XP-90 not cutting it... now what???

Hmm. The XP-120 has proven to be nothing but rock solid in my runs and is both silent, and very cool.
Can't say I've tried the XP-90 however.
 
Ockie said:
Thats incorrect. The stock amd heatsinks are 80mm fans and they are panflo fans.
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Who makes the fans for AMD was not my point. The point was that you don't have the flexibility to use 92mm fans on a stock AMD HSF.
 
Just for refence my DC 165 Opteron is loading at 41C with Dual Prime 95 at 2.55GHZ and 1.4 volt core using a Ninja. Its one of the best sinks I have ever owned. W/Ced temps for 30$, not bad ;)
 
My watercooled temps were 38C dual load on an X2 with 2.87 GHz and 1.60 volts... so it depends on what kind of WC you are comparing to...

Anyway the XP90 isn't nearly as good as most people think of it. Mine sucked, 53C load with a venice @ 1.58 volts. With watercooling the venice was loading at 40C with 1.65 volts.

Zalman 9500 is also completely overrated and overpriced. It's over 60 dollars! Check out the reviews, it is consistently beat by the (less expensive) big typhoon.
 
Something must have been wrong. 53C load with a venice with an xp-90 isnt normal :p

You must have had high ambient temps or something. I used many different overclock venices on my xp-90, none of them went above 41C at load.
 
I know what was wrong: the XP90 :p

Don't say it was contact, i mounted it several times.

Watercooling dropped the temps over 10C and i was pumping way more volts through it. And then i removed the IHS and temps dropped 5C! I was able to Prime95 load with 1.73 volts at ~40C. Watercooling has such insane capacity, i can keep giving it volts and temps hardly change. With XP90, as soon as i approached 1.6 volts the temps got out of control.

I dont see how you could defend the XP90 at this point. Now that there's benchmarks of the new stock AMD heatsink handily matching it in performance :eek:
 
Absolute0 said:
I dont see how you could defend the XP90 at this point. Now that there's benchmarks of the new stock AMD heatsink handily matching it in performance :eek:
Click to expand...

Do you read these reviews? The XP-90 was fitted with the SAME FAN as the AMD HSF. BUT you can put ANY 80 or 92mm fan on the XP-90 which makes it more versatile.
 
Since the XP90 is a heatsink (heatsink is just a piece of metal), then paired with the same fan as the AMD heatsink, it performed only as well. Yet costs over 30$ most places....
how does this matter? As a heatsink it ties AMD's included heatsink in performance. It's definitely not worth 30$.

For 30$ you can get an Arctic Cooling Freezer64 pro, which will outperform the XP90 by leaps and bounds...

For the record i ran my XP90 with the Panaflo 92mm high speed
 
1). Not all AMD HSF's are the heatpipe ones they tested there. Those are only on the high end X2's/Opty's, etc. Not on single core chips.

2). The XP-90 can use ANY 80mm or 92mm fan as opposed to the one fan on the Arctic Cooler 64, so if it breaks, you have to buy yourself a new HSF.

I'm not saying that the XP-90 is the best HSF ever. But it does a decent job and is versatile (and it's been out a long time). I've used XP-90's, but for me it's almost time to move on.
 
kirbyrj said:
1). Not all AMD HSF's are the heatpipe ones they tested there. Those are only on the high end X2's/Opty's, etc. Not on single core chips.

2). The XP-90 can use ANY 80mm or 92mm fan as opposed to the one fan on the Arctic Cooler 64, so if it breaks, you have to buy yourself a new HSF.

I'm not saying that the XP-90 is the best HSF ever. But it does a decent job and is versatile (and it's been out a long time). I've used XP-90's, but for me it's almost time to move on.
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I realize you can put any fan on it. To me that just means that an already overpriced heatsink is incomplete because you ALSO need a fan. I put a good quality high speed fan on mine and that didn't save it.

I also realize that the stock AMD coolers they used are only found on the high end CPUs. But still, they are worth very little money, so i dont see how the XP90's performance can justify it's price. It's frigging 45$ at newegg....

It's an OK heatsink. I mean if you can get it cheap (i actually got mine for 25$ ;) ), it's fine... but these days it is sorely outperformed by real coolers like the BT and AC Freezer64pro. The main thing that gets me is when people buy the XP90 instead of those much superior new heatsinks and then wonder why they're loading at 55C.
 
I load at 40C with my [email protected] with an Opty 165. And I wonder how people get 55C unless they are running insane voltages. So I have no reason to complain. Yes, $45 is way overpriced...if I don't find it for $25, I don't buy.
 
