Thermalright Ultra-120 and Noctua Vortex-Control fan question

Mr Doovde

Mr Doovde

Mr Doovde

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I'm hoping to purchase a Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler to help overclock a Phenom II 955 to 3.6GHz. Should I buy two Noctua Vortex-Control 120mm fans for the push/pull combination, or could I purchase only one fan without seeing a big increase in temperatures? If I can get away with just one fan, should I use it in a push or pull configuration (sorry first build :))
 
You can probably get away with one fan, as two doesn't seem to offer that much improvement. However, if you are planning on pushing it to the limit, I'd get two.
 
Thanks very much for the quick reply D D Danneh. Would 3.6 be pushing it to the limit? If not, should I have the one fan in a push or pull configuration?
 
From a little looking around, 3.6GHz seems to be a decent overclock, but not pushing to the limit. I reckon you'd definitely get away with one fan. You can always buy another one in the future if you think you need one.
 
Brilliant, thanks again. One last thing, should I have the fan in a pull or push configuration. Sorry to be a nuisance, as you've been such a great help.
 
Shouldn't matter really. As long as it's pointed towards an exhaust fan, it should be fine. The Vortex control fans are very good for pressure, so whether it's pulling air through or pushing it, it'll work.

I don't know which is better. In theory, they'd both be the same, the only difference is the order. I'd probably put it in push, because then the rear exhaust fan can "pull" the air going through to make sure the hot air is exhausted and not the cooler air. Seems redundant to have one fan right next to another fan, you might as well have the heatsink in between them.
 
Push rather than pull got me 4 degrees using 1600rpm scythe s-flex. I'm pretty certain push is the standard way around.

Adding a second gained me 2 degrees on an open bench, and zero in a case. I believe this to be because the exhaust fan and pull fan were too close to each other.

This was on an overclocked e8400, I don't know offhand if that's hotter or cooler than your chip.

I recommend against getting two. I'd suggest one and a high cfm / low-to-medium static air pressure case exhaust fan. Static pressure doesn't mean much if it isn't blowing through fins, but means everything if it is
 
Just to make sure, that cooler is fine with AM3, even though it doesn't explicitly state AM3 compatible?

Not sure if it's a big problem, but I've heard that the NH-U12P cooler tends to have a strange noise associated with it, almost like a distant plane flying overhead? I only mention this as I'm aiming for a quiet computer (which I should have mentioned).
 
JonJ678 said:
I recommend against getting two. I'd suggest one and a high cfm / low-to-medium static air pressure case exhaust fan. Static pressure doesn't mean much if it isn't blowing through fins, but means everything if it is
Click to expand...

Sorry, You're talking to a complete beginner here :eek:. Would the Noctua Vortex-Control fan fall into that category?
 
Ideally you should have your fan mounted on the side nearest the DIMM slots pushing air through the HS and out of the rear exhaust fan on your case...
 
It comes under the heading of high static pressure. It would work excellently as a case fan as well, it's just rather highly priced for that role. I've got scythe s flex on everything, but this was a foolish mistake made when I was a complete beginner.

Ahh silence, that's an even more elusive goal than overclocking. The true works fine passively if the chip isn't too heavily overclocked and makes no noise under these circumstances. I suspect what you'll want to do is run the case fans at 7V, with resistors or little molex adapters. I can't work out cpu fan control on my current motherboard so I'm running it at a constant speed 7V. I find a constant noise less annoying than a quieter one which changes with processor load

One thing to consider with noise control is having two profiles, one overclocked and one underclocked. I'll run the former by default, but when I'd like quiet I reboot, pick the other profile, load operating system and turn off most of the fans through software. Experimenting with combinations of this at the moment, might go a step further and actually get a fan controller.
 
Thanks DavyBoy, will do. JonJ678, i wil try your suggestions and am also tempted with the fan controller, though I might leave that until I have a little bit of experience.

I appreciate what you mean when you state that you prefer a constant noise, as opposed to an alternating one, even if it is louder. I'm guessing that the brain adapts to and can learn to 'tune out' if the noise level remains constant (as long as it is not too loud). That's what I've managed to do with my computer and it's pretty horrific.
 
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