CPU Coolers

[MANDOBLE]

For those of you thinking about upgrading or buying an > 1.9Ghz Athlon XP, I got a very good recommendation:

http://www.coolermaster.com.hk/en/products/cooler/hsc-001.html

[AKWarp]

Heh, now we turn the arguement over to which HSF is best

There are some good heatsinks out there, and there are some crappy ones too....the funny part is, they all cost about the same, use the same basic principles and really, if you get down to the numbers are all well within a very close range in terms of performance with a few exceptions.

I love all the latest buzzwords used for marketing....this heatsink uses the latest technology.  The best part of it all is really the biggest deciding factor for heatsink performance is, frankly, the fan.  

You want more cooling?  move more air.  To do that, you need either a bigger fan or a faster rotating one (assuming your basic blade and fan design is decent and follows standard fan design conventions...which 99.9% of them do).  The downside is, of course, noise.  

I get a real kick out of the funky heatsink designs they are coming up with and the associated buzzwords.."skived fins", "helicoid pins", etc, et al.  But the basics still apply and are ultimately the biggest factors in heatsink design...mass, construction material, and surface area.  There's just so many combinations of this that you can make and the heatsink makers are starting to run out of them!

There are, as mentioned, a couple of noteworthy products out now that have actually made some decent headway in terms of design and actual cooling effectiveness.  The first is the Zalman "flower" heatsink.  Check it out at:  http://www.sharkacorp.com)
And YS tech's new TMD "Tip Magnet Drive" fans (the coils are located in all 4 corners of the fan frame and the magnets are spaced around the outside edge of the fan ring).  The benefit is no huge center hub to hold the motor...net effect, it moves more air at lower RPMs and they're quieter.  Check them out at:  http://www.dansdata.com/tmdfan.htm.

However, if you really want great cooling and a lot less noise, consider water cooling.  Today's kits are really nice setups and really do work very well and are reasonably priced....or if you really have money to burn (pun intended), then look at refridgeration setups (such as a Kryo-case, etc).  

Peltier coolers are also an option, but there are a lot of nasty variables to deal with when using them, and if not setup correctly can be worse than using an HSF.  IMHO, not worth the trouble (and that's speaking from actual experience).

[Pongo]

Toms hardware didnt like those flower fans.

[Doberman]

Originally posted by AKWarp


There are, as mentioned, a couple of noteworthy products out now that have actually made some decent headway in terms of design and actual cooling effectiveness.  The first is the Zalman "flower" heatsink.  Check it out at:  http://www.sharkacorp.com)
 

As was already posted, just about every multi-cooler test done on any of the computer hot-rodding sites have shown that the flowers are mid-pack performers at best.  Put 'em in their "Silent Mode" (as they call it.  Passive, with no fan) and they're down in the weeds with the rest of the crap.  No passive solution is up to the task of cooling todays CPU's and the fan you can use with them is ineffecient and doesn't expose enough surface area to the moving air.

They sure do look pretty tho.

D

[Karnak]

My CPU fan (Athlon XP 1800+ {1533Mhz}) uses solid copper and a big fan with some water convection thrown in for good measure.

I noticed a big drop in CPU tempature compared with my aluminium heatsink with a big fan, so something is good.  The old heatsink was a Thermaltake Volcano, so it wasn't bottom end exactly.

New heatsink, I highly recommend it:
http://www.coolermaster.com.hk/en/products/cooler/hhc-001.html

[AKWarp]

Yes, I expected you guys to dislike the zalman sinks, but if you think about the conditions they were tested under, then it only makes sense.  ANY heat sink with NO fan isn't going to cool as well as another with a 7,000 RPM screeching Delta banshee on it.  However, the Zalman also has a 92mm fan and when mounted with the bracket does not provide optimum cooling either...but that's not the fault of the heatsink.  The best solution is to move up to a 120mm fan and take the time install it in the optimum position.  I'm willing to bet anyone here some money that this setup will cool as well as any of the scheechers out there and do it in a much quieter manner if the setup is done right.

The zalman is a good design, it has a lot of surface area and uses the right metals.  The heatisnk isn't the problem, getting enough CFM of air across it is the challenge.

Of course, in addition to all this, and just as, if not more important, is total case ventilation.  You can move all that heat off the cpu, but the HSF dumps it all into the case.  You leave it there and everything will get hot.