Replace my modded Zalman 9500?

Gunnerbob · Post by **Gunnerbob** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:28 pm

Am wondering if it's "worth it" to replace my modded Zalman 9500: I've swapped out the stock 92mm fan and put in an Antec Tri-Cool 92mm, connected to my fan controller. It's quieter, but I'm not sure if the temps are the greatest to be honest.

System specs:
-C2D 6300 OC'd to 3.2ghz
-Gigabyte DS3
-Thermaltake Extreme Spirit NB HSF
-Noctua 120mm case fans @1200rpm in Antec P180B (love it!)
-etc, etc.

Possible options:
-Thermalright Ultra 120 (would put a Noctua on it....fins too close to work for low flow?)
-Scythe Ninja (think it'll interfere with my NB HSF)
-Noctua U12F (looks promising, the new F-revision can now be rotated 90 degrees on the CPU mount to exhaust out the top of the P180, so it shouldn't interfere with my NB HSF...dunno if the Ultra can be rotated.)
-any others? Not sure if the Tuniq will interfere with NB HSF.....can the Tuniq fan be swapped out for a quiet Noctua and still perform well??
-say Screw It, and keep my modded 9500 LOL.

What would the preferred option be?
Will these provide decent cooling improvements over the 9500?

Would really appreciate the expert advice here. Thanks in advance.

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:34 pm

Well you never gave any temperatrues, so it's hard to decide....

Anyways, if they are too hot with a tri-cool, you might want to find another heatsink. But I can't imagine a 9500 with even an OC'ed e6300, runs hot. What are your temperatres and how fast is the Tri-Cool spinning?

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:12 am

Hi, I can believe it's running warm as it's overclocked. I have an E6600 with Zalman 9500AT on it and it's overclocked to 3.325GHz, also the Vcore is raised some to do it. Not sure what stock Vcore is but currently shows 1.29V idle, 1.24V folding (most of the time) and down to 1.22V under extreme stress. (Orthos, TAT etc) The Vcore control in the BIOS is pretty fine (0.0125V?) and the next level down results in instability.
When folding the Zalman keeps the temps around 60Â°C @~1250rpm. If under bigger load or the heatingâ€™s been on a while and the room temp rises then need more rpm. The Zalman seams to me to be not overly sensitive to fan rpm. This is good that within it's cooling power dropping the fan speed doesn't have too big a performance penalty and bad in that when really pushing it a lot more fan speed is need for much gain.
Based on what I've read I would guess the big 120mm fan towers (Ninja, Noctua NH-U12, Ultra-120) would provide significantly better cooling. I'd have bought one if they fitted in my case.
Regards, Seb

Gunnerbob · Post by **Gunnerbob** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:10 am

Well, my temps are *somewhat* misleading......because my case is not far from the furnace vent. When I open the balcony door my temps drop alot. So I suspect when the winter weather is gone and the furnace goes off, my temps should be better.

Currently my temps are about 50C idle and 58/59C load in dual Prime95s in TAT. Idle is somewhat high for my preference, but my case location is far from ideal....but I have nowhere else to put it unfortunately. So this limits my OC from going even higher as well.

I've got the 9500 with the Tri-Cool 92mm usually running at 12V. Slowing speed down to 5-7V doesn't seem to make much difference in temps (maybe a degree or two), and noise isn't toooo bad at higher rpm's.

I suppose I'm asking what may be somewhat of an unanswerable question: Will a new HSF improve my temps alot and still be quiet? I guess that's debatable, and how much *might* it improve temps? A couple degrees isn't worth the hassle I guess.

Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to get a new HSF lol. I suppose the wisest course of action would be to see what the temps are when the furnace is off, spring weather is around, and/or when it's hot outside and the air conditioning is on....that will likely tell the tale.