CPU cooler choices

[max787]

Hi!
Heat seems to be hurting my overclock...i currently have a hyper tx3, which is kinda ***...
I have a Phenom II 955 @ 3.8Ghz (1.5v) (200x19) and under load with prime 95 it hits 61 C!!! The max operating temp is 62 C so i want to lower the temp by getting a new CPU cooler.
My website of choice doesn't have much choice( I live in France) so i have narrowed it down to 3 options;
Coolermaster V8
vs.
Dark Knight
vs.
Hyper 212

Price differences between the 3 don't matter, i just want the best performer.
I am leaning towards the V8 but the dark Knight has good reviews...So which one would you choose?
Thanks to anyone who reads this,
Max

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

I went from a TX3 to a V8, dropped temp by about 22 degrees. 61C is safe, but if you really wanna be careful id go for the V8. came out from a number of tests as the best air cooler.

Plus I find V8 prettier.

 

[max787]

Ya it does look really cool! lol! WOW! 22 C! thats pretty amazing, im going to get arctic silver too...is there anything better out there thats not too expensive, AS5 is 5 euro but i would be willing to go to 10 euro...

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

yeah im using AS5 too, (some guy gave it to me for free at some shop back in canada)

well, I just restored my OC, was at 3.2 ghz with tx3 running idle at about 50-55 degrees, and with a load it went up to 80 C. (aah)

anyways with my new mobo i could throw the voltages up even further than my old one (old capped at 1.5v and new one at 1.7), so now im running at 1.55 and 3.3ghz volts (so 100mhz and 0.05 volts more) (any more ghz and it becomes unstable)
Idle: 40 (exactly)
load: 50-55 (max)

so idle difference is at 10 degrees, and under load its almost 30.

btw, with my old case and cooler I had to have my fan speeds all the way up, and with my new rig (antec mini p180) I have all the fan speeds on lowest possible . (REALLY SILENT)

so yeah, im am beyond pleased, and im sure you'll be too.

Niels.

PS: load tests are done with prime95, so not something crap like crysis, and room temperature is around 25 degrees, which is quite warm, (hehe middle east)
no oc temps are at 30-40 respectively, impressive for 25 degree environment)

good luck!

 

[obsidian86]

of the 3 you can get the v8 will be better but not by much

 

[max787]

Thanks for your input! ordered the V8 last night! should arrive by Friday im going to try and hit 4.0 Ghz! think its possible?

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

depends on the cpu your using, but yeah easily. with that cpu I assume you haven't touched the vcore just yet.

if you dare, (small increments) you should easily be able to get it up to 4.5* without much voltage tweaking. I reccomend only adjusting the multiplier. tell me how it goes and if the cpu's worth the money, cuz Ill probably be getting the 965BE soon.

*I claim no responsibility for any damage done, look on other sites for good advice!

 

[max787]

i have the 955BE but i got the c2 stepping which is annoying, i bought it two weeks ago and just presumed that it would be the C3 stepping any way i have it fully stable 3.8Ghz (1.5v) (200x19) but it just gets too hot for my liking! so the V8 cooler should really help! i looked around here for guides and they all seem to be about intel chips, are they still valid for my AMD cpu? or are there any large differences between intel and AMD overclocking?

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

I'm not sure if there's much of a difference between intel & AMD OCing (yah amd has unlocked multiplier BE CPU's)

anyways basically for AMD the easiest thing to do first set everything to stock.
- increase multiplier by one setting
- start up and see if OC is stable (prime95 for like 1 minute)
- if stable, reboot and increase multiplier again (unless you are satisfied with speed), repeat stability test
- If not stable, (bsod, random stuff, errors) reboot, and increase voltage by a little bit (o.025 increments or what you feel is suitable) until it is stable.
- up the multiplier again, and repeat the process until you find a stable voltage.

ALWAYS MONITOR TEMPERATURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eventually you will notice that you have to dramatically increase the voltage to get the OC running stable, (in my situation I had to go from 1.55volts @

3.3Ghz to 1.675 volts @3.4ghz. you will also notice some of your cores might get errors in Prime95. at that point you should go down a step.

tips:
- find the lowest possible stable voltage for your desired speed. voltage is one of the main things driving heat. 1.55-1.675 will increase heat by at least 10-

15 C. (for me)
- FORGODSAKE MONITOR YOUR TEMPERATURES!!!
- use logical judgment. do you really need freaking 4.5ghz? stick to 4 with a small tweak on the voltage to get it stable.
- once you find a stable voltage, test it for a more extended period of time. even if it is stable in the PRIME95 test, it may still fail while in practical

use, if you find so, adjust your voltage (SMALL INCREMENTS!!!), or lower the core clock.
- If AMD cool 'n quiet is enabled your OS will probably not show a higher core clock. use CPU-Z to make sure it's good.
- for monitoring temperatures use your supplied software that came with the mobo. It is probably most accurate. 40C idle is good if your running a very high

core clock, otherwise not. u live in France and it's winter, you should be fine once you have CM V8. 50C is far from good for idle.
- Dont sue me if your CPU fries.
- if you do not feel comfortable with they way it's running then just go down in core clock and voltage. "better to be safe than sorrow"
- have PATIENCE. OC to find a good stable setup may take a while, just relax and take your time, even if it takes rebooting like 50 times!!!
- pay me 50 euro for making this guide for you


I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU MAY CAUSE TO YOUR SYSTEM IN ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT WAY, AND TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS. (might be a

loophole their do not exploit it im just stating the disclaimer)

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

I just quickly wrote that guide its not good so do be careful please.

