Best bang/buck LGA775 air cooler for overclocked Q9550 in Antec 300?

hughythomas

hughythomas

hughythomas

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Hi guys

I don't really keep up to date with air coolers these days but am about to build a new rig for music production. It is based around the following:

ASUS P5K-E Wifi/AP
Intel Core2Duo Quad Q9550 12MB Cache @ 2.93Ghz (will be overclocking it!)
4GB DDR2 Corsair Dominator PC8500 RAM
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD

My question is - I had the Titan Fenrir in my basket for CPU cooling duties but apparently it won't fit in the Antec 300 case unless one removes the side fan. I would prefer to keep it on as that side will be exposed whereas the other won't.

Is there a similiarly performing CPU cooler to tame the quad for overclocking?

It's going in a studio so being quiet is pretty dam important to?

Many thanks

Tom
 
Above is a good choice, or similarly the Akasa Freedom Tower.

Why not get a different case? The M59 is infinitely better and only £5 more...
 
Superewza said:
Oh yeah, sure. It's still got the only source of noise that air cooling has - a fan - but has the added bonus of a pump! Great idea!
Click to expand...

The pumps on the H50's are really silent, pretty much inaudible actually, or at least the one I fitted for my Dad was.. I have seen some people on here saying theirs are quite loud, but I suspect this is probably because their units haven't been properly bled, and so the air still trapped inside is the reason their pumps are loud..

Also, with the single fan being PWM, then it isn't going to be that loud at all if the mobo has a PWM header, the H50 is probably a really good option for the OP's system...
 
Actually watercooling is out of the question due to EFI from the pump itself creating audible noise from my audio interfaces. All of my other PCs are custom watercooled but this rig HAS to be air cooled...

So what is the consensus lads?
 
ACF7 pro if not overclocking

I quite like the Coolermaster V8 as well... it can be made to run silent and handles just about anything you chuck at it.
 
Sorry I don't think I was clear enough originally - it MUST be able to overclock as I plan to push the quad as far as it will go for my audio processing. Also it must be as quiet as possible and not be too expensive. I appreciate I am probably living in a dream world but I am not up to date with air coolers so this is why I post haha!

Regards

Tom
 
Superewza said:
Above is a good choice, or similarly the Akasa Freedom Tower.

Why not get a different case? The M59 is infinitely better and only £5 more...
Click to expand...

Well the Antec 300 is already sitting here so that's a no go I'm afraid!!

The components I need to buy:

CPU Cooler
2x 120mm fans
Q9550
Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD
 
hughythomas said:
Best bang/buck LGA775 air cooler for overclocked Q9550 in Antec 300?
Click to expand...

ThermoLab Baram

£29.99 inc

am3baramtestbedbigwayne.jpg
 
hughythomas said:
Sorry I don't think I was clear enough originally - it MUST be able to overclock as I plan to push the quad as far as it will go for my audio processing. Also it must be as quiet as possible and not be too expensive. I appreciate I am probably living in a dream world but I am not up to date with air coolers so this is why I post haha!

Regards

Tom
Click to expand...

Hi, I think you may be asking too much if you want an overclocked quad that is silent... Unless you buy an absolutely monstrous heatsink, which would have to be custom made which will cost a lot unless you DIY.

What audio processing are you doing that needs an OC'ed quad? Have you considered a DSP card like the RME hammerfall for outboard processing?

My e5300 running at 3.5Ghz (very quiet with an s1283 and 500rpm fan) allows me to run lots and tracks and effects in Reason, Renoise, and Ableton...
 
Titan Fenrir should fit fine in the 300, mine does, but it's an AMD AM3 board, I'm not sure where the socket 775 normally sits roughly.

I'd say it'll be fine. I've removed the standard fans anyway, the Fenrir exausts straight upwards towards a Xigmatek white LED fan, nothing to the rear. It's enough to keep my 965 BE below 50C at all times, even with 1.5125v pumped through it. :D
 
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MikeHunt79 said:
Hi, I think you may be asking too much if you want an overclocked quad that is silent... Unless you buy an absolutely monstrous heatsink, which would have to be custom made which will cost a lot unless you DIY.

What audio processing are you doing that needs an OC'ed quad? Have you considered a DSP card like the RME hammerfall for outboard processing?

My e5300 running at 3.5Ghz (very quiet with an s1283 and 500rpm fan) allows me to run lots and tracks and effects in Reason, Renoise, and Ableton...
Click to expand...

Ha ha I'm already living the RME dream my friend! I'm running an RME Fireface 800 with UAD-2 cards also but I work with large projects at 96kHz so I need to squeeze every ounce of power out of this bad boy!

I just got rid of my Mac Pro so this PC needs to be able to surpass it in terms of performance as my Apple was struggling (1st gen 2006, 2x 2.66Ghz 1066Mhz Xeons, 6GB Ram etc).

The Titan Fenrir keeps coming up both on here and in articles I read - should I just lose the side fan and be done with it? I don't really want to spend more than £40 on a CPU cooler as I just got a grand from selling the mac...money is kinda tight for this (theres other stuff I'm buying which I haven't listed!).

Many thanks for your replies guys really helpful!

Tom
 
hughythomas said:
Ha ha I'm already living the RME dream my friend! I'm running an RME Fireface 800 with UAD-2 cards also but I work with large projects at 96kHz so I need to squeeze every ounce of power out of this bad boy!

I just got rid of my Mac Pro so this PC needs to be able to surpass it in terms of performance as my Apple was struggling (1st gen 2006, 2x 2.66Ghz 1066Mhz Xeons, 6GB Ram etc).

The Titan Fenrir keeps coming up both on here and in articles I read - should I just lose the side fan and be done with it? I don't really want to spend more than £40 on a CPU cooler as I just got a grand from selling the mac...money is kinda tight for this (theres other stuff I'm buying which I haven't listed!).

Many thanks for your replies guys really helpful!

Tom
Click to expand...
Yep those RME cards are nice, I really like how nice the native plugins sound. I may pick one up if I ever have some spare cash...

96K will require a lot more CPU power, I often use 48K when mixing and save 96k for the final bounce/mixdown to save CPU power.

I hate to say this but I think you'll struggle to beat your old Mac Pro in terms of quietness and performance, as the Mac is designed from the ground up and the design of the case really helps keep everything quiet. I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just saying it won't be easy.

The best site by far about keeping PC's quiet is http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Check the section about CPU coolers.

Their tests are far better than any other site I've seen, they even have sound samples of various fans!

My quick and dirty tips for making things quiet on the cheap:

1) Move the PC tower far away from your ears as possible. Every meter will reduce the noise by -6Db, so I bought 3 meter monitor and USB extension cables and moved my PC to the otherside of the room, and my PC is now borderline inaudible.

2) Suspend hard drives with elastic if you are not using SSD's.
 
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