XP-90 for HTPC (Gigabyte 9400) ?

Bungee · Post by **Bungee** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:51 am

I will soon build a HTPC using the new Gigabyte 9400 730i motherboard. I have an old XP-90, and I was thinking about buying a 775 retention module ($5.95).

Will the XP-90 be a good choice, probably for cpu intel5200 or intel7200 ?

What fan would be best ? I was thinking about trying the new Scythe Gentle Typhoon 92mm Low Speed (1700rpm).

Thanks.

vertigo · Post by **vertigo** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:05 pm

I see the 5200 is 85W, the 7200 is 130W TDP. Do you want such a high power draw?

That slow 92mm may struggle with the 130W I think. For comparison, although this is speculative, an 80mm at about 1400 cools my 69W CPU, you'd need twice that, so 2800 at 80mm, maybe 2500 at 92mm (or more, I don't know). I think you'll struggle to find a quiet fan at that speed, it would be better to use a 120mm with an adapter but that probably wouldn't fit.

But the 85W should be okay. Other people might have done something similar.

PS. If you are determined to use the 130W and know what case it'll be, I might be able to help.

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Sorry, I got that totally wrong, I was looking at the 7300 series, quad-core Xeon 2.9GHz. That would indeed be silly for an HTPC...

The 7200's are only 80W (5200's too), I think that fan will work but check the temps just in case.

maf718 · Post by **maf718** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:51 pm

Hi, the rated TDP of both those processors is 65W, and they actually use less than that, the XP-90 will be plenty good enough.

There's not much info available yet on how good those gentle Typhoons are, especially in 92mm, but Scythe fans are usually good - I use and like the Scythe Kama Flex 92mm 1600rpm. The Nexus 92mm has a good rep too, I think it's about 1400-1500rpm which should be enough for those cpus.

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:39 pm

What maf718 said is accurate. They are rated at 65W, like most of Intel's dual-cores, but they should probably actually be around 35W at load. The XP-90 should have no problems. And yeah - a Scythe or Nexus fan should be good... I personally prefer Nexus fans.

Bungee · Post by **Bungee** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:45 am

Thanks. I will go with the XP-90. My other choice would have been a HR-01 plus, because I like the easy mounting, but I assume it is higher so that may limit my case selection.

And I'll buy a few Gentle Typhoons, so I can try them out. I have a few Nexus 92mm in use, so I can always swap them out, it needed, but since this is for HTPC (player only), the tv-sound should be able to eliminate some noise.

It also seems that the new CoreAVC can use the GPU on the 730i motherboards, so a E5200 might only be running at 25% speed.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:43 pm

Those CPU's use about 25 W or less, you should be fine with that cooler.