CPU coolers fitting 1156 motherboard?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
J

jonnyberthiaume

Distinguished
Aug 11, 2009
32
0
18,530
Hi,

I am currently building a new system based on i7 860.

After reading quite a lot of reviews on different motherboards, I noticed some users posted some comments about using their current CPU coolers directly on their new 1156 motherboard.

One says he still use his Xigmatek Dark Knight with his new Asrock P55 Extreme (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157172). The problem is, the Dark Knight doesn't support socket 1156...

After reading more, someone posted another comment but on an EVGA P55 LE (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813188054) having holes for 1156 socket as well as for 775 socket.

Furthermore, I saw a video on this very forum where someone installs his socket 775 cooler on a 1156 motherboard with bolts and nuts.

Can I expect any 1156 motherboard to support the 775 coolers as with the EVGA board?

Is it safe and efficient to install a 775 cooler on a 1156 motherboard?

I am really leaning torward a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 (socket 775) with the Asrock P55 Extreme, will it fit without any special bracket?

Thanks,

John
 
Solution
shortstuff_mt
The mounting holes are spaced differently for LGA 775, LGA 1156, and LGA 1366. There are only a few LGA 1156 motherboards that have holes allowing an LGA 775 cooler to be installed. You'll have to make sure the board you choose is one of those few or using an LGA 775 cooler isn't an option.

ASRock is one of the manufacturers that has holes for both coolers. The EVGA board you posted above also supports LGA 775 coolers. Take a look at the pictures and you'll see them. The Xigmatek Dark Knight would be a good option. It will cool an LGA 1156 chip just fine.
Sort by date Sort by votes
That cooler is a Xigmatek Dark Knight (which does come with 1366 mounting brackets) without the black nickel coating. Someone posted in another thread that Xigmatek support shipped them the brackets free. If I was in your position, I would contact Xigmatek support now and see what they say.


If you look at frostytech.com , they review CPU coolers on both an AMD and 775 cpu and there is quite a bit of variation. Unfortunately I havent found a site with any catalog of reviews for coolers on an i7 yet.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
For the Xigmatek, I didn't know I could contact them to get the brackets. Nice to know, I might actually have to do this.

Since 1156 launch, there isn't a lot of choices for a CPU cooler. US e-tailers offer some, but Canada's e-tailers don't offer a lot of choices.

I don't want to spend 80$ CAD for a cooler, not for a i7 860 that is way much cooler than a 920. I won't overclock either, so the only reasons I want an aftermarket cooler is first to try it and second, because the stock one is crap. So I don't have a lot of choices for a cooler between 35 et 60$ CAD right now. I hope this is gonna change in the next 3 weeks, before I build my new system.

If someone has great results with a 775 cooler on his 1156 motherboard using anything else than a 1156 bracket, let me know.

John
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The mounting holes are spaced differently for LGA 775, LGA 1156, and LGA 1366. There are only a few LGA 1156 motherboards that have holes allowing an LGA 775 cooler to be installed. You'll have to make sure the board you choose is one of those few or using an LGA 775 cooler isn't an option.

ASRock is one of the manufacturers that has holes for both coolers. The EVGA board you posted above also supports LGA 775 coolers. Take a look at the pictures and you'll see them. The Xigmatek Dark Knight would be a good option. It will cool an LGA 1156 chip just fine.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
I am also getting ready to build an i7 860 system, and looking for a cooler. Newegg is really missing the boat by not updating their website to list all of the coolers that are 1156 compatible. There guided search function only lists one cooler that is compatible with the 1156 socket, but in reality they have about a dozen coolers that have 1156 brackets included. Fortunately, once you find the coolers by name on Newegg, the individual cooler specifications do list 1156 compatability.

