CPU cooling & speed, and all that sort of thing

[Kiwi]

Thumbing through nine thread index pages' worth of this forum's message threads here, and the few hits that Google came up with for "cpu heatsinks comparison", which mostly were the same couple of ongoing Tom's Hardware reviews, I haven't seen what I'd think of as a wide range of interest in these mundane little noise-makers.

Speaking of noise, one thing I do not agree with that the reviewer at Tom's seems to do is put the dB meter mere inches away from the fans on the heat sinks. In my opinion, the noie reading should be from a closed case, and at least 18" from the front of the case. In just the last two years, AMD has claimed to have increased their processors almost double the effective speed, and Intel has definitely cranked theirs up about that much.

They have both been in the OverClocking business until very recently. And this means that the stock PC's from Best Buy and Circuit City are generating more excess heat than a hotrodded PC of a couple of years ago. Those people are going to be frying systems as soon as the dust bunnies and lint starts plugging their power supply inlets, and not know why.

Meanwhile, there really doesn't seem to be any widely referenced resource covering selecting either a very effective heat sink, or a combination of reasonably good heat sink performance with better than average case ventilation. I am looking at a "Spire" Whisper Rock IV", which is comparatively large, with a 70 mm fan on top, and a "quiet" reputation.

(Last year there was a "Speeze" Whisper Rock III that the reviewer on Tom's wasn't that well impressed with . . . and is surely the same people - Fanner Corp.)

In my other hand, I have a two year old Thermal Take heat sink, a Volcano 6 Cu. Both heat sinks are primarily aluminum castings, so less expensive than some. Both have a large copper core that contacts the Athlon core. The Volcano is as bulky as the Spire, not as tall, though, and with only a 60 mm fan, it probably can't handle near as much heat dissipation as the Spire, but most likely is a lot noisier with a higher speed fan.

Thermal Take doesn't list that heat sink on their web site any longer, and also, they seem to provide "limited" specs for most of the many sinks that they still do sell. Some of the higher cost ones seemed fairly well covered, except for missing weights. Anyway, the slowest cpu of the PC's that will be used most around here will be the XP 2100 that this particular (used) CPU Cooler had been matched up to.

For budgetary reasons, given the price break between AMD's 2800+ and 3000+, a 2800 will be in the gaming PC that replaces a current system running half that rated speed, which system will then move in here (was Dining Room once, now it's my "Office") and it will in its own turn get the 2100 as a transplant.

The parts that have been ordered are starting to arrive, and I've cleared off the model building table in the garage to have a clear space for PC assembly. It'll be too hot out there if anything takes very long, and I won't be running any power-on tests out there. I'd like to use as many (quiet) case fans as I have fan mounts, which is one intake and two exhaust (Kingwin case) and move quite a bit of air at lower velocity.

The gaming case sits BESIDE me, not in front of me, or by my knees. It is just too close to my ear on that side if it's too noisy. This PC does sit in front (and to the side) of me; it might be less of a problem noisewise. Currently the box that will move from there to here has no case fans, but it also doesn't have the "lid" closed, so the case doesn't have much chance to be a lot hotter inside than the rest of the room.

This one I'm using this minute is the noisiest of all three desktops. It's the old P-II, and the CPU fan on it is comparatively loud, and I do have both of the sides in place and latched on it.

Is there anyone here who has bookmarked a web site on which cooling and heat sinking is summarized fairly well (Ummm -- do I have to add that I need you to SHARE that bookmark with me?)

[Cricket]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but take a look at this web site.

Cricket

[Kiwi]

Meanwhile, I did get a URL for "Frosty Tech", which has tons of heat sink reviews.

http://www.frostytech.com/articlesea...ch=Get+Listing

Admittedly, I had to be insulted by some nasty Alimenary Orifice at an nForce Forum to get that reference, and I have no interest in ever going back to that cess-pool of ignorance again!