Finding and adequate aftermarket heatsink/fan

[Dresden]

Hello-

Well I decided to stop supporting my friend's ridiculously expensive to maintain, seemingly archaic computer which broke on me, and decided to finish my rig i have been working on for some time. I'm about to put the finishing touches on it and I have just one question: A friend of mine highly suggested purchasing an aftermarket heatsink and fan for the processor, for cooling purposes. What do you guys suggest? The processor is as follows:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116195

I will be thermal pasting it, but I would like to take his advice. Any suggestions?

Thank you-

Norton

 

[digitalwanderer]

I almost always buy an aftermarket heatsink for my CPUs, they're usually much better.

 

[Dresden]

I almost always buy an aftermarket heatsink for my CPUs, they're usually much better.

any suggestions, or preferences towards a certain company?


*edit* i just noticed theres a typo in my thread title. Forgive me.

 

[kyleb]

Depends on what you are after, more overclocking headroom, less noise or a compromise between. But if those factors don't matter to you, then there is no point in buying an aftermarket HSF.

 

[Guden Oden]

For heatsink information, there are few places better suited than www.frostytech.com. We could name brand names or particular sinks until the cows come home, but unless we know a bit more about your particular needs/demands, it might be wasted effort.

For example, you just want to cool your processor, not overclock it and stuff? How much are you willing to pay? Do you use a standard-sized chassis? What about the mobo? Some heatsinks are very large and may not fit every board.

There are more things to consider when buying a simple heatsink than is immediately obvious, heh!

I'd look at a sink from either zalman, thermalright or arctic cooling myself, those companies' products are known to be well engineered, have high quality manufacturing and perform well under most any circumstance.

 

[ANova]

My suggestion would be the Zalman CNPS7000, it's available in aluminum and copper or all copper depending on your needs. I little pricey but cools amazingly and is almost completely silent.

 

[mjtdevries]

If you are not overclokcking and just want a quiet cooling solution, it is usually enough to lower the rpm on the stock coolers a bit.

Lots of motherboards allow you to change the rpm with software.
I always use a free tool called speedfan.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

I would try with the stock cooler first and see if that tool delivers what you need. You can always buy a quieter cooler at a later time.

 

[Dresden]

I'm not going to be overclocking my processor, I just need something for cooling/noise purposes.

 

[The_Wolf_Who_Cried_Boy]

The Zalman 9500 is pretty cool (and importantly also light for it's delivered performance).

so shoot me for the god awefull pun....

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I'm not going to be overclocking my processor, I just need something for cooling/noise purposes.

If you're not significantly overclocking, I've found the Artic Cooling range to be very quiet, very efficient, and ridiculously cheap. They've got new fan designs that eliminate almost all of the fan noise.

 

[DudeMiester]

Also, bigger fans mean less noise since they can work at a lower rpm, so if you had an 120mm fan with a heatsink the XP-120, then it can be very quiet.

 

[Dresden]

I neglected to make a mention to what my mobo is. It would probably be helpful, making note to the placement of screw holes near the CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127189


That Zalman looks appealing, how do you know whether these are compatible with your motherboard?

 

[nutball]

That Zalman looks appealing, how do you know whether these are compatible with your motherboard?

I think Zalman's website has a list of compatible (or rather incompatible motherboards).

The 9500 is rather large, if you're going to buy a cooler of that size you might look at the Scythe Ninja or similar as it gives you much more flexibility (you can run the Ninja passive if you're clever about it, or use a single 120mm fan for CPU cooling and system exhaust).

The Zalman 7000 is adequate for most purposes though and simple to fit, and it's cheaper than the 9500.

 

[Sxotty]

The stock opteron coolers sold for $18 dollars with dual heatpipes are actually amazingly good coolers. Small quiet and perform well.

 

[AlNom]

That Zalman looks appealing, how do you know whether these are compatible with your motherboard?

Actually, compatibility has more to do with the CPU socket rather than motherboard. I suppose it's the rules (and a good thing). Screwholes and placement are all standardized per socket design.

For socket 939, things are slightly different since the motherboard comes with the cradle attached. For aftermarket heatsinks, one can just remove the cradle if necessary, but it requires having access to the back of the motherboard.

 

[Dresden]

I looked on Zalman's website and discovered there's actually officially sanctioned Fatal1ty cooling devices, the same brand as my mobo.

http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/zcpu/

Think that would work?