Help - I need a good air cooler [P5B Deluxe/e6300]

[Big.Wayne]

Hi,

I've had my CD2 system up and running for two days now, everything still running at stock. I have had a problem trying to get the Core2 Duo chip to run cool using a Arctic Freezer 7 Pro and despite flashing the BIOS and two or three attempts at reseating the heatsink and reapplying the TIM, it is still running too hot for my tastes . . .

IDLE/LOAD - e6300 - ASUS P5B Deluxe - Arctic Freezer 7 Pro [Max] 2700 RPM's LOUD! (54°C load @stock wtf?)

IDLE/LOAD - e6300 - ASUS P5B Deluxe - Arctic Freezer 7 Pro [Min] 1060 RPM's Quiet.

I'm not sure if this Arctic cooler I have is faulty but it just isn't cooling this chip properly, especially when the fan is running at low rpms (How anyone could use this thing at full whack is beyond me??) I think its a perfect HSF for keeping a stock CPU cool and running very quietly (1000rpms) but Its not gonna cut it for overclocking, therefore I have decided to get myself something decent . . .

I have been reading through a lot of posts here and also reading a ton of web reviews and I'm still not sure which heatsink to mount on my ASUS P5B Deluxe Wifi?


There are some things which are important to me:

• Attaches to the mobo via screws and a backplate

• Choice of fans, preferably 120mm

• Keep my e6300 cOOl

• Fits easily inside my tower case

I have looked at the Tuniq Tower 120, Scythe Ninja, Thermalright Ultra 120 etc and am leaning towards the Ulta 120 atm. The Tuniq looks mentally big and I dont think it will be an easy fit into the case above. I am also considering some whacky like an XP90c with 120mm fan on zalman fan bracket (I think copper is good).

I want to be able to have access to various components inside my system without having loads of hassle, the thought of having to remove the CPU HSF to install a new harddrive or memory is a nightmare, I want as easy life.

If anyone can help out I would appreciate it, thanks in advance!

 

[Big.Wayne]

With my OC [E6300@3GHz] my temps dont go as high as 55 .

right so I'm getting 54°C load at stock (1.86GHz) with the fan at full blast, something isn't right here?

• Bad Fitting? - Well I've done it three times now, unlikey

• Faulty Arctic Freezer 7 Pro? - Dunno, can these things be faulty?

• Mobo BIOS and TAT reading the temps wrong?

• Demonic e6300 that is producing too much heat?

• [edit] Forgot to say that the CPU IHS and the base of the Heatsink appear to be very flat, I did that optical test and the lines are being reflected properly without any distortion.

here is a pic of the TIM application now (3rd time) I used the smallest amount of arctic silver this time and just let the heatsink squash it out, the previous two times I spread a thin even coat over the cpu.

Considering that the arctic used was a tiny dab like 1/2 a piece of rice I would say the contact is fairly even if its squashed it out that that?

Temps are the same as before, maybe down by 1°C so not sure whats up?

 

[Big.Wayne]

Tuniq should be nice

I cant praise the tuniq enough, its just fantastic

yes I was up to the early hours of the morning reading the reviews, it does look good but I dont think it will fit (see pic above). I think the Tuniq is ideal for people with sliding mobo tray but how the heck am I gonna access anything in my system with that HULK installed lol

Also not all the reviews of the Tuniq are good. . .

Test system: Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - DFI NF4 Ultra-D - BFG 7800GT OC - Hiper Type-R 580W - 2x512Mb OCZ EL PC3500 GX - 2x80GB WD SATA

Conclusion:

The results really speak for themselves. Across the board in every configuration, with the Tuniq's fan at minimal (1,000rpm) or at full speed (2,000rpm), the results were all within 1° Celsius of the XP-90C. The fan speed didn't make a very big difference in temperature, but there was a very noticeable difference in noise. The Tuniq was a little louder than the XP-90C when running at full rpm. The fan has the same dba rating, but the air coming through the fins adds some noise as well. When the Tuniq's fan was turned down, it was whisper quiet.

Installation wasn't exactly simple. The motherboard had to be removed, and then when reinstalling I had to remove either my rear exhuasting 120mm fan or my hard drives to fit it back in the case. After installed, there isn't much room left. I would have to remove the Tuniq, which requires removing my motherboard, just to remove a hard drive. In my particular setup, the hard drives cannot be mounted lower for they will interfere with the videocard, with the 7800 series being so long. The mounting bracket wasn't easy at all to bend, and the springs for the thumb screws have a ridiculous amount of tension.

