Heatsinks!

[Ughmahedhurtz]

So, I finally broke down and picked up a couple of 2600K CPUs for my gaming boxes and am wondering what you folks are using for heatsinks. I'm running about 70-75C under full load running Rift (stock clock settings) and I'd like to get that down under 65C at the very least, preferably under 60C.

Things I'm looking for:

Air cooling (not interested in water, even the closed "zero-maintenance" systems)
Screw-down CPU baseplate (not the plastic push-pins)
Relatively small footprint (don't need the double-wide three-fan monsters)
Preferably comes with a PWM fan installed.
Needs to fit in a mini-tower case. I don't have humongous RAM heatsinks so clearance should not a problem.

[MiRai]

Ehhh... this Venomous-X (http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/venomous-x/product_cpu_cooler_venomous-x.html) meets some of the criteria. :) It's what I'm using with ambient room temps anywhere
from 76 - 81 F). Using a push/pull setup I had RAM clearance issues on my old Gigabyte UD7 board but not on
this Maximus IV (just barely fits).
(http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/venomous-x/product_cpu_cooler_venomous-x.html)

[Sajuuk]

Eh, just cut a hole in your case. Nobody will notice. :p

What are your ambient temperatures? Pre-load temps?

If you don't have any plans on overclocking you could stay with stock cooling and live with it, or stay with stock cooling and undervolt your processor as much as you can while still maintaining performance.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Ambient temps in here are always under 75.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9624/cpu-noc-15/Noctua_NH-U12P_SE2_CPU_Heat_Sink_With_2_Noctua_Fans_-_Socket_AM2AM377513661156.html?tl=c369s1037b32

Looking at that one. I like the mounting bracket on it a bit better than the VenomousX.

[RSM72]

Megahalems (or its successor the Super Mega) both come without fans premounted and the already mentioned Venomous-X. After using several other fans on overclocked builds for the past years I'm currently using a Megahalems with a single scythe fan and am somewhat pleased with its performance.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Jing

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Products.aspx?C=1417

[RSM72]

Jing

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Products.aspx?C=1417
I'm not certain that 2 way fans is really a plus because from my experience it increased the noise by a fair margin but not really lowers temps but it may depend on the cooler. And I think that "caged" fan containment around the actual cooler will hinder airflow and thus decrase cooling performace.

[Sajuuk]

I'm not certain that 2 way fans is really a plus because from my experience it increased the noise by a fair margin but not really lowers temps but it may depend on the cooler. And I think that "caged" fan containment around the actual cooler will hinder airflow and thus decrase cooling performace.

It's all about airflow and keeping the air moving over the fins of the heatsink. If air isn't moving, heat transfer is occurring at a slower pace, which could limit performance. (hah, maybe a couple degrees difference, but whatever)

[burningforce]

have you looked into the cooler master hyper 212+? It is not that wide but i somewhat tall, so should check clearance before buying.

it comes with a PWM fan, although not sure how good it is as I do not use it, I use another fan.
Seems to cool sandy bridge cpu's quite well and if you stay under 4.7Ghz overclock, then the heatsink should work great.

Only thing I do not like is after you mount everything and the heatsink is on the cpu and secured, the heatsink seems to be easily turned. This is not a huge problem if you install and do not mess with it. I however like to mess around in my machine installing/uninstalling and moving stuff around. I sometimes bump the heatsink and it turns a little, I just turn it back the right way and it seems fine.

here is the heatink webpage http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2923

if you do plan on getting it, be aware that this is a $29.99 heatsink tops. Newegg used to sell this heatsink for this much, but when it become a cheap alternative to higher priced heatsinks, they decided to raise the price to around $40+.

I just checked newegg and it seems the price is $32.99 shipped as of right now. So I would read around and see what you would like to get based on your needs and performance.

[MiRai]

have you looked into the cooler master hyper 212+? It is not that wide but i somewhat tall, so should check clearance before buying.

it comes with a PWM fan, although not sure how good it is as I do not use it, I use another fan.
Seems to cool sandy bridge cpu's quite well and if you stay under 4.7Ghz overclock, then the heatsink should work great.

here is the heatink webpage http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2923

if you do plan on getting it, be aware that this is a $29.99 heatsink tops. Newegg used to sell this heatsink for this much, but when it become a cheap alternative to higher priced heatsinks, they decided to raise the price to around $40+.

