Best air cooling solution for Q6600

I got the Noctua in today. It came with the top layer bent and I had to bend it back strait. You can see a slight wave in the top panel now but its very light. Glad I don't have a window or I would be swapping it. One thing I do like is better clearance then the TRUE. I had a DFI P35 DK I am working on. The TRUE hits and the Noctua doesn't. To me the TRUE looks better built but I will see how it works when I get my new mobo for my spare rig in next week. Hope the OP had better luck then me so far.
 
the top layer being bent I'm sure isn't the fault of Noctua, the thing traveled from Austria and made how many stops on the way to you..

anyway, I haven't lapped my TRUE yet, but I get better temps with the Noctua as compared to the unlapped TRUE, looking at the Noctua it could use a lapping as well really...

honestly I don't think you should have to do all sorts of extra work to get good performance from a heatsink, the Noctua beats the TRUE out-of-the-box...

I think all of this is quite a bit misleading, when someone asks about a recomendation 90% of the time people jump and yell TRUE, but what if the guy has no clue how to lap, a newbie or whatever?

Personally I dont want to spend hours and have a sore arm on something I just spent $60 on to make it perform as great as everyone says it does, people are recommending the TRUE after the fact and that is truly misleading... if you're going to recommend a product then be honest about it... when you recommend it you should say "but yeah to get those temps I had to spend hours of my time lapping the base" I haven't seen much of that at all, it's essentially a lie to recommened something that quickly and note add the little extra footnote about how much extra effort it's going to take to get that performance out of the cooler...
 
And that particular reason, along with the good reviews that I read, are why I went with the noctua. I dont want to spend that kinda money, have to spend extra money to buy a fan to accompany it, and then maybe fuck it up by doing an uneven lap job. Plus, I dont want to have to do all that extra work, thats what I pay the production company to do.
 
I'm very happy with my Xigmatek S1283, [email protected] 1.4v (actual) and with OCCT loaded up I hit 63/63/58/58 (coretemp, realtemp shows slightly lower.)

Since it only cost me $27 I can't complain at all even if a TRUE might have lowered those temps a degree or two...and it is nearly silent :cool:
 
I'm very happy with my Xigmatek S1283, [email protected] 1.4v (actual) and with OCCT loaded up I hit 63/63/58/58 (coretemp, realtemp shows slightly lower.)

Since it only cost me $27 I can't complain at all even if a TRUE might have lowered those temps a degree or two...and it is nearly silent :cool:
Yeah, the Xigmatek S1283 is the cheapest solution, but if have enough money, I'd go with the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme (or Ultima-90i, in case the first doesn't fit your case) and a good fan, like the Noctua NF-P12 (relatively expensive) or the Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F.

Good luck!
 
I might just be lucky, but I didn't lap my TRUE. And my Q6600 overclocks very well, as I've seen some don't.
 
the top layer being bent I'm sure isn't the fault of Noctua, the thing traveled from Austria and made how many stops on the way to you..

anyway, I haven't lapped my TRUE yet, but I get better temps with the Noctua as compared to the unlapped TRUE, looking at the Noctua it could use a lapping as well really...

honestly I don't think you should have to do all sorts of extra work to get good performance from a heatsink, the Noctua beats the TRUE out-of-the-box...

I think all of this is quite a bit misleading, when someone asks about a recomendation 90% of the time people jump and yell TRUE, but what if the guy has no clue how to lap, a newbie or whatever?

Personally I dont want to spend hours and have a sore arm on something I just spent $60 on to make it perform as great as everyone says it does, people are recommending the TRUE after the fact and that is truly misleading... if you're going to recommend a product then be honest about it... when you recommend it you should say "but yeah to get those temps I had to spend hours of my time lapping the base" I haven't seen much of that at all, it's essentially a lie to recommened something that quickly and note add the little extra footnote about how much extra effort it's going to take to get that performance out of the cooler...

I agree 110% with you. I myself will be making the move back to air very soon and have begun to look for a heatsink that will take on my quad with no problem. Naturaly I immediately thought about getting the TRUE, but upon further research discoverd that more often than not it would be in need of a good lap job. I honestly belive that one should not have to deal with such a task ( especially considering the price).

I also noticed that the mounting mechanism on the TRUE isnt exactly the best at providing strong pressure. Although reports say that this has been updated. A quick google on the Noctua NH-U12P show it to provide excellent performance, but I still find myself thinking about the Thermalright IFX-14. Does anyone here have any hands on experience with this cooler ? Does this too benfit from a lapping like the TRUE ?
 
They commenced to sucking price/performance wise. Even when compared with Thermalright. Plus Thermalright is cooler and gets all the girls.

So I should RMA my CNPS9500 that I just ordered for my E8400? I didn't want to spend $60-70 on a TRUE...or have to work hard lapping and what not. Is it really that horrible...? Be honest with me please, none of those fanboy shenanigans.
 
