Best CPU Air Cooler ?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Z

zag

Distinguished
May 18, 2004
28
0
18,530
I have intel 950 dual core. I managed to overclock it and need the best air cooler possible. I tried Thermaltake Blue Orb II but the stock intel cooler was better.

I might be getting either Zalman CNPS9500 LED or Fatal1ty FS-C77 .

What is the best CPU air cooler in your opinion ?
Also the best Thermal Grease ?

TIA
 
The Zalman 9500 is the way to go for a cpu air cooler. £37 ($69) maybe alot, it really depends on the size of your wallet 😀
 
Thanks for the reply.

Thermaltake Blue Orb II isn't bad at all, it's near the performance of Zalman 9500 (they're the same design afterall)
Click to expand...
The biggest disadvantage with Thermaltake Blue Orb II is the slow fan speed (1700rpm) and the BigTyphone is only 1300rpm.

With Blue Orb II, while BOTH cores of the CPU at 100% load (at 4.133GHz) for only a few minutes , the CPU temp was hitting 81c and then started throttleing back.

With the stock Intel cooler the CPU temp never passed over 79c with above conditions.

Thermaltake imitates Zalman but they try to make it quieter and thats were it fails under extreme overclocking and max dual core load.

The Zalman 9500 is the way to go for a cpu air cooler. £37 ($69) maybe alot, it really depends on the size of your wallet
Click to expand...
Zalman runs the fan at 2400rpm. I hope that would be much cooler than Thermaltake. As for noise (and budget), its almost no problem for me.
 
it's not all about rpm, it's about the CFM and the Design of the heatsink, although the Blue Orb II does seem to have a good airflow, the design might not be cutting it. the thermaltake big typhoon has a 54 CFM airflow while this has a "77.85 CFM", there fore, it could be the design isn't cutting it. your best bet however is to view comparisons and reviews and find which you like

(this link taken from one of wusy's posts)

good luck,
Ara

edit: the blue orb II is NOT on that list (well i didn't see it anyway)
 
There are many you can choose from like Thermaltake, Zalman, Thermalright, Scythe etc. For me one of the best HSF out there are the Zalman CNPS9500 and Thermaltake Big Typhoon.

You can also dig up some reviews and articles with comparison of different coolers and it's test results.
 
I have intel 950 dual core. I managed to overclock it and need the best air cooler possible. I tried Thermaltake Blue Orb II but the stock intel cooler was better.

I might be getting either Zalman CNPS9500 LED or Fatal1ty FS-C77 .

What is the best CPU air cooler in your opinion ?
Also the best Thermal Grease ?

TIA
Click to expand...
Just get a Thermalright XP 120 and a medium speed Panaflo fan like the FBA12G12M1BX (here, 120x120x38mm, 86.5 CFM @ 2100 RPM, 35.5 dBA), that combo will do the job like a champ.

And for the thermal interface... Arctic Silver 5 o Céramique.
 
81C is definatly hot but 4 ghz and high vcore will do it.
are you seated properly ? as mentioned re apply thermal paste.
some hsfs will be held up slightly with contrast to motherboard design and psu .
depending on your case and air flow the CNPS9500 is great for cooling things down.
the Zalman 7700 in my sig dropped temps from 68C to 57C after the AS5 set. this is @ 4026 full load.

at frq in my sig temps are at 53C full load.
stock cooler was high 70s
 
I have intel 950 dual core. I managed to overclock it and need the best air cooler possible. I tried Thermaltake Blue Orb II but the stock intel cooler was better.

I might be getting either Zalman CNPS9500 LED or Fatal1ty FS-C77 .

What is the best CPU air cooler in your opinion ?
Also the best Thermal Grease ?

TIA
Click to expand...
You want the best air cooler possible and you got a CNPS9500?! BWAHAH
The best air cooler hands down is the Tuniq Tower 120. The Scythe Ninja is right behind it though. The best thermal grease (ignoring liquid metal applications) is Arctic Silver 5. The 9500 was a bad choice for extreme cooling though, you want a huge 120mm cooler...
 
I believe the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro works on your 950. Pretty good cooling I would Imagine, I use the Freezer 64 Pro on my 3700+ and I am satisfied with its results, considering I have a 6800 Ultra directly under it.
 
