Good Heatsink air cooling

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Thegiven36

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I have just upgraded to the amd fx 8320 cpu Black edition. I had a phenom II BE 965 x4 with a Cooler master N520 heatsink cooler, my question and advice I need is will that cooler master N520 be good enough for cooling my new fx 8230. Also if anyone has any advice on maybe a better preforming heatsink fan cooling system looking to spend around up to 80.00 on a new cooling system
 
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Hyper 212+, Hyper 212 EVO, Noctua NH-D14, Silverstone Argon AR03(excellent one) Scythe Ashura, Phanteks PH-TC12DX, Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2, Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 , Akasa Venom Voodoo, Cooler Master X6 Elite are all very good to excellent coolers all top notch in their own way, Hyper 212 can handle modest overclock the rest high to pushing it type overclocks, if you want more then this, then you would have to go into the AIO type liquid coolers or custom loops, Something like Corsair H80/H80i or silverstone tundra td03 would be pushing you $ limits but also definitely handle the clocks.

If you are not looking at overclocking then hyper 212+ will be just fine.
 
The latest tech in heatsinks 3rd party fans like the Coolermaster EVO is direct Heat pipe connection with the processor if your doesn't have direct heat pipe contact you might want to upgrade. I peraonally would never get a water cooler due to the fact IT STILL HAS FANS =)
 
Try it and see.
The N520 works as well as the mid range coolers, better will run $50-70.
 
Comixbooks said:
The latest tech in heatsinks 3rd party fans like the Coolermaster EVO is direct Heat pipe connection with the processor if your doesn't have direct heat pipe contact you might want to upgrade. I peraonally would never get a water cooler due to the fact IT STILL HAS FANS =)
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what are you even trying to say? yes of course it still has fans, but 99% of all coolers do, how else do they cool, magic?

lesson here, direct touch heat pipes are better at collecting heat faster then heat pipes that are buried in a chunk of metal which are considered non direct touch, however, non direct usually have a higher capacity for heat as the smaller block of metal can also gather heat putting less direct load on the heat pipes, they both have their benefits and flaws.

The best air coolers out there, get close to the better AIO liquid coolers(which have a much higher capacity for heat then any air cooler) however do not come close to a decent built custom loop.
 
Your current cooler isn't bad, you should be fine unless you are intending to overclock pretty high, or are dead set on spending some money.
 
TR Silver arrow I thought was Intel specific? If not then I had thought of it but my mistake, it is also an excellent cooler and far as I know they had revised the base and the mount so its that much better then some of the older ones larger then some as well though?
Corsair A70 is also great one.

Xigmatek Gaia is also mentioned a fair amount, and Sapphire Vapor X, EVGA Super clock cooler as well, anyways lots of choices for not much cash, N520 is not a bad cooler by any means, but it also does not have the heat capacity/wicking that Hyper 212+ or better have, perfectly fine for lower quads not so much for higher output modern cpu especially the FX/i7 lines.
 
I would also recommend a good thermal paste such as Arctic Silver or something. Cleaning of the original heat pad and using Arctic Silver dropped my CPU temps significantly.
 
yep great point, though most using aftermarket coolers know this :)
usually a small dot direct center of cpu heatspreader is enough, some like the hyper 212+ with exposed heatpipes need a bit more between the pipes for good coverage, not sure try it 2 times to see if ultra thin layer clean and do same thing then leave it.
Personally I use MX4 I find it works a lot better and lasts much longer doesn't have the nasty side effect of flaking apart(and is much "safer" for electronics) to each their own, low-med heat AS5 works great higher heat MX4 I find wins out not that it matter but its purpose design was for GPU which do tend to push a heck of a lot of heat(especially the older ones) but FX cpu definitely can push heat as well lol.
 
that's the cpu heatsink I am currently using is the N520 by cooler master just was not sure if this would work since it is not designed for the higher end FX series CPUS by AMD It's specs go up to the AM3 8100 that's it
 
not really looking to overclock to high maybe a bump, but I can see that my temps increase during a load like when I play Crysis 3 for like a hour + the temps hit like 50 to 55c on my CPU, the phenom II with the same heatsink only got to like 35-45c under load with the same game. Also after running prime95 from about a hour the temps stayed steady at 50 to 55c,on the fx-8320. With the old CPU same test same time it was around 45-50c with both running with the Cooler Master N520, I am upgrading my board and CPU heatsink cooling system here in less than a week. Going with the Asus Sabertooth 990fx r2.0 mobo with my 8320 CPU with my corsair vengeance 2x4gb memory, getting the cooler master 212 EVO with the direct contact heat pipe, also ordered a xtra fan for it just in case i want to use a push and pull cooling method
 
fx cpus run hotter than phenoms did.

