Suggest a CPU Heatsink (AMD Phenom 9950)

[BraydenW]

Hello,
I'd like to overclock my AMD Phenom 9950 from it's factory clock of 2.6GHz to at least 3.0GHz and maybe even higher if possible. I can't afford water cooling, but I'd like to know what heatsink compatible with AM2+ socket will offer nice cooling, fairly affordable (under $60), while remaining moderately silent? I'm using the ECS A780GM mainboard if that is an issue. Thanks for reading and please post your opinion.

 

[Superhal]

i made a little hsf buyer's guide:
http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=100223&enterthread=y

it depends on your budget and the amount of cooling you need. a modern HDT, 120-150mm, perpendicular hsf is good for most people. for my core contact freezer, with the max voltage setting my m3a can handle (1.36v), i can't push it over 55C.

if you are planning on a 1.35-1.6v setting, you must get water or hybrid peltier cooling. over 1.6v is L2N territory.

regarding noise, don't worry about it. as a general rule, the higher the fan speed, the noisier it is, so just get one with an included fan speed control.

 

[modtech]

Get the sunbeam core contact freezer. It's pretty good.

 

[BraydenW]

Thanks guys, thumbs up to both of you! I will go with the sunbeam contact freezer as per modtechs reply and also mentioned i the link provided by Superhal.

 

[dagger]

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

For some reason, the freezer didn't take 1st place in AMD chart. What changed?

 

[doomturkey]

Xigmatek HDT S1283 is also really good, only costs $35 too.

 

[modtech]

Frostytech isn't as reliable as one would expect. They don't actually test the coolers on CPUs, the use synthetic testing which may or may not reflect real world results. You will notice quite a few anomalies in frostytech's charts but nothing as bad as tom's charts.

 

[dagger]

Frostytech isn't as reliable as one would expect. They don't actually test the coolers on CPUs, the use synthetic testing which may or may not reflect real world results. You will notice quite a few anomalies in frostytech's charts but nothing as bad as tom's charts.

What's a reliable heatsink benchmarker?

 

[dokk2]

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

For some reason, the freezer didn't take 1st place in AMD chart. What changed?

so neither did my Arctic Cooler 64 pro,[same as the 7 except it's for AMD's] in fact it wasn't even mentioned,,which i think is too bad as my current temps as reported by Everest ultimate are 30-8-2c,running an AMD 5000+ BE o'clocked to 2.9XXg,,oh well life goes on..

 

[modtech]

It's a tough call. I'd say find as many reviews from as many sites as you can and draw a general conclusion.

 

[BraydenW]

Thanks for all the replies again. I'll take a look at some of these suggestions. I'm looking at the Xigmatek right now. Thumbs up all around!