Arctic Cooling Alpine64 on a X2 4600?

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thegrommit
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Arctic Cooling Alpine64 on a X2 4600?

Post by thegrommit » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:21 pm

Wasn't sure the Alpine 64 could handle a 4600+, until I found this:

http://www.abyteapart.com/articles/alpine_64/4/

Those measurements were taken on a Opteron 144 overclocked to 2.7 Ghz. But add this to the frostytech review and I'm seriously considering this as a cheap and quiet(ish) cooler for a 4600+ at stock speeds.

Opinions?

psionic
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Post by psionic » Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:22 pm

Do you already have the 4600+ or are planning on getting it after the July price drops?

The reason I ask is that if you don't have it yet, then get the retail version, which normally ships with a heatpipe-based HSF. At 12V, this will outperform the Alpine 64, which relies on thermal transfer across an aluminum block. Heatpipes are vastly more efficient than either aluminum or copper at moving heat.

"Heat pipes have an effective thermal conductivity many thousands of times that of copper" - http://www.cheresources.com/htpipes.shtml

Granted, you will probably want to fan swap or undervolt to really drop the noise level of either cooler.

thegrommit
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Post by thegrommit » Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:42 pm

I'm waiting on the price cuts.

I considered swapping the fan on the stock cooler, but it appears to take a 70mm fan, with no apparent way of fastening a larger/quieter one.

I guess I could volt down the stock fan, or use a fanmate. Though Frostytechs 125W test shows the stock fan at low speed is still noisier than the Alpine 64.

psionic
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Post by psionic » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:05 pm

That link you show points to an older revision of the AMD heatpipe cooler. The current revision holds an 80mm fan--http://www.heatsinkoutlet.com/AMD-B.htm. You could keep the stock 80mm fan and undervolt it if it's too loud, or swap it out for something like the Nexus 80mm.

jmke
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Post by jmke » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:40 am

the Alpine64 will work okay with the 4600+ , no worries there, although during hot summers you might need to turn up the fan speed, in which case the noise will go up. I have the Alpine64 compared to the stock 4-heatpipe AMD HSF, link in sig.

thegrommit
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Post by thegrommit » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:31 pm

psionic wrote:That link you show points to an older revision of the AMD heatpipe cooler. The current revision holds an 80mm fan--http://www.heatsinkoutlet.com/AMD-B.htm. You could keep the stock 80mm fan and undervolt it if it's too loud, or swap it out for something like the Nexus 80mm.
Unfortunately, I forgot to mention that this is for an AM2 4600+. :oops: That page doesn't mention AM2.

jmke - thanks, though I'm not sure how comparable the heat output from a OC'd S754 3200+ is to a AM2 4600+

psionic
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Post by psionic » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:35 pm

Looking at this mounting mechanism, it will *probably* work on AM2, since it only uses the center clips. However, if I were you, I would wait to see what stock HSF you get with your 4600+ first.

jmke
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Post by jmke » Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:50 am

thegrommit wrote: jmke - thanks, though I'm not sure how comparable the heat output from a OC'd S754 3200+ is to a AM2 4600+
how funny it may seem, the S754 is putting out more heat than that 4600+; high vcore and older tech are mostly responsible

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