Thermalright SLK800

Cooling Processors quietly

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Gxcad
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Post by Gxcad » Mon Aug 12, 2002 2:32 pm

This new all copper heatsink by thermalright outperforms all other heatsinks on the market (including the alpha 8045, thermalright AX7 and even the swiftech mcx462). It uses a triple clip system and weighs around 400-500grams without fan I think. It takes 60, 70 or 80mm fans no problem and is available for socket A. This heatsink is not yet listed on SPCR's recommended list. I also think the AX7 should also be listed on SPCR's recommended list, although it is a tad heavy (both of these heatsinks) for use on a triple clip mounting method, the AX7 outperforms the alpha 8045 is many tests and the SLK800 even more so. The SLK800 just looks like a bigger sk6.
<BR>
<BR>-Ken
[addsig]

Ralf63
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Post by Ralf63 » Tue Aug 20, 2002 9:14 am

Great cooler. The only thing I dont understand is why anyone would prefer a 60 or 70mm fan, over an 80mm. The optional 60, 70mm phases in that heatzink one could do without.

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Post by Gxcad » Sun Sep 08, 2002 12:48 am

yea I'd say the majority of users who get this heatsink would use a 80mm fan since its a expensive performance heatsink to begin with, however I don't think it is hurting the performance by designing it to accomodate all of the above, all they have to do is make the "stairs" at the edge of the top and drill a few more holes for the clips to slide into. Why not make it more flexible?=). I STILL don't like that much weight without bolting directly to the mobo though, thats why I still have a mcx462;)

-Ken

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Post by stsmytherie » Tue Oct 15, 2002 9:02 am

I am using two SLK-800s with 80mm Panaflo L1A fans to cool my dually system: Tyan Tiger MP with two Athlon XP 1600s (Palomino core). This is in an Antec SX-series case. Keeps temps at 50c or below even under full load.

Also have Panaflos in the case, two exhaust and one intake. Probably overkill, but I've been too busy to experiment.

The triple clip system attaches these heatsinks very securely. They are heavy, and I would be cautious about bumping the system around too much. For example, I would make sure to lay the case on its side if transporting it out of the house -- might even consider unmounting the HSFs. However, in day-to-day static use I've seen no ill effects from having two of these things hanging off the board.

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Post by quokked » Tue Oct 15, 2002 5:33 pm

with the SLK-800 being able to accept both types of fans I'd think this is for the ppl who'd prefer the whine of something like a 60MM delta over the 80MM delta, as the "dead spot" in the middle of the 60MM delta is smaller and also the fan spins faster so means more air pressure into the heatsink, I've seen reviews on the web and they've tested the SLK-800 with both the focus flow delta 80MM and 60MM and they don't see much difference in terms of temperatures.
With the 70MM clips I think this is a direct result of the YS Tech TMD fan that is only available as a 70MM size at the moment :)

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Post by icchan » Thu Oct 17, 2002 7:52 am

I was wondering what cpu/motherboard temps people are getting with the slk-800 and a panaflo 21db/24cfm fan. Please list the cpu you use as well. thanks

Old Dude
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Post by Old Dude » Sat Oct 19, 2002 6:04 am

XP 1700+ at 1.75V --> 57 C. Room temperature 23 C. With a Zalman Fanmate1 in silent mode --> 74 C. Thus the heatsink is very fan-speed dependent. Processor temps measured by a thermal diode.

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Post by Photoman » Mon Nov 11, 2002 9:53 am

I am also thinking of moving to this cooler. It would have to yield a significant drop in cpu temps across the board. I am currently using an old Volcano 7 with a 24db/35cfm case fan that I had laying around. FYI this is much quieter than the original variable speed fan. Temps are 46C at idle and 50C at full load. This is in a Chemnin case with Papst fans.

Has anybody used this cooler on any Athlon 2gig or higher?

Thanks

Andy

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Post by Renod » Mon Nov 11, 2002 4:20 pm

The Thermalright AX-7 actually outperforms the SLK-800 when you are using a low-speed fan. The new SK-7 should also do very well with low-speed fans. I have one that I will be using in a new system this next week.

For a real review of the performance with different fans, see http://w3.one.net/~robotech/Thermalright.htm. To see a good test on the SK-7, see the review on http://www.overclockers.com/.

The mounting clip is very secure on all of these since they are of the 3-hole design.

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Post by Rusty075 » Mon Nov 11, 2002 10:03 pm

I've got an SLK-800 attached to an XP2400+ ( :lol: )

At full load with an 80mm Panaflo L1A it runs at 49C.

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Post by powergyoza » Tue Nov 12, 2002 12:52 am

Hey stsmytherie nice to see another duallie user on the forums. I can tell you right off the bat that you can remove that intake fan from yer case and undervolt all the panaflos to 7V. No need to experiment, cuz it works on my system (see sig). I even have a lesser heatsink than yours.

