it me making the decision, assuming all coolers are within 2 to 3*C thermal dissipation of each other, I'd go with the one with the lowest noise level.
    Leo
    That's also where I'm at and not quite sure how much difference there is between the three I have listed. I know they can't be too far apart. Or are they?

    I am also looking at these fans for my options. Check out the CFM and db ratings. :eek:

    Thermaltake Combo Cool DIY Series Silent Cat 9CM fan
    Max Air Flow(CFM): 52.24
    Noise(dBA): 21


    Thermaltake Thunderblade 120mm (Multi-color) LED fan
    Max Air Flow(CFM): 78
    Noise(dBA): 21
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Xp-90
  • BLuKnightBLuKnight Lehi, UT Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I'm running a ThermalTake Silent Boost K8. It's quiet and keeps my CPU nice and cool (especially since I don't feel the need to OC). Mine only pushes through 27.5 CFM, but it does the job.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Honestly, goat, you might want to look to other brands for your fans. I'm pretty sure that Thermaltake fans don't actually come very close to their spec'd CFM ratings. 52CFM at 21dBA sounds great... but I don't think Thermaltake really does that. If they do, count me in for one of those fans, though!

    //edit: That ArticCooling that MM reviewed looks OK, but I'd be afraid of temps that high...

    //edit2: Also, that CoolerMaster that flows front to back rather than down looks interesting, but the 80MM fan seems too small. I'd also be worried about the weight as well.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    GHoosdum
    Good point on the fans! But I have seen some of the user coments @ NE on the fans themselves and the Thermaltake tower that also incorporates the one fan and it sounds like at least looking into. Also, if it is overrated bu say 15% it would still hit mid 40's @ 24 db.


    So I am going to eliminate the Hyper 6 as my fear of the massive weight hanging high above my board really worries me. Now it it just between the two Thermalright XP's.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Larry, none of the above actually. I just installed a Zalman and while it cools just about as good as the XP-120, which i also have, it takes up much less space, and doesn't overhang the dimms as the 120 do on all boards i have seen. It's compatible with much more boards than the Thermalright heatsinks. The way it lock on to the mainboard is also much better.
    And, with the DFI, you won't be able to use the 120 if you are going to use the best dimms for the board unless you remove the heatspreaders from the ram. Let me know if you need any pictures to help you decide and so that you understand what i mean. The Zalman IS a much better choice, trust me.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2005
    Mtgoat, The Thermalright XP90 should do quite well, and would get my vote. Pair it up with a nice panaflow, and it should do well, and keep noise levels in check. I would not be too concerned about your heatsink choice limiting your overclock on a winchester. For the most part, the winnies seem to reach their ceilings before temperature even becomes much of an issue. Most people are able to get tremendous overclocks even on the boxed cooler. Even with my H2O setup, my chip tops out at the same it does on air.

    The big 120mm sinks tend to be troublesome. As Mackanz mentioned above, they overhang the first DIMM slots, and on the DFI NF4, you need to use the orange slots (2,4) for dual channel, so it will cause problems with slot 4.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I knew I came here for a reason! I just about had myself convinced today that I was going to get the XP-120. Then I opened this thread to see the great points made here. Mmmmm, I think I am going to order the XP-90. My replacement board just shipped today so this will work out perfect!:)
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2005
    mtgoat wrote:
    My replacement board just shipped today so this will work out perfect!:)

    Did you get a bad DFI first time around?
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    lemonlime wrote:
    Did you get a bad DFI first time around?
    The sound crapped out after the first week. I looked all over and didn't see anyone else with the same problem so I figure it isn't a real problem. It most likely got a higher level of service from FedEx. :rolleyes:
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Apparently, a whole truckload or 2 from Newegg and Monarch got treated real bad from the shipping. The onboard powerbuttons and more stuff where all over the board when customers opened it up.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited March 2005
    Mack: Are you using the big round copper zalmans? Thats what I have on both the socket 754 boards and both opterons. The dualy and the single opteron.

    I have been thrilled with the noise (or lack there of)

    Tex
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Yes Tex, the 7700 copper one. Heavy as nothing else, but i love it.
    Just one note, with the fanmate, the Ultra defaults to a strange setting so that the fan actually stops 15 seconds into the bios (i assume you boot to bios first thing). All you have to do is to set the fan control in the bios down so that the fan should spin fully at temps over 25c :) Then just use the mate t ocontrol the fan/noise :)
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