Absolute0 said:
I also realize that the stock AMD coolers they used are only found on the high end CPUs. But still, they are worth very little money, so i dont see how the XP90's performance can justify it's price. It's frigging 45$ at newegg....
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I dont know why people always judge their pricing from newegg. Newegg is rarely the cheapest. XP-90 can be found on other sites for $30 shipped. Hello!?!?!!!


Absolute0 said:
I know what was wrong: the XP90 :p

I dont see how you could defend the XP90 at this point. Now that there's benchmarks of the new stock AMD heatsink handily matching it in performance :eek:
Click to expand...
Also I am one of the people who did benchmarks comparing the xp-90 w/ 92mm 2500rpm PANAFLO fan to the stock AMD copper heatpipe heatsink. I wasnt defending it. Its still a good budget heatsink even though maybe its not the best. I actually sold my XP-90 and decided to use my stock 165 copper heatpipe sink instead. My temps actually dropped 1C from idle and load with the stock cooler over the XP-90. Not to mention its quieter. Just cause the xp-90 might not be the best, its still a great budget heatsink.
 
Eh, its ok. With a fan its 35$ at best. And as i said you can get the Arctic Freezer 64 Pro for less than that and it'll perform loads better.

it was a good heatsink back in the day but it isn't something that people should be buying when there's much more advanced heatsinks around.
 
True. Im just sayin :p

If I ever get tired of my amd stock 165 copper heatpipe sink, ill probably try that arctic freezer pro. To be perfectly honest, I dont know how those guys make money on those selling them that cheap.
 
They're a steal. People should be buying those instead of the incredibly overpriced Zalman 9500s. I saw a good review by Dean Nottis and it showed the Freezer64pro beating the 9500 handily in load temps.
 
Retsam said:
Something must have been wrong. 53C load with a venice with an xp-90 isnt normal :p You must have had high ambient temps or something. I used many different overclock venices on my xp-90, none of them went above 41C at load.
Click to expand...
Absolute0 said:
I know what was wrong: the XP90 :p Don't say it was contact, i mounted it several times.

Watercooling dropped the temps over 10C and i was pumping way more volts through it. And then i removed the IHS and temps dropped 5C! I was able to Prime95 load with 1.73 volts at ~40C. ... I dont see how you could defend the XP90 at this point. Now that there's benchmarks of the new stock AMD heatsink handily matching it in performance :eek:
Click to expand...
I find indirect comparisons like these, without putting all the facts on the table, to be pretty pointless. Neither of you is even mentioning ambient temp or case temp, both of which can have a big effect on your HSF's performance.

The new stock AMD heatsink (which started off on Opterons only I think? maybe someone can correct me) matches the XP-90 because it might as well be an XP-90! Have you even seen it? We're not talking about some rinky dink stock HSF here, it's a pretty nice bonus for those that are getting it these days, very solidly built and designed.

Heck, if AMD is in fact packaging that HSF with ALL their processors now (doubt it), it's definitely overkill for some and the only way I can find it logical is if it was simply cheaper for them to make all retail packages identical.

That being said, I wouldn't buy an XP-90 right now, there's newer designs which will perform slightly better. The Artic Cooling Freezer64 seems to be in the same price range and has a decent edge on it (if only because of the fant's orientation within a case), the newer Zalman models are better even if they're a lot more $.
 
Interesting, I was flipping thru some reviews for the Freezer64 tho and it seems that if you're aiming for a balance between performance and noise it might not necessarily be the best choice though... SPCR compares it directly to the Scythe Ninja and the XP-120 and while at max fan speeds it does come out on top, at lower speeds/noise-levels it's another story.

Some of that is obviously attributed to the fan itself (which on the Freezer64 can't be changed easily), but some of it has to do with design as well. Lower fan speeds = less pressure, space between the fins determines how well air will flow over them, etc.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article285-page5.html
 
Well the other ones cost 15$ more and come without a fan. The way i see it, you're getting the same performance for 25$ less. I really don't care if it doesn't have the capabilities of going quiet... i'm running a highly overclocked machine not a dell.
 
That's all well and good, but that's you, some people here still like to mantain a low level of noise even with their overclock... The balance between the two is a matter of personal taste and your own hardware, obviously you'd always be able to strike a better balance w/WC but that's also more expensive and more of a hassle.

However, it's not a matter of 'running a Dell' or running a highly overclocked machine. For some, the extra $15-20 that other air cooling options cost is worth the lower noise levels... And performance at the high end with the fastest RPM fan doesn't always tell the whole story.

That's the only reason I pointed out that article, certain models do shine more than others with low or even mid-speed fans, and it's not solely due to the fan characteristics.
 
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