I wouldn't be shocked if your temps went up with just one fan on the hyper 212.

And unless you need features that the new board offers, mobo upgrades usually don't net any returns, unless you are going from a value board to a premium, then you might get better overclocks, but like you said, you only want a minor bump.
 
EVO will def get better results, though seems like your room is much cooler then mine :p, I use LinX for my bench runs, for me and overclocked 955 4.2Ghz ~1.44v I get full load 52-56c in raven 3 case hyper 212+ P/P winter temps drop ~4c. So yeh FX seeing as can chew ALOT more power then Phenom II could will also dissipate that much more heat and rely on the high clock speed for that extra performance so it is a double doozy.

N520 meant for socket 775 and AM2 technically, 212+ meant for LGA1156/1366 e.g higher wattage and heat, 212 EVO adds socket 2011 to the mix, so theory states yes there is a noticeable difference
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/334637-28-hyper-hyper

N520 you cannot change fans and is not direct contact, 212+ and EVO both are and able to so no temps will not go up in stock config unless did a crappy job on thermal paste install lol.

Cannot word any different way, 1 cooler meant for decent wattage quads with larger surface area, other coolers meant for more concentrated heat so they would need to be more efficient in wicking it away, or be able to simply store more of it "capacity". Very important with Ivy/Haswell as examples where old i7 just had lots of output, FX is smaller(die size) but a lot more heat then older chips and def more then most newer.

Phenom II generally would push 125-180w FX can easily push 250w+ if clocked up. It really is a hard balance to "push a little bit" and actually see the gain, FX rely on the high clock speeds for this gain.

New board I have the M5A99X EVO and LOVE IT much better all around spacing IMHO then sabertooth, to each their own. But stealthy does bring good point, new mobo rarely adds performance however by possibly not having as much performance loss on Sata ports, proper USB ports, extra functions and of course OC headroom that can most certainly make a difference and average requiring less to far less power for the same functions and sometimes also pushing far less heat through the mobo itself may not give more performance but could keep it for longer as well.

Let us know how you like your new gear when you get it :) to point out
 
oh yeh, the included thermal paste with all current CM heatsinks is actually pretty decent, I did do a compare vs the older CM thermal paste(I believe was Silmore or something like that) vs the newer one current packaging one was more silvery the other more white vs AS5 was the last of old tube(~9mths) vs MX4 which I got for my GPU, temp difference was only 2-4c for the CM thermal paste vs AS5 and MX4 was only like 2-3c ahead of AS5, stock E8400 and stock 955 both tested with old stock coolers and hyper 212+, point of story the included thermal paste is actually pretty decent you truly do not need to go buy a tube of extra unless you want to.

Phanteks, Noctua, Geil most of the heatsink makers actually include quite decent thermal paste these days as they sell their own aftermarket as well.
 
I believe the OPs current board is an M5A97 LE which I believe is only a 4+2 ppd. So he could see some benefit going with a higher pp design in the sabertooth.
 
already mentioned, while some AIO coolers are excellent they are also usually more $ for performance given compared to a good air cooler and a lot of the medium/lower costs AIO are not as good as a semi cost but quality air unit(mostly surface area and volume)

The benefit they do have is size/ease of use and partially the ability to be able to handle a higher heat for longer period of time there is benefits and flaws to both designs really, AIO coolers by nature would also in theory not last as long as heatpipe designs as they are more porus so liquid would eventually dissipate and possibly even chew the rad away? All about surface area and efficiency of the unit, AIO coolers are more efficient by design and able to absorb more heat as they can cover a lot of surface area if engineered as such but can also have a harder time to wick it away once hot.

The best cooler type would be liquid that is doing the cooling and the rad is cooled by a vapor mist as the vapor wicks heat VERY fast this is why AC work the way they do partially, problem is would be hard to make without making messes and having a very humid environment.

what do you mean PPD and higher PP? power delivery phase? AMD boards are example 8+2 or 6+2 having more phases can save power and can also mean more available power for clocking up, but can also mean little to nothing extra in regards to those higher speeds as there still is a limitation on the other parts being used, and this matter nothing if you do not have the settings to take advantage of it don't forget.

