The absolute best aircooling solution?

cornelious0_0 said:
Riiiiight, good one bud.

The XP120 will be a quieter solution because a person could go with a low rpm 120mm fan that still moves a fair amount of air and get decent temps.....as opposed to having to use a louder 92mm fan to accomplish the same airflow (or higher airflow) to acheive the same temps with less surface area.

I'd probly stay away from the XP120 though....from what I've heard/seen, people are complaining that it's giving about the same temps as their 948's and lower temps then their SP94's.....but it is quiter. It depends on what you're looking for in the cooler....if you want decent temps for a stock system with a low noise level then it probly would be best to get something like the XP120 with a 120mm Vantec Stealth fan. However, if high end performance is more up your alley then i would shy away from the XP120 and go with something a little more beefy and a louder 92mm fan moving more air. It's funny how everyone is recommending all these coolers and yet nobody as asked WHAT you're going to be doing with the comp in terms of clock speeds....or overclocking at all.

Personally I'd say the best bet for your cpu in all areas (wether you're overclocking or not) WOULD be the SLK948. It will allow you to be a quiet 92mm Panaflo L1A or Vantec Stealth for decent temps with low noise levels.....while you can always step up to a "bigger" fan if you feel the need to "upgrade" your temps a bit.

The VGA silencer is probly the best/easiest route to go with your video card....as it will help out with your case temps also, and it is extremely quiet. Again, there are other options for someone who's a little more hardcore....but they tend to be a little bit more DIY.....like what I'm doing to my 6800GT.....modding an SLK948 to bolt it onto my 6800GT and rig it up with a 36cfm TMD fan. ;)

I hope I could bring a little more clarity to the thread....as it seemed to be lacking some.
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my point, (obviously) is that fans make noise... and you can make them as noisey or as quiet as you want with a fan controller. my tornado is whisper quiet.

so why not go with an xp120... wouldnt that yield a greater capacity? get high cfm fan and control it to your liking.
 
I prefer my Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu pure copper HSF. I had my XP 2100+ 1.733 ghz running at 2.3 ghz with it. I bought a new one for this computer I just made and it still rocks. As far as ripping off your socket? There is a bracket that is on the back that it attachs to. You would break the mobo before you ever ripped out the socket. Oh and my temps on my XP never went over 110f even with p95 running at priority 9 for 4 hours. It's also very quiet. My harddrives and cdrom are louder than it.
 
I agree with Jason711! You can use a fan controller to help with some of the loud fans. But if you get a quiet fan then you just have a "quiet fan". For the most part however I Don't think a thermal controlled fan is useful. They simply are more difficult to set up to work properly.

Given that something like the Coolermaster Hyper6 or the Gigabyte 3DCooler are excellent choices that come with fan controllers built in. Given the Test Results the Coolermaster is slightly better, at least in this review. ;) However I think it's interesting to note that the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu performs almost as well as these 2 adjustable coolers do with the "bonus" of allways having a "low noise" characteristic. The only downside is that you have to have proper clearance in your case for the Zalman. :p

Sad part is that if these cooler had come out a little sooner I might still be using Air instead of water for my cooling. On the other hand I guess I'm spoiled now and I may never go back to Air for my primary (read: High Performance) system ever again. :cool:
 
what kind of temps do you get with that Koolance Exos on your CPU & GPU??

i'm very interested, because i almost bought a used one today for $220 with the CPU & GPU blocks that I needed...
 
IceWeasel said:
what kind of temps do you get with that Koolance Exos on your CPU & GPU??

i'm very interested, because i almost bought a used one today for $220 with the CPU & GPU blocks that I needed...
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not the best temps in the world... certainly very acceptable i would believe though. 220 with blocks sounds like a good deal. many ppl are very happy with their exos units.
 
Jason711 said:
my point, (obviously) is that fans make noise... and you can make them as noisey or as quiet as you want with a fan controller. my tornado is whisper quiet.

