jconline

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Nov 16, 2009
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18,510
Hi everyone,

I have a Q9550 oc'ed to 3.4ghz at 1.26250 volts. My current cooler: Zalman CNPS8700NT can't keep up and under stress testing with Prime my CPU reaches the 71 degrees barrier. Well - I stopped it at 69 degrees.

I want another cooler for my Q9550 but need one far more effective than my current Zalman. Any suggestions? :)
 

jconline

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Nov 16, 2009
5
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18,510
Very interesting and thanks. :) I have been looking at similar products. One alternative could be this one.

Keep 'em coming. :)
 
@jconline

Heres a good shopping tip for you jc, don't buy a heatsink that uses specialty fans, get one you can upgrade the fan to a more powerful one if you need to, without having to go through the heatsink manufacturer to replace it.
 
Here are two under $50 heatsinks that are pretty popular:
Sunbeam
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835207004
Xigmatec Dark Knight
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233029

They both require a somewhat different approach to applying thermal compound.
Suggestions for applying thermal compound:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] mitstart=5

overshocked, one of our serious overclockers, really likes the Sunbeam. I have a couple of Dark Knights. They are almost, almost as good as my TRUE, but they only cost a bit more than half as much.
 

jconline

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Nov 16, 2009
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18,510
First of all - thanks for all your tips. I decided to buy the Zalman CNPS10X Extreme. I am very impressed by its performance. I have it set a the low fan setting: 1000-1500rpm and in my BIOS the fan control has been disabled.
My Q9550 no longer reaches insane temps. OC'ed to 3.4ghz at 1.26250vcore (stable for me) I tried Prime95 with the new fan. The fan is running constant at 1500rpm and barely audible. The CPU temp never came higher than 54 degrees and it is idle at 26 degrees. Room temp is 21.8 degrees.

I can recommend the Zalman fan. It's high performance combined with low noise, easy installation, compatible with many CPU types and low price makes it a "must buy". :)