help! first time buying a fan and heatsink!

[blackhades]

O.k...guys...My question is quite simple...This is my first time to pick the components I want and put them together..I have no idea about fan and heatsinks. Can someone tell me which fan+heat sink is good? I heard that some of them might be good at cooling but the weight might be too heavy.
I plan to get an Athlon XP 2100+ and a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP mobo.

 

[4Ryan6]

I,m running a Swiftech MCX462 which mounts to the four mounting holes on the motherboard, its a top of the line high quality heatsink, my temps under serious gaming load are at 40c with overclocking, shes loud though and the heatsink has to be mounted before the MB is installed. I got mine from:
www.inflowdirect.com
They're a great company to do business with, no matter what heatsink you decide to go with, I have no complaints with them.

You never know what you can do until you try.

 

[btvillarin]

Well, it depends what your uses and intentions are. Do you want to overclock or not? Do you want quiet or not? How much money do you have to spend on this aspect of your computer?

I love the Swiftech brands, too. I have the old MC370-0A, but I retrofitted a quiet Panaflo 80mm fan on it. But, the thing I love about the Swiftech is the mounting. Unless you mount it backwards, it's almost foolproof that you won't crack your core. But, they are heavy. If you move your computer often, you should get one of these.

I like the Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu. They're not heavy at all, they're decent performers, and the noise level is adequate.

These two retailers are ones that I've dealt with with great ease and speed:
<A HREF="http://www.crazypc.com" target="_new">CrazyPC</A> (Wisconsin)
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">Newegg</A> (California)

And, since this is your first computer build, these might help, too:
<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/links/how_to.html" target="_new">btvillarin.com - List of How-To Links</A>

Good luck, and I hope that gives you some insight.
Bryan
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[funkdog]

If I were building that rig, I'd use either the Swiftech like mentioned or the Alpha equivelant. I've always admired Alpha's craftmanship. Then the fan.... well that's a matter of comfort. You could buy a screaming Delta that will pierce your ears, or you can buy a quieter fan and sacrifice airflow.

Thermaltake makes decent preforming fans at reasonable noise levels. I'm still using a 60x60 Alpha Heatsink to cool my 1.3ghz t-bird, with a Thermaltake 60mm fan on top, that is what I found is a good sacrifice of performance vs noise.

Remember everything is relative, if you case is hot, your moving hot air. Adequate veniltation is key to your case. Are you building a Tower, mini-tower, desktop case?? How many case fans do you want. CPU cooling is not just regulated to the Heatsink and CPU fan.

<b>"These are my thoughts, your mileage may vary."

 

[squeegee]

If you go with a Volcano 6Cu, make sure you have enough case cooling. You may need to clean it out every so often too. mine was collecting a lot of dust. Temperatures weren't very good either, and i only have a 1600+.

I'm much happier with my Thermalright ax7 (1 week old). I put a 40cfm sunon fan (1208PTB2) on it and its only 8C above case temperatures at idle. It is a big/heavy heatsink though. Uses a 3 prong clip, a bit tighter than the 6Cu, but much more stable. the 6Cu could be twisted and rocked a little bit (not that you'd do that a lot =P)

My motherboard is a gigabyte 7vtxe, so maybe it'll fit on your 7vrxp. Its a bit of a tight fit getting the back clip on.

 

[maul]

I was planning on buying the mcx462 or the pal 8045, but I was wondering does it come w/ the delta fan or did you purchase it seperately @ the website?

And does anyone have any info on the thermalright slk 800?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by maul on 07/23/02 00:49 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[blackhades]

I personally never overclocked my computer before and hence have no experience with it. I probably still won't try on this computer either. I prefer quiet, but of course I don't want to fry my cpu either. I have a bit of concerns on the weight. From what I heard, those fans which offer good cooling are usually over weight and might be dangerous when moving pc. Is that true? I just checked on Newegg you recommended for purchasing. It seems that the price is even better than the one that I know. (I searched on computer online stores in Canada and www.canadacomputers.com seems to be the cheapest I've found although they don't offer a good variety of products) I think I'll try Newegg instead of canadacomputers. However, do you know if they do offer free shipping for Canada?
Thanks a lot for your help and the links. They really help!

 

[btvillarin]

It's not the fan's weight, but the heatsink itself. Anything over 300g is more likely to break the socket while in transport.

I'm not sure about Newegg shipping to Canada at all, which is lame for you. Maybe someone here from Canada can help you out, like AMD_Man (which I can't recall seeing for awhile).

And, I hope you got those links bookmarked, cuz my site is down for a little. If you need them again, just PM me.

Bryan
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[rojover]

maybe you can try the new thermaltake volcano (think name is 8+), surely it will perform decently. And keep an eye on the rpm and the noise levels of the fan. One more thing, if the guys and the shop tells you that a 6800 + rpm fan is very quiet, dont ever believe they!! ;-) ( the deaf owner of a coolermaster hcc-001)

i'll get to Honorary Veteran, you'll see!!10600 post,a post per day,it makes...29 years... 😎

 

[rojover]

maybe you can try the new thermaltake volcano (think name is 8+), surely it will perform decently. And keep an eye on the rpm and the noise levels of the fan. One more thing, if the guys at the shop tells you that a 6800 + rpm fan is very quiet, dont ever believe they!! ;-) ( the deaf owner of a coolermaster hcc-001)

i'll get to Honorary Veteran, you'll see!!10600 post,a post per day,it makes...29 years... 😎