The performance was good, but I would be hesitant to recommend this heatsink unless completely infatuated with it's appearance. While it is an innovative and creative design, a great idea, it just has no edge over a heatsink half it's size. It just creates an unnecessary obstacle to work around inisde of your case. With anything but a full tower case, it's not very practical.

 

[Big.Wayne]

TAT is not wrong I would say, doubtfull at least as it's not a mobo sensor reader but reads for the processor itself.

Hi Mekrel, That whats it meant to do but I read last night that maybe ASUS mobos are different and the reading is analogue instead (i.e wrong!!). Does TAT only take its results from the CPU die or could it be 'tricked' into picking up an analogue reading?

Hold your C2D to the light and look along parallel to the IHS. Notice any curving. Their is a chart test with a patern on screen/paper which will reflect onto the IHS and show any concave/convex problems. Will try and search for you.

Yeah forgot to say that both the CPU IHS and the Heatsink base appear to be 'very' flat, I did that flatness test and as far as I can see its flat as a flat thing (smooth too!).

The only thing I can really do here is try out another HSF. I do have the stock fan in the box I'm tempted to give that a go, failing that just spash out £40 notes and hope for the best.

Wanna start overclocking this chip asap

 

[Big.Wayne]

Don't see how the AF 7 can be at fault? it's just a lump of copper with metal fins and a fan!

Hey Beast

yeah I know what you mean but its the heatpipes that do all the work here, looking at the arctic freezer pro from the side there is nothing to it:

If there is a problem with the heatpipes there is no way to get the heat away from the cpu. Strange thing is the heasink isn't getting hot? considering that TAT is telling me the CPU core is at 60°C the heatsink is hardly warm to touch, not even the heatpipes at the base are hot? but the surround PWM chips are scorching hot!

 

[Big.Wayne]

 

[Big.Wayne]

Run out of Isopropyl Alcohol (to clean up the CPU) so will have to leg it to Tottenham Court Road road in the morning to get a can of Servisol IPA 170 (if I can find one). What ya reckon, looks like a beast, lt's a body builder like the Tuniq just a little bit more 'ripped'

When I took it out the box the metal (particularly the base!) felt like it had been in a fridge, good omen!

 

[Big.Wayne]

will have to leg it to Tottenham Court Road road in the morning to get a can of Servisol IPA 170 (if I can find one).

Cool, got my fresh can, now all I gotta do is take my new PC to pieces lol. Can't wait to get the Ultra-120 installed!

 

[Big.Wayne]

I AM looking at your picture and thinking,do u have to order Fan separately?And if u do how and where u put it on how the heck it will hold one ?

Hi vairo, this cooler comes as heatsink alone but it will accept 'most' 120mm fans. The fan attaches using two wire clips. I say most fans because there are a few that wont fit properly (I'll explain more later).

which 120mm Fan would u recommend to buy with this cooler?

That's down to personal choice, and thats one of the benefits to me, I like the fact that you can use your own fan. So for normal use I intend to use a 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 (lol u gotta love these names) but for extreme overclocking I have a YS-Tech 120mm 'Screamer' 175CFM! (controlled via a seperate fan controller).

The 120mm fan that I really want is a 4-pin PWMIC 120mm, this attaches to the 4-pin CPU-Fan header on the motherboard and allows it to adjust the fan speed exactly according to cpu loads, sadly its very hard to buy a 120mm PWMIC fan in the UK at the moment but give it time . . .

Are you actually gonna install it Big.Wayne?

Lol yeah, just watcing Rambo then I'm gonna crack on!

 

[Big.Wayne]

 

[Big.Wayne]

IDLE/LOAD - e6300/Stock (1.325v/1.275v) - ASUS P5B Deluxe - Thermalright Ultra 120 - Antec 120mm Case Fan - Fairly Quiet!

Wow at last I got it all sorted, as you can see the Ultra 120 is doing a splendid job of cooling the processor! Installation was easier than what I was led to believe, in the reviews they said it was a bit tough getting the screws in but it was quite easy, almost too easy and got me worried that I had done something wrong

I haven't got my Sharkoon 120mm fan yet so I clipped on an Antec 120mm case fan (stock exhaust fan from the P160, 4-pin molex) which much to my surprise is pretty quiet.

Still using my old batch of arctic silver 3, wanted to keep a level playing field as this is what I used on the Freezer 7 Pro (wondered if it had gone off and was mucking up the heat transfer).

Looks like the Arctic heatsink I had was faulty in some way? (I suspect its the fittings, they don't seem to apply much downward pressure?). The AC7Pro will have to go back to the store (gah RMA city this month I tell ya!) but I'm glad it was the heatsink rather than the CPU.

I noticed that TAT really does heat up the CPU a lot more than any other app/tool I've used before, I've done a bit of gaming and that doesn't come anywhere near the load temps that I get from TAT, more in line with the temps you would get from running dual-prime . . . speaking of which

Now I can get on with some overclocking . . . At last!

 

[Big.Wayne]

wonder what is actually wrong with the freezer, gonna try and find out or just bin it?

He wants his money back, I f-ing would

They are about £11 to buy, probably not worth the hassle/cost of posting it back tbh. And apparently AC's customer support isn't very good.

Its a shop so its going back (with a print-out from TAT), I coughed up £16 nuggets Because of all the hassle I have been through I will do my best to follow this up, I have liked Arctic cooling since I owned one of their GPU coolers (9800Pro one?) so clearly I am a bit suspect of them now. Obviously every manufacturer produces the odd 'dud' just a pain that I drew the short straw this time. The quality of manufacture on this Arctic HSF is pretty shoddy, but then again what can u expect for £16.00?

That's what it was like with my AF7, are you running outsde the case at the moment?

Nah in case but with side off (still faffing).

im scared to buy this now, i need reassurance!

Dunno what to say really, there are so many people confirming decent results with their AC7-Pro's I can only conclude I got a minger.

Would I buy another AC7-Pro? Hmmm based on whats just happened I probably will shy away from them for the moment (also the fan on the AC7-Pro is just too loud when its at full whack!).

Instead of buying an AC7-Pro I think its worth spending another 5-10 nuggets and getting a Thermalright Ultra-90 (£19.96 inc) + a nice quiet 92mm fan of your choice, thats gotta be the better option?

 

[Big.Wayne]

IDLE/LOAD - e6300/2.8GHz (1.325v/1.275v) - ASUS P5B Deluxe - Thermalright Ultra 120 - Antec 120mm Case Fan - Fairly Quiet!

Up to 2800MHz, still using 1.325vCore, everything seems to be working fine, been doing some memory testing at 400MHz-FSB so can't push on any higher just yet. Had this e6300 up to 3.4GHz before but it would fail dual-prime in about 3 seconds (no matter what the volts) temps were hitting 67°C on the AC7-Pro

 

[Big.Wayne]

Hi Big.Wayne could u look at these pictures and tell me if Thermalright Ultra-120 Heatsink would fit in in my case or no ! And which 120 mm Fan would u recommend to me

as u can see in picture Thermalright 120mm would be great purchase for me , since i got quite good air flow in there with my 2x120mm Fans already ,case is TJ06 btw !

In this picture u can see why i am worryed ,there is no much space left :/ , anyways when i look at your pic ,i got a feeling that it shoould realy fit in ,but as i said ,i would like to be sure before i purchase one of these babys!
What are your recommendations,or ideas?
cheers vairo:

Hi vairo,

yeah that looks like u got 'great' airflow, sadly there is not a chance the Ultra-120 will fit in there, it towers above the AC7-Pro.

What you will need to do is 'carefully' measure the distance from mobo to the side panel, when u know that then we can work out whats the best option for you.

When it comes to fans you can spend days discussing the merits of this fan and that fan, I have seen some threads here when the guys are battling with each other to find out which is the best 120mm fan in the world!! lol

I normally just use the Akasa fans, seem to do the job and they are pretty quiet actually, however I followed a tip and have tried some new fans from a company called 'Sharkoon', they have a product range called 'Silent Eagle', I've only used the 80mm versions so far but I'm impressed! (they come with sheathed cables and a nice bundle included rubber mounting grommets, bargain!)

I just picked up a 120mm Sharkoon so I will let u know how I get on.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Any ideas so far ?

Hmmm will the Thermalright HR-01-775 fit in there?

L110 x W60 x H159.5(mm)