Best Cooling Possible - Q6600 and P9950 BE

[Cervani]

I'm a gaming enthusiast, and while I'm not a pro at OCing I'm not a newbie either.

Currently, I'm on the fence on choosing a Q6600 or a Phenom 9950 BE...both perform somewhat closely (not counting the overclocking, which the Q6600 seems to be the clear winner) at stock.

So what it boils down to is the cooling for my CPUs. I plan on OCing these CPUs, though nothing extremely major (I'm not pushing the 4GHz envelope here, but I will be going to at least 3.5-3.6Ghz), and I wanted some opinions on the BEST air cooling and water cooling out there.

What will keep my temps at near artic levels? Both at idle and at load? Thats what I'm looking for. Doesn't matter if it's air or water, as long as the price is somewhat reasonable.

For this specific build I'll be using an Antec 1200, so airflow shoud not be a problem.

Thanks for the help

 

[iluvgillgill]

even at stock speed Q6600 wins 9950BE easily and product much less heat.so i really dont see the point of even considering the 9950BE.when you are talking about OC you shouldnt even mention the 9950BE.

the 9950BE need some 1.5V+ to achieve 3.4Ghz(not easily) where as you can do <1.5V and achieve 3.6Ghz.and of course the 9950 cant achieve this kind of speed AND actual performance.

get the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer and some AS5 will do the job very nicely.but if you want the obsolute best air cooler get the TRUE with 2 Scythe Slipstream 1600rpm fans.nothing ca beat it!but its rather expensive.

 

[iluvgillgill]

and see this
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/247667-11-overclocking-9850-phenom

1.5v+ for under 3Ghz?you really want that?

i would rather not getting a PC at all if thats what it gonna give me for my money!

 

[doomturkey]

Clock for clock, the Q6600 is faster. Not to mention, it costs about the same as the 9950, and overclocks much higher. I took my Q6600 to 3.6ghz with the Xigmatek HDT S1283, its a great cooler for only $35. At 3.6ghz, the hottest it gets is 60C. If you get that and the Q6600, make sure you buy the retention bracket. You don't need a bracket for the 9950.

 

[iluvgillgill]

i think people are really dumb buying a highend amd processor when only consider the low end dual core actually is the ones that offer best-good price/performance ratio.when gets higher up the range the AMD offering just cant justify their price tag.

well to me at least.thats what i think when i see the reviews and the price up on the internet.

 

[Ninjaz7]

try thermalright

 

[Cervani]

I've been hearing some good things about the Thermaltake 120 Ultras, but I had heard the eXtremes were having some lapping issues? They didn't sit right on the CPU so you had to lap them down in order to get a proper seal.

Or have they fixed this?

I've pretty much decided on the Q6600 now, and my OC will probably be the "sweet spot" for Q6600...which is 3.6Ghz. I just have to find a reasonably good mobo for SLI and I'll be set. Thank you all for your help so far.

Edit: Actually gill, this system has a dual core AM2 in it right now , and I love it. AM2 6000+, runs everything fine.

 

[dagger]

Top performing air coolers. There is no need for water.
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

I won't comment on performance, as you only asked about cooling. At the same clock, 9950 consumes significantly more power and runs hotter than q6600. So from a cooling point of view, q6600 is better.

 

[iluvgillgill]

^one conservatie guy there!lol

i think AMD got to a point where they just need the extra mhz to boost their performance/image and sacrifice thermal side of thing completely! kinda sad i think.95W vs 140W of the phenom.

 

[Cervani]

Thanks to both opinions on here, as well as the site thankfully provided by dagger...I'm deciding between the 120 Ultra and the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer. Both seem to be excellent cooling solutions, and cheap too.

I just need to find a SLI intel board now and I'll be set .

Edit: dagger, I notice you had a 8800GTS which is incidentally the two cards I plan on SLIing. But you're OC is different than mine o.o. The highest I've managed to get a stable OC is 678Mhz. How did you manage 700+?

 

[iluvgillgill]

i guess he probably increase fan speed to a higher level and unlinked the shader to core allow them adjust independantly.

 

[iluvgillgill]

if money no object to you get the TRUE with 2 fans.otherwise get the SCCF.

i would recommend the EVGA FTW series mobo.as they OC the best out of any nvidia chipset based mobo out there.

 

[Cervani]

The TRUE is honestly well within my budget. I've just been hearing about some lapping issues with it.

 

[iluvgillgill]

yeah basicaaly you need to run it on the sandpaper to make it smooth.its not a massive issue as some people pointed out. lapping is not hard to do to be honest.but its upto you if you want the best or just very very good cooler.

 

[dagger]

i guess he probably increase fan speed to a higher level and unlinked the shader to core allow them adjust independantly.

Nope, core and shaders are still linked. Performance slides when you unlink them, so there is no point. Fan speed is increased via a series of Rivatuner profiles. 25% at 49C or below, 50% at 50-59C, 75% at 60-69C, 85% at 70-79C, 100% at 80-89C, and auto shutdown on 90C. It usually doesn't reach 60C in games, mid 60s on Furmark stress test.

8800gts are basically guaranteed to be able to reach at least 750mhz reliably. Not sure why you couldn't reach it.

The specs in signature is outdated. I've since tuned it down from 780mhz to 772mhz, after noticing it start artifacting after around an hour of Furmark. I've never properly stressed it at first. Gpuz:

 

[Cervani]

Hmmmmm, what did you use to tune it? I've tried nTune as well as RivaTuner. I take it you used RivaTuner to shift the settings? Whats your memory/shader clocks set at?

Edit: Ah nevermind I see it. Hmmmm, I'm not sure what my problem is then. Let me download GPU-Z and see what my settings are at now.

 

[iluvgillgill]

not all cards can reach the same OC.i think this is more apparant in GPU then in CPU.

 

[Cervani]

Yeah, the only difference I'm seeing is dagger's is a MSI, and mine is an EVGA.

The pixel fillrate and the texture fillrate were the only things different, but I'm thinking thats because of the OC difference and not the card itself. However it's showing me at normal 16x while she is using 2.0 16x. Not sure if that would make a difference in OCing though.

 

[iluvgillgill]

no that wouldnt make a different in OC try to set your fan at max and try push it abit 5mhz/try.

 

[iluvgillgill]

but dagger it looks like you got a good yield though!

 

[dagger]

Yeah, the only difference I'm seeing is dagger's is a MSI, and mine is an EVGA.

The pixel fillrate and the texture fillrate were the only things different, but I'm thinking thats because of the OC difference and not the card itself. However it's showing me at normal 16x while she is using 2.0 16x. Not sure if that would make a difference in OCing though.

I'm pretty sure 8800gts isn't nearly fast enough to be bottlenecked by pcie1.1. Not sure if MSI/EVGA makes a difference. They both get their g92 chips from Nvidia, and neither actually manufactures the gpus. I brought MSI version at the time because it was cheaper than EVGA.

 

[Cervani]

Yeah, I tried it straight off at the settings you put in, then tested it in 3DMark and it never loaded. It didn't crash, just never loaded...which is odd. Trying to figure out whats going on.

 

[iluvgillgill]

this is the highest i have been with the 8800GTS.i couldnt link the shader otherwise the OC will fail at a much lower speed.

 

[Cervani]

Odd. Then why is mine failing at those readings? It doesn't make sense. I'll have to try the incremental approach I guess, 5Mhz at a time.

Whats the current ratio of clock to shader? Riva automatically attunes the memory with the core clock so I don't have to worry about it.