Best cooler for Q6600

[graysky]

Ultra Extreme would be nice if any stores had it in stock

newegg has them in stock.

heatsinkfactory is currently out but email them and they'll let you know when.

 

[Spanki]

Yeah, my point was that it's really difficult to cross-reference multiple reviews to get a clear picture .

But, having said that, just about every review I've seen for the Hyper Tx shows it to be a 'very good' performer and can be had for ~$25 (check mWave.com or here). In the MADSHRIMPS roundup, it out-cooled 6 out of 9 coolers in various configurations, tied with 2 at the top (one of which is the Titan Amanda TEC cooler) and only lost to one (Zalman 9700 LED, at about double the noise level).

I don't think you can take any of those reviews too literally (not just those, but any HSF review in general) - there's just too many variables involved - but they will give you a broad idea of whether some HSF is a sinker or performer.

 

[ARM]

What about the Enzotech Ultra-X? That looked quite good, and if I remember correctly, beat these tower contraptions.

 

[Spanki]

What about the Enzotech Ultra-X? That looked quite good, and if I remember correctly, beat these tower contraptions.

Ultra-X review at Frostytech

Ultra-X beats Tuniq - (read from there, forward... gets more interesting)

Ultra-X beats Gemini II

Ultra-X beats Ultra Chill-TEC (Thermo-Electric Cooler)

Ultra-X beats Scythe Andy, Scythe Infinity, Big Typhoon, Zalman 9700, Noctua NH-U12F

Ultra-X vs Ultra 120 (w/Antec Tri-Cool fan) and Big Typhoon again - acording to this one, the Ultra 120 is a degree or 2 better at similar fan speeds.


...so, add salt, shake thoroughly . In general, this looks like a quality unit with a lot of potential. I think you'll soon see many other manufacturers moving to 8mm (or even 10mm) heat-pipes as time goes on.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

Re: Ultra-X ... nice find. Interesting reviews and quality (from photo's) construction. I, especially, liked the "finish" - seems it's almost factory lapped (and I hate the idea of having to "finish" a HS I've paid for).

 

[billdcat4]

Here you go....

Hyper Tx beats Ultra 120 by 6C idle, and 9C at load.

Hyper Tx matches Tuniq under load - who'da thunk it?.

Hyper Tx puts the smack-down on Scythe Infinity - film at 11:00.

Hyper Tx guns for Thermaltake Big Typhoon - close, but no cigar.

Hyper Tx pwns Ultra 120 (again), ZeroTherm BTF90, OCZ Tempest.

Wait a minute - Ultra 120 strikes back!

etc.

wtf? is this a really good cooler or some inaccurate reviews?

 

[Spanki]

Here you go....

Hyper Tx beats Ultra 120 by 6C idle, and 9C at load.

Hyper Tx matches Tuniq under load - who'da thunk it?.

Hyper Tx puts the smack-down on Scythe Infinity - film at 11:00.

Hyper Tx guns for Thermaltake Big Typhoon - close, but no cigar.

Hyper Tx pwns Ultra 120 (again), ZeroTherm BTF90, OCZ Tempest.

Wait a minute - Ultra 120 strikes back!

etc.

wtf? is this a really good cooler or some inaccurate reviews?

Well, if it was one review or even two that seemed out of line, I'd think that it must be some mistake. But with this cooler, the opposite seems to be true - nearly every reiew I've seen rates it very high against coolers you wouldn't expect it to with only an oddball review here and there rating it lower (on-par with, but quieter than an AC7Pro, for example).

So either CM sent out some kick-ass review sample, everyone got it wrong, or it's just a dang good cooler (not the best, but great bang for the buck, in a lighter weight cooler).

I've been researching coolers for about 3 months now, reading pretty much every review on any cooler that looked mildly interesting and now that I'm ready to make my purchase, I'm finding it hard NOT to buy this . I do have several others in mind, for various reasons, but the Hyper Tx keep jumping up and down at me.

 

[Spanki]

..keep in mind that you have to pay attention to the fans being used in those reviews as well. Invariably, anytime you see the Ultra 120 or Tuniq, etc. kicking ass, it's usually with some sort of high speed fan that would give you a headache in minutes.

The Hyper Tx might also be loud on full tilt (I haven't found a recording of that one yet), but it looks like it does a decent job at lower speeds as well.

 

[coldneutron]

The HyperTX is very quiet even on full speed. I can't hear it unless the case is open. I think if u put on the same noisy, high speed fans as on the top coolers, it would perfom equally as well.

 

[Spanki]

The HyperTX is very quiet even on full speed. I can't hear it unless the case is open. I think if u put on the same noisy, high speed fans as on the top coolers, it would perfom equally as well.

Yeah, I finally broke down and bought one... just installed it yesterday. I haven't done extensive temperature testing yet, but my first impression is that I'm very pleased with it overall.

I currently have it running full speed using SpeedFan 4.32, which reports the rpm as 1940 - 1961 (a bit higher than the 1800 rated). I've cranked it down to 50% speed and back up to 100% speed and I haven't been able to hear any difference at all (!). When I did that with the stock Intel HSF, there was a quite noticable difference in noise levels.

