What's a good quiet Socket A (462) heatsink?

[PartEleven]

I'm looking to replace my jet engine of a heatsink in my old Athlon XP system with a quieter one. After searching around, it looks like the Scythe Katana and the Thermalright SI-97 are good candidates. Unfortunately, the Katana is discontinued and the SI-97 is a bit pricey. Anyone have any other ideas on a good Socket A cooler?

 

[randomizer]

Remove the fan, it will be much quieter, and free

Um, what model XP is it?

 

[randomizer]

Newegg has a few socket A coolers, most run at high fan speeds tho:

click

Now if you can find the Zalman CNPS6000-Cu/AlCu, that would be a better choice, although the fan "mount" is a little odd :?

http://www.zalman.com.tw/

 

[PartEleven]

It's an Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton). But why does that matter? Anyway, I'm not so sure if my heatsink is up to the task of passively cooling my cpu. It runs a little hot since the air flow in the case isn't the greatest. I did notice the zalman when I was comparing heatsinks, but I don't have enough clearance to fit that beast. My PSU sits just above my mobo, and the cpu socket is pretty close to the top of the board. I've probably got a little over 2 inches of space between the CPU socket and the PSU. It'd be perfect if there was a tower-type cooler for Socket A. The Katana was the closest to this I could find, but they replaced it with the Katana 2, which doesn't support Socket A anymore

 

[1Tanker]

It's an Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton). But why does that matter? Anyway, I'm not so sure if my heatsink is up to the task of passively cooling my cpu. It runs a little hot since the air flow in the case isn't the greatest. I did notice the zalman when I was comparing heatsinks, but I don't have enough clearance to fit that beast. My PSU sits just above my mobo, and the cpu socket is pretty close to the top of the board. I've probably got a little over 2 inches of space between the CPU socket and the PSU. It'd be perfect if there was a tower-type cooler for Socket A. The Katana was the closest to this I could find, but they replaced it with the Katana 2, which doesn't support Socket A anymore

The Thermalright coolers were some of the best Socket A coolers...i have an SLK-900A(Socket A/s370)...works awesome. HS/F's for these older CPU's are getting harder to find(at least good quality ones), and you might be best to look on eBay. GL

 

[randomizer]

I was joking about passive cooling, at least with stock HS. The reason I was wondering the model is coz they all run at different speeds, and the higher the speed, the more heat it pumps out. This will affect the cooler you choose. What I did for my skt A t-bird was attach an 80mm fan to the bottom of the psu with a HDD magnet (maybe superglue the magnet to the fan). It should blow almost in line with the HS and you just remove the stock (60mm?) fan. It cooled much better and wasnt even mounted to the HS itself. If you have a spare 80/120mm fan lying around and an old HDD you can do it. Like 1Tanker said, skt A coolers are hard to find now, at least, ones under 5000rpm anyway :lol:

 

[womble]

Not sure where you are but I would have thought that a few Akasas would be about and maybe something like the Arctic Cooling Silent (though these are standard fan on top jobs).

Karl

 

[1Tanker]

I was joking about passive cooling, at least with stock HS. The reason I was wondering the model is coz they all run at different speeds, and the higher the speed, the more heat it pumps out. This will affect the cooler you choose. What I did for my skt A t-bird was attach an 80mm fan to the bottom of the psu with a HDD magnet (maybe superglue the magnet to the fan). It should blow almost in line with the HS and you just remove the stock (60mm?) fan. It cooled much better and wasnt even mounted to the HS itself. If you have a spare 80/120mm fan lying around and an old HDD you can do it. Like 1Tanker said, skt A coolers are hard to find now, at least, ones under 5000rpm anyway :lol:

Along a similar line as that, you could put an air-duct(in your side-panel/window) with a fan ... ducting air to the fanless heatsink. I've done this, and it works awesomely. It eliminates the dead-spot, below the fans hub, thereby cooling more of the heatsink.... as the air swirls around travelling through the duct. GL

 

[randomizer]

Funny that, the dead spot is right over where the heat source is, so dysfunctional. :roll: (assuming the usual mounting of a fan over the HS, parallel to the mobo)

 

[jamesgoddard]

I have an SI-97 running on my old PC (the kids PC now) with a 2800+ running at 2.5GHz.... It's been running at that speed for near 4 years now I think

 

[randomizer]

Nice celly OC :trophy:

 

[PartEleven]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess I wasn't clear enough in my original post. I'm actually not using the stock HS. I'm using a Vantec....Aeroflow (or something like that). As for modding my case to make an air duct, I'm not willing to go that extreme for silence 8O . I'll definitely look into the thermalright coolers, though they cost a bit more than I want to spend on this old rig.

 

[jamesgoddard]

Nice celly OC :trophy:

I wanted 5GHz... But it got all very unstable past 4.7, so I backed away a little for day to day running...

I am thinking of picking up a £30 P4 631 and trying to OC the hell out of that, see if I get further... There is something strangely satisfying OC'ing the balls off cheep CPU's... ho hum

 

[PCD]

How about a Alpha S-PAL8045F with a lownoice 80mm fan on it?

 

[HA_ZEE]

I have been using the Thermaltake silent tower (very quiet) for 2.5 years. It let me overclock my XP3000 to 2.509 GHZ. Not sure if they are still available but it works excellent. It is a tower heat pipe design with a 90mm fan that discharges at the PS. Will try to find a link.....


http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/cooling/Tt_SilentTower/


Here is a Thermaltake Big Typhoon that is compatible with the Athlon XP, just not sure how much you want to spend.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106061

 

[ZOldDude]

I'm looking to replace my jet engine of a heatsink in my old Athlon XP system with a quieter one. After searching around, it looks like the Scythe Katana and the Thermalright SI-97 are good candidates. Unfortunately, the Katana is discontinued and the SI-97 is a bit pricey. Anyone have any other ideas on a good Socket A cooler?

Thermalright makes the best CPU/GPU/MB/RAM air coolers period.

Another thing to do is to remove the exit fan guard on your case as the airflow goes up as much as 70%.

One 3200+ Barton I have here with a stock cooler was refitted into a Coolermaster Centurian ,without the fan guard being mod but with the foam dust filters removed,and I got an instant 25F drop.
These cases can be found on the Net a few times a year for as low as $15 USD on sale!

This company has had the case deals a few time....you just need to keep looking:
http://www.svc.com/