Which HSF?

[stanleym]

What Heatsink + Fan combination would you reccomend for a T'bird 1200, on an Abit KT7A? I currently have some bog-standard one that has it idling @ 50°C

TIA.

[Maxi]

50*C ...... Ouch

[DanAdams]

50c idele? damn! *any* decent HSF will ool that puppy right down - been a longtime fan of Coolermaster stuff myself, but I hear the ThermoEngine is pretty fantastic, tho I haven't used it myself. Any HSF sold by Kustom or similar will be good quality and way better than what you have ATM - thought about adding a case fan or two, BTW?

[ross]

My temps were almost as high as yours.
I got a nice Taisol hsf and fan for cpu, 1 case fan sucking in front, 1 blowing out back, 1 exhaust system cooler next to my graphics card. Cooled things by at least 10oC.

[JADS]

Before my Celeron went to the great CPU heaven in the sky I could have cooked an egg on the core as it was that hot, ;)!!!

James

[stanleym]

Yes, the case is far too small for it.. if i take the side + top off it drops by about 5 degrees, which is probably a hint at something. It also doesn't heat up much under load, a few hours of deus ex, serious sam or that, it won't go above about 56-57, which is probably something to do with windows2K not telling it to cool down if its not doing anything. So yes, a helicopterish case is probably required, but im not having that without a baybus, which is another 40-odd quids for the soldering inadequate.

[Nitestorm]

Yeah case cooling is very important, since heatsinks with fans use force air convection to remove the heat. The lower the case temp, the better the heatsink can cool. Having a case fan at the front sucking cool air in and a case fan below the PSU sucking air out (assuming the case supports such fan configurations) will help. Adding a blowhole would also improve things even more. Using a thermistor controlled case fan would help keep the noise down, but provide performance (and extra noise) when the case temp gets too high. Other ways to improve case cooling is to use a PSU that has 2 fans (ie Enermax) and a well ventilated case like the Antec SX830 or SX1030.

The ThermoEngine with stock fan is pretty good up to 1.0Ghz, but above that, really good performance requires the use of a better fan. Normally the ThermoEngine is paired with the Delta 38CFM fan, which gives very good performance, however, it's is very loud at 47dB-A and has a high pitched sound. It would be fine, just the noise might be a problem for you.

Currently, the 3 best heatsinks seem to be the ThermalRight SK6, Millennium Glaciator and Swiftech MC462. They perform near equal with each other, only 1-2oC difference, but each one has it's own advantages and disadvantages in terms of features (mouting, size, noise, weight, price etc), which means which one is best is a personal choice.

[ 01 July 2001: Message edited by: Nitestorm ]