This study http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1904&page=4
shows that 'Gigabyte G-Power Pro' might be the best air cooler.

It was done on Dec 2005 so it could be outdated but it shows that G-power gives 5c lower temp than Zalman9500 when on 'high'.
It equals the Zalman when set to 'low'.

Update:
This study (feb 06) http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1923&page=4 shows that 'Noctua NH-U12' is the best and gives 1c lower temp than G-Power which is number 2.

Many other HSFs were not in the list though
 
I just installed the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on my overclocked Intel D 805 (3.31GHz), replacing the stock Intel Heat sink.
Idle dropped from 50-52c to 38-40c
Games use to heat the CPU to 75c, but with the Freezer 7 Pro
it now stays around 50c during game play.
And it cost $30.
 
Did you do this originally, to get those results, or did you just do that recently?

I have the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, and just left the paste that came with it... is the Arctic Silver 5 any better?
 
I just swapped out the Intel Heat sink for the Freezer 7 Pro three days ago.
I do not know if the MX-1 is better.
I've heard that the MX-1 takes up to 200 hours of use
before fully becoming affective.
I just know Arctic silver 5 works
 
Crazy. I never heard that before. So far, I have been happy with this cooler, but have always wondered if I should have put on the AS5... but from what you said about the 200 hour break-in for the MX-1... I am sure I have had this rig on for close to 500 hrs since this has been installed. Dunno.
 
I have intel 950 dual core. I managed to overclock it and need the best air cooler possible. I tried Thermaltake Blue Orb II but the stock intel cooler was better.

I might be getting either Zalman CNPS9500 LED or Fatal1ty FS-C77 .

What is the best CPU air cooler in your opinion ?
Also the best Thermal Grease ?

TIA
Click to expand...
Just get a Thermalright XP 120 and a medium speed Panaflo fan like the FBA12G12M1BX (here, 120x120x38mm, 86.5 CFM @ 2100 RPM, 35.5 dBA), that combo will do the job like a champ.

And for the thermal interface... Arctic Silver 5 o Céramique.

Even better is the Thermalright SI-120 and the way it is built also cools the ram and voltage regulators.
The fans I like are the Silverstone FM-121 (up to 110 CFM and comes with a free speed controler).

Cooler $44
Fan $15

Z
 
The Zalman 9500 is the way to go for a cpu air cooler. £37 ($69) maybe alot, it really depends on the size of your wallet
Click to expand...

I've found them in the $46-47 range a few times.

Zalman runs the fan at 2400rpm.
Click to expand...

The Zalman web site lists 2600 but I've seen mine go 2700-2750.

And I'm not even overclocking the fan...
 
I removed the MX-1 paste, then applied Arctic Silver 5 to the Freezer 7 Pro.
Click to expand...
Acrtic Cooling used MX-1 because it has a smoother base and performs worse with AS5. Said by Arctic Cooling themselves and a test which showed 3C higher with AS5.

Has anyone here seen any roughness data on CPU IHS's? I've seen how-tos on lapping the IHS but I've never been tempted to try it yet. But the HSF roughness is just half of the equation. I'm wondering how rough the IHSs are and if they vary much product to product and for one product over time. AS has different products like AS5 and AS Ceramique that have different filler size, so you can have some degree of tweakability. I'd think having 3 or 4 sizes to pick from is an even better idea but they probably don't think the market would support it - or sufficiently understand enough to make the right choice. I wish I still had access to a profolometer.
 
The Zalman web site lists 2600 but I've seen mine go 2700-2750.

And I'm not even overclocking the fan...
Click to expand...
How can you overclock the fan ?

Same way you o/c anything else... more VOLTAGE.
I think the proper term would be overvolting.
The only problem is if you apply too much voltage the insulation will melt and it will eventually break the fan.
 
The Zalman web site lists 2600 but I've seen mine go 2700-2750.

And I'm not even overclocking the fan...
Click to expand...
How can you overclock the fan ?

Same way you o/c anything else... more VOLTAGE.
I think the proper term would be overvolting.
The only problem is if you apply too much voltage the insulation will melt and it will eventually break the fan.

On my mobo (asus p5wd2-e premium) the only voltage i can change is CPU VCore, Memory, FSB Termination, MCH, and ICH.

I even got a program called 'SpeedFan' but did't do much

Now how can i overclock the fan ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom