yeah. purely from a buyer's point of view, that's the bottom line. i wasn't meaning to argue with your answer of jabba's question.

i do care about the mismatched fan sizes.. but for an academic reason, not a customer's reason - i was more curious about who has designed a better sink, thermalright or zalman, with a given volume / fan size / surface area. i meant to raise the question - is the xp-120 superior because of design or because of brute force?

Well, if the XP-120 won't fit, or is regarded as too heavy, then perhaps the CNPS-7000 might be considered preferable.
In my opinion, most boards that fit the XP-120 will fit the CNPS-7700, or if they don't, either the XP-90 or the CNPS-7000 should fit. Given that, the most useful comparisons would be between the XP-120 and the 7700, and between the XP-90 and the 7000. ISTR Edward Ng was going to do the latter, but haven't heard anything since. I've bought the XP-90 now, and am happy with it, but I'd still like to know how it compares to the CNPS-7000.

Oh, and the two white strips with my XP-90 were separated too. It probably depends on how they were handled during packing and shipping, whether they became separated.

CNPS-7700?? bbq..:confused:..

CNPS-7700 = Zalman's new monster heatsink that's supposed to have a 120mm fan.

Here's some a link to some pics, i think its been posted elsewhere in these forums before.

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... id=18&pg=4

What WAS considered to be the silent champ, prior to the XP-120?

prob. Zalman 7000 or Thermalright SP-94/97

The phrase silent champ is a bit misleading. It's more accurate to call it the low airflow champ. This is especially true for HS which are routinely sold without a fan.

We judge HS mostly by their cooling performance with minimal airflow. Often, these are also champs with high airflow.

The XP120 is also compatible with socket LGA775 if you use the Thermalright adaptor (quite recent)...

"Compatibility Information: The LGA775 RM is designed to use with Thermalright XP-120 and XP-90 heatsinks only. It's not compatible with our old P4 models SLK-947U/-900U or SP-94."

does anyone in Canada wanna buy my XP-120? its new in the box, i just found out it won't fit on my Neo2 motherboard

Spacey, I'd be interested in it. I live in the Northeast US, though. I can be in Buffalo, NY in about 4.5 hours.

Do you have a fan for it?

Let me know.

Keith

spacey, i've read somewhere it'll fit on your neo2 but you'll need to slightly bend one of the capacitors thats in its way.

Well, I have an XP-120 w/ Papst 4412 FGL @7V on an Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm Winchester.
Mobo is the Asus A8V Deluxe. The XP-120 fits perfectly with plenty of room between it and the AGP slot. Looks like there is even room for the Aerocool VM-101 in the upright position. The Zalman ZM80D fits with plenty of room.
The edges of the XP-120 do not go beyond the motherboard in any direction.
A bit of a tight fit near the RAM DIMM slots. THe only memory I can see having trouble is really tall ones like the Corsair XMS Pro series with those light up bling bling heatsinks.

So far I am seeing 23 Celcius idle temps and have never seen it go beyond 26 while folding?! I haven't seen temps like this since Pentium III days.

Of course, my case is a desktop orientation HTPC case with the top open. I have cut a 120mm sucking hole in the front bottom of the case. I wil be making a duct for it.
This is more for the video card. With the temps I'm getting so far, I am really excited how quiet this computer is.

I really love those Papst 4412 FGL's. They are the quietest 120mm fans I have ever used. (and I've used a few, Panaflo L1A 120mm, Panaflo "blue label" OEM 120mm, Thermaltake, Papst 4312 MV).

At 5-7V there is no clicking or "chattering" when the fan is in the up/down orientation. When oriented in the side to side, there is very slight chattering. But nowhere near as loud as the Panaflo L1A 120mm.

-Ed

I was getting some incredible temps, not quite that incredible though, on a 2.8C w/ XP-120 and low CFM. It is amazing.

What HTPC case are you using?

Edwood --

If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't true.

The #1 question is whether the thermal reporting system (composed of the CPU internal diode and the motherboard's resources) is accurate. Chances are, it is not. Try Russ's thermal calibration. It is easy to do with an A64 -- just run at full speed, then low multiplier and a couple speeds in the middle. That will quickly tell you whether your temps are for real.

Of course I did say that the temps were with the case open.

I have put in the ducting (a quick one I made out of styrene). The case temp is lower now 23 Celcius (it was 26 before). The directed airflow probably helps.

So far idling is holding steady at 31 Celcius. I will let it idle for awhile and then check the MBM5 readings again. Then Folding for awhile.

With how cool the XP120 feels, I really feel the XP-120's "King" status is well deserved.

The ducting is mainly for the video card. I plan to have either Zalman ZM80D or Aerocool VM-101. So far it looks like the Aerocool will be a better fit, as the duct directs more airflow behind the video card.

-Ed

OK, watched some DVD's this whole time.

My wife is not happy with the HTPC being down for that long.

Using Power DVD XP playing DVD's

Case temp 23
CPU temp 35

Next up, Folding.

-Ed

My Athlon64 3000+ (2GHz) Newcastle can playback DVDs using Windows Media Player at 1100MHz with 50% usage. I don't consider video playback a heavyduty job.

Side note: I've noticed Media Player uses %50 CPU time REGARDLESS of clock speed. What kind of software is that?

I use Power DVD XP, and it uses anywhere from 8-19% CPU usage, with mostly hoving near 10%.

With the same DVD playing on Window Media Player 9, it's 8-16% CPU usage with mostly hoving around 13%.

A DiVX movie (704 x 396 with AC3) on WMP9 is about 2-13% with mostly around 3%.

Even a Windows Media 9 HD file (1280 x 720 with AC3) on WMP9 is about 24-38% with mostly around 27%.

This is with my A64 3500+ Winchester with 512MB of RAM with WinXP Pro SP2.

-Ed

LOL, OK, that was stupid.

I had the case on the floor. The case's feet were not large enough to elevate the bottom suck hole, so it was blocked off. I noticed that the case was heating up.

I elevated the case off the carpet, and the case temp dropped to 30 C and the CPU dropped to 29 C pretty quickly. The case started to cool down too.

Looks like I'll have to cut a hole in the table it will be on or something. Or give it really tall feet.

I may be able to integrate an Antec Phantom in this system afterall.

-Ed

There's a market crying out for product. Replacement tall, vibration absorbing feet should find a clientele amongst the members of this website. Acoustifeet have the vibration part down, but are missing the other part. They seem proud of the low profile of their feet.

EDIT: oh, yeah agreed. Something like a well designed Nexus Breeze (w/exhaust fan, bottom PSU, and intake airflow over HDD suspension)

Not unusual. Even with a wimpy HS, as long as it is on securely, the CPU is unlikely to burn in a case that has even the mildest airflow. The OS will crash first. Speaking from experience (not necessarily sought).

I could easily replace the feet of my HTPC case with Audiophile isolation feet or spikes. But they are ridiculously expensive, some would cost more than the entire computer.

-Ed

For those that are curious about what I've been talking about. I've posted pics in a new thread.

Pic of the XP-120 on an Asus A8V Deluxe posted as well.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=17359

-Ed

A german site did a review of the zalman 7700 and compared it to the XP-120

http://www.tweakers4u.de/artikel/zalman_cnps7700cu_xp120,,11,2004,,268.htm?page=2

There was a question in this thread earlier: Purely from an engineering standpoint which is better?

Well it seems like they are equally good.

The price of the 7700 is less but xp120 is lighter... tough choice....

Not for me. I have issues with hanging that much weight off any of my mobos. I'll take the XP-120 please!

I admit I would probably also go for the XP-120. But if I was considering it in a desktop case, it could be a good alternative.

The zalman is very heavy, but not nearly as tall as the hyper 6; so maybe the Al-Cu version makes some sense...

Yeah, shorter desktop cases can't provide air for a 63mm cooler + 25mm fan and room above.