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Roundup of Eight Horizontal CPU Coolers
ThinSkin writes "ExtremeTech has done a roundup of eight sideways-gusting CPU coolers under fifty bucks to see if they can keep an overclocked Athlon FX-60 from welding itself to the motherboard. In addition to temperature testing, much emphasis was placed on noise reduction, which with some coolers can be improved by adjusting fan speed or even removing the fan from the cooler."
Silicone gaskets over hard disk mounting screws, speed variable fan power supplies like the newer Antec SmartPower 2.0s, 120 MM fans in place of 60 or 80 MM fans which can do more CFMs at slower RPMs. For starts.
Well there is no money and no money...
If you mean "very little money" then you can get a lot of quiet out of those gaskets and some inexpensive ($12) fans.
If you mean "no money", then there is this little switch on the back. You flip it into "quiet" mode and your webserver will stop making any noise and will not generate any heat. Even better, it consumes no electricity in quiet mode.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
dude you reduce power to the cpu, underclock and pull out the fans...
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The testers decided to set every fan to maximum. Unsurprisingly then, the biggest, gruntiest fan had the best cooling while being 'too loud'. The winning fans were basically the ones with a lower maximum.
I have a suggestion for the testers: Next time you're trying to compromise between noise and temperature, don't turn every fan on to maximum. Instead, decide a set temperature and measure noise levels when the CPU reaches that temperature.
I know they talk about the weight of some of these behemoths, and they touch on how they are backed well (backing plates) but these things are huge, and put alot of stress on the Mainboard.
I have the Hyper 6, if I were to ever travel with my box I would take it off. Right now it is sitting comfortabley but driving, moving this thing might crack the mainboard around the CPU.
They should institute a "wiggle test" to see how much wiggling it takes to break the mainboard when one of these monsters is connected.
Looking at the temperature graphs, I think the bigger message from the testing is that it isn't necessary to spend the extra cash on buying non-stock cooling. You can even get away with non-stock cooling if you're overclocking.
/noise in the computer is the video card, not the processor. Currently my AMD 3500+ (overclocked from 2.2->2.6ghz on stock cooling) is running at 37C while my gpu at non 3d is running at 57C and will approach 87C when using graphically intensive applications. Typically gpu coolers are built thinly...so in order to make up for the smaller room to work with cooling wise, the fans are run at very high rpm. This also makes the video card the noisiest thing in the machine.
Rather than spending cash on changing the stock cooling, consumers would be better off spending that $50 on getting better ventilation for their case since recently, the biggest producer of heat
By the way, if you're looking for a good place for help on building a computer, I find that the steam hardware forums are the best place to get help.
Steam Hardware Forums
the AMD stock coolers are really respectable. about the only drawback is the fact that the grills are made out of aluminum, not copper, like the heatpipes. too bad that most of the uber high end coolers are overweight by like 300 grams or more (the cpu bracket thing has a weight limit for each socket type).
Jesus said to his disciples: "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" - Luke 22:36
I hear the ping times are horrendous though
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Your alpha probably didn't draw nearly as much power as a newer pentium based system. I'm guessing your Alpha used 50-100W, while a current dual xeon server requires about 300W+ while active. Other than that, I mostly agree with you.
The cheapo Dell desktops are much quieter than most comparable DIY systems. This is because they use several temp controlled 120mm fans spinning slowly and have gigantic heat sinks sitting near the fans (the CPU heat sink is a heat pipe cube about 4" on each side). Most of the DIY cases I've seen only come with mounting holes for noisier 80mm fans, and it's expensive to buy quiet cpu fans and gpu coolers.
The cheapo Dell desktops are much quieter than most comparable DIY systems. This is because they use several temp controlled 120mm fans spinning slowly and have gigantic heat sinks sitting near the fans (the CPU heat sink is a heat pipe cube about 4" on each side). Most of the DIY cases I've seen only come with mounting holes for noisier 80mm fans, and it's expensive to buy quiet cpu fans and gpu coolers.