AND MONITOR YOUR TEMPERATURES!!!

 

[max787]

Thanks! i have been doing that...pretty much but i want to stay UNDER 60C on load, the V8 should help as i currently hit 61C with prime 95, but i idle at around 35C so its Fine for now...i heard somewhere that the voltage shouldn´t really go over 1.5v, is that overly cautious?

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

yeah I would not advice going over that by much. I would assume that if your system is not having any problems dealing with higher voltages you would be fine, (no errors, BSODS, etc)

im running at 1.55 (old board capped at 1.50, new one at 1.70. I cant OC past 3.3ghz with 1.55 stable. anything higher and system wont even boot 3.4ghz and 1.675 volts wont boot. (instantoff OC fail report from mobo, and it sets everything back to stock) im not sure if yours does that.

currently with v8
room temp: 23C
idle : 36-37C

thats pretty good concerning I cant OC the cpu any further.

anyways check what the stock voltage is (set everything to auto and normal settings in bios) and use cpu-z to figure out stock. if its something like 1.1 v then there is no way that youll need to go to 1.5 ocing because its known that your cpu will go to 3.8 to 4.0 (4.0 if lucky) without touching voltages.

just focus on your temps, if they are fine and no system errors etc then I myself would go over 1.5 volts. (already do hehe)

keep note though that im using an old athlon x2 5400 2.8ghz, and have OCed it to 3.3

 

[max787]

i have left everything on auto to check voltages before but my board is kinda weird! lol! it is a pure sapphire 790GX AM3 board with a SB750 chipset and it OVERvolts! for example i am currently at 1.5v, according to cpu-z and hw monitor but my bios is set to 1.3v! the mobo adds on 0.2v! which really freaked me out because when i manually set it to stock voltage(1.35v) it was actually at 1.55v i was terrified of frying my cpu lol!
whats your cpu by the way?

 

[max787]

just saw you have an athlon

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

yeah I also had a board that shows a different voltage in the system as on the bios.

note though that voltage can be changed on the fly by the system depending on whether it is on a load or not, (AMD cool n quiet) and other tools

it is now actually quite hard to judge which reading to trust, but basically try to find the lowest stable voltage in your bios. dont worry too much about what your system says. my old mobo had a 0.1 adition aswell, but yeah.

anyways as long as voltage is low as possible and temps are good you should be fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB0JodKgZ0A

dont try that!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Here is a link to a very good web site with a lot of useful information about third party cpu heatsinks:

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

It pays to look around the aeb site. You can use the embedded search engine to find more information about socket specific heatsinks.

 

[OvrClkr]

I went from a TX3 to a V8, dropped temp by about 22 degrees. 61C is safe, but if you really wanna be careful id go for the V8. came out from a number of tests as the best air cooler.

Plus I find V8 prettier.

Not sure where you got that info from... The V8 is an OK cooler... For the price of a V8 you can get a better, cheaper and smaller cooler.

The 212+ and the CCF are superior to the V8 and they cost less.... The V8 is mainly for looks...

Look at frosty's list and you will see what I mean....

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Not sure where you got that info from...

yeah that info is from my own rig. I also upgraded my case from some other old case which had *** airflow, and the mini p180 has much better airflow.

Athlon X2 5400 2.8Ghz Black Edition
Before: Point of View Turbine (pretty cheap and crap), TX2 (sorry my bad was mistaken ist a TX2) cpu cooler
3.2Ghz at 1.500 volts.
Idle: 48-52 C
load: 75-82 C

Now: Mini P180, Cooler Master V8
3.3Ghz at 1.550 volts
Idle: 38-41 C
Load: 50-52 C

So yeah, mostly to blame on having had a *** case

 

[max787]

Not sure where you got that info from... The V8 is an OK cooler... For the price of a V8 you can get a better, cheaper and smaller cooler.

The 212+ and the CCF are superior to the V8 and they cost less.... The V8 is mainly for looks...

Look at frosty's list and you will see what I mean....

i know what the 212+ is but what does CCF stand for?
excuse the ignorance lol
max

 

[JohnnyLucky]

xbeater - what was the ambient room temperature when testing?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

max787 - Core Contact Freezer - it is a cpu heatsink.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

just looked it up. not very easy to find but its a concept where the heatpipes make direct contact with the processor, just like the 212+. CCF stands for Core Contact Freezer.

http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/hdt_shootout/2

I don't see how that beats a V8 though.

btw did you get you v8 yet?

 

[max787]

Nope not yet should be here by friday though! hoping to hit 4.0Ghz this weekend!

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

xbeater - what was the ambient room temperature when testing?

uhm, well at the moment it's 24.5 C. (live in the middle east)


my fan speed is on lowest for everything, but if I remove the side panel and stick my hand in the rig I do feel quite a bit of airflow.

Ill run some more tests and then report back with a pretty image of my setup.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Nope not yet should be here by friday though! hoping to hit 4.0Ghz this weekend!

youll reach that alright. dont you worry.