I know M5A99X EV, Sabertooth 990FX and CHV all have very similar overclocking headroom(6+2, 8+2, 8+2) on average M5 and SBT had better results for high cpu clocking then the CHV however CHV from what I remember had better average for higher memory clocking among the extras due to more aggressive multipliers

So yeh extra phases do matter but only so much(example some board that had wicked amount of phases but crud overclock headroom) I suppose its the gradients of those phases that matter as much if not more and the cooling matters the most, you could have 1k phases with bad cooling and it wouldn't be as good on average as say 10 phases with extreme cooling as the power delivery would be suffering less loss via heat(and not held back by it as much) so thereby able to do more as a result.
 
Yes I meant power phases. I'm just of the opinion that for an 8 core cpu, for any serious ocing, say 4.5+ on an 8320, I would want more than a 4 phase design. Running stock or very mildly OC'd, his current board would probably suffice. Completely agree with you about AIO liquid coolers. I'd take a premium air cooler over a budget liquid any day.
 
Thegiven36 said:
I have just upgraded to the amd fx 8230 cpu Black edition. I had a phenom II BE 965 x4 with a Cooler master N520 heatsink cooler, my question and advice I need is will that cooler master N520 be good enough for cooling my new fx 8230. Also if anyone has any advice on maybe a better preforming heatsink fan cooling system looking to spend around up to 80.00 on a new cooling system
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I haven't used the N520 myself but I can recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo if you don't want to spend the whole $80. If you are willing to spend $80 I really do recommend water cooling but if you insist on air then I can also recommend the Zalman CNPS12X.
 
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Zalman-CNPS12X-CPU-Cooler-Review/1434
there is better especially when they get that massive such as the Phanteks, DH14, Megahalems etc.

power phase wise as mentioned will not always allow a higher OC(helps of course) what it usually does do however is less wasted power as the required amount within x% is given instead of needing to cycle the higher % and usually more phases as well mean less heat produced for a given load on the motherboard.
 
Well I did it, just ordered the Asus Sabertooth 990fx r2.0 with the Cooler master 212 evo even got another fan just in case for the push and pull cooling, Have checked and the rest of my equipment will work on the new mobo, will keep posted on performance on the new upgrade build. Finally my fx-8320 CPU will have the 990FX chip set that it needs. Also got some Attic silver thermal paste.
 
Broons said:
Yes I meant power phases. I'm just of the opinion that for an 8 core cpu, for any serious ocing, say 4.5+ on an 8320, I would want more than a 4 phase design. Running stock or very mildly OC'd, his current board would probably suffice. Completely agree with you about AIO liquid coolers. I'd take a premium air cooler over a budget liquid any day.
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JJJJJJJJJEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 
dragonstongue said:
Hyper 212+, Hyper 212 EVO, Noctua NH-D14, Silverstone Argon AR03(excellent one) Scythe Ashura, Phanteks PH-TC12DX, Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2, Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 , Akasa Venom Voodoo, Cooler Master X6 Elite are all very good to excellent coolers all top notch in their own way, Hyper 212 can handle modest overclock the rest high to pushing it type overclocks, if you want more then this, then you would have to go into the AIO type liquid coolers or custom loops, Something like Corsair H80/H80i or silverstone tundra td03 would be pushing you $ limits but also definitely handle the clocks.

If you are not looking at overclocking then hyper 212+ will be just fine.
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Yes I got the Cooler Master 212 EVO with another fan
 
dragonstongue said:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Zalman-CNPS12X-CPU-Cooler-Review/1434
there is better especially when they get that massive such as the Phanteks, DH14, Megahalems etc.

power phase wise as mentioned will not always allow a higher OC(helps of course) what it usually does do however is less wasted power as the required amount within x% is given instead of needing to cycle the higher % and usually more phases as well mean less heat produced for a given load on the motherboard.
Click to expand...

yes i know some that has one of those huge noctua d14 in his case, all I can say is WOW!!!
 
it is very large yes but is also very quiet considering the cooling that it can get, the 212 EVO is slightly better then 212+ as its base is much finer machined and the heatpipes/fins had some extra work done on them, either way it is an excellent heatsink and the top air coolers are not a huge amount better considering the usually fairly large increase in dimensions and cost, 212+ and 212 EVO are praised for good reason.

AM3+ boards will also support the next 1 possibly 2 cpu upgrades from AMD e.g 8450-8550 or whatever they will end up calling them. You should be able to really fine tune the cpu with that board, was just offering the board I have as it is in nearly every way as good as the sabertooth especially if you are only single gpu usage.
hope you enjoy, the second fan does help not a large amount but it will when you are clocking a decent amount, if you use 2 fans you can also reduce the speed a bit on both to reduce noise a touch if you so choose, and of course can better force air through chassis as well.

Do keep it clean though, every 6months or so I personally take mine off and blow it out or run under hot water to get dust off of it, of course dry it very well before reattach :p
 
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