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Blogs Have expensive heatsinks had their day?

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by brumgrunt, 29 Jun 2012.

  1. brumgrunt

    brumgrunt What's a Dremel?

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  2. ev1lm1nd666

    ev1lm1nd666 What's a Dremel?

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    I've been having this thought for a few months now as I've been planning my new build. I'm normally the (cheap) kind of guy who goes for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2, but water cooling, I think, has been calling me to give it a try. With these all in one water coolers coming as low as £40 I'm seriously tempted by them as my pc is in the living room plugged into my TV as an (Gasp) HTPC so noise is obviously a factor. Another thing I have against the high end expensive air coolers is that stock coolers are getting better and better all the time now. I'm using the stock cooler on my AMD FX 4100 which is OC'd to 4.6Ghz and the highest temps I've seen after stress testing over night at 100% load are a Delta T of 35-41°C.....
     
  3. Dave Lister

    Dave Lister Minimodder

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    I've been thinking of getting a corsair h100 for a while now so I can overclock my cpu. The trouble with my case (cm cosmos s) is I cant use a decent air cooler. I used to run a custom loop on my computer but lost a motherboard due to a leak and also damaged part of the case's plastic trim trying to empty the system. So an all in one would suit me perfectly.
     
  4. atlas

    atlas What's a Dremel?

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    I dunno looked into this recently when I did my upgrade and still ended up with a Thermalright silver arrow SB-E although the corsair H80 and H100 were close options the silver arrow still had better cooling (has nice quiet fans) and doesn't have any water running through it to worry about :)
     
  5. Almightyrastus

    Almightyrastus On the jazz.

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    I have to say that I have been tempted by something like the H100 for a while especially as I am thinking of expanding my RAM. Some of the slots are obscured by the large air cooler I have on there at the moment. It would be nice to have a 360 radiator version as that is what my ATCS 840 has fittings for.
     
  6. ya93sin

    ya93sin What's a Dremel?

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    I bought the Noctua NH-D14 a year ago, it was my first ever custom cooler that I had purchased.
    And what more could I ask for? Temperatures stay at extremely low delta even with a moderate 4.4GHz OC on an i5-2500K, and the most impressive part is that it does it with a whisper.
    With a fan controller as well, the noise levels are very low.
     
  7. MiNiMaL_FuSS

    MiNiMaL_FuSS ƬӇЄƦЄ ƁЄ ƇƠƜƧ ӇЄƦЄ.

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    I found my mega-halem with a few mods (high pressure and lapping) is both quieter and better at cooling than any of the all-in-one liquid coolers...and I've tried everything up-to and including the H-80 and the 920.

    Why would I switch from the one heat-sink I've had for years, that so far fits every system and beat every other cooler....and cost £15.00 second hand!
     
  8. rpsgc

    rpsgc Minimodder

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    You can praise all-in-one watercooling units all you want, but please, do not, ever, say they're quiet.

    Because they're not. Unless your hearing is as bad as a half-deaf 80 year old man.


    "Oh but they can be made quiet" you say? Yes, of course. You can lower the pump's voltage and use lower RPM fans, and they'll be quiet-ish. But they'll also have a piss-poor performance worse than any decent air cooler.


    So, no, 'expensive' heatsinks have not had their day. And when they do get pushed aside, trust me, it won't be because of AIO watercooling units.
     
    Last edited: 29 Jun 2012
  9. longweight

    longweight Possibly Longbeard.

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    It's all about case design really, my FT02 has all of the case fans running through a fan controller which is set to minimum and you cannot hear them or the Dark Rock Pro even underload.

    The GPU however does make a noticeable noise.
     
  10. Harlequin

    Harlequin Modder

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    currently rocking a passive coolermaster hyper z600 ;)
     
  11. longweight

    longweight Possibly Longbeard.

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    What CPU and temperatures?
     
  12. Harlequin

    Harlequin Modder

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    phenom 2 x6 1090T @ 3.6ghz and temps? dont know and as long as it works then tbh not bothered
     
  13. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    I've never had an issue with the pump noise on the few units I've tried, and using different fans on a cooler is far from unheard of. Performance wise, they've always been good for me over a variety of chips.
    I think they're very good, they allow better performance in smaller cases a lot of the time (I used a H70 in a PC-Q08)
     
  14. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    I have a Corsair H50 and a H60. Both of them are utter rubbish imho and do not work as intended. The pumps are awfully noisy and the temperatures don't really are better then a $50 aircooler.
    Additionally, the mounting of the both mentioned products are total rubbish. I had to throw away the H60 because the cooler doesn't attach correctly to the CPU and has a gap of around 1mm even if the screws are tightened to max. The H50 was a PITA to install and seeing that the Antec Kühler uses this mounting-system too I wouldn't ever recommend any of the current factory-sealed all-in-one water-coolers.