so why not go with an xp120... wouldnt that yield a greater capacity? get high cfm fan and control it to your liking.
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That's pretty funny dude, you must have a VERY laid back view at these things and must not mind noise at all.....because I've used anywhere from 1-4 Tornados in a case at a time, and even at 5v/7v with one fan going....it is NOT whisper quiet.....it just might be by your definition......but you shouldn't be saying that it's whisper quiet, because someone is bound to believe you and go buy the same setup.....only to find out that your standards are QUITE a bit more slack then most ppls. That said, I am ALWAYS in favor of buying a higher output fan and slowing it down with a fan controller.....but some ppl just dont wanna muck around with any of that. I'm not actually backing up the XP120, as I really dislike the thing.....I'm just saying that it WOULD be capable of some lower noise levels while still maintaining half decent airflow.....due to the ability to accomadate larger/slower spinning fans right out of the box. Of course someone can jut buy an SP94 with a 92mm Tornado and a fan controller and have a VERY nice performing cooler.....but even at 5v or 7v the tornado will STILL be the loudest thing in a LOT of ppls cases.....and you then have to deal with the extra investment and annoying of rigging up a fan controller just to keep your ears in check. I for one would have no problem doing that, I'm just saying that a large number of ppl out there would simply be in favor of having a fan that's quieter to begin with to save the trouble of the controller.....and typically the only way to have a quieter fan while maintaining acceptable temps is to get a bigger fan.....which is kind of where the XP120 comes into the picture.

As I said before, you most likely do have your own preferences and tolerance levels when it comes to fans and noise levels, as do I.....and so do most other people. What I'm trying to do is paint the picture for you that beCAUSE everyone's view on this is gonna be slightly different, you have to be open minded enough to look at it from all angles.....which is what I've done here, instead of just saying "Go buy this cooler/fan.....its the best" or something useless like that.
 
There are some very good air cooling solutions however, some can be extremely loud. I forget the model but i ordered 2 high performance fans hooked them up and literally had to scream to talk to a person sitting next to me in the room. Lol even watching TV in the liveingroom i could hear my computer fans in my bedroom which was aprox about 40feet away. I ended up after one day disconnecting them hehe was crazy....
 
Shane said:
There are some very good air cooling solutions however, some can be extremely loud. I forget the model but i ordered 2 high performance fans hooked them up and literally had to scream to talk to a person sitting next to me in the room. Lol even watching TV in the liveingroom i could hear my computer fans in my bedroom which was aprox about 40feet away. I ended up after one day disconnecting them hehe was crazy....
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I know what you mean.....as I've experienced both extreme ends of noise levels in computers. At one point with my first computer I had no fan in the box other then a very quiet HSF combo on my good ol' Duron processor.....whereas about a year ago (when I had my FIRST Lian-Li) I thought it'd be fun to rig up 4, 80mm Tornado's as case fans and leave 'em on full tilt. ;)

Some people consider noise levels the most when calling something "the best".....some people focus entirely on temps, regardless of noise levels.....whereas a very large amount of people weight them both equally, something that a lot of people never take into account when they're recommending the "best" cooler for someone else.

It's all good though, to each his own I guess.
 
cornelious0_0 said:
That's pretty funny dude, you must have a VERY laid back view at these things and must not mind noise at all.....because I've used anywhere from 1-4 Tornados in a case at a time, and even at 5v/7v with one fan going....it is NOT whisper quiet.....it just might be by your definition......but you shouldn't be saying that it's whisper quiet, because someone is bound to believe you and go buy the same setup.....only to find out that your standards are QUITE a bit more slack then most ppls. That said, I am ALWAYS in favor of buying a higher output fan and slowing it down with a fan controller.....but some ppl just dont wanna muck around with any of that. I'm not actually backing up the XP120, as I really dislike the thing.....I'm just saying that it WOULD be capable of some lower noise levels while still maintaining half decent airflow.....due to the ability to accomadate larger/slower spinning fans right out of the box. Of course someone can jut buy an SP94 with a 92mm Tornado and a fan controller and have a VERY nice performing cooler.....but even at 5v or 7v the tornado will STILL be the loudest thing in a LOT of ppls cases.....and you then have to deal with the extra investment and annoying of rigging up a fan controller just to keep your ears in check. I for one would have no problem doing that, I'm just saying that a large number of ppl out there would simply be in favor of having a fan that's quieter to begin with to save the trouble of the controller.....and typically the only way to have a quieter fan while maintaining acceptable temps is to get a bigger fan.....which is kind of where the XP120 comes into the picture.

As I said before, you most likely do have your own preferences and tolerance levels when it comes to fans and noise levels, as do I.....and so do most other people. What I'm trying to do is paint the picture for you that beCAUSE everyone's view on this is gonna be slightly different, you have to be open minded enough to look at it from all angles.....which is what I've done here, instead of just saying "Go buy this cooler/fan.....its the best" or something useless like that.
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i am offering my best opinion.... if you do not care for it. that is fine, however i will not debate with you over it. let the thread author decide.
 
