Cooling an OC'd E8400@ 4.0GHz

[Doomsday]

I only have these CPU coolers available in me country.
1: ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II FAN
2: Cooler Master Hyper TX2
3: Cooler Master CM Sphere.

Which one would be the better choice?

 

[Rob Williams]

I am no cooling guru, so I can't go ahead and pick one, but I'd be impressed if neither of those would sufficiently cool the E8400 at 4.0GHz. The ASUS in particular cooled admirably in our tests earlier this year, and that was with a Quad-Core, so I'd imagine a Dual-Core would be a breeze with almost anything.

Hopefully someone can provide more insight than me, though.

 

[Kougar]

I don't think any of those will be sufficient to cool a 4GHz E8400, sorry.

 

[Rob Williams]

How so? It's been a while since I've touched the E8400, but I don't recall temperatures so high at 4.0GHz that it would require advanced cooling. I did a 4.0GHz overclock on a cheap external water-cooler that performs worse than most decent air coolers.

As a side note, 4.0GHz really isn't that necessary. Something a bit lower is still going to offer insane performance.

 

[Doomsday]

ok so how about 3.8GHz, cause u were able to hit that on stock voltages, only increasing the north bridge though. so one of these coolers would do the trick then innit!!?

 

[Merlin]

I only have these CPU coolers available in me country.
1: ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II FAN
2: Cooler Master Hyper TX2
3: Cooler Master CM Sphere.

Which one would be the better choice?

I've had mine to 4.0 on a Zalman 9700LED
Temps stayed pretty decent, I just wanted to see if I could, mostly I just leave it at 3.6
and FSB around 375

Read my signature

 

[Doomsday]

wot bout the CPU coolers Merlin dude?!? which one would u suggest even if i go upto 3.6 or 3.8 even?!?

 

[Merlin]

wot bout the CPU coolers Merlin dude?!? which one would u suggest even if i go upto 3.6 or 3.8 even?!?

Zalman 9700LED


1300+ and 5 eggs cant be wrong, Dude

Above that you could water cool or use a CoolIt Freezone

How much do you want to spend??

 

[Kougar]

How so? It's been a while since I've touched the E8400, but I don't recall temperatures so high at 4.0GHz that it would require advanced cooling. I did a 4.0GHz overclock on a cheap external water-cooler that performs worse than most decent air coolers.

As a side note, 4.0GHz really isn't that necessary. Something a bit lower is still going to offer insane performance.

None of those coolers look to be that good... I didn't say it wouldn't be possible, but I think the CPU temps would be a little to high at 4GHz. I've played with a 1.2v Q6600 at 3Ghz using an AF7 and temps were not pretty... those coolers rate as good or worse than an AF7.

I could always be wrong because I don't have 4GHz 45nm CPUs to play with yet, but that's my opinion.

I think any of those coolers could handle it at 3.4-3.6GHz, but honestly that's just my guess. It'll depend on temp of the envrionment, fan speed you use, and the CPU/voltage needed to make it stable.

 

[Doomsday]

Zalman 9700LED


1300+ and 5 eggs cant be wrong, Dude

Above that you could water cool or use a CoolIt Freezone

How much do you want to spend??

i can spend about $70(US). but new egg doesnot ship to pakistan so. but i found another site which does, Sidewinder computer does and it has that Thermalright Ultra cooler too! This will do it right right?!?! it was one of the best in ur CPU round up too!

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica]<center>Thermalright Ultra-120 EXTREME - for Intel Socket 775 or AMD AM2 Processors

</center><center><strike>MSRP $64.95</strike>
Our Price $55.95</center>[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica]<center>



</center>[/FONT]

 

[Doomsday]

None of those coolers look to be that good... I didn't say it wouldn't be possible, but I think the CPU temps would be a little to high at 4GHz. I've played with a 1.2v Q6600 at 3Ghz using an AF7 and temps were not pretty... those coolers rate as good or worse than an AF7.

I could always be wrong because I don't have 4GHz 45nm CPUs to play with yet, but that's my opinion.

I think any of those coolers could handle it at 3.4-3.6GHz, but honestly that's just my guess. It'll depend on temp of the envrionment, fan speed you use, and the CPU/voltage needed to make it stable.

Hey i had another question cause i have no idea bout this. i am also buying some case fans, four of em: Scythe 120x25mm SlipStream SY1225SL12SH - 110 CFM
these are 37dbA. is that loud or normal?!? how many dBA would u recommend?!?

 

[Kougar]

I don't own one of those fans, but based off the 37dbA and CFM I'd say they will probably be loud. "Loud" is a relative term though... safer to say you will be able to hear these fans, but they might not be loud to your ears.

"Silent" fans are typically at or below 20dbA in my view, but they have a much lower CFM as well.

 

[Rob Williams]

Doomsday, the Thermalright cooler there looks to be a great choice. If it's $55 USD in that paste, then it's not going to be a horrible deal either. Those fans are going to be a little loud, but if you plan to use one on the CPU cooler, it should do a fantastic job at keeping the CPU stable. I had 4.0GHz stable on a crappy water-cooling system that was essentially worse than air, so that cooler will eat that CPU for breakfast.

 

[b1lk1]

Any 120mm fan that is 25mm thick and is running 110CFM will sound like a hovercraft. They will be overly loud. They will also move a helluva lot of air too so there are tradeoffs that you might be OK with.

 

[Doomsday]

Any 120mm fan that is 25mm thick and is running 110CFM will sound like a hovercraft. They will be overly loud. They will also move a helluva lot of air too so there are tradeoffs that you might be OK with.

how much would u suggest which wont be a pain in the ears? i dont mind a normal humming sound though.

 

[b1lk1]

60 CFM or so will be more than sufficient for good cooling and sound. Noctua fans are one of my favorites.

 

[Kougar]

FM121 fans I have put out 110CFM. They are audible, maybe loud, but they don't scream. Most of the noise was the airflow, with just a faint growl underneath.

After awhile the noise eventually got on my nerves though... I don't want to even know my PC is turned on by sound alone, I prefer it silent for the best movie/music listening.

 

[Rob Williams]

Somewhat off-topic, but don't make the mistake of picking up a high RPM fan that doesn't include a controller or uses molex connectors rather than a three or four-pin connector. Picked up some bad ass 141.1 CFM fan last week... big mistake. Normally, I could sleep with some constant noise, but this was ridiculous.

So woops for me, nice waste of cash.

 

[Kougar]

Rob, you don't have a fan controller? Or rather a spare one? I own a Vantec model something or other, it didn't have any trouble handling a 152CFM Delta screamer. Although the fan still growled like an engine even at the lowest setting.

I don't use them except when goofing around due to the growling, but those kinds of CFM fans are still fun to have around. Consider yours an investment in fun...

 

[Rob Williams]

No, I don't have a fan controller at all. I half-expected the fan to just plug in and work. It's a fan that has a single cable (wire) that plugs into a fan connector on the motherboard... there's just one pin there, though. Then there is the Molex connector which includes two-pins, which is what powers the beast.

I'm not that concerned, to be honest, though. Even when I allowed it to run full-blast the entire evening, it made a difference of 1&deg;C on average. I'm dead serious. So... I think the room is the bottleneck here, not the fan, hah.