Heat Sinks - Need Advice please

[Zxian]

Hey everyone,

I'm calling upon the wonderful mass of knowledge that we have here once again.

I'm looking to make my computer as silent as possible. Right now, I've got the stock heatsink/fan that came with the computer when I first got it. Needless to say, it's pretty loud.

Ive got an Athlon T-bird Socket A CPU and I've been looking at the following heatsinks:

Zalman CNPS3100+

ThermalTake A1889-01 Silent Boost

Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2TC

Right now, my temps are 43C idle, 52C load with the stock heatsink. I'd like to keep them either at this level or lower if possible.

I'd like to stick to buying from NCIX since they've got an outlet store close to work, so I don't have to pay for shipping.

Any suggestions or comments welcome!

Thanks in advance!

[puntoMX]

Go for the Zalman cooler IF you have the space for it on your mobo and your case is big enough. The 92mm fan wil not be the problem to fit (even you can replace it with a 12cm fan. )

The 1333 and 1400 MHz K7 CPUs are one of the hottest CPUs AMD ever made so it will not be the quietest PC .

[Zxian]

I've got a fairly big case and I think I have space on my mobo (I'll have to double check with a ruler tho...).

I know the late gen T-birds are pretty hot, but on the Zalman website, it says that the CNPS3100+ can handle the T-birds even on silent mode.

Like I said, right now, it's got the stock Aluminum heatsink and a puny 55mm fan (or whatever's that small size...). Chances are the new heatsink and fan will be quieter than what I've got...

[Zxian]

Well... I got the Zalman. It's the first heatsink I've installed, but it seems like everything went well (seems... again, I don't know...). I removed the old heatsink and used isopropanol to clean of the thermal pad that came with the stock cooler. Once the CPU was shiny clean, I put a small bead of AS5 on the middle of the CPU. I put the new heatsink on and pressed down, rotating it about 2deg both ways to spread out the AS5. I put the clamp on and put the mobo back in the case and connected everything back together.

With brand new Arctic Silver 5 and the fan running on silent mode (the slowest setting) my CPU is 1C cooler than it was (at idle - haven't stressed it yet), and the computer is a lot quieter...

I've heard that Arctic Silver needs to be "Cured" or something for it to reach it's maximum thermal conductivity, so I'm gonna look into that and see if I can make a program that will run on a schedule to heat and cool the CPU.

Just thought I'd let everyone know.

[puntoMX]

Use a credit-card or some thing else to spread the thermo-paste, it could make some difference .

[Zxian]

I've heard that sometimes when you spread the paste, it just becomes a mess all over the CPU...by just putting a bead and then gently rotating it while pressing, it spreads the paste more evenly.

Any thoughts on this?

[rabster1]

I like to keep my machines silent.

For the CPU I generally get the biggest copper heatsink I can find. When appling heatsink paste use as thin a film as possble spread evenly over the die. I use a razer blade to spread the paste! Remember the paste is not an extra layer, but just there to fill any, hopefully very small gaps or imperfections in the contacting surfaces. For fans I like to to use a 80mm Panaflo with fluid bearings

Also if temps are well within acceptable limits you can undervolt the fan from 12v - 7v quite easily. This makes the fan run slower and quieter.