Cooling recommendations for an Athlon XP 2000 please

baldrick45 · Post by **baldrick45** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:20 am

Having read the reviews and recommendations on the site I am more than a little bewildered.

As you see, I have a relatively modest CPU and it is mounted in a well ventilated Chieftec Dragon case (2 x L1A's rear, 2 x 80mm NMB front - all currently at 12V). I think this is more airflow than I need and I'm about to drop them all to 7V but to get back to the point....

My current HS/Fan is a standard Coolermaster unit which is a noisey beast. I want to get a fairly quiet replacement and there seems to be a wide variety of options.

Call me a lazy beggar but I want a solution that I can set up and forget so I'm torn between a cheap(ish) (£16 UK) Arctic Cooler CopperSilent2 TC (boy their sales director needs a lesson in product naming) or a dearer SLK-700 and L1A solution.

I've found overclockers.co.uk listing the SLK-700 and the SK-7 for the same price (£18) The SK-7 takes a std 80mm fan but the SLK-700 seems to be the later design (but needs a 60/70mm fan). Anyone seen a comparison of the two anywhere or have a strong reason to choose one over the other.

Either way, while I'm happy to get the cooler and an L1A and wire it for 7V or whatever... I want then to close the case and forget it. I don't want to have to tweak anything when I want to play 5 straight hours of Counterstrike or its a hotter than usual day blah, blah, blah.. Which maybe brings me back to the Arctic-Cooler??

I guess I'm saying I want the quietest solution that has enough margins to provide adequate cooling no matter what hard use I thow at it. Quieter is better but not if it breaks the "install and forget" principle.

ANy thoughts, suggestions would be appreciated. I don't think an SLK-8XXX/9XXX HS is warranted for my system but I stand ready to be corrected.

Thanks

baldrick45

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 5:40 am

The Speeze CPU coolers are 80mm, cheap, and their performance is good.

Check newegg on the FalconRock, but I know that there have been some new ones released (Vulture or something...).

Also, have you thought about an 80mm adapter of sorts?

futureweaver · Post by **futureweaver** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 6:25 am

I have an SK7 on a 2500+. An 80mm L1A at 9V holds it at ambient+30 running folding@home (well, according to the monitor on my KT4V, which seems more realistic than many) and is pretty quiet. It's rock-solid in the current UK heatwave. I'm pulling in ambient air through a duct - it goes up 6C or so without the duct, because the case is at ambient+8.

baldrick45 · Post by **baldrick45** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 5:19 am

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll go with an SK-7 as soon as overclockers.co.uk get them back in stock. The SLK-700 is in stock and seems to get good reviews but it takes 60/70 and 72mm fans and their website doesn't have any "SPCR standard" of quiet fans that would fit it.

I don't even see Dorothy doing anything in these sizes which is quiet and has much in the way of cfm. A 60mm Mitsubishi 10cfm @ 19db was the only offering on her site. (Seem's way too little flow to be of use to me)

I know how to do 5v/7V for the fans but could you please just clarify if you are using a "Fanmate" or equiv to get your 9V or is there another "kludge" somewhere I need to learn about.

Regards

baldrick45

futureweaver · Post by **futureweaver** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 5:31 am

baldrick45 wrote:I know how to do 5v/7V for the fans but could you please just clarify if you are using a "Fanmate" or equiv to get your 9V or is there another "kludge" somewhere I need to learn about.

I'm using a Zalman RC68 which turned out to be about right. But I'd recommend a fanmate so you can tinker. See http://www.thecoolingshop.co.uk/tcs/com ... roduct=402 for a reasonable price bearing in mind no P&P.

Racknar · Post by **Racknar** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 7:14 am

I went with the Zalman 6000cu for my 1800+ that I run at 2000 via a FSB bump. I had an SK-6 with a 60mm screamer on it that sounded like a hairdryer running inside my box. The Zalman is amazingly quiet. It comes with a custom bracket and a 92MM fan with a device to adjust the speed of the fan.

I had previously mounted an old 486 heatsink/fan to my chipset in order to stabilise the board when I oc'ed. With this 92mm fan blowing down on the board I was able to remove the extra fan off of the chipset and still remain stable.

My old Antec server box was never built for silence, but with this new Zalman it is getting there. BTW, I purchased it at Newegg for 29.00 and the shipping was free. If there is a better vendor than Newegg I have yet to find them. They never cease to amaze me.

Something I forgot to add which may be important to some. If your heatsink/fan setup hides behind your power supply then you can't use one of these. The bracket needs to be mounted in such a way that it can blow down on top of the heatsink. With most cases this probably isn't a problem.

Mike

BTW, thanks to all the regular posters that continue to post ideas on how to silence computers. I have incorporated many of your ideas and the difference has been more than satisfactory.

futureweaver · Post by **futureweaver** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 2:43 am

baldrick45 wrote:I think I'll go with an SK-7 as soon as overclockers.co.uk get them back in stock.

http://www.extremecooling.co.uk/site/br ... goryId=107 has them for less & in stock, if OC still doesn't - and they have free delivery.

I'm using one of Dorothy's 24V M1As @12V on mine. Cheap & effective. Max CPU temp I've seen running f@h was 67C by the MOBO sensor, 57C by a thermistor under the HS next to the die (so my mobo reads high, probably a good thing). That was yesterday in the heatwave with ambient of about 34C. I ran CPUburn on high for about 20 mins, no sign of any instability.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 4:06 am

I would definately not use a 60mm fan for any reason. 80mm fans are the way to go for cpu cooling

Keel · Post by **Keel** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 2:30 pm

I would recommend the thermalright ax-7 but it has gone the way of the do-do

Zhentar · Post by **Zhentar** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 3:46 pm

you can still find them. I just got two a month ago and love them; they work so well with low airflow.

Cooling recommendations for an Athlon XP 2000 please

Cooling recommendations for an Athlon XP 2000 please

Follow-up for Futureweaver

Re: Follow-up for Futureweaver