Cooler for 4U rackmount

bremen1874 · 22 Dec 2008 at 03:07

I recently upgraded to a Q6600 on a P5Q-E. It's currently stable at 3.0GHz at stock voltage using the retail cooler.

I'd like to push the chip a bit further and also give myself some more temperature headroom for when the weather improves. I'm therefore in the market for a new cooler.

The system is built into a 4U rack mount chassis which means the new cooler can't be any taller than 146mm; this unfortunately means that the obvious candidates such as the Ultra-120 Extreme and Core Contact Freezer won't fit.

Some possible options appear to be...

Zalman CNPS9700
Thermalright Ultima 90
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Artic Cooling Freezer Extreme
Akasa AK-965

Does anyone have any other suggestions or recommendations?

bremen1874 · 23 Dec 2008 at 14:18

Does anyone have any thoughts on the above?

I was just playing with IntelBurnTest; the machine successfully completed 15 loops at maximum stress but according to CoreTemp it was hitting 91 Celcius in the process.

Prostheta · 23 Dec 2008 at 16:03

I'm in the same kind of situation as yourself, but spec'ing cooling for a 3U/Q6600 system. 4U should leave you with a lot of sinks being usable though. I'm going down the lines of planning a sensible airflow arrangement to cool the system efficiently rather than brute-forcing it with mega-towers with mahoosive 120mm fans slammed on the side. I don't think that's much of an option in a lot of racks.

I broke my Freezer Pro 7, because apparently I was being heavy handed with it.

fornowagain · 23 Dec 2008 at 17:22

Something like a Thermaltake Big Typhoon, 128mm high including fan. Or Thermalright SI-128, 116.5mm high.

bremen1874 · 24 Dec 2008 at 02:55

Thanks for the additional suggestions.

At the moment I’m drawn towards the Ultima 90 as it appears to have very similar performance to its taller siblings and will also give me the option of fitting a 120mm fan if I decide to change cases. It’s a shame OcUK don’t stock it as at the moment I can’t find a single supplier for both the heatsink and a suitable 4-pin PWM fan.