Cooler with baseplate that 'truly' fits DS3 rev 3.3 board?

WitchingHour

Distinguished
Jun 26, 2007
6
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18,510
Greetings everyone,

I'm looking for a replacement cooler with a baseplate that will fit properly onto a Gigabyte DS3 rev 3.3 board's CPU socket. I just went 10 rounds with a Tuniq Tower and it was just too large. The problem lies in the fact that I have these 9 wonderful capacitors which border two sides of the CPU socket. If the heatsink's baseplate is too big (i.e. Tuniq Tower), then these capacitors end up getting mashed beneath it.

The CPU being used with this board is an E6420 and the case is an Antec 900. I'd like to be able to run around 3 to 3.2ghz, have enough room for a northbridge cooler such as the Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II (or other if something works better in cooperation with a specific cooler), and possibly the side case fan if I'd even need it at that point. I'm also running an 8800GTS in this build if that comes into play anywhere with the heat equation.

So far some of the coolers I've been researching are the Zalman 9700, Big Typhoon VX, and Arctic Freezer Pro 7. While finding the dimensions of the cooler itself aren't too difficult, finding the size of the cooler's baseplate has been another story for me.

I've attached an image of where these capacitors stand in relation to the CPU socket for further examination.

ds3socketzoomed.jpg


Thanks in advance,
WH
 

dtushing

Distinguished
Oct 10, 2005
10
0
18,510
I was just about to order one of these for the same board, maybe I'll wait and see if anyone comments here if that cooler fits our Gigabyte DS3 Rev 3.3 boards ?

If so you should go with that based on reviews I've read it's coming out no1. Although I have heard about some quality issue and need to lap.
 

WitchingHour

Distinguished
Jun 26, 2007
6
0
18,510
I was just about to order one of these for the same board, maybe I'll wait and see if anyone comments here if that cooler fits our Gigabyte DS3 Rev 3.3 boards ?

If so you should go with that based on reviews I've read it's coming out no1. Although I have heard about some quality issue and need to lap.
Before I ended up going with the Tuniq Tower, I had been debating between it and that Ultra 120 Extreme. I chose the Tuniq as it came with a fan and the latter didn't. All the tests I'd read showed both of those coolers close enough to each other in temperature variance that it wasn't a major concern for me. They both seem to be excellent cooling units.

Now I just want one that fits on the chip without crushing those capacitors and cools well with the overclocks I wish to reach. Even though both of those coolers continue to rank high in all tests, I realize that what's best for me is not necessarily what's best in all those tests. There's always going to be variances between all those tests anyways since not everyone's setup will match the conditions under which they tested. (Same case, chip, board, alignment of the moon, etc.) I've seen people say their Ultra 120 Extreme works great, their Big Typhoon VX works great, their Arctic Freezer 7 Pro works great, their Zalman 9700 works great and I believe in each scenario for those people they are great. I just have to find out which one is great for me and in turn hopefully you'll be able to find out which one is best for you too.

Now we just have to wait for all the DS3 3.3 owners to finish partying and carrying on and give us some of their enlightened thoughts. :D

WH