Hey, finally got round to signing up (and getting approved 
) so yeah, bit of an old customer, new poster story...
I finally got round to upgrading my Antec Aria media center from a battered old 1gig duron to a P4 520 (2.8ghz) over the weekend, and hit one slight problem. My formerly silent media center had become a turbine engine (though having an extra heater in the bedroom over the winter shouldn't be too bad!) with the stock cooler. As my dated Abit mobo seems incapable of keeping the noise down, I've the unenviable task of dismantling the case and fitting a new cooler (damn fiddly), so I want to make sure I make the right choice so I only have to do this once!
From reading around, it appears I'm pretty limited for options as far as heatsinks go, so I've pretty much narrowed it down to the Zalman 7000cu and the 8000 (unless anyone has any better recommendations). Both would appear to fit, however I'm not sure which would provide the best level of cooling... The older, more dated (but all copper) s7000cu, or the newer heatpiped s8000 (only Alu fins). There doesn't seem to be any comparative info on the net for the pair, so wondered if anyone has experience of them, be it one, the other, or both?
The PC is really intended as a hifi, but plays/burns dvd's and serves as a web-browser also. As a result, the stock 2.8ghz (with HT) is more than adequate speed wise, so overclocking isn't a factor, just need to get those noise levels down to something acceptable (read silent)...
System:
Antec Aria SFF case, built-in 300w PSU.
Dated Abit mATX mobo (915g IIRC) w/ on-board vga
Intel P4 520, 2.8ghz w/HT
2x512mb Corsair Value Select
Pioneer 109 DVDRW
80GB Maxtor ATA
Thanks in advance.
Rick
) so yeah, bit of an old customer, new poster story...I finally got round to upgrading my Antec Aria media center from a battered old 1gig duron to a P4 520 (2.8ghz) over the weekend, and hit one slight problem. My formerly silent media center had become a turbine engine (though having an extra heater in the bedroom over the winter shouldn't be too bad!) with the stock cooler. As my dated Abit mobo seems incapable of keeping the noise down, I've the unenviable task of dismantling the case and fitting a new cooler (damn fiddly), so I want to make sure I make the right choice so I only have to do this once!
From reading around, it appears I'm pretty limited for options as far as heatsinks go, so I've pretty much narrowed it down to the Zalman 7000cu and the 8000 (unless anyone has any better recommendations). Both would appear to fit, however I'm not sure which would provide the best level of cooling... The older, more dated (but all copper) s7000cu, or the newer heatpiped s8000 (only Alu fins). There doesn't seem to be any comparative info on the net for the pair, so wondered if anyone has experience of them, be it one, the other, or both?
The PC is really intended as a hifi, but plays/burns dvd's and serves as a web-browser also. As a result, the stock 2.8ghz (with HT) is more than adequate speed wise, so overclocking isn't a factor, just need to get those noise levels down to something acceptable (read silent)...
System:
Antec Aria SFF case, built-in 300w PSU.
Dated Abit mATX mobo (915g IIRC) w/ on-board vga
Intel P4 520, 2.8ghz w/HT
2x512mb Corsair Value Select
Pioneer 109 DVDRW
80GB Maxtor ATA
Thanks in advance.
Rick