Many newer DIY cases are coming standard with 120mm fans and/or mounting holes for them. For me, this was a big requirement in buying my last case, and led me to getting Gigabyte's new case, which has two 120mm fans in the back, and one in the front. Combined with a Thermaltake Super Tornado, which also has a 120mm fan, and my Seasonic 600W power supply which also has a 120mm fan, my system is pretty quiet, even with a power-guzzling 3.6GHz P4.
The main problem with DIY cases with regard to systems like Dell's is that the DIY cases have to adhere to the ATX standard, and can't do anything special which might cause some motherboards to not fit properly. So places like Dell can come up with more efficient cooling solutions using plastic ductwork, while we're stuck with crazy (and expensive) CPU cooler designs. For Dells and many servers I've looked in, they don't even have CPU fans at all, just heatsinks. These heatsinks are then covered with ducts which lead to or from fans which force air through the heatsinks and then out the back of case. This gives you a big benefit not just in having well-directed airflow, but also you get better use out of fewer fans: instead of a case like mine with fans in the front, fans in the back, a fan on the CPU, and yet another one in the power supply, you just have one or two fans in the front, and that's it.
DIY cases just don't have this kind of thing because it wouldn't be compatible with much, and DIYers of course love to mix-n-match their components.
- Mike
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For example I noticed they didn't like the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro. That supprised me, since I have the Pentium D version of the same thing and I think it's great. Why didn't they like it? Well it didn't cool as well as others... Right, see it's designed to be silent, but cool well enough. On my board, the BIOS decided that 50 degrees is the temperature at which the processor ought to operate (can alter that but I haven't). If the processor gets hotter than that, it speeds up the fan, if it drops much below that, it slows it down.
Well the net effect is I can't hear my CPU fan. When my cores are mostly idle like web surfing, it runs at like 800RPM and is totally inaudible over other noise. During intense work it spins up to like 1500RPM and you can hear it, but just barely. When told to run to maximum (something like 300RPM, don't remember) it gets to be moderatly noisy, though not annoying.
The point is that no, it doens't keep my processor ultra cool, but I've seen no reason as to why I should care. CPUs can run quite hot with no problems. What it does do is maintian my processor at a safe temperature with a minimum amount of noise. To me, that is golden.
Also something to note is that often the biggest, baddest heatsinks aren't safe. They are too heavy and can crack the motherboard. Won't happen right away, but there's maximum stresses you are supposed to put on them. It's like 500g in Intel's case. So if you buy some massive copper job that weighs a kilogram, don't be supprised if your board cracks a few months down the road.
How can they have real review of CPU coolers without a Zalman?
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http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/view.asp?idx=
I haven't used this exact model, but I put their "CNPS7000" CPU cooler and their "VF700" Gfx card cooler in my PC. Combined with an Antec Phantom power supply and AcoustiPack case dampening material, acoustically it went from "this is really annoying" to "is this thing turned on?" (and is running a lot cooler, too)
Interesting that you tested a cooler without a fan. I often wonder how much real-world benefit a fan gives. Particularly if you consider the build up of dust that can accumulate over a relatively short period (6 months). I have a Zalman CNPS7000Cu (the fan/flower one) on my Athlon64 3500. I have removed it and cleaned it twice already (in 12 months), and each time it was caked with dust. And no, the case isn't parked on a carpeted floor.
If you didn't pull so much air past the fins, I'd say that the dust wouldn't accumulate so quickly. The accumulated dust would provide a significant thermal impedance to the system, probably negating all the benefits of forced convection.
The other thing I ponder is the thermal benefits of the outer ends of the fins. I believe the thermal path to the extreme edges of the 'flower' is so long that, if you plotted temperature vs thermal path, the extreme ends would have a curve almost horizontal. So I wonder how much smaller could you make the diameter of the heat sink without signficant impact on performance.
Is there an ideal (rule-of-thumb) aspect ratio for heat sink fins?