Freezer 64 pro or stock fan on Phenom 9950 BE

[febisfebi]

I just received my phenom 9950 (of course on the day the phenom II comes out hehe)

I seem to remember seeing that the amd retail box processors said "CPU Only no heat sink" but obviously i was wrong

I quickly researched a cheap heat sink that would work with the 9950 and came up with the freezer 64 pro. several reviews on the newegg site suggested it was a good match. Now that I get it however I see that it does not cover the cpu entirely and would need a 120 mm one not a 92 mm. I also realize there is a perfectly good heat sink supplied with the proccessor. It seems to use the same cooling idea ( copper bars transferring heat to "radiator" type thing. Of course the freezer 64 has a much bigger "radiator" My motherboard is still delayed however due to flooding here in the pacific northwest. So my question is, when my mb does arrive hopefully tomorrow, which heat sink should I install? is the freezer 64 going to be adequete, or even worth the money over the stock one. If so I may consider returning the Freezer 64. hopefully customer service might let me get around the restocking fee. I may get one of these to maybe help with that:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

or one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004

or whatever else someone can suggest.

I am not neccessarily looking at overclocking so im guessing the stock one would be fine, but I may want to in the near future, and it would be nice to not have to return the freezer 64, but no use keeping it if the stock one will work better due to the size problem

thanks for any help anyone can provide

 

[LordPie]

The freezer 64 will be more that adequate, though i'm unsure what you mean when you say 92mm "does not cover the cpu entirely". Rest assured it will work just fine.

Also it has the advantage over the stock cooling in that it takes the heat farther up and away from the cpu with it's taller sink, and then blows it towards your case exit rather than straight down onto the mobo. You will see much better cooling performance with it

 

[febisfebi]

there is a little ring around the outside of the cpu that is not covered by the heat sink. I guess I didint think about how big 92mm is, thats obviously the fan size. The heat sink the cpu came with is much larger in the contact area and more than covers the whole thing. what i'm trying to decide is which one will serve it better, but it sounds like the freezer will.

 

[LordPie]

oh I get you now. as long as the heatsink is making full contact it will perform as expected(quite well). having the cpu's heat spreader be slightly larger than the freezers contact area should cause no problems with heat transfer.

 

[febisfebi]

thank you lordpie. i will use the freezer when my mb finally comes. hopefully tomorrow, considering i ordered it a week ago today with "guaranteed 3 day delivery"

 

[EXT64]

I'd highly suggest checking out AC's website. They have a lot of good info on the coolers and answer many of the FAQs, one of which is regarding the size of the copper baseplate. As they (correctly) say, the die (that is under the IHS) is smaller that the IHS, so the cooler does not need to be that big. I think that you made a good choice and should use the AC Freezer 64, in fact, I am using it for my Phenom II build. Also, this is one case where it is probably ok to use the preapplied thermal paste since it is their MX-2 (or whatever) which I believe is decent.

 

[febisfebi]

So my motherboard finally got here a few minutes ago, and i am putting it together. The Freezer 64 however will not fit unless I put it in backwards (ie. blowing towards the front of the case, which is specifically against the instructions. My corsair dominator memory heat spreaders are too tall, and run straight into the fan. So my question now is should i install the freezer 64 backwards, or use the stock fan for now and send this back for a different one that will fit. my guess though is that not many will fit. Please If anyone has any insight let me know asap. It would be great to know before I finish my build. If not I will probably install the stock cooler as to not mess up the cooling grease pad applied to the freezer in case of return.
Thanks again!

 

[febisfebi]

also, I do have a raidmax xforce case, in which every drive bay cover is a vent. so this may help with airflow and perhaps any responses. but since warm air rises, and there is no top vent on this case I dont know how well this idea will work. Again, thanks for any insight.

 

[CoachB]

The Freezer Pro can be turned 180 degrees on the mounting bracket. You can configure it to blow front to back or back to front. To change configuration, you have to remove one screw holding the lever arm on. I've used Freezer Pros on 754, 939 and AM2 sockets with great success.

 

[EXT64]

Yeah, I almost bought the Dominator ram, but I had a feeling I would have a conflict so I got the OCZ Platinum (single height) stuff instead. I am impressed with the Freezer. Full Prime95 (on all cores) and the CPU stays around 45C. Not bad at all. And this is at stock volts too. I have heard a decent bit of undervolting can be done on the 940.

Anyways, as to your dilemma, I'm not sure. It is hard to say without seeing it. The Freezer is good, but if installation turns into too much of a hassle it isn't worth it.

 

[Guest]

Hi everyone I currently have a freezer 64 pro and the stock phenom 2 cooler and have noticed that they perform very similarly. The stock cooler seems to work as well or better then the freezer pro at idle temps. stock is running 38 idle and 51 under load.my freezer runs40 idle and 50 load. the only major advantage the freezer has is the fan doesn't spin up loudly compared to the stock cooler. the freezer also has the disadvantage that it may hit taller memory like my ocz reaper x.i fixed my memory issue buy moving my reaper x over 2 slots and installing some ocz platinum as well.The only reason i ended up using the freezer is because it seems to have a higher thermal ceiling when overclocking with little noise.Hopefully this helps.

 

[jerseygamer]

Just about any half decent 40$ cooler should be fine. After all your not going to OC that chip.

 

[febisfebi]

as it turns out, i did end up overclocking a little, runs at 3 ghz just fine with stock cooler. I'll probably install the freezer soon and get a little more performance out of it, but still it will have to blow backwards. I could put the ram in dimm 3 and 4, but that'll only be a temporary fix, as i plan to add another 4 gb ram and a new video card shortly.
Quite interesting how the stock cooler keeps it almost exactly as cool as the freezer. anyone have a comment on performance of an overclocked chip with the freezer, vs the stock fan?

 

[EXT64]

How do you have the fan speed controlled? If it is auto they will both shoot for the same temperatures but the AC 64 will do it with lower fan speed. If you turn off the fan control so the AC goes full speed, it should beat the stock.

 

[febisfebi]

is that a bios setting? I should do that if i set the clock up. how much should I be able to get out of this cooler? 3.2, 3.4, 3.6

 

[EXT64]

Yes, it should be in the BIOS. It could however already be running fast, in which case there will be no difference. As for OC, that varies a lot depending various factors so it is impossible to say, but it should at least run a little cooler on whatever speed you choose.