how about AM3 cpu cooler recommendations. or is am2 the same

Mounting is the same, just a case of making sure it will cool hotter chips.

well the loudest thing in the new rig is by far the phenom II x4 965 fan. this thing has gotta go. any ideas?? this is for a solo case so size may be a factor. BTW what size is the stock fan

basically i need a quiet solution for this build if i just replace the stock fan or the whole unit does not matter. i want it to be quiet , PWM, and fit in the SOLO, AM3 socket. any ideas??

-AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
-G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 2x2
-ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO/U3S6 AM3 785G
-2 Western Digital Caviar RE 320GB
-lite on IDE dvd burner iHAP422-08
-creative SB X-FI audio 9400
-1 120mm exhaust
-memory card reader/writer
-antec solo case

A Scythe Mugen 2 would seem to fit the bill (click for SPCR review).

wow, that thing is massive, are we sure it will fit in the solo??

Here are two separate systems in the General Gallery with a Scythe Mugen 2 in the Antec Solo:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54778&highlight=solo+mugen
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55183&highlight=solo+mugen

It looks like the Mugen 2 fits in the Solo just fine.

i like the price of the mugen 2 on newegg 38$ but its sold out. the stock heatsink has the cpu at 43c max so far so im thinking of other options to the mugen 2 possibly just change the stock fan or choose a more available heatsink. what would my next best option be?

For a bit more $$$, maybe the ZEROtherm ZEN FZ120 (SPCR review here).

You might want to replace the stock fan though (that's why the Mugen 2 is great value - the stock fan is pretty good). If you want a good add-on PWM fan, maybe go for a Scythe Kama PWM.

I don't think the Xigmatek heatsinks mount the 'correct' (rear exhaust-facing) way on AMD mobos, so I wouldn't suggest these. From memory the FZ120 does.

Alternatively, a Scythe Kabuto blow-down CPU cooler (SPCR review) might fit the bill - it has the same PWM fan as the Mugen 2.

will this work for my CPU? (AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor).

I am looking for a quiter HS/fan combo for my build for a reasonable $$.

thanks,

gychang

I don't see why it wouldn't work.

something strange just happened. using the stock cpu fan and heatsink running windows xp the last few days on this rig the cpu temp was 43c and the fan was spinning close to 4000rpm. this was the main reason i wanted to make the change. yesterday i installed windows 7 64bit and my cpu temp is now 33c and fan is 2600rpm which is quiet enough for me. could this be something with the operating system change or is it that the arctic silver kicked in. in any case im not sure i want to change heatsinks now.

Windows 7 will drop CPU frequency and voltage by default during idle. Xp required a custom cpu driver and extra apps to do this.

thanks for the above answer. that explains it.
ok so i went ahead and installed a scythe kabuto and im very pleased about how quiet this is. at 39c rpm is 1123, very very quiet. i am surprised though that the cpu temp has not dropped at all. it fluctuates from 32c to 40c under windows 7 just like the stock heatsink did. any ideas on this? this thing is 3 times the size with 2 more heat pipes. i know its not the coolest thing but it should be cooler than a stock amd heatsink.????

32 to 40c is pretty good - you're not going to get much cooler than that since there are other components dumping heat into the case too. Unless you're hitting 70+ under load, the cooling is working right

yes temps are good. but if you dont mind a little noise in the case there is something to be said about amd's stock heatsink. especially if you just change out the fan for a quieter operation. its small, has 4 soldered heat pipes and all but the fins are copper. nice job amd, now lets get a fan that does not sound sound like jet blue in the living room and leave the upgrading for the enthusiasts.

Hmm, my stock fan never even left the box. I had room for a CM Hyper 212 in my latest build, so I went for it.

I've been looking into this more to see if I could actually measure what states my CPU was in. This whitepaper shows how to track the C-states (C1/3 are idle states used to stop cores for power savings) and P-states (clock/power adjustments) for your CPU.

One surprising thing I had is that the AMD Athlon II build I'm tweaking right now was around 60w in BIOS, but only 51w at idle once booted! These perf counters showed that 2 of my cores were disabled nearly 100% of the time (C1 state), and the other spent over 90% in C1. All three cores were downclocked to 800mhz when these measurements were taken as well, which means the voltage was also reduced.

Another fun thing - I undervolted the CPU to 1.25v from 1.4 or whatever the default was. That made no difference in idle because the P-state was already dropping the voltage that low. I don't think undervolting will make any difference until I get the CPU near full load.

Here's the whitepaper on it:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... rMgmt.docx

added this cooler 2 years ago and it is cool as ever 40c, is it normal for the cpu and mb temps to be about the same lol
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/0 ... etail.html

I've had good luck with the CM TX-3 coolers I've used I would advise to replace the fan with one of your own choice/use decent thermal paste, it's quite economical and the performance is good. I'm running a Ph II x4 (albeit 95w) and it's no hassle at all keeping it very very quite on that cooler

I don't know if it's normal, but those are perfectly safe temperatures. You don't need to worry.