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Post by stsmytherie » Tue Nov 12, 2002 2:24 pm

Good to know, powergyoza.

What is the temp differential between CPUs on your system? I was getting up to 10C difference with the Radeon 9700, and 5-6C difference with a Geforce3.

Photoman
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SLK800

Post by Photoman » Tue Nov 12, 2002 2:41 pm

Rusty075,

Thanks for the response, I'll probably order a couple this week.

Andy :D

stsmytherie
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Post by stsmytherie » Wed Nov 13, 2002 12:07 am

In case you're interested, here's my rig: Athlon XP 1600s, SLK-800s, and Panaflos. Cables sleeves on the Panaflo tails are my recent addition.

Image

quokked
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Post by quokked » Wed Nov 13, 2002 12:29 am

mmmmmm insanely powerful yet quiet cooling :lol: those capacitors on your board look very well cooled there :)

powergyoza
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Post by powergyoza » Wed Nov 13, 2002 12:52 am

What is the temp differential between CPUs on your system? I was getting up to 10C difference with the Radeon 9700, and 5-6C difference with a Geforce3.
Hey stsmytherie,

I'm getting a 6-7C difference between the CPUs. That's with the fans sucking into a common duct. AFAIR, the difference was worse when they were blowing (further testing needed).

I've been told the temp difference was because the vid card blocks the airflow, but I'm very sure it's also heating the air around the HS. My G550 is quite hot at the back of the PCB. I'm assuming your 9700 is heating the air even more!

Hey, that's a clean case you got. Wait til I show you my gory mess! Muahahah!

stsmytherie
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Post by stsmytherie » Wed Nov 13, 2002 9:04 am

You can probably imagine what a gawdawful racket my rig made when it had stock Antec case fans and stock HSFs.

It's not silent now, but much better than before. I think a quieter PSU would make the biggest difference at this point.

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Post by jimbobUK » Thu Nov 14, 2002 2:58 pm

stsmytherie:

I am having some woes with my SLK-800 and I spotted your pics on here (my thread at the mo is the flower cooler, SLK one) and just thought I'd ask what temperatures you get with your dual CPUS.. I just want to get an idea... I am getting real trouble with my 2100+ XP ... I really think these things can't be cooled :(

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Post by stsmytherie » Thu Nov 14, 2002 4:19 pm

jimbob,

I have to give you some ranges of figures, because the CPU temps vary depending on ambient temp and which video card is installed.

w/ Geforce3
CPU0 39-43C
CPU1 44-50C

w/ Radeon 9700
CPU0 41-45C
CPU1 49-55C

This is with a Tyan Tiger MP (s2460), and Palomino-core Athlon XP 1600s.

Hope this helps.

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Post by stsmytherie » Sun Nov 17, 2002 9:11 pm

update for powergyoza:

Thanks for your advice regarding the case fans. I took out the intake fan. Results: less noise, cpu0 down 1C, and cpu1 down 2C. Fantastic!

Photoman
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Temp drop

Post by Photoman » Mon Nov 18, 2002 12:18 pm

Folks,

I purchased two SLK800's this weekend. Machine no2 is a Duron1300 on a asus A7V, 3 harddrives(40,30,20gb), GForce2mx overclocked fanless, in a Antec 660AMG case, Papst 12db fans and a Digidoc.

All components remained the same except for the heatsink. I removed the volcano 7 heatsink and replaced it with the SLK800. In both cases I used the same 24db/35cfm generic fan.

Preliminary results as follows, closed case:

Volcano 7

Idle: 49C
Full load: 54C
Case Temp: 33C

SLK 800

Idle: 41C
Full load: 44C
Case temp 31C

Room Temp 21C for both.

I think that the design of the 800 reduces stagnent air underneath the center of the fan. Also the large block of copper along the center seems to help stabilize the cpu temp somewhat, rusulting in a narrower spread between min & max temps.

I hope that this helps

Andy :lol:

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Post by jt731 » Wed Dec 04, 2002 7:01 pm

I just pulled my SLK-800 with panaflo back out and put my crappy antec back in.

I have an Athlon 1700+ running default speed, default voltage, and Windows would not boot with it running the bus at 133. At 100, I was getting temps in the low to mid 50s, even at idle. With the crappy antec, I'm getting a consistent 38-39C

Here is my question though, I noticed most of the pictures had the fan pointed toward the heatsink. Should I do this?

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Post by MikeC » Wed Dec 04, 2002 8:10 pm

Panaflo at 12V? Something is wrong there!

Yes, you should have the fan blowing down at the HS/CPU. And I'd check to make sure you have the 6 lugs all engaged correctly and the HS base not tilted. Move the PSU out of the way when you do this! It is much easier to make sure the HS is set up right; all it takes is a few seconds for an AMD to burn. (the worst thing about them)

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Post by jt731 » Thu Dec 05, 2002 8:13 am

I'll try it again.

When I was installing it, I noticed that once side of my ZIF socket has very little clearance, and I really had to work it to make sure I got all of the lugs on. It's a MSI KT266a board.

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Athlon

Post by Photoman » Thu Dec 05, 2002 9:03 am

Definitely have the fan blowing down into the heat sink. On mounting the SLK I found that the heatsink resides completely over the CPU, with none of it protruding over top of the raise part of the ZIF socket. I put a thin layer of paste on the cpu and also a thin layer on the spot where the cpu contacts the heatsink.

My Athlon 1700 is running under 44C at full load in this config.

Your board supports FSB at 133 with PC2100 memory(DDR266) or higher.

Andy

jt731
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Post by jt731 » Sun Dec 08, 2002 1:51 pm

I remounted it, with the fan pointing down. I also turned it around, so that instead of the side you put the screwdriver in to mount being toward the pci slots it was toward the power supply.

So far the diode is reporting 34C, but I haven't started doing anything real taxing yet.

I also picked up some artic thermal from CompUSA. Not only do they have the CompUSA branded stuff, by they have PCToys branded stuff, including the Zalman heat sinks.

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Post by Ralf Hutter » Mon Dec 09, 2002 7:16 pm

I just got an SLK-800 to put on my Tualeron rig.


It's designed as an extremely quiet server. Specs are:

1.1A Tualatin Celeron running at 1.475Ghz (133FSB). 2 x 256MB of Crucial PC133 CL2 RAM, Asus Tusl2-C MoBo. I have been running this with the retail HSF + ASIII running 7-volted for low noise. Temps have been so-so, but acceptable. Low noise was my first consideration. With the retail 7-volted HSF my temps were: MoBo at idle 25-30C, at load 28-32C. CPU at idle 38-40C, at Prime95 load 52-54C.

I put on the SLK-800 + ASIII with an 80mm Adda 26CFM, 22dB fan. Temps at idle dropped 2-3C for MoBo and CPU. Load temps for the MoBo dropped 3-4C, for the CPU they dropped 9C. Noise level remained the same.

So, I'm pretty impressed with this heatsink. A 9C decrease in CPU load temps is pretty darn good, and this setup is almost silent.

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Post by gksam » Tue Dec 10, 2002 1:32 am

I have a Panaflo L1A 80mm @ 7V on my TUSL2 with a Pentium-III-S (Tualatin) CPU (512kb cache, 1.40ghz, 1.45V).

The heatsink I am using is a Thermalright AX7 with silver thermal compound.

The other fans in my system are a 5V 80mm Panaflo L1A blowing on a Zalman ZM17 on my Radeon 8500LE (overclocked from 230/230 to 250/250).

And then my 365W SH powersupply has the stock 80mm 7V fan blowing from the case into the powersupply, and then has a 7V 80mm Panaflo L1A blowing out of the powersupply.

My case temps at idle are 27oC-30oC.

CPU Temps at idle are 46-49oC

CPU Temps after an hour of Prime95 are 49-51oC.

The bulk of the noise from my system is my Seagate Barracuda IV 80gig. I am tempted to buy a Cuda V since I hear they are quieter :)

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Post by Ralf Hutter » Tue Dec 10, 2002 8:05 pm

Today I pulled the 12V Adda off of the SLK-800 and replaced it with a 7-volted 80mm M1A. According to the specs this should be running about 16dB, 19 CFM. CPU load temps went up about 1-2C to 46-47C max. This fan is inaudible from more than 6" away.

Next thing I did was take the 7-volted 120mm L1A exhaust fan and put it on on of the TruePowers' "fan-only" connectors. These measure slightly more than 5V at default. Case temps with the 5V exhaust fan at load went up about 2C, CPU temps went up another 1+C. CPU is running at 48C under Prime95 load, ambient temp is low 70F range.

Loudest thing in this box now is the TruePower PSU. Time to get a Nexus, I suppose. I think I'll go phone Santa right now, see ya later.

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Post by MikeC » Tue Dec 10, 2002 9:59 pm

The bulk of the noise from my system is my Seagate Barracuda IV 80gig. I am tempted to buy a Cuda V since I hear they are quieter
I doubt it. Seagate says no. They do sound power measurements. Why would you doubt them? If you want quieter go for a single platter version. I think the B-V 80 is a single platter.
Loudest thing in this box now is the TruePower PSU. Time to get a Nexus, I suppose.
Why not try a single Panaflo swap first? Run just that fan. The fan circuit is already in the TP...

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