I am not into overclocking, yet, but want to have that capability down the road. Besides I see other advantages of having a cool processor (no pun intended). Anyway, I read all of the reviews on CPU coolers, and listened to all of arguments about how much better one cooler is over another based on 2 to 4 degrees C temperature differences that are within the testing error. I concluded that you really can't go wrong with most of the current 1156 compatible coolers, especially compared to the stock cooler. So it really comes down to price, ease of installation, and subjective judgements on value.

I have decided to get the Zalman CNPS10X cooler. Right now Newegg has the extreme model for $60 and the Quiet model (a stripped down version of the extreme) for $52. Plus if you use the promo code ZALMANxtreme or ZALMANQUIET at checkout you get an extra $10 OFF, making these coolers just $50 and $42, respectively. At least that is the way I am reading the Newegg website, but I have not tried it yet. IMHO, this is a very good value for a cooler that has five heat pipes and a base without any grooves. The only downside from what I have read is that the size of the cooler is huge and if your memory modules have cooling fins that rise above the module, you may have to trim (Dremel tool) a little bit of the plastic fan housing for the Zalman to fit. This is also true for many of the other 1156 coolers that use a 120 mm fan.

Good Luck in your search!

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Wow shortstuff_mt!

Exactly what I was looking for!

After my enlightment, I search more on google (now that I know exactly what to search for) and found everything I need.

Your answer was perfect, you took into account the 2 examples that were bugging me and showed me why 775 cooler were fitting into these 2 motherboards. Wow, a second set of mounting holes, talk about a feature that's worth it. Finaly some companies worry about their customer!

The cherry on the sundae, you took into account that I didn't want an expansive cooler and that I couldn't necessarily order from outside Canada.

As I'll choose the Asrock P55 Extreme as my new board, I can now find the best 775 cooler for my budget. By the way, thanks dndhatcher for suggesting frostytech.

Thanks man, really really appreciated.

John
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Well, to be fair, they used the Asrock P55 PRO, not the P55 Extreme which is of better quality and use 100% Japan made capacitor. Furthermore, I won't overclock. Call me old school, but companies put some limits to their product for a reason. Sure, all units aren't equals and todays marketing is around overclocking, but I tend to use the product offered to me the way it was meant to be used (stock). I want an efficient system, not a power hungry one releasing 80 degrees hot air in the room. Sure I could get a faster system, but I'm not ready to pay the price (heat, power, higher failure, faster degrading, etc.). Those who like overclocking, go for it, but it's not for me.

Back to the Asrock, you must admit the article doesn't mention how they tried to overclock the board. When the first 1156 board went public, a lot of them fried. Why? Because reviewers thought they were like 1366 ones, they tried to crank up core voltage and bam! A fried motherboard. I don't know how they overclocked their Asrock, so I can't be sure they did it the right way for a 1156 board. The fact they fried 3 different boards from 3 different manufacturers tends to prove they don't overclock the board like they should be for a 1156 board. I might be wrong, but the facts aren't supporting Tom's in this case.

Every other review I saw points to how great this motherboard is, so I think I am gonna trust over 20 reviews instead of just the one that fried 3 different brand of motherboard.

As for Sonic-Boom, thanks for the Cooler-Master 212+, but since Asrock has 775 mounting holes, I'll stick with a better cooler like the Xigmatek HDT-S1283. And just so you know, Amazon does have a Canadian counterpart (amazon.ca), but they are ripping us off, so I won't buy there anytime soon. We also do have NewEgg.ca, but they don't offer as much choice and the 212+ isn't one of them.

John
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That was in the article. He bumped the voltage to 1.45 volts and fried 3 of the 5 motherboards. Two of the manufacturers responded they would have safeties for over-volting in the future and we are expecting a re-review when that happens.


If you go by frostytech reviews, the xigmatec s1283 when reviewed was the #1 at cooling for socket 775 and #2 for AMD, the Hyper 212 is #4 and #12 so there isnt that much difference. I wish I could find socket 1156 and 1366 reviews. Both have been bypassed by a few newer models since
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom