Which is better ?

Soldato
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For cooling a Prescott 3.73 extreme edition overclocked to 4.5ghz which is a better cooler :

1. Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
2. Zalman CNP9500

I currently have the AC and the pwm control on my mobo runs it around 2.5-2.8k. Not very loud but not quiet enough for me either. The Zalman has a manual fan controller so I wonder could it run quieter (around 1k rpm) and provide the same level of cooling as the AC.

thanks
 
Soldato
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Personally, I prefer the Zalman (I've got one) - it's lighter and easier to fit and performs better than the Freezer imo. However, noise wise, I would say that they are both about the same with the Zalman on low revs, but that the Zalman is reasonably loud on max (although you do see the cooling benefits). Also the Freezer is a good deal cheaper. The Zalman looks better though - and the new one too :eek: :p if that isn't beauty, I don't know what is (heatsink wise anyway :rolleyes: ).

// EDIT // I've been looking here for a conversion between dB and sone. If the Zalman does only do 18, which is realistic, and the Freezer reports 1.2 sone on the OcUK site, then the Zalman is much quieter. 1.2 sone equates to 31 dB - remembering that dB is a logarithmic scale, so 31 is massive in comparison to 18.
 
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Soldato
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if you can hear it at all... its not 18dba ... neither will be realistic tbh

Yate-Loon/Nexus , Papst, Panaflo, Sanyo Denki, Delta ... are about the only companies to give realistic figures

tbh, id be inclined to go :

Scythe + 120mm Nexus / Yate Loon if looking for silence (or those silent Scythe fans are supposed to be good)

Thermalright XP120 + Delta EHE 120mm if noise isnt a problem (though it will be after using this)

AC Freezer Pro if cost is an issue or for an all round good value quiet cooler, that isnt looking for max overclock :)

hope this helps
 
Soldato
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jellybeard999 said:
Scythe + 120mm Nexus / Yate Loon if looking for silence (or those silent Scythe fans are supposed to be good)
I found the scythe fan that came with the ninja wasn't very good at all, low airflow and not particularly quiet. The best thing to get is a 38mm panaflo, i have mine attached to the back of the case and ducted to the heatsink and it works wonders. Very good cfm/noise ratio.
 
Soldato
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Well I had the Zalman CNPS9500 before on an FX57 overclocked to 3.1ghz, and it did it fine on min. setting and was barely audible. Just not sure it would be cut out to cool a 3.73EE Presler overclocked to 4.5ghz.

As for the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro. I am running one right now. Not sure what my temps are because the stupid bios on my Asus P5N32SLI-deluxe does not report temp's correctly on 9 series chips. Plus the Freezer is running at a continuous 2700rpm. The overclock probably needs it, but with C1 core stepping optimisations and Enhanced Speedstep enabled in the bios, the cpu runs at only 2.7ghz so you would expect PWM to kick in and drop the rpms to around 1000. It doesn't. And it doesn't work on my friends Asus PWWD2-E Premium Intel 975X mobo either. That is why I was considering the Zalman. It uses the 3 pin design and I could hook it up to my Akasa fan controller and adjust the rpm's manually. I still would not know the cpu temps, but I could always use a thermal probe on the base of the zalman between the heatpipes.

On another note, would you say the reason PWM aint working is because of crappy bios support for 9 series cpu's or is there an actual pwm circuit on my board that could have snuffed it. The reason I mention this is because the first time I ran my cpu I did not realise the bios was reporting cpu temps of 12 degrees. I enabled SmarFan which only runs the cpu fan at over 25 degrees. Bad mistake. By the time I realised something was up and attempted to power down, I heard an electrical fizzle during the power down cycle followed by a sort of ozone smell from the psu. Everything is working perfectly now though, in sli and all. I just wonder could I have killed whatever controls PWM. I guess the only way to find out is to buy a cheapo Celeron and plug in the stock cooler. Then again a friend with another Asus board has his AC7 Pro running at full whack by default too. So maybe it's a bios issue. I worry to much.

<edit>Where is the best place to put a thermal probe on a Zalman CNPS9500 ?</edit>
 
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Soldato
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Thanks, but by IHS...you mean Integrated Heat Spreader...as in the cap that goes over the cpu core. Put it on the side of that ? Won't the heatsink press down on the probe and damage it then. Or do you mean put if farther to the side of the IHS so the heatsink won't touch it ? Problem with that is that around the IHS is a metal bracket that you clip down to hold the cpu in place. Not sure how accurate the temps would be with the probe there.
 
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