Which cools better - XP-90 or XP-120?

[ohnoesaz]

THey are both huge, but the 90 is large enough for a 90mm fan and the 120 is large enough that it uses a 120mm fan.

It seems like the XP-90 is large enough that anything larger is overkill, and the XP-90's slightly faster 90mm fan (if the right one is bought) would be better cooling than the slower XP-120's 120mm fan (again, bought seperately).

Or am I completely wrong and the utter size and more heatpipes of the XP-120 makes it the better cooler?

 

[o1die]

I would prefer the 120. The larger fan would permit slower rpms for a quieter system. But the heatsink is so large and heavy that it won't fit as many boards.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Exactly, I'm thinking the only point of the XP-120 over the XP-90 is allowing for bigger fans, which in turn are slower and quieter, because of smaller rpms.

Like Zalman's coolers; they typically put 92mm fans on CPUs to allow settings below 2000rpm and very low noise.

 

[El_Jefe_77]

Yeah, 120 mm would be pimp but what board it fits is the question. Zalman tech people have a lot of boards listed, and if you want, you can call them and they pick fast and answer anything. 92mm fits almost anything ive seen, howeever, zalman's 92 mm is inside the heatsink, the rest of it far exceeds that mm rating

 

[Crashman]

The problem here is that 120mm fans put out more air per revolution, so they don't HAVE to spin as fast to offer the same amount of cooling.

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[ohnoesaz]

So are you saying the XP-90 cools just as well as the XP-120 but at the cost of a faster and more likely louder fan?


And also, they are both rated for amd 64 3200+ or above, socket 754 and 939.

Does this mean they cant be mounted on anything below 3200+ even though its the same socket or is the company just saying anything below this would make this heatsink overkill?

 

[Crashman]

That could be true, depending on your perspective!

If you had a fast 120mm fan, the XP-120 would cool better! If you had a slow 90mm fan, the 120 would cool better! But yes, you can get similar cooling with lower noise using a slower speed 120mm fan, compared to a 90mm fan.

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[Mr5oh]

Obvisuly I agree that the 120 mm would cool better, however wouldn't the 120mm have a larger dead spot than the 90 mmm, just becuase of a slightly larger hub?

Just out of curoisty, how much does the hub/center of the fan disrupt airflow?

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[Crashman]

The hub is an issue, but it's relatively small compared to the fins. What's more, I have 60mm fans with huge hubs and 120mm fans with similarly sized hubs, possible because the 60mm fan I speak of is a 7000RPM unit while the 120mm fan I speak of is only 1200RPM.

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