Jason711 said:
i am offering my best opinion.... if you do not care for it. that is fine, however i will not debate with you over it. let the thread author decide.
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I never once said I do not care for your opinion, and I'm not sure where you're getting that from. All I'm saying is that different people want different HSF's for different reasons.....so something like the XP120 MIGHT very well be better suited to some users then an SP94 with a tornado /w a fan controller. I'm not sure why you keep coming back at me when I'm not trying to disprove anything you've said, I'm merely elaborating on what I said earlier, because I wasn't sure if you fully caught what I was saying.

I do care for your opinion, as I care for everyone else's, and I don't think it's necessary to get into an arguement/debate over this at all, because there's nothing TO debate. We're both right in our own stances so just let it be at that and let it be already...sheesh. :rolleyes: ;)
 
cornelious0_0 said:
I never once said I do not care for your opinion, and I'm not sure where you're getting that from. All I'm saying is that different people want different HSF's for different reasons.....so something like the XP120 MIGHT very well be better suited to some users then an SP94 with a tornado /w a fan controller. I'm not sure why you keep coming back at me when I'm not trying to disprove anything you've said, I'm merely elaborating on what I said earlier, because I wasn't sure if you fully caught what I was saying.

I do care for your opinion, as I care for everyone else's, and I don't think it's necessary to get into an arguement/debate over this at all, because there's nothing TO debate. We're both right in our own stances so just let it be at that and let it be already...sheesh. :rolleyes: ;)
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i fully understood what you said all along, it appeared to me that you kept coming back at what i was saying. :confused:

and this thread is about the best... opinions not withstanding. ;)
 
I just installed a Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Pure Copper cooler yesterday and got a 13C drop in my max load temps,down from 60C using the retail Intel cooler to 47C with the Zalman. It is also a very quiet cooler.. Good stuff ;)

Oh and check out the size of this thing :D
 
IceWeasel said:
what kind of temps do you get with that Koolance Exos on your CPU & GPU??

i'm very interested, because i almost bought a used one today for $220 with the CPU & GPU blocks that I needed...
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Unfortunately this motherboard and BIOS reads temps way high. My temps normally "read" in BIOS at about 54-59°C. However when I built a system for someone last week I tried my processor in his board and it read 41°C, and when I use the nVidia system utility to read my temps it shows 41-42°C. But I am quite happy with the Koolance I like the fact that my computer no longer sounds like a hovercraft. ;)
 
jrw said:
I just installed a Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Pure Copper cooler yesterday and got a 13C drop in my max load temps,down from 60C using the retail Intel cooler to 47C with the Zalman. It is also a very quiet cooler.. Good stuff ;)

Oh and check out the size of this thing :D
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Yeah, I already got your PM dude, it's nice to see that our little talks paid off and you're happy with the Zalman.

Good God though.....gimmie that damn Conan disc. :D
 
My brother has purchased Swiftech's MX6400, and the MX462 heatsinks. He uses a Panaflo 80mm high with RPM sensing on both of 'em and they cool fantastically. Allow me to illustrate; currently I'm using the MX462 (AS5 TIM) on a AMD Athlon XP 2000+ OC'ed to to 1700mhz (default 1667mhz) by Gigabytes EZ Tune 4. Idle is currently 44c case is 45c. Lousy case with not so good airflow. I will overclock CPU to 1750mhz and raise voltage from default 1.756 volts to 1.977 volts according to EZ Tune 4. I will be using CPU-Burn. In the mean time while CPU is warming up, I have one 80mm fan intake in the front that pushs approximately 30-34CFM at 12 volt. I have Antec's HDD cooler with 3 40mm fans second 5 1/4" slot down from top of case. I also have a 42CFM (Manufacturer claimed CFM) slot fan under Radeon 9000 Pro. Have 9800 Pro on the way from newegg currently. The front case fan, and HDD cooler are hooked up to "fan only" connector on Antec TruPower 350 watt PSU. Currently, my CPU at idle is 52c, and case is resting at 49c. I have disabled error checking in CPU-Burn so as to get maximum heat generation. I had an old Speese cooler that could barely keep this CPU under 60c at 1700 mhz 1.756 volts. Case climbed as high as 53c with all fans on high. Right now I only have CPU fan (Panaflo high) and slot cooler running at 12 volts, the other aformentioned fans are running at whatever voltage the PSU has determined to run them at. Half hour of CPU burn results in 56c CPU, and 55c case temps with CPU at 1750 mhz and 1.977 volts to CPU. I have noticed that Swiftech coolers may not net you the lowest temps, but they don't rise as much as other coolers do. the temps stay pretty consistent between idle, and load. Also, I fully believe the Swiftech coolers cool better than Thermalright heatsinks because you don't need a screaming tornado to force air through thin fins to get low temps. You can use a much quieter fan and still get similar temps as a Thermalright heatsink using a Tornado fan.

Also, the air radiating in a 360 degree fashion from the Swiftech will cool other componets in it's immediate vicinity unlike the Thermalright. I still havent' figured out why everyone thinks Thermalrights are better than Swiftechs' heatsinks. Maybe they do keep the CPU cooler at idle, and possible under load, but at the cost of your sanity?! Not to mention anyone else unlucky enough to wander into the same building your computer is in! The problem with the Thermalright XP-120 is it's size. To many things get in the way, or the heatsink itself will get in the way. Not so with the Swiftech's, or the other copper Thermalrights similar to the SP-97, SLK-948U designs. I prefer the Swiftech heatisnks because you don't need a load fan to get decent performance. Yes, I have read numerous reviews of Thermalright, and Swiftech's heatsinks on the internet.

(Edit) I might also add that I can barely hear the Panaflo fan over my two Maxtor HDD's, the 80mm front case fan, and the Antec HDD cooler with my head next to the case. If I sit where I normally do, I can't hear it over the HDD's.
 
Yeah I had a slew of both Swiftechs and Alphas myself. Then I got a thermalright, I don't even remember the model number now (it's in my sister's computer now with a nice quiet fan). I was using it on an early 1700+ barton core. And the Thermalright just did a better job, at idle or at full load. And the truth was that I didn't need the "high pressure" Delta fans to get the Thermalright to work. But I hear some of you talking about case temps of 49°C?? :eek: When I was aircooling my case temps never got that high..... what are you doing?
 
Cannydog said:
But I hear some of you talking about case temps of 49°C?? :eek: When I was aircooling my case temps never got that high..... what are you doing?
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I'm thinkin that that had to have been a typo.....but who knows....I guess anything's possible. I'm just used to my 23C case I guess. ;)
 
whats an easy way to monitor case temps?

i have ati tool for video, asusprobe for CPU/mobo... but no actualy case temp monitor...

i think one of the main problems i have is getting rid of the hot air inside my case..

i will post a pic of my setup when i get back to school tomorrow
 
I've got the ridiculously overpriced Tt Hardcano12 sittin' up in a 5.25" bay. I need to rig up a couple more sensors on it still, cus all I've got in place are the sensors for the CPU and case. The other two will be going on the GPU and HDD.....and as far as I know, all 4 fan conections on the Hardcano are going to remain unused. :p
 
Yes they do get that high. I have very bad airflow in case, not to mention the hot running Athlon XP 2000+. My brothers case temps run about 29c because he has way better case. I did note that the Swiftech may not get you the lowest temps, but your temps won't vary as much between idle and load. Anyone who is in the know knows that electronics fail sooner when subjected to higher temps, and large differences in idle and load temps. So the closer you can keep the idle and load temps, as well as overall temps the longer that electronic component will last. A 10c rise in HDD temps will result in the HDD's life being cut in half. Not that that matters to us much seeing how soon we throw out our old CPU's for the latest and greatest.

The swiftech is the quitest cooler for performance versus noise. It takes less effort to move air through round pins than it does through tiny fin channels. Not to mention the turbulence created when the air is pushed in a spiralling cone by fan and strikes the fins at an angle. I can't hear my Panaflo CPU fan running at 2900 RPM pushing half the air a Tornado would, and still keeping my CPU plenty cool. The other nice thing about the swiftechs is the fact that dust doesn't get caught in such a way that it restricts airflow very much. I had a thin fin sink on and it collected dust faster than anything else in my box. Most of that dust got caught on the very top of the fins. Maybe that's why you guys use Tornados on your Thermalright's, so the dust has a hard time hanging on to the fins! Anyway, to each their own. I do have a better case, just haven't switched them yet.
 
