Silverado is King

[david__t]

Anyone who wants good quite cooling should check out the Silverado as reviewed by THG. I have had this on an Athlon 900, 1400 (one of the hottest CPUs ever) and currently XP 1900+ and it just keeps on going @ 50 degrees all day long. A recent article on THG showed how Silver is the best heat exchanger and the Silverado has 25g on the base plate. Unless AMD dramatically changes their socket design this is one fan that has lasted me a few years and should do so in the future as well. Highly recommended.

My old Athlon 900 used to run @ 70 degrees with a Chrome orb but ran 20 degrees less with the Silverado.

And also check out the post below on cooling which discusses using 2 slot fans to cool a CPU effectively just as the Silverado does.

OK it is quite tall (about 12cm) but it does a great job and comes with resistors right down to 6v operation!

Geforce FX: Now we can all experience living by an airport

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Uhm...no. That's a really high temp, just for a 1900+ athlon, you might as well forget overclocking. I don't care if it's quiet, that's not worth 50c operation. And do you mean by full load or just idle temps??? You're not giving much info, and from what i've seen, the heatsink is innovative, but crap beyond quiet cooling on a lower end Athlon.

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[david__t]

Well I have read a lot about temperature and nobody seems to have an answer to what a good temperature really is - even AMD avoid the question. Just from experience and asking round my fellow overclockers 50c under full load seemed good especially when my old athlon 900 used to run at 70c

But the point is that you can run the CPU at full load with completely silent operation at lower fan voltages but with the higher voltages, up to the maximum of 12v, you have plenty of overclocking potential. And silence is golden.
This HSF has cooled my CPUs (not all overclocked) down to acceptable temps better than a FOP38 could manage and without the terrible racket that a FOP38 produces. And as the THG fan guide said in the conclusion, noise will be taken in to account in future fan consideration. After all any crap manufacturer can strap on a jet engine to a useless lump of metal and provide adequate cooling - what I am saying is that refinement and silence should be the keys in the future - especially as PCs are moving in to the living room more (Mini PCs for example) and therefore less noise will be required in the future.

I suppose overclockers will always be split between those who want the last extra fps at any cost (noise / heat / expense) and those who overclock to sensible limits. I personally think that you lose the advantage of overclocking if you go too far down the line since the amount it will cost to keep the system stable may as well been spent buying a CPU several rungs up on the ladder. EG hyperthetically overclocking an XP2200+ to 2700+ would save you £150 and might cost £50 for the extra cooling / effort required, however, overclocking a 1700+ to 2100+ would not be cost effective since the CPUs are only £30 difference to buy but the extra cooling needed would cost more than that.

At the end of the day, I know that the fun is in the challenge of doing it, but if you end up with a loud and unstable PC at the end, is it worth the time, effort and money?

Geforce FX: Now we can all experience living by an airport

 

[Quetzacoatl]

I use the thermalright Ax7, and the fan is not loud on top, in addition, it has much better cooling at a highly overclocked level (1.8Ghz on an Athlon 1800+), only 42 celsius under full load, about 36 idle. I saved money, and it does well with little noise. You instead, have an expensive piece of quiet junk

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[lhgpoobaa]

I usually run at 75 to 80C with my mcx-462 and smartfan2 :lol:

<b>My Computer is so powerful Sauron Desires it and mortal men Covet it, <i>My Precioussssssss</i></b>

 

[Quetzacoatl]

lol, but it's not <i>really</i> 75c to 80c

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[lhgpoobaa]

doesnt that make you think? how certain can you be that their 50C really is 50C?

<b>My Computer is so powerful Sauron Desires it and mortal men Covet it, <i>My Precioussssssss</i></b>

 

[Quetzacoatl]

cause looking at that heatsink, it has less aluninum and surface area than an AMD stock heatsink, albeit with a small silver insert (which I doubt makes any huge impact)

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[lhgpoobaa]

still has a silver slug, that spreads the heat well, and it COULD handle the Tbired 1400, which is around 72W, so it should handle at least XP's and Tbred's of similar or lower thermal output.