    With CPUs getting more efficient - Ivy Bridge i5-3570k only has 77W TDP whereas the i5-760 had 95W TDP - it's a waste of money and efforts to go for watercooling imho. My Samuel 17 + Apache Black has no issues cooling my i5-760 silently at stockspeeds, even when I run Prime95 for half an hour, and I mind you that the Samuel 17 is a rather small topblower. With a 120mm tower-cooler there would even be less issues.
    I'm upgrading to the 1156 Ivy Bridge soon, and then my Apache Black won't even spin up beyond 600RPM when surfin the net I guess, because the TDP of the Ivy Bridge i5-CPUs is only around 65W when you disable the IGP.

    Expensive heatsinks have had their day because the new intel CPUs have such low TDP that you can passively cool them with a 120mm tower-cooler under load with good airflow in the case.

    Cooling is only an issue with current GPUs, but if the rumors about the GTX660 stay true, then we'll see a GPU with only 100W TDP within range of the performance of a 7850.

    Soon a medium-priced gaming-rig (Ivy Bridge I5 + GTX660 or the like) will draw less then 200 Watts under load. Cooling these systems will be totally easy with aircoolers and noise will no more be an issue aswell.
     
    Last edited: 29 Jun 2012
  15. flong

    flong What's a Dremel?

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    Might have been a good question with Sandy Bridge or if you are not going to overclock. However Ivy Bridge runs extremely hot.

    Also, If your spending $1500 - $2000 USA (more in the UK because of the VAT tax) do you really want to expose your expensive components to high heat? Isn't it worth the extra $50 - $70 to provide "insurance" to keep your components extra cool?

    That was my reasoning for buying the Noctua NH-D14 for my 2600K rig even though I do not need to overclock. No component in my computer gets above 35F except the sound card which runs at 59F. Everything is icy cool and that was worth the extra $50 for me. I couldn't be happier with my D-14
     
  16. digitaldunc

    digitaldunc What's a Dremel?

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    Not had their day -- marginalized maybe, but not finished.

    There will always be situations where WC isn't practical or impossible -- case size restraints are one issue. Additionally, a lot of users aren't all that fond of the idea of WC, although this may be mitigated somewhat with sealed low maintenance kits.
     
  17. whatsthatnoise

    whatsthatnoise What's a Dremel?

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    I believe it's not all about performance, only. Sure a high end air cooler performs better than one of these closed loop water solutions. Maybe even the all so popular CoolerMaster 212 and it's derivates performes better, for way less money.

    However, the main reasons why I love my H70 is ease of use (when swapping systems), low noise and most off all: a clean and nice appearance. Most air coolers are either plain ugly or take up way to much space. I don't like to watch at a big brick in my system...

    Of course custom watercooling is better in all aspects, visual and performance wise. But it costs a fortune compared to something like an H70. I got it for 35€, a 2 year used one. It is still silent and fully functional and got 3 years warranty left. Even at full price it's simply good value if you do not only look at benchmark performance. ;-)
     
  18. FaSMaN

    FaSMaN What's a Dremel?

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  19. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    I don't think size is the issue - there are plenty of air coolers that dwarf single rad sealed kits these days. The price point is the key, IMO. Arctic Cooling showed us how to produce a low cost, effective and universally endorsed HSF. Granted, with increased heat density, HSF have to improve to keep up - increasing r&d costs and eventually costing more on the shelf.

    However, £12 for a freezer 7 pro then suddenly £50-£70 for a modern high end HSF is taking it a bit too far. I'm a WC fanboy so I'm biased but, at that price point, I'd take a sealed unit any day; as there are very very few high end HSFs that warrant their price tag.
     
    Last edited: 29 Jun 2012
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  20. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    I picked up my Frio for just £40 delivered and it is without a doubt the very best HSF I have had the pleasure of owning. Fans always on low mean it's silent (to me) and my OC never breaches 55°C under load.
     
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