Aircooling an E6600...

Skullfish1 · 20 Jul 2006 at 15:26

Hey all.

I'm looking for a good air cooler for the E6600 I'll be ordering next month when the glut of conroe stuff comes out.

At the moment I'm most taken by the Zalman AT aero flower:

Zalman CNPS9500-AT Aero Flower (Socket 775) CPU Cooler (HS-020-ZA)

but I've heard its a bit of a monster and can cause mobo/chip damage when lugging the computer around. (I'll be moving to and from uni twice a year, though no LAN stuff planned, so 4 car trips a year)

Are there any aircooling solutions (I can't afford watercooling with the rest of my spec) that are both effective (I'd ideally like to give the conroe the healthy overclock it cries out for) and quiet? (The rest of my spec takes PC noise quite highly into consideration, so I don't want a howling banshee of a fan...) I know mobo choice does affect this, but as the mobo I want isn't released yet, I can't say yet...

I'm not sure I want to be faffing around taking HSFs on and off and stripping/reapplying thermal stuff each time i move it, and as this spec will just about clean me out in time for the new uni semester, it needs to last a while. :eek:

I'll also be fitting a zalman VF900 CU VGA fan to the X1900XT I'll be ordering, will this casue any of the same problems?

p4radox · 20 Jul 2006 at 16:15

The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro is the best value cooler around - quiet, cool, and cheap.

killer_uk · 20 Jul 2006 at 16:25

p4radox said:
The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro is the best value cooler around - quiet, cool, and cheap.

Yup, thats what I'm going to be using to cool mine with.

Skullfish1 · 20 Jul 2006 at 17:55

Its almost exactly th same weight though. Are all high end HSFs essentially the same, heavy weight?

Looks like I might have to get used to having thermal grease on my hands.

Thats looks nice, adding i to my spec in place of the zalman then.

iraiguana · 20 Jul 2006 at 23:04

i assume you have looked at the scythe ninja plus

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Other_CPU_Coolers.html

best performing heatsink there is.

Messiah Khan · 20 Jul 2006 at 23:07

Skullfish1 said:
Its almost exactly th same weight though. Are all high end HSFs essentially the same, heavy weight?

Looks like I might have to get used to having thermal grease on my hands.

Thats looks nice, adding i to my spec in place of the zalman then.

Just place the computer on its side when lugging it about.

cobxx · 20 Jul 2006 at 23:59

messiah khan said:
Just place the computer on its side when lugging it about.

Yeah, there have been a few horror stories over the years about HSF's ripping off the socket, but mainly down to user error. Shouldn't worry about it though

meansizzler · 21 Jul 2006 at 04:53

I'd say get an Asus VR, has a firm backplate so should not cause any damage, also should be quiet on your CPU, has very good reviews...Zalman recommedn not moving a case wiht there cooler on, i'd imagine it would be the same for any 500 Grab plus cooler, even the arctic one as it uses the intle mounting systme, could become loose, just get the Asus VR...the back plate will hold it firm...

Combat squirrel · 21 Jul 2006 at 08:40

yeah i used to move uni halls with a big ol heatsink on an old athlon xp chip (even easier to damage than conroe), and I moved 3 times a year as we had get out of halls each hol ! :eek:

What i did was, move it slowly to the car on its side (obviously so the mainboard was on the 'bottom' of the case, heatsink up, like a desktop case) and place it in the car like that, never broke it doing this.

Arcane · 21 Jul 2006 at 09:35

The Zalman's not particularly heavy, it's fine to move the case around with it fitted, the Tuniq Tower, TT BT and ninja are a different matter however. The Zalmans pretty loud with the fan on full but is a very good all round choice considering it's light(ish), easy to fit and performs really well.

Skullfish1 · 21 Jul 2006 at 10:14

Cool, your reassuring words are music to my ears.

Cheers everyone...

Out of interest, anyone got any views on the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro?