Phenom II 945 v Intel i7 920 issue

[zoinks]

Performance v Noise
AMD Phenom II 945 v Intel i7-920

Trying to decide on processor to go in new build. Computer is mainly intended for music production so noise a key issue here - I don't want none! or as little as possible.
Did look towards AMD & a Phenom II 945 at first mainly cos it's a decent cpu & rated at 95W
Now making comparison with Intel i7 & it seems to pretty much blow the Phenom out the water in pretty much all departments. Am liking the look of this little baby - BUT being rated at 130W am worried about the extra heat output & the effect this liable to have on system temp > increased fan speeds > increased Noise
This is gonna be sitting close to a passively cooled GPU so imagining a fair bit of heat in there & don't want to make it excessively worse with hotter CPU.

How much of an effect is the i7 going to have over the phenom in terms of increased temperature?

Liable system build so far - Antec P183 case, Antec CP-850 PSU, Noctua NHU12P cpu cooler,
ATI HD5550 Fanless GPU, 64GB SSD, 8GB RAM

I think i'm wanting the extra processing power of the Intel chip but not at the price of increased noise levels via fans. How much of an issue do you think it's liable to be.

Your thoughts & recommendations would be most welcome. Anyone running a similar kind of rig where noise is a big issue?

 

[zoinks]

Yeah there was a fan controller on the menu too - Scythe Kaze.

But fan controlability, though handy isn't the issue. Issue is how much more liable I am to be turning those controls up to combat increased heat in the system therefore creating more noise by going for the i7 over the phenom.

I and many others wish a $10 fan contoller would solve their noise issues - unfortunately it doesn't.

 

[Lmeow]

You could just buy a really powerful passive cooler, ones that weren't intended to be passive such as the Prolimatech Megahalems are perfect for the job. I had mine at 2.8 GHz stock, and the temperature remained at acceptable levels, not past 75°C, but if you're really concerned about the heat then it wouldn't hurt to buy a quiet fan which should help keep it cooler while remaining close to inaudible.

 

[zoinks]

I was looking at the Prolimatech b4 opting for the Noctua, think maybe it didn't work with AM3? Yeah it's a pretty hefty beast. Would be an excellent passive cooler for a lot of CPUs but don't think i'd risk it with an i7 without an added fan though.

 

[Lmeow]

I was looking at the Prolimatech b4 opting for the Noctua, think maybe it didn't work with AM3? Yeah it's a pretty hefty beast. Would be an excellent passive cooler for a lot of CPUs but don't think i'd risk it with an i7 without an added fan though.

I passively cooled mine in a case with half-decent airflow, and running Prime 95 the temperatures were acceptable. This was at stock voltage, you could easily undervolt it and keep it stable while keeping temperatures cool.

 

[zoinks]

i have an AMD 955 and i use a fan controller for my CM 212+. I keep it at a mid level, it sounds like a case fan running low. Turning the fan to maximum RPM, I only decreased CPU temp by 2-3c. Ran cinebench so my CPU was at 100% use to create max heat. If you plan to run your fans at max speed, they will make noise. If you already realize that, then you are just whining.

Of course I realise that & that's the issue! I don't want to have to run the fans at anywhere near max because they will create noise. That's why i'm trying to choose quality components with little or no noise level. Having to whack the case fans & CPU fan up high to combat heat is exactly what I don't want to do
Which brings me back round to the original question of asking how much extra heat is liable to be put out by the i7? Don't forget I've got a passively cooled graphics card cooking close to this.

 

[zoinks]

I passively cooled mine in a case with half-decent airflow, and running Prime 95 the temperatures were acceptable. This was at stock voltage, you could easily undervolt it and keep it stable while keeping temperatures cool.

I'm just a bit worried with a passively cooled GPU cooking close by as well. Lot of heat needing exhausting = increased case fan speed. Whereas perhaps could keep them quieter with a decent fan attached to the heat sink. Am being led to believe a decent fan attached & run at low speed could keep the CPU within acceptable limits?

Undervolting - interesting option. Presuming this reduces the power to CPU thus the wattage & heat output? Am thinking this would be performed through the BIOS?

Out of interest what's inside your rig? Was the passive cooling experiment done for the good of science or a desire to quieten your system?

 

[Lmeow]

The HD 5550 is a GPU which uses very little power and produces little heat, I wouldn't be too concerned with a passive heatsink.
A decent fan running at low speed helps keep the CPU cooler, even a little airflow is MUCH better than none. As in, the temp difference between two fans in a push pull configuration on a Megahalems compared to just one fan isn't too great. However, the difference between one fan and none is quite major.

Undervolting is common, people undervolt and overclock sometimes. It does reduce the power to CPU and therefore less energy is dissipated resulting in lower wattages and heat output, and this is done through the BIOS. Very simple to do I might add, just don't set it to 0.9V or something, 1.15V is a very stable undervolt and should reduce temps by quite a bit.

I passively cooled my system to mainly to quiet down my system, although I wanted to see whether it could handle it or not. A HW Canucks review said it could, but I wanted to see for myself. With the fans - seriously, I could not myself hear think when I turned on the PC, I had one Ultra Kaze 2000 RPM and two Cooler Master Sickleflow 2000 RPMs which were quieter, but combined the noise was incredible. I decided to remove the fans and it was nice and quiet. My setup includes a Core i7 930 2.8 GHz, HD 4770 (pretty cool even at 35% fan speed and 25°C ambient overclocked to 830 MHz on the core and 850 MHz on the memory), and 6 GB of G.SKILL Ripjaws memory. What gets RIDICULOUSLY hot is the relatively weak EVGA X58 SLI heatsink, it's hot to touch and my system was fine. My case is the Raven RV01 which doesn't seem to have very good airflow but that may just be me.

 

[neil sheth]

i7 price is almost double than X4 945...which i myself is planning to take in 2 days!!!

 

[Lmeow]

Yes, but it is more powerful in terms of processing ability, especially if the musical programs that zoinks uses support Hyper Threading.

 

[neil sheth]

@sonrie...yeah i am with you unless PRICE is not a big deal for ZOINKS!!!which is for me,so i am gonna take 945...what u say about it?

 

[zoinks]

@sonrie...yeah i am with you unless PRICE is not a big deal for ZOINKS!!!which is for me,so i am gonna take 945...what u say about it?

I say that's a mighty fine choice offering pretty good bang for the buck - which was why it was my original choice. But like I said the i7 seems to blow it away (at a price).

The issue isn't really the price - i'm prepared to spend a couple of hundred more to get some quality if I believe it justifies the premium.
Why i'm prepared to shell out on SSD as opposed to HD & other top of the range products in their class.

Basically i've tried to look at each component seperately & tried to get the noise factor associated with that component down to a very minimum level or Zero.

This why i'm a bit stuck with processor choice in wanting to have this under control with fat CPU cooler & fan run on a low setting whle being able to run case fans on low RPM as well. Noise level should be negligible & fit for purpose then (I would hope).

But at the compromise point again when wanting a good CPU with some future proofing & upgradeability but worried about the cost this might have in extra heat output (rather than $) therefore extra cooling ( & noise) power needed.

Last system I built (5 yr ago) had same sort of issue where I tried to build 2 systems in 1 (music & gaming) & it didn't work - was ok for games but noise level is intolerable - fans sound like jet engines & HD sounds like someone is operating a chainsaw in there. Was on a lot tighter budget then but don't want to make same mistake going for good CPU with some overclockability if it's just going to create more noise.

Before someone suggests liquid cooling route - No, i'm not interested in taking that path.

 

[kicsiburcsi]

Performance v Noise
AMD Phenom II 945 v Intel i7-920

Trying to decide on processor to go in new build. Computer is mainly intended for music production so noise a key issue here - I don't want none! or as little as possible.
Did look towards AMD & a Phenom II 945 at first mainly cos it's a decent cpu & rated at 95W
Now making comparison with Intel i7 & it seems to pretty much blow the Phenom out the water in pretty much all departments. Am liking the look of this little baby - BUT being rated at 130W am worried about the extra heat output & the effect this liable to have on system temp > increased fan speeds > increased Noise
This is gonna be sitting close to a passively cooled GPU so imagining a fair bit of heat in there & don't want to make it excessively worse with hotter CPU.

How much of an effect is the i7 going to have over the phenom in terms of increased temperature?

Liable system build so far - Antec P183 case, Antec CP-850 PSU, Noctua NHU12P cpu cooler,
ATI HD5550 Fanless GPU, 64GB SSD, 8GB RAM

I think i'm wanting the extra processing power of the Intel chip but not at the price of increased noise levels via fans. How much of an issue do you think it's liable to be.

Your thoughts & recommendations would be most welcome. Anyone running a similar kind of rig where noise is a big issue?

Hi,

I always had problem with noise level in my PC similarly to yours.

I am using a Corsair hydro50 cooler whuch is about 50 quid I think and I have installed tha radiator at the front of my Antec p180 case with it's original fan. In addition to this I have installed a Zalman fan controller (any fan controller would do) on that fan and set it to about 800rpm which is almost totally silent.
This keeps my Phenom II 955 on stock speed on about 38-40 C (idle) 50-55C (during gaming).
Room temperature is about 28-30 degrees (Kent, Ashford) real summer here.

Hope this helps