<b>My Computer is so powerful Sauron Desires it and mortal men Covet it, <i>My Precioussssssss</i></b>

 

[Quetzacoatl]

true true, the same can be said for the Coolermaster X dream (it's nice, consider getting it for my family comp to show through a window, yet to be bought ^^). Still, this is at stock speeds here, overclocked, this thing probably will burn up

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[LancerEvolution7]

I have a cheap-@ss glacialtech igloo 2410 that costs $10, my idle temps are 39C and underload its about 47C on my xp1700 palamino. Its only 26db so I really don't see the point in buying a silverado for $70.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by lancerevolution7 on 02/06/03 12:43 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

The problem is the THG reviews just use whatever was sent. This means weak ass little heat sinks end up beating bruisers just because of differences in the fans that are mounted on them.

My approach (which has been working for me), since I overclock, has been choose the biggest baddest heatsink I can afford and strap on the quietest fan that gets me the temps I want. I have found that by the time you get one of the big heat sinks installed, it doesn't take much of a fan to get a lot of cooling. Therefore my overclocked system is running nice and cool, not completely silently, but not very darn loud either.

Unfortunately when this approach is taken the silverado doesn't look so great anymore.

 

[spiderstorm]

friends, do you use something special to measure cpu temperatures, or just using bios...i mean i use winbond hardware doctor software that came with mobo (abit kr7a) it reads the bios, and i think my cpu temperature is a bit high. athlon xp 1700 palomino 50 degree idle, 59 degree full load...using a coolermaster dp5-6i31c, instead of this cooler what you people suggest??

 

[lhgpoobaa]

nope. most just use what the bios/temp reporting program provides... and thus that is the crux of the problem.

The method of temp measurement by the bios using either the undersocket thermistor or internal sensor is innacurate at the best of time... ranging to extreme. even different pieces of software report diff temps from time to time (asus probe is notorious bad at doing this)

I suggest you use something called:
COMMONSENSE (TM)

When your system is running, gently touch the heatsink and judge its temp.

A. If the heatsink is cool, then its possible its not mounted properly or you have way to much thermal goop so the cpu IS getting to hot.

B. If the heatsink is warm, then its doing its job and the temps being reported are just pain wrong.

C. If its hot to the touch or uncomfortable to touch for more than a few seconds then the temps really are high and you need a better heatsink/ cooling solution.

Its that easy.
Try COMMONSENSE (TM). This product comes highly reccomended


<b>My Computer is so powerful Sauron Desires it and mortal men Covet it, <i>My Precioussssssss</i></b>

 

[Codinerx]

Thats a great heatsink eh? I have one as well. What cfm fan do you use on top?

 

[Quetzacoatl]

I originally had a coolermaster generic 80mm fan, 2500 rpms, quiet, like 30dbs and 34cfms. I moved up to a Vantec Tornado with a rheobus at between 2500-5600 rpms, and 40-84cfms. The noise is crazy beyond 3000 rpms though

Instead of Rdram, why not just merge 4 Sdram channels...

 

[Codinerx]

Thats cool, I also have the vantec tornado on my heatsink, with a rheostat to control it. Do you find that your fanbus gets extremely hot when you turn up the resistance? My rheostat becomes very hot, so much so that I am reluctant to use it very often.

 

[Lonemagi]

Makes sense, getting hot that is. If I remember my basic electronics correctly (svol, crash, correct me if I am wrong ) (A)x(R)= (W) {amps x resistance = wattage, or heat). Think of an electric space heater or a toaster.

<A HREF="http://tekkoshocon.com/" target="_new">http://tekkoshocon.com/</A> Southeast Pennsylvania gets an Anime Convention!

 

[Guest]

actually the formula is I^2*R=P, where I=current R=resistance P=power, but that only works for DC (which this is).

 

[Lonemagi]

Ahh, thanks ( I gave up all my electrical classes in high school to get more time in the CAD lab)

<A HREF="http://tekkoshocon.com/" target="_new">http://tekkoshocon.com/</A> Southeast Pennsylvania gets an Anime Convention!

 

[rd382]

I have a silverado running @ 6v, AXP 1700 tbred, 37C idle 40C full load..

<font color=green>I can draw tyte give me the damn crayon!</font color=green>

 

[svol]

The formulas:
Ohm's law: U=IxR (or R=U/I)
Heat of a resistor: Q=I^2xR

Not all wattage is transformewd in heta, that is why you have to use the second formula.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dimms when I turn it on