So I should RMA my CNPS9500 that I just ordered for my E8400? I didn't want to spend $60-70 on a TRUE...or have to work hard lapping and what not. Is it really that horrible...? Be honest with me please, none of those fanboy shenanigans.

They're not horrible, but at the same time, with things like the Xigmatech and the Zerotherm Nirvana out there, there isn't a compelling reason to order a Zalman HSF right now.
 
stay away from the ac freezer 7 pro. your q6600 may not do as well as his, and running at 70+ c is a bad idea for extended periods of time.


tkae this FWIW, but i have the freezer 7 pro too... and at 3.09ghz ad only 1.275vcore, its doing between 29-32 idle and 55-60 full load.
 
They're not horrible, but at the same time, with things like the Xigmatech and the Zerotherm Nirvana out there, there isn't a compelling reason to order a Zalman HSF right now.

So should I RMA the Zalman I ordered and get the 120mm Xigmatek HS? Is the performance actually any better for $5 less? If they both cool pretty much the same, I think I'll stick with the Zalman because it's just $5 difference for similar performance. Also, I don't want to have the possibility of the Zerotherm shorting my mobo/cpu out and that's why I left it out of the equation.
 
The Zerotherm won't short your motherboard out. Have you seen a single report of this happening? At all? You better believe people would be freaking out and making threads like crazy if it did.

Stick with the Zalman if you prefer them. I personally don't care one way or the other, I just generally don't recommend them as they're mediocre performers when you consider their cost.
 
I read about the zerotherm shorting out motherboards also. I think I read this on newegg so I don't consider this a reliable source. I have done 2 zerotherms on socket 775 motherboards with no issue. The NV120 is hard to beat for the price.
 
I went with the Xigmatek hdt sd964 recently

havn't installed it yet, but It's supposed to cool well, and I like the 460g weight.
 
I've got a TRUE on an OCed Q6600 at 3.0. Temps never go above 50C (Prime95 and core temp)
 
I've got a TRUE on an OCed Q6600 at 3.0. Temps never go above 50C (Prime95 and core temp)

Are you verifying all 4 cores are active during the test? We have seen a good amount of ppl run orthos and it only hits 2 cores so the temps are lower then if all 4 cores are being worked. Try OCCT to verify. It hits all 4 cores. Good temps if its working all 4.
 
I got the new Noctua NHU-B9 and I haven't tested it yet on my quad, but I got decent temps with my C2D.. nothing record-shattering, but for being so small and quiet it cools very well
 
Thermalright Ultra Extreme stuffed in Cooler Master RC690 case.

This is THE best air cooling you can get for your q6600. Running it at 3.6ghz 24/7 with 56C full load.

EDIT: And your ears wont be hurt by this setup too.
 
Thermalright Ultra Extreme stuffed in Cooler Master RC690 case.

This is THE best air cooling you can get for your q6600. Running it at 3.6ghz 24/7 with 56C full load.

EDIT: And your ears wont be hurt by this setup too.

I would recommend this one as well. :)
 
Got my Noctua on. Cant say im overally happy. Ive applied AS5 twice and no matter what I do my cores will see as much as ~11c between each other. Checked the Base with a blade and there is a slight hump. Paste probably has not "set" yet and maybe that will help some. Or maybe I need to lap. I am seeing 66C on my highest core after 4 hours of OCCT @ 3.4ghz and adding .112 mv to Vcore. It failed a bit over 4 horus so I know I probably need .125 mv to get stable but worried about the temps. I am also using dual fans with a push/pull and the L.N.A adapter ~ 1,100 rpm.
 
Are you verifying all 4 cores are active during the test? We have seen a good amount of ppl run orthos and it only hits 2 cores so the temps are lower then if all 4 cores are being worked. Try OCCT to verify. It hits all 4 cores. Good temps if its working all 4.

He's not running orthos? Besides, I run at 3.2 with load temps maxing out at 55C, using an unlapped TRUE. Yes, all four cores are running.
 
He's not running orthos? Besides, I run at 3.2 with load temps maxing out at 55C, using an unlapped TRUE. Yes, all four cores are running.

With the voltage your using to get 3.2ghz I dont doubt that at all. I would think your chip has a lot more left in it.
 
I built a q6600 game rig for a friend, and used Thermalright's older XP-120 with the LGA775 adapter (extra), and he gets the same range of idle and loads temps - cumulatively and core to core- as what mostfolks around here have posted for their tuniq or ULTRA 120 and/or Extreme - my 2 cents, they are only about $30 or so + 5-6 for the adapter, probably pick em up cheaper on here FS/FT or eBay...
 
I lapped my Quad and heatsink. Both of them had a nice hump in the center that provided a small contact area between the two. It took me 3 hours but when I was done I had a nice 8-10C drop overall and my cores got a little closer together in temp. It was well worth it. Now my system is silent and runs cool.
 
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