It looks like the Antec Tri-Cool fans in my P182 case (all 3 set to low) and/or the fan on my 7900 GS are now the loudest things in my case.

Edit: Heh, I just noticed that your rig is very similar to mine...

E6400@3.2 1.32v -|- E6400 currently @2.66 stock volts (was waiting for newHSF to crank it up to 3.2)
CoolerMaster HyperTx -|- same now
MSI P6NSLI Platinum -|- same
2G OCZ R2 Platinum@400 4-4-4-12-1T -|- 2G OCZ S.O.E.(667) currently running @333.3 (1:1) 4-4-4-5-1T but also runs fine @400
XFX 8800GTS xtreme 320 -|- XFX 7900 GS (I'm poor )
...
Ultra Xfinity 500W -|- Xclio GreatPower 550W
CoolerMaster Centurion5 -|- Antec P182

...I also just replaced that little 40mm NB screamer with a 60mm Vantec Stealth fan + 40-60mm adaptor. I used to have the 40mm dialed down to 5v to get the noise under control, but that also cut the cfm way down (somewhere around 3cfm). I can't even hear the Stealth at 12v and it's rated at 12cfm at that speed.

On that setup..

- using the step-down adaptor will certainly add some impedence to the fan's rated cfm, but not enough to offset the gain over the 40mm which was being dialed down to less than half it's original 8cfm.

- the fan adaptor didn't come with screws long enough for the 25mm thick fan, so I ended up zip-tieing it to the adaptor until I can go out and get the right screws.

- the adaptor is probably the same thickness as the old fan (10mm), so you're adding 25mm on top of that and also etending all each side dimension by 10mm (40mmx40mm --> 60mmx60mm). In this particular setup (with the Hyper Tx), it fits nearly perfectly - the Stealth fan butts up against the fan shroud, either not quite touching it, or barely touching it. So close that I was concerned about vibration between the two, but after firing it up I don't hear any at all. Anyway, the point is...

- this arrangement may not work with other (wider) HSFs.

 

[Grimmy]

Well, that HyperTX HS has made it on my wish list of things.

Prolly look forward in getting that when the time comes.

 

[SEALBoy]

Eh, it's pretty much just a rebranded Freezer 7 Pro with a plastic shroud. The Freezer 7 tends to be cheaper too.

If you can afford get a Tuniq Tower or Ultra 120, do it. Seriously, they're both MILES ahead of the Freezer 7 and Hyper TX.

Imagine the stock hsf as a fly, the Freezer 7 as a pigeon, the Tuniq Tower and Ultra 120 as supersonic jets, water cooling as a hypersonic jet, cascade coolers, phase change systems, TECs, ect., as the speed of light, and dry ice/LN2 cooling as some crazy space ship capable of FTL travel. Oh, and for reference, no hsf, just the bare chip, as moving backwards, and absolute zero as Warp 10 (infinite speed). Now put all of 'em in a race to the center of the universe.

Lol. I wonder how many people realize that that's an impossible race.

 

[WestWarrior]

I realized that 🙂. Well im gonna cast my vote for the Ultra 120-Extreme, you just might want to make sure that you have enough room in your case though.

As for the TIM.

The TIM that comes with the coolers is fine and 1/2C less with another brand is not worth the extra money.

Where did you come up with that?? Listen OP, you will want to get some after market TIM. Its usually less than 10$ shipped for something good. I have seen as much as a 9C drop when someone switched from cheap TIM to high end TIM. So dont believe that other guy, TIM is important.I find AS5 hard to get right. If you put too much on you can cook your CPU. So i would recommend some Shin Etsu TIM.

You can find Shin Etsu and Ultra 120 Extremes in stock at www.petrastechshop.com

 

[underexposed]

Here is what I'm getting with the Hyper TX. Max temps are 56 at 3.4ghz and 1.375Vcore. I'm OK with the results

 

[jchunter]

What are your core temps at idle? The difference between temperatures at idle and 100% load (Prime 95) gives the best indication of how well the heat sink is working.

Your Q6600 shows exactly the same quirk that mine does: cores 2 and 3 (seem to) run 6 degrees cooler than cores 0 and 1. At first, I thought that the die that held 0 and 1 was poorly mounted and might have heat transfer problems. However, if this had been true, I would have seen the temperature difference increase under full load. This did not happen and actually the 6 degree temperature difference has persisted under the complete range of overclocking conditions.

It has to be an difference in the temperature measurement circuits of the two (supposedly identical) dies. Speedfan author Alfredo can't explain why this is happening. In any case, I just configure an extra 6 degreee offset in speedfan, which evens up the temps and makes testing easier. CoreTemp always shows the temp dif.

 

[oswold]

Anandtech has the most CPU cooler reviews, but I think their temps for their coolers they report are way to low.

47c on a C2E at nearly 4ghz at load! My e4300 gets that temperature at 1.8ghz with a sythe ninja!