CPU coolers. your opinion

[slayer4u]

Ok heres the scoop. i want a better cpu cooler that will fit my atx cube. since my question was ignored ina nother thread I'm putting it here.

first of i gots an amd athlon 64 x2 6000+

my case has about 120mm clearance between the mainboard and the top rack. so i'm looking to find one that will fcol better than stock and fit that.

so far this is what I've found.

I have fans for this one already so no big about the no fan included
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3071625&CatId=2545


this honetly looks like it would conduct heat better and would fit
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4244280&CatId=2545

I've always been a fan of thermaltake (no pun intended)athough this one sitts higher than the other too. not sure if cleanrance will be a big issue as far as ventelation because thier are fvent holes in the top rack but my hDDs are right about the cpu so i don't thing i want all that heat pumped directly to them. so far i havn't been able to find a side moundted fan heatsink that is shor enough. but that would obviousley be the best solution as i can have it pull ther air right out the fans in the back

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2478160&CatId=2545


also considering a better fan controller that will encompas all the fans. the case came with a nice themometor but it's useless as far asfan control is concerned

anyways now it's time for your opinion. I'm an expirienced comperter geek myself (started with a 286 and plain old DOS.) but I'd like to hearsome expirience with these coolers and or brands. Direct expirience is not nessary if a friend had problems or loves them i want to hear it :)

[arctic]

Well since you dont have much space in the case your options are very limited.
If you look up these products on Newegg there is some Great feedback from people who actually own them, maybe more then TD has.

Thermaltake is indeed a great brand of coolers.. i personally prefer Zalman.

If you need some good case fans i would suggest
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999344

I spent TONS of hours looking hardware up when i built my rig and i found thoes Silverstone fans to move the most amount of air while being as quiet as possiable. Each fan comes with a rather cheap fan control knob you could mount someplace.. or you could just as easily get a fan bay controler.
I bought a Bay fanspeed controler with temp display too
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998038
so far it is working great and looks good too =)

With whatever Heatsink you choose to go with get some good quality thermal compound for sure!

Also.. altho i'm sure your already aware.. See if you can get some kind of air intake at the bottom of the case and an exhaust at the top. If thats even possiable in that case?

I wouldnt be to afraid in what ever choice you choose.. as long as it fits Anything you choose will be better then the stock heatsink/fan you have at the moment. :grin:

[slayer4u]

Well since you dont have much space in the case your options are very limited.
If you look up these products on Newegg there is some Great feedback from people who actually own them, maybe more then TD has.

Thermaltake is indeed a great brand of coolers.. i personally prefer Zalman.

If you need some good case fans i would suggest
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999344

I spent TONS of hours looking hardware up when i built my rig and i found thoes Silverstone fans to move the most amount of air while being as quiet as possiable. Each fan comes with a rather cheap fan control knob you could mount someplace.. or you could just as easily get a fan bay controler.
I bought a Bay fanspeed controler with temp display too
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998038
so far it is working great and looks good too =)

With whatever Heatsink you choose to go with get some good quality thermal compound for sure!

Also.. altho i'm sure your already aware.. See if you can get some kind of air intake at the bottom of the case and an exhaust at the top. If thats even possiable in that case?

I wouldnt be to afraid in what ever choice you choose.. as long as it fits Anything you choose will be better then the stock heatsink/fan you have at the moment. :grin:
well reading the newegg reviews on those (had to accually search through reviews. new egg does not carry the coller master anymore but has all the reviews archived.) that only the the cooler master and the noctua are the only two that accualy reduce the heat well below stock. my stock cooler runs 35-40 at idle but playing heavy games can jump up to 51. apparently this is common for my processor(I already knew they ran hot. the 6000+ was notorious for that) most reiveiws for that CPU said that alot of coolers made an effect. this is obvious of courese because it runs so hot stock byut the coller master and noctua both were said to keep the temp under 40durrring gaming. I'm inclined to belive a side mounted fan will work better since my case flows from front to back. but the fans i have in it pull a crapton of air through it (roughly 100-150cfm. i'd have to pull up the specs on the fans. to be more accurate. ) so i am thinking a side mounted fan might not be nessary. it would direct the heat in the direction the case fans ar moving thie air but aparently the reason my stock cooler is cooling so much better than the AMD one(it's said that it can get up to 90deg celsius and shutdown saftey is at over 115. something i havent seen since my northwood celeron 2.8gig) is because i have it pushing the air into the heatsink rather than pulling it out. the vents on the side of the heatsink let the hot air out where it is carried away but the case fans. i think if i can find this same design in with a beter radiating heatsink i should not have a problem. although i did look up that heat pipe stuff. and i think i understand exactly how it works now. i still feel an aluminum block would cool better. (aluminum radiates heat better and a block cooler would be directly applied to the cpu) but test seem to show that i am wrong. i have noticved though that those tests were conducted in stock cases and non of those cases moved as much air through it as mine did.so it is posible that the aluminum disipates heat so facst that the heat builds inside the case and isn't pulled out fast enough.



also on the topic of liquid cooling.(I get so many people on other forums telling me to go this route) there are some very definite risks in liquid cooling. fist off most coolents will short out electronics if the sit on them or spill. and the non conductive coolents do not cool as well and still will conduct electricity when sitting on a mainboard for too long.

the second is watercooling does cool well but on most cpus and PCs the results are as good or worse than most fan cases. most cooling blocks are aluminum with a thermal coaring on the outside which does a half decent hob keeping the heat from rradiating out intot he case rather than being transfered to the coolent. but for the most part an enormus amount of heat is still raidiated from the blocks. that's why most of them are cut like a heatsink. this means you have to have some kind of airflow pulling the ecsess heat form a waterblock out of the case or it just builds up in there. also liquid cooling is very quiet but most of the pumps have fans. my expirience is the radiator/pump design is bullshit and ineffective. it simply does not radiat enough heat. you need an accual radiator and a hi efficiency pump with some sort of themostat. the idea of a piquid cooling system come from automotive world. the coolent ina an engine is pulkped througe passages that were molded intot he block when it was cast. the coolent is then released out of the top of the engine and into the top of the radiator when it is cooled then pulped out the botome and back into the engine. any mechanic will tell you aluminum radiators cool the best. and also there is a thing called a thermostat that blocks off coolent flow from the engine to the radiator. this alows the engine to tranfer heat to the coolent. when the coolent gets hot enough the themostat opens temprarily then shuts as the hot coolent is replaced. this alows the hot coolent to cool in the radiator so that when it is pumped back intot he engine it will be cold. otherwise it won't cool fast enough and hot coolent get's pumped backl into the engine.

same deal on a computer. in order for that collent to cool it has to sit in a radiator for a while with a fan draing air through it otherwise it won't cool.i have seen setups like this but the are far more costly and the fact is they simply do not cool better than a case with fans. so what it comes down to is less than 50bucks on good fans (all of the fans i added to my case cost about 6 bucks total plus shipping (i bought hem with the case and the case came with a 120mm fan that moves a ton of air too.) there are a few very high efficiency quiet cases. areocool maks a few good ones with larce 25cm fans on the side that draw air from one side to the other. i've had one before and i never added any fans too it and the case staed aroung 22-25c


so in short no liquid cooling for me and i don't recomend it.

[Lotsofnothing1]

Find the Zalman 9700 whatever or the Tuniq Tower 120.