Scythe Kama Cross for unusual purpose... thoughts please!

[vincio_filiarum]

Good Morning!

My last post here concerned a broken pin on my old Clawhammer (in the Mobo section) - at that point I was trying to replace it with a Sempron, just to save my data when my PSU fused... I now have a spare PSU in my Sempron powered machine... but it doesn't have the juice to run my 1950pro, so I'm on my old Radeon 9600xt. Which is fine... if I didn't have a desire to play bf2142\oblivion\STALKER\actually use the hardware I bought.

Oh yea, the Sempron sucks too. It's about as slow booting into XP as my (even older) Athlon 800. And that's bad. So, because my Clawhammer was s754, and any upgrade = new Mobo at the very least... I might as well go for new cpu\mobo\ram\psu\case... in other words, its time for a new PC... that I need to get for as cheaply as possible, without compromising on quality.

In short, I'm going to keep certain parts of my old system - specifically my Hard Drives, and 1950 pro - get one of the lowest of the low C2D's (E2140 baby!), and an ASRock 4Core AGP mobo. My old PC was a frikkin' soundmonster, so I'd like quiet. I'm gonna spend money on power, cooling, and noise supression, and cheapness for the core components... then Overclock as much as I can.

So much for background; on to the question:

I'm going to buy an Antec P182 case with a Zalman Heatpipe 500w Power supply (damn-near silent... and modular!). For cooling the CPU, I'm looking at an odd little beastie called the Scythe Kama Cross CPU cooler - here be the link...

Scythe-USA's Kama Cross blurb page

And some reviews:

VR-Zone
Madshrimps

Now, so far, so-mid range. But I don't think these reviews get the point of the cooler. If I were to fit a passive heatsink to my 1950pro - something along these lines:

Thermalright HR-03

In theory, the Kama Cross should cool down the GPU enough to dispense with the fan entirely. The whole point, according to scythe, is to cool the CPU and surrounding components. It just so happens it'll be a passive 1950 and mobo. Then I'll OC the Sh*t out of the E2140 and try for 3Ghz with it.

That's my mad plan - the question is: how mad is it... Will my choices for AGP\Overclocking\Quiet Operation succeed? Have the reviews - which weren't even in closed cases for chrissakes - misunderstood the poor Kama Cross? Will I get silent running whilst getting decent speeds? or will I overheat, overload and blow up?

Heh heh... I reckon I'm onto a winner here... do you agree?

 

[morerevs]

I vaguely remember a review stating the fan on the Kama didn't get enough air forced through the ribs on the cooler, so it went kind of everywhere exept through the fins . I think that, to get enough airflow to cool the GPU aswell (aren't those 1950's hot?) you will need such a powerfull and thus noisy fan that the whole silent part might go out the door. It would be better to use large low RPM fans for the CPU and GPU coolers and a good case airflow to boot. Quiet and cool, just my opinion though. I would be interested to see if your devious plan works.
If you decide to go for it, please keep us posted.

GL.

 

[orangegator]

I think "surrounding components" refers to stuff on the motherboard such as the voltage regulators, capacitors, etc. Not the GPU.

 

[skittle]

i got a scythe ninja on sale for 39.99... seems to be a better HSF than the kama cross.

Good choice getting a quality quiet PSU, though i would look at the corsair 520hx.

Right now at buy.com, you can pick it up for 79.99 (98.99-$20MIR). its like 129 on newegg.

 

[vincio_filiarum]

I vaguely remember a review stating the fan on the Kama didn't get enough air forced through the ribs on the cooler, so it went kind of everywhere exept through the fins

.

You're absolutely right - which is why I'm wondering if that can be used to my advantage. If I can angle the Cross vertically, so that the "wasted" - for want of a better term - air goes onto the GPU heatsink, then the wind-tunnel effect of the Antec 182's chamber structure should funnel the air straight out the back, without the need for a GPU fan... or at least thats where the thoughts take me.

I've never noticed my 1950 get particularly hot (45 deg?? thats the number that springs to mind...), but I@m quite tempted to take the plunge and order a G15 keyboard so I can monitor my temps as I use it. If necessary, I believe I can get a thermalright fan attachment that should do the trick, although on the OverclockersUK and QuietPC forums, they're saying it's the real deal.

Thanks for the response though - I'll keep ya updated!

 

[vincio_filiarum]

I think "surrounding components" refers to stuff on the motherboard such as the voltage regulators, capacitors, etc. Not the GPU.

Well, you're right... under normal circumstances; I'm just hoping to turn it to my advantage here.

 

[vincio_filiarum]

got a scythe ninja on sale for 39.99... seems to be a better HSF than the kama cross.

Good choice getting a quality quiet PSU, though i would look at the corsair 520hx.

Right now at buy.com, you can pick it up for 79.99 (98.99-$20MIR). its like 129 on newegg.

Thanks for the thumbs up on the PSU - I'm just worried the cabling won't fit the case (Antec 180-derivitives neex extra long cabling, or so I read). I'll look at the corsair, but I'm English; no Newegg, no $$$, and lots of shipping costs\tax... which is why I must decline the offer of the Ninja... thank you though.

 

[skittle]

oh right... umm its the same as the seasonic S12 (seasonic makes the corsair) but the corsair has modular cables..

I dont like zalman, all their products seem to be over rated and not as quiet as they claim to be... ie the zalman 9700.