I just checked newegg and it seems the price is $32.99 shipped as of right now. So I would read around and see what you would like to get based on your needs and performance.
Have heard good things about the H212+ myself.

Only thing I do not like is after you mount everything and the heatsink is on the cpu and secured, the heatsink seems to be easily turned. This is not a huge problem if you install and do not mess with it. I however like to mess around in my machine installing/uninstalling and moving stuff around. I sometimes bump the heatsink and it turns a little, I just turn it back the right way and it seems fine.
As far as I know... most, if not all, big gigantic heat sinks move after being mounted in place. My Venomous-X,
Zalman 9500, and whatever other one I had back in the day all moved if they were bumped or messed with.
If you could apply enough pressure in order to keep the heatsink from moving... I'm guessing you'd either
damage the CPU or crack the motherboard.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I ordered a couple of the Noctua 4/8-pipe setups. We'll see how they do.

[burningforce]

Have heard good things about the H212+ myself.

As far as I know... most, if not all, big gigantic heat sinks move after being mounted in place. My Venomous-X,
Zalman 9500, and whatever other one I had back in the day all moved if they were bumped or messed with.
If you could apply enough pressure in order to keep the heatsink from moving... I'm guessing you'd either
damage the CPU or crack the motherboard.



I used a tuniq tower 120 extreme and it never moved, at least not as much as the hyper 212+. But like I said if you are not tinkering in the computer every second like me :P, it should be a decent cooler. Yes the hyper is a great cooler, i mainly bought it because it was smaller then the tuniq and I can now reach the 8pin power connector on my motherboard. But I am very happy with the performance for the price I paid for it, especially combining it with some MX-2 thermal paste.

sounds good Ughmahedhurtz.Although I do hear the noctua setups are huge, but can not be as big as the silver arrow, that thing is a monster:eek:

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Yeah, I did see some of those that were monsters. I was comparing some of the dimensions with my Ultra120 in my linux backup box and the one I picked is slightly smaller than that one. I should be good. Nice thing is the Intel reference boards are very clean in terms of things being out of the way of heatsinks, unlike the Asus/EVGA/etc. that have the monster chipset coolers and such all over the place.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Update: Noctua NH-U12P's came in today. Push/pull fan setup. VERY solid mount bracket. Overall build quality is super. Even comes with two in-line resistor adapters (to step down the fan to lower speeds for quiet operation) and a pigtail adapter to run both fans off the CPU header.


As far as I know... most, if not all, big gigantic heat sinks move after being mounted in place. My Venomous-X,
Zalman 9500, and whatever other one I had back in the day all moved if they were bumped or messed with.
If you could apply enough pressure in order to keep the heatsink from moving... I'm guessing you'd either
damage the CPU or crack the motherboard.

This one absolutely Does. Not. Move. I wish everyone went to this type of mount. My previous heat sinks have twisted as well but this sucker is rock solid; I have no qualms about picking up the motherboard with it.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6017/5968892573_3d7f385c61_b.jpg

Big metal baseplate with high-density foam rubber feet.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6142/5968892593_0007db3a30_b.jpg

It does take up most of the space between the video card and PSU in a mid-tower case, though. :p

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6132/5968892649_11231f2399_b.jpg

CPU temps went WAY down, though. The stock coolers for 2600K's are pure shit, IMO. Both of mine were sitting at 75-82C running Rift at high settings (main) or on the 4-client alt PC. At stock clock settings even. With the Noctua installed, neither PC goes over about 48-50C under full load and they sit at 31-34C browsing the web and such. Very happy so far.

Much better than the stock setup. (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?p=340387) :mad:

[MiRai]

Nice, dude.

Now we've gotta work on that cable management. :)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

rofl...I tucked a few things aside and secured stuff out of the way of fans after I took the pics. Still not sexy but it'll do. :p

[burningforce]

looks good, might pick the heatsink up when I find a decent full tower to buy.

also I noticed you took the casing off the video card to use a aftermarket cooler, but from the picture I could not see any video card vram heatsinks. Do you use any heatsinks on the video card vram?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

That's the stock heatsink/shroud on that 5850.