Best Air/Water cooler for overclocking a 3700+ SD, under £70?

azza21 · 23 Mar 2006 at 23:05

Hello i'm going to build a new PC which i intend to overclock the CPU, which should be fun as i'm a total newbie to the overclocking game. I am going to buy an retail 3700+ SD, problem is i have no idea what Air/water cooler would give me the best overclocking results. I've seen a few that interest me (Gigabyte 3D Galaxy Liquid Cooling System) but me being a newbie to it all i need some expert advice from you lot, I do not want to spend over £70 on a cooler but i would like to achieve decent overclocking results i.e. 2.7/2.8ghz.
If you guys think i need to change an item please tell me what motherboard etc...would be better suited

My intended purchases:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1MB
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB)
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard "Cos of the xpress 3200 support"
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI "Can only afford one atm"
Gigabyte Aurora Case
Unsure about what PSU to buy yet?

I already have a dvd-r/cdr combi, WD Raptor 74gb hd and audigy 2 zs sound card, which i will use.

sja360 · 23 Mar 2006 at 23:29

for £70 i'd go air instead of w/c for that budget, i've got a 3700 at stock with a zalman 7700Cu and it runs cool enough.

Jokester · 23 Mar 2006 at 23:33

Yeah I would recommend air as well, probably a, Scythe Ninja/Thermaltake Big Typhoon/Arctic Cooling Pro 64 (or whatever it is)/Thermalright SI-120.

Jokester

Combat squirrel · 24 Mar 2006 at 01:01

got my 3700 under an XP-120, silent 2000rpm 120mm fan, 38 load in an antec p180, 2805mhz, 1.52volts, its sweet as

booyaka · 24 Mar 2006 at 09:43

see sig for me - artic pro 64 - 2.7ghz stock volts.
idle about 31, load about 44.

tuckenator · 24 Mar 2006 at 12:48

Zalman 9500, opty 146 @ 2.7 on 1.36v. idle 26, max 37. in p160.

azza21 · 25 Mar 2006 at 00:26

Ha ha everyones saying different Air Coolers. I guess all the above are good at overcloking the amd 3700+. But is there not any air coolers that is renowned as being the best cooler for overclocking when it comes to an amd 3700+? Also what do you peeps think to the motherboard is it a good overclocking mboard?
What PSU should i get with them sort of specs and overclocking in mind?

bbreezeuk · 25 Mar 2006 at 00:38

the answer to your first question is the sythe ninja plus and either the dfi expert board or the asus a8n32 sli deluxe both great over clokers IMO

p.s anyone with the xp-120 and a8n32 sli just wondering what temps were as it has 8 phase power which bumps temps quite considerably

Combat squirrel · 26 Mar 2006 at 00:11

azza21 said:
Ha ha everyones saying different Air Coolers. I guess all the above are good at overcloking the amd 3700+. But is there not any air coolers that is renowned as being the best cooler for overclocking when it comes to an amd 3700+? Also what do you peeps think to the motherboard is it a good overclocking mboard?
What PSU should i get with them sort of specs and overclocking in mind?

In comparison to my clock speed my XP-120 keeps it coolest, yes someone has got an opty at 2700 which runs cooler, but im doing 2805

nuff said

Big.Wayne · 26 Mar 2006 at 00:55

Thermalright Si-120
AKASA 120mm Silent fan

I did my research like everyone else and decided to spend a bit more to get a *powerful* heatsink that could almost cool the chip passively and then combine it with a nice quiet 120mm fan. The Si-120 is a magical heatsink thats pretty easy to attach/remove once you know how and will have no problem in cooling an overclocked 3700+ SD :cool:

azza21 · 27 Mar 2006 at 19:57

Cheers peeps i'm stuck between the Scythe Ninja and Thermalright Si-120, hard choice.

What about a PSU as i said i can only afford to buy one sapphire 1900xtx card atm but i will want to buy another one soon, so what sort of PSU should i be looking at? Az

Disco_stoo · 27 Mar 2006 at 23:42

azza, I've just bought a a64 3700 and asus a8n sli premium, I was asking the same questions as you and opted for the freazer pro 64.
I'm running at 2700 stock volts but could go higher if I wanted to - the coolers amazingly quiet and the design means it blows the hot air backwards out of the case, which can mean you can skimp a bit on the case cooling if you're after a quiet system (like i am). It may not have the extreme performance that the scythe ninja et al have, but it does the job, is dead quiet, and is the cheapest of the bunch by a long margin too. I'm very pleased.

A.N.Other · 27 Mar 2006 at 23:58

Between the scythe and the thermalright, I would go for the latter with a nice quiet akasa amber.

ChrisLX200 · 28 Mar 2006 at 08:04

azza21 said:
Cheers peeps i'm stuck between the Scythe Ninja and Thermalright Si-120, hard choice.

What about a PSU as i said i can only afford to buy one sapphire 1900xtx card atm but i will want to buy another one soon, so what sort of PSU should i be looking at? Az

Using an XP120 here, was cooling a 3500+ but now has an Opty170 @2.7 to warm it's bum

Cools really well (delta of 8deg under load). This is in a Lian Li V2000.

I also changed the PSU for an Enermax Eternity 620 - awesome PSU in terms of performance but the modular cables are not too clever.

Xez · 28 Mar 2006 at 08:25

Big typhoon with stock fan (1300rpm) here cooling my Opty at 2.55 and 1.6vcore, 28C idle and 38C full load