Cooling a Kentsfield?

[grifter33]

I'm starting to get ready for a long overdue build. Since I don't upgrade often (still using a p4 prescott + agp system) I want to get something as future proof as possible, so I'm planning on getting a qx6700 in the near future.

From what Ive read, the kentsfields tend to run pretty hot, and I'm looking for some advice on a cooling system. I'm not looking for a massive overclock, , but I would like to have a cooling system in place that gives me the option for a good 10-15% oc if possible maybe getting things up near 3.0 ghz.

I've considered going with water cooling, but it's not something I've ever done before, and I'm not really comfortable trying to piece something like that together for the first time with such expensive components. I cant really afford to ruin a $1000 cpu because of a stupid mistake. Ive also read to avoid any of the cooling kit systems because they offer poor performance. Are there any cooling kits that are good? Or would air just be an easier choice?

Will air cooling be enough to overclock a kentsfield? Ive heard very good things about a few air coolers, like the tuniq tower, scythe ninja and zalman 9700. Does anyone have any experience withe these heat sinks with a kentsfield? Or if not do you think any of these would be up to the job? Also some of these heatsinks are pretty huge. Are they too big to fit in a mid size tower?

Any advice anyone could offer would be appreciated, and could save me a ton of money/aggravation. Thanks in advance.

 

[pmt411]

I have a Kentsfield system that I bought at Velociy Micro for Xmas. It uses the Coolit Freezone(suppose to be extremely easy to install) and it allows me to run a modest overclock at 3.2mzh without any problems or hassell( I just changed the clock multiplier and nothing else and it runs fine).

 

[lewbaseball07]

WAIT till the native quad cores come out if your looking for future proofing your system.

They will be a ton more effiecent than the kentsfield and probably wont run as hot

 

[Mondoman]

lb is right. As for coolers, stick with the OEM cooler (it's free, after all) until you have a feel for its temp/noise tradeoff under your conditions. It very well might be enough for you.

 

[grifter33]

Thanks all for your advice. That coolit freezone looks awesome, but $400 is more than I was looking to spend, especially if a $50-70 solution would work just as well for me, or as Mondoman suggested, just sticking with the stock for free and seeing how it goes. The freezone is a really nice looking system though, and something to definitely consider if I can find the extra cash^^.

As for waiting for the yorkfields or Altairs, that was my original plan, but waiting another 9 months to upgrade is gonna be tough, as my current system (socket 478 prescott@3.2 + 2gig pc3200+ x800xt agp) is really showing its age, and making gaming difficult on a 21" ws monitor.. Not to mention I have the cash now, and alot can happen in 9 months to ruin that.

I know its pretty pointless to guess about the expected performance of chips that don't even exist yet, but do you think the next-gen of quad cores will be worth waiting that long for? All the roadmaps Ive seen so far all have those chips coming out in late Q3. Thats a good 8-9 months, and a long time to wait.

I'm already set on waiting for the new pcie 2.0 compliant motherboards + power supplys to come out, to hopefully allow me to do a future gpu upgrade without having to redo the whole system, or get stuck using older tech like I am now. That should all be out by March or so. Waiting for the new quads will push things back another 6 months past that, possibly more if they don't launch on time. Waiting till March is gonna be hard enough.

I could wait, but by the time the new quads are coming out, Im sure Ill be looking ahead to the next gen chips with the new socket types scheduled to come out in 2008... I don't want to get stuck waiting forever. I figured if I got a quad core now Ill be set for quite some time.