No, No! Chicken Penni Pasta that's the final mechanizm of "heat transfer" but it's not "Air Cooling". :) Even though I prefer that method as well. :cool:
 
Motherboard manufacturers could do a lot better designing cases than they have been. The CoolerMaster Stacker is a step in the right direction in terms of sufficient airflow to keep case cool and to keep noise to a minimum. You could probably run all the case fans on low and still get fantastic airflow through the Stacker. If they would design ATX cases with airflow in mind, then BTX would hardly have a leg to stand on. You can get decent airflow in cases, if they are designed with that in mind. Some companies, ::cough :: Thermaltake ::cough:: try the brute force approach by cramming as many 80mm fans as they can into a case. I'm sorry, but I don't like have a PC sitting next to me that sounds like a Union Pacific freight train roaring by the house! I'm always tinkering with my PC to see if I can somehow get better cooling performance with lower noise levels. If you can use several low RPM fans placed in strategic areas throughout a case, you can get a reasonable cooling to noise ratio. Maybe I oughta ask Thermaltake if I can do a short contract job to design better cases for them...
 
Agent_N said:
Maybe I oughta ask Thermaltake if I can do a short contract job to design better cases for them...
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Yeah, I'm sure they'll be all over that. :rolleyes: :p

The best aircooling, is when you have a 120mm fan running on your radiator.
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How do you do air cooling with a radiator? I'm curious. ;)
 
I like how Antec's moved a lof of their cases to having 120mm fans on the front/back as defaults... Despite the very restrictive hard drive cages they're using now (god those things are ugly, 'least they keep the hard drives cushioned even if they do block the airflow). Wish more manufacturers would 'move up' to 120mm fans, even on smaller cases it's likely more efficient than having two 80mms in their place, probably cheaper to boot.
 
Impulse said:
Wish more manufacturers would 'move up' to 120mm fans, even on smaller cases it's likely more efficient than having two 80mms in their place, probably cheaper to boot.
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I'm with ya on that one bud.....I have a feeling that a LOT of people would be pleased to see that kind of a shift. :)
 
Yeah that's why I like the V1000 so much, It seems to be designed with airflow in mind (although not with big-ass heatsinks in mind. By the way I was looking at the Zalman website, and apparently you need 1cm of clearance between the socket mount and PSU. With my Mobo it looks to be 1cm with the skin of a tooth to spare. So it might be worth checking the Zalman site for info (I have a P4 motherboard).

I'm gonna be ordering watercooling today, so my computer will have 2 120mm fans (1intake with rad attached, one exhaust) and 2 80mm fans (Tagan PSU) only.... and the 6800ultra fan :( . Unfortunely it seems the 6800 is hard to watercool without spending a large amount of money, so I'm gonna leave that one for a while.
 
Sarin said:
Unfortunely it seems the 6800 is hard to watercool without spending a large amount of money, so I'm gonna leave that one for a while.
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You've got that right.....the nv68 is really the only thing I'd seriously consider, and it does cost a pretty penny.....but it's more then worth it if you've got the spare change.
 
here are the pics of my setup that i said i'd post awhile back. i'll post some from when i first set it up, and some from now, with the wiring as good as i could get it (for being as lazy as i am).

any suggestions on how to get the temp to drop even more?

with the case side off i run

Idle - 37
Load- 48

with it on i run

idle- 43
load- 55

#1 when it first got built
Computer Pics 001.jpg


#2 first build (guts)
Computer Pics 002.jpg


#3 just recently at school
Computer Pics 004.jpg


#4 my attempt to lower wire clutter...
Computer Pics 007.jpg
 
All these HSF combinations are not the best. If you want the best aircooling. Go to Home Depot and buy some duct material and run it from your airc onditioning vent to your machine. You'll get some cooling!
 
funbun said:
All these HSF combinations are not the best. If you want the best aircooling. Go to Home Depot and buy some duct material and run it from your airc onditioning vent to your machine. You'll get some cooling!
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Yeah, well I think we're mostly talking about self reliant coolers that you can buy....so that, you know.....you can take your computer to LANs and such without worrying about not having your AC. :p
 
my A/C at school is in the wall right above my PC... i wonder if my roommates would think i'm crazy for doing this... lol
 
IceWeasel, is your rear 120mm blowing out, or sucking in? If it's blowing out, then your heatsink fan is fighting with rear case fan for air. It appears you can't put on other side because of memory. If your rear 120mm is blowing out, turn it around dude. Either that, or get a nice Swiftech, or Thermalright heatsink to replace that monster Thermaltake tower with.
 
both the heatsink fan and the 120 in the case are blowing out... therefore it is actually sucking air right off the heatsink... outta the case! :D

that is a good thing right?

... at least i think the heatsink fan is blowing out... damn, now i gotta check
 
yea, its definetely blowing out as well...

so it goes like this



(HSF) ---------> | (case fan) ---->
 
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