Best Heatsink, cost not a consideration?

Cooling Processors quietly

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tim851
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:45 am
Location: 128.0.0.1

Re: Best Heatsink, cost not a consideration?

Post by tim851 » Tue Jan 14, 2014 8:52 am

What is it you want to achieve?

Maximum cooling? Maximum quietness?

For maximum cooling, there are hundreds of websites out there testing this. You'll probably end up with an AIO watercooler. Leaks haven't really been an issue since PC watercooling got out of it's duct-tapey infancy about 10 years ago.

For maximum quietness, you won't get around the HR-2(2).

With an unlimited budget, why didn't you get a better CPU? The AMDs have terrible thermal performance and even the 8-core chips are slower than Intel's fastest quads.

NetTechie
Posts: 343
Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2004 6:58 am
Location: USA

Re: Best Heatsink, cost not a consideration?

Post by NetTechie » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:22 am

tim851 wrote:What is it you want to achieve?

Maximum cooling? Maximum quietness?
Maximum quietness.
tim851 wrote:For maximum cooling, there are hundreds of websites out there testing this. You'll probably end up with an AIO watercooler. Leaks haven't really been an issue since PC watercooling got out of it's duct-tapey infancy about 10 years ago.
I've ruled out water cooling, not because it makes noise, but because it could leak, and I need absolute reliability.
tim851 wrote:With an unlimited budget, why didn't you get a better CPU? The AMDs have terrible thermal performance and even the 8-core chips are slower than Intel's fastest quads.
I just built this computer. I didn't know that Intel's were doing better for thermal performance. I got the fastest processor Micro Center had in AMD - feeling wary of it's heat as I did. Figured I'd solve that later, I needed a computer. I made all the system design decisions in one day, just got it over with. I did not research it. I let the people at Micro Center tell me what they thought was good, saving checking into it myself (I guess I could have asked on forums first). Had the whole thing built in a few hours actually, from no design plan to having it going. I did over rule their ideas though. They thought Gigabyte motherboard, and I just said Asus, it's more expensive. They said cheap ram, I said Corsair, it's more expensive. Where did I mess up... I accepted cheap on the processor. Shoulda said, it's cheap, lets get more expensive.

I have to admit, I did anticipate heat going AMD though, because gamers like AMD, and most gamers could care less about heat and noise. While at the same time, wanting to save money on their computer. I wasn't trying to save when I got this processor... I guess I just went with their value oriented recommendation. Shoulda listened to my misgivings. However, replacing the motherboard and processor just because I did that seems a little of a waist at this point, a few months after buying it. It's just a bit hot, and a bit unstable as it gets hot. It is quite fast though.
tim851 wrote:For maximum quietness, you won't get around the HR-2(2).
I hope so. Seems like it should work well with a Silverstone FT02 case.

qualdoth
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:37 am

Re: Best Heatsink, cost not a consideration?

Post by qualdoth » Thu Jan 16, 2014 12:03 pm

NetTechie wrote: I have to admit, I did anticipate heat going AMD though, because gamers like AMD, and most gamers could care less about heat and noise.
Gamers do care about performance though, and game performance is an area where AMD hasn't done very well in for a while now. Unfortunately, you ended up with a processor with a higher thermal output, which is also not as good for gaming :(

Don't be afraid to swap out your RAM and resell it. You'll get some of that "back" by not spending as much on a still very effective cooler. Even after a lot of research, I'm currently losing some money (restocking fees) on refunding taller RAM and getting lower profile RAM. Sometimes it's better to just fix the mistake properly :)

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