Best cooler for duals and quads?

[chainbolt]

Originally Posted by Ben Ifin

Chainbolt

What 120mm fan are you running on you Big Typhoons ?

Ben

Currently Sanyo Denki: Full size 120 mm fan at 3,000 and 130 CFM. That's around double the performance of the fan that comes with the BT. The noise is still ok. I have an industry grade 8,000 RPM 120 mm fan from Sanyo Denki, that produces almost 300 CFM, but the noise is unbearable.

[chainbolt]

Originally Posted by slobber

You've lost me chainy, I dont understant your statement or maybe I just need a hammer to the back of the head

I have always thought that its good if the CPU fan also blows over the fets at the same time as cooling the CPU ????

Thats what the BIG T does, same as the Thermalright coolers, both of which are the best choise to buy

I think we are talking about the same thing, sorry for my bad English.

There are HSF that blow onto the PCB, like the INTEL reference fan, the BT and the Mini BT, and SP-90, the SP-120, and the SI-128. This is good, because it follows the Intel reference design, the mosefts and the NB and various other components are cooled to gether with the CPU sink.

Then we have HSF that blow "over" the PCB, like the Scythe Ninja and Infiniti, various Zalman design, the Cooler Master Hyper 6+, etc. I don't say that these HSF are bad, but I found that the design where the fan is blowing into the CPU sink are better, and additionally you get cooling for the NB and the mosfets.

[lowdog]

Not sure but I think the Thermalright Ultra 120 is the newest model http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod4119.htm

It has 8 heatpipes and a new fin design wheras the SI-128 has 4 heatpipes. The Ultra 120 weighs an extra 300g more than the SI-128 as well.

It's heavy all right but lucky for me I have a bracket attached to the case the rests under the end or the Ultra 120 and helps support it, the bracket also mounts an additional 120mm fan that is blowing directly onto the nth bridge heatsink and mofets heatsinks on my P5W64.............which is better than having the warm air from the heatsink fan blowing over the mobo imho.

I'm using it and with X6800 @ 3500Mhz stock vcore and my dual prime temps are 51C max.

[Submariner]

lowdog, the SI-128 is the newest blow down model.

Maybe we should come up with some cool names to differentiate between a blow down (best for overclocker) and a blow thru (best for silent PC) heatsink

[lowdog]

Blow down, blow through, blah

I think the way I have my blow through model set up is better than having the blow down model anyway because I have a blow down fan below it blowing down directly onto the nth bridge, mofets and ram while the blow through above it is blowing through to the rear case fan that is blowing out of the case. ......lot of blowing going on there. Seems to be working fine for me.

[chainbolt]

Originally Posted by Submariner

lowdog, the SI-128 is the newest blow down model.

Maybe we should come up with some cool names to differentiate between a blow down (best for overclocker) and a blow thru (best for silent PC) heatsink

That exactly is the point. The "blow thru" HSF are designed for another purpose than the "blow down" HSF.

[Luke212]

I would think that the blow through fans would have better overclocking capability, because blow downs cause expelled air to be recycled. Bow through fans send hot air straight to an exhaust point.

If you need mosfet cooling, use a second fan for that, also pointing towards the exhaust point.

[chainbolt]

Originally Posted by Luke212

I would think that the blow through fans would have better overclocking capability, because blow downs cause expelled air to be recycled. Bow through fans send hot air straight to an exhaust point.

But they neither can cool the CPU sink directly, nor do they cover the mosfets and the NB. It's pretty obvious why Intel's reference is calling for a blown down cooler. The recommended PCB lay out seems to be for such HSF, and not for blow through. Of course, the stronger the fan, and the more fans are used, for example for active NB cooling, the less this is an disadvantage.

[lowdog]

Originally Posted by chainbolt

But they neither can cool the CPU sink directly, nor do they cover the mosfets and the NB.

With both the SI-128 and the Ultra 120 air on the cpu sink does nothing. The heatpipes take away the heat from the contact point of the heatsink and the cpu. Air passing through the fins where the heatpipes terminate is the active factor in the cooling process with both heatsink designes.

