I've been starving for pre-purchase info on the stock coolers included with the Sempron 3100+ and Athlon 64 CPUs. While there are brief anecdotes scattered around the place, the difficulty in finding a proper review is irritating given that practically every A64 purchased comes with one. I'm looking for basic info like: what is the RPM range of the fan with the CPU at idle / under load? What are the noise levels like to your typical SPCR reader? What effect does attaching a fan controller have on noise levels and temperatures? What effect does undervolting have? Is the stock cooler the same whether you buy a Sempron 3100+ or a A64 3700+?

Any answers from those who've had experience with it would be appreciated, particularly those who may have purchased a Sempron 3100+ (or undervolted an A64), since that's what I'm leaning toward at present.

The HSF are made by Ajigo. You can find more information in their web page and some reviews in Frostytech, although none are too detailed and it's difficult to find exactly what HSF is the one you have.

For the record, I have an A64 3000+. The HSF included has a 70x15 fan that is thermoregulated and spins between 3000 and 6000 rpm. It was quite noisy even at the slowest speeds (well below 3000 rpm), so that I changed it for a 80x25 no brand and it works quite well. Temps are 36C/55C, same as before.

The fan controller is a must in any case, specially using the stock fan. Undervolting (or HALTing) has a big impact on temperatures, so much that I've been recording DVDs for the last couple of hours and the temperature is still around 38 C. The CPU fan is the only one that is spinning at 1000 rpm and I can't hear it.

The only reason I find to buy another HS is to overclock. CPUBurn works fine with this setup but when I overclock from 2000 MHz to 2450 MHz it crashes. I have to keep trying, maybe it will work at other speeds.

Standard aluminum heatsink with fins. 70*15mm fan, loud, even at minimum RPM. My mobo supports Cool 'n quiet, which is an awesome idea. Unfortunatly it can only be used by supported HSF, which AFAIK means only the stoch AMD HSF.

I switched the fan for a 80mm Pabst, an the computer was much quieter and still ran cooler. I've since switched to watercooling.

I'd say the AMD HSF is about the same quality as a low end arctic cooling product.

We have the stock cooler on an Athlon64 2800+. With CNQ enabled, CPU temp is 38C at idle and the fan is about 1370 rpm at idle. It's usually around 80F ambient. Pretty quiet. When it's not idling, I can hear the fan whining on the other side of the room. Sorry, don't have any load numbers on me.

Cool'n'Quiet works with any HSF, not only with the AMD HSF.

Hello:

The stock HSF that I have seen was all copper -- thick and flat base with very thin copper (alloy?) fins. If you clean off the very thick TIM and put some good stuff on there and use a Fanmate, you can acheive okay results. It would really help to undervolt. I used it on a 3000+ S754, and when it (the box) is under a desk, it is quite tolerable; though certainly not "silent".

I have a stock heatsink on my Athlon 64 2800+. At full speed it is annoying but luckily my motherboard (Asus K8N) has a BIOS based fan controller. I tell it to start the fan when it reaches a temperature of 45c. If the fan starts it is set to 5v and gradually increases from 5v to 12v if the temperature rises to 55c. The starting RPM is about 1000 rpm raising to 3000rpm according to Asus probe. Although speed fan has it rated at 5700rpm at 12v?
At 5v it is quieter than my Samsung P80 hard drive which, is now the loudest component in my computer.

I have to admit with my CPU set to 800Mhz most of the time and the fan doesn't usually cut in, even under full load. This could be because the motherboard is reading the temperatures wrong, but on feeling the heatsink it doesn't feel that hot so i'm not to worried.

rperezlo, ascii i'm interested to know how you fitted a 80mm fan?
I have considered this but i thought that i would have to modify the heatsink, so i just kept the standard 70mm fan.

I'm not the tiddy modder...

I just used one of the screws. Other two were stuffed with some silicone gaskets and the third one was left unused. It seems to be quite solid, although I know it isn't a perfect solution.

Thanks rperezlo, i'll have to give that a try some time. I'm pretty sure i have some silicone gaskets around here some where. When i first looked at it i thought that maybe a single screw will do the job but decided to give the stock fan ago.

This is exactly the fan that come mounted in my A64 3000+ stock HSF:

Delta AFB0712HHB

According to their web page it is 4300 rpm, 37.54 CFM, 38.5 dBA @ 1m.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.


I found two articles at FrostyTech but they were both for Socket A coolers. But thanks to your reference to "Ajigo", I think I found the right one here (it does look very similar to the ones in the FrostyTech review).

The RPM range that people have reported is consisted with the product literature (I assume the 1000 RPM figures are after additional fan control has been added). One interesting tidbit is that it retails for US$36 from the Ajigo store--only a few dollars less than a Zalman 7000 series.

Having found the model number I was able to find quite a number of reviews in which it's compared with fancier coolers. One thing they suggest to me is that, while the stock cooler is hardly in the same league as the best third-party heatsinks, it is somewhat let down by a crappy 15mm fan which doesn't move much air except at very high RPM.

Given that that I plan on getting one of the cooler CPUs (Sempron 3100+ or 90nm Athlon 64) and am not obsessed with running my CPU at the coolest possible temp, I suspect this heatsink has the potential to keep me happy. The key will be replacing the fan. rperezlo mentioned he's using a no-name 80mm attached with one screw that's doing the job for him, though I'd prefer something neater. 70mm fans don't seem all that common where I am, but I did find this one. At 3000 RPM, it's rated at 27.5dBA and moves 32 CFM, compared to the Ajigo's 28dBA moving 21 CFM. With that fan's speed reduced, it may be an acceptable and inexpensive solution.

Still unconfirmed is whether the Sempron includes this particular heatsink. Anyway, I'll be putting my new system together in a couple of weeks, so I'll report back on my experiences then

How about buying one of these fan adapters and a really silent 80mm fan?

Of course that's the best option. I wouldn't put a good 70 mm fan if I can avoid it, it's better a 80 mm one just because you have so many people testing them and telling you which one is the best one for you.

The problem is that I can't find the 70 to 80 mm adapters in Spain.

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't think there was any chance at all of finding such an adaptor, but on your prompting I did a search and found this one (they've even got a 70mm to 120mm).

The problem is that by the time I factor in the cost of the adaptor ($6), the cost of a fan (say the Vantec SF8025L at $15--not much choice at this store), the cost of a Fan Mate ($6, don't know yet if my mobo will work with Speedfan), plus the cost of shipping (say $10) , I'm looking at around $37. Considering I could buy a Zalman 7000B for $49.50 from the same store I'll be getting my mobo/CPU, the whole exercise begins to look rather pointless from a money-saving perspective