Cooler for E6600, 680i board

[Anryha42]

In the process of planning out my new rig i've run into a slight snag as to my choice of HSF. I researched and read reviews on both the Thermaltake Typhoon and Zalman 9700 which are both respectable coolers. The problem is, i've read some complains about the bracket system that both of these seem to use. Since it isn't the usual stock CPU clip system, I have read several complaints about the HSF's moving and wiggling around on top of their CPU.

While I'm not an avid LAN-party man, I do usually end up going to a few of these per year and I'm worried about how that much movement would effect these large, strangely bracketed HSF's and how much possible damage it could cause to my CPU.

Just looking for some input from people who own either of these HSF's and know how capable they are of travel and how much they are likely to move.

Also, im awake that I will probably have to do some bracket customization for use of these HSF's on my eVGA 680i mobo; so if someone else can recommend a cooler with similar cooling performance that is more forgiving about travel, please post so. Noise isn't a huge factor in my choice either. It doesn't have to be a silent cooler, but I'd rather not have it sounding like a 747 is taking off in my house everytime I boot up my machine.

Thanks

 

[rb8720]

If you are not totally stuck on Air, Might I suggest "Silent Water" from Thermaltake. I have it in stalled on my evga 680i board and it is completly enclosed. I am using a Thermaltake Xaser III v1000 case. I have my e6300 overclock to 1850 FSB and it is hanging around 41 Deg. C at idle and has never been above 45.

 

[Anryha42]

I'd personally rather stick with air cooling over water, mostly because I have never installed/used any sort of water cooling components before...but I guess now would be a good time to learn.

I'll have to do some more reading on water cooling then.

 

[Eurasianman]

Eh, if rb8720 is referring the Thermaltakes All-In-One Liquid Water cooling for the CPU, I think it depends on the case. My Antec P180B case, IMO, hindered the performance since I couldn't really find a way to mount it without it interfering with the fan that was clipped to the NB.

My Scythe Ninja is doing a fairly good job. With my room temp at 20C, my CPU load temp has never gotten higher than 56C when gaming. As far as idle temps go.... with Speedstep and C1E enabled, it ildes at 33C-34C. Without those features enabled, it ildes at 40C. With the Silent Water, I got similar results, however, my room was hotter than (25C-26C) and I don't think my CPU ever got above 60C. It's just the way it was mounted, the rest of my components were getting hot.

So, once again, as far as the water cooling kit, you have to have the proper case IMO.

For air cooling. Tough call.

 

[kpu1127]

I have the same motherboard, and I use the Artic cooling freezer 7 pro. This mounts in the same way that the OEM cooler mounts so no need for a backplate. The problem with the evga 680i is that there are caps on the back side of the board that interfere with a backplate used for most of the larger HSF's (i.e Zalman). This requires modification of the backplate. I understand that this is not a difficult task, but can be avoided with the freezer 7 pro (fyi, install take about 30 sec). The freezer 7 is larger than the OEM, but smaller (physical size) than the Zalman or Tuniq. I don't really need to move my comp, but I would not be concerned about doing so with this HSF.

I am not OC'd yet, but my temps are good, around 28 idle, 38-40 load.

 

[Eurasianman]

How did you get those temps and was your idle temp with or without C1E/EIST enabled?

 

[kpu1127]

C1e is enabled in the bios. Not sure about the other one. These temps are from TAT. Hell, my idle temp from bios says 21C, but TAT is supposedly more accurate (?) Remember, this is no OC on an e6600.

BTW...this is with the Freezer 7 fan at 100% at all times.

 

[Eurasianman]

Well, if you're using TAT, if your CPU speed is 1600 MHz, then that means EIST (Intel Speedstep) is enabled. Also, what case are you using?

And for the BIOS, that's sad that it acts like my motherboard (ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Intel 975X chipset). My BIOS says the same about my CPU. Tends to be off though by 18-20C 8O

When I first built my computer, I went into the BIOS and saw the temp and was like... HOLY CRAP! Intel's new C2D do run cooler! Than I loaded up XP and installed Intel TAT and was disappointed seeing that my BIOS was wrong

 

[kpu1127]

Yeah. Speedstep is enabled. I am using the Gagabyte 3D Aurora 570 case. It has 2 120mmm chassis fans about two inces from the fins on the freezer 7. This is no doubt improving the performance. One review of the freezer 7 commented that the fins were placed too close together for the fan to push enough air through to cool them. The chassis fans being so close probably assist to provide better cooling performance than expected by pulling additional air through the fins.(just a guess though).

I re-ran TAT last night. I was still getting very low idle temps, ~28C. My load temps were around 40-42 after 15 minutes (temps were stable for about the last half the run). The 38-40 were from a much shorter load run. Not exactly sure how long to run TAT to get the absolute peak temps though.

There is however a few degree difference between cores. Core zero runs about 3 degress hotter than core 1, even with both at 100% load. Any idea if this is normal?

 

[Eurasianman]

Not sure why the temps are difference. Mine both stay at the same with TAT and Core Temp.

What is your room temp?

Right now, my room temp is 21C and my CPU idles at 40C without C1E and EIST enabled.

 

[kpu1127]

Room temp is around 22 C. I may try to see what the temps look like after I disable C1E and EIST, but I have a really busy weekend so I don't know if I'll get to it.

And sorry to the OP for the tread jacking...hopefully this is still useful info.