Air is heated after it passes through the fins and the dissadvantage of the blowdown model is that this heated air is blown over the mobo. I'm not saying air blown over the mobo is a bad thing but cool air is better than heated/recycled air. If the blowthrough model can deliver it's heated air straight to an exhaust fan and you have a seperate fan blowing over the mobo that is delivering cool/fresh unheated air then it should give better cooling results.

As I mentioned above; the Ultra 120 has 8 heatpipes V's the 4 heatpipes of the SI-128 and with the actual heatpipes being the active medium for heat transfer theorietically it should be the superior preformer.

[Luke212]

Originally Posted by chainbolt

But they neither can cool the CPU sink directly, nor do they cover the mosfets and the NB. It's pretty obvious why Intel's reference is calling for a blown down cooler. The recommended PCB lay out seems to be for such HSF, and not for blow through. Of course, the stronger the fan, and the more fans are used, for example for active NB cooling, the less this is an disadvantage.

air blowing directly onto the cpu core, taken in isolation will probably provide better cooling. after all some cooling is better than no cooling. However it is not realistically going to provide superior cooling due to:
1. minimal surface area on the base of the cpu sink (i mean like 1% improvement in isolation)
2. increased turbulence reduces fan performance and increases noise.
3. more hot air is recycled.

My case's front wall is entirely made up of 3x 12cm fans. the back is open. a 12cm fan pointing back on the cpu provides 4x12cm fans of near silent cooling power. All drives and psu are in a separate compartment. Especially in this case (although non-typical) I would definately not use a down blower over a through blower!

[Dangerman]

One of the major reasons I like the Zalman CNPS9500 is its really easy to clean.

I have floorboards and tiles at my place which seemd to be dustier than carpet. Also have a wood heater which adds to the amonuts of dust particles in the air.

I was forever cleaning out the HSF on my P4, which ment removing the HFS and I would wash the HS with hot water and then use my wifes hair drier on it before reattaching.

The Zalman cooler seems to work fine at keeping the cpu cool, and is every easy to clean, a quick suck with the nossel of the vacuum cleaner and shes good to go. No need to remove it at all.

I also think the design allows for far better airflow though my case, I have a Thermaltake Xaser 111 which came with 7 case fans.

I have removed two of them which blow air directly onto the cpu/card area, as Im sure all they did was make the air turblent.

I have two fans blowing across the Hard drives at the front, two behind the cpu sucking hot air out of the case and one in the top sucking air out.

I plan to do a mild overclock with my new conroe E6600, if I think the Mobo is getting too hot, a few heatsinks added to the mobo would take care of that.

Danger

[lowdog]

Check this comparison between heatsinks, it's in German though but the results in the graph says it all. http://www.hartware.de/review_604_7.html

The Thermalright Ultra 120 comes out on top.

[Luke212]

Originally Posted by lowdog

Check this comparison between heatsinks, it's in German though but the results in the graph says it all. http://www.hartware.de/review_604_7.html

The Thermalright Ultra 120 comes out on top.

Its hard to clearly say which is the best.

In this review the Tuniq Tower 120 comes out on top.


My pick is either a Tuniq Tower 120 if you can find one, or a Ninja.

[richardnau]

Serious OCers probably don't worry about trying to slow down the fans, but I'll ask the question anyway.

If you get a cooler that requires a 120mm fan (or you replace the 120mm fan on your cooler), where can you get a decent (choose your own definintion of decent) 120mm fan with 4-wire connector to plug into the 4-wire PWM CPU fan circuit on a current motherboard?

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by lowdog

Check this comparison between heatsinks, it's in German though but the results in the graph says it all. http://www.hartware.de/review_604_7.html

The Thermalright Ultra 120 comes out on top.

Not being able to read German, I cannot read how they have set up their test system - in a case or no case? They use a low speed fan (1140rpm).

Out of the Ultra 120 and the SI-128, the SI-128 is the newest model, but only by a couple of days. It is the way Thermalright is marketing the heatsinks. The Ultra is designed for a silent PC and AFAIK that is why it is bigger, it can use a quieter fan. To get it to work as an overclocking heatsink you need to increase the air flow and that defeats the purpose of a quiet PC, but does not mean it is a bad heatsink for overclocking. It does mean you have to know what you are doing when you use a blow thru, to get the best out of it.