Nexus cooling

I looked at that heatsink ($35-$40), but it just seemed too expensive for what you get and I couldn't find many reviews on it. I found a cheaper solution that I'm satisfied with. I bought a Thermaltake Silent boost (part: A1889-01) HS ($25) and it's done the job nicely.

I had a retail AMD heatsink and my PC noise after I installed my new Thermaltake HS was noticably lower.. now I can hear my video card fan!!!  

I think they rate it at 21db, but the fan it uses is rated at 28db! I don't know how to accurately compare the noise between these two heatsinks, but I can tell you that I have absolutely no complaints about the noise level of the Thermaltake heatsink.


If I had it to do over again, I'd stick with the Thermaltake HS that I bought. I'd have picked up one of those huge Zalman Heatsinks, but I know it wouldn't fit my nForce2 with my power supply being so close to the processor.

Also, my temperatures are good with the Thermaltake HS.

Good luck!
Mitch

p.s. I had to wrestle with the Thermaltake HS to get it installed... they provide a clip for your screwdriver, but it was still a pain in the butt to get on.

BTW, I almost bought the HS you mentioned... the best price I found was at this site: <A HREF="http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/scan/st=db/co=yes/r...*/fi=products/sf=category/op=eq/se=Quiet CPU Fans AMD.html?id=n7BYnQcv" target="_new">http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/scan/st=db/co=yes/r...*/fi=products/sf=category/op=eq/se=Quiet CPU Fans AMD.html?id=n7BYnQcv</A>

Thanks for the info, I'll take a look at that other heat sink. I just noticed that the nexus comes with "high-efficiency thermal compound". I wonder if it is arctic silver, then it might be worth it. Did yours come with thermal compound? I also looked at the zalman heat sinks, but they seem very big and heavy. Probably would stress the motherboard and cpu, and maybe not fit in my case. Thanks again.

ooo, I just found this cooler from arctic cooling for $22 USD! It has selectable fan speeds as low as 1500rpm also! Here's a link:

<A HREF="http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/copper_silent..." target="_new">http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/copper_silent...;/A>

I like the adjustable speed fans the best. Like the Coolermaster Aero 7+, Jet7, or even a Volcano 9. Even if they aren't the best highend cooling solutions at least you decide the best balance. I can hardly hear my Volcano 9 on this system most of the year. I don't game on it, so maybe a couple Summer months I turn it up near 3000-3100 RPM and it gets a little louder. Otherwise 2800-2900 or so RPM is sufficient most of the year and is nice and quiet. Cranking it all the way for OC'in or hot weather gaming, it would be very loud though. I guess it all depends on room temperature, air flow, and case design. You can also use the temp diod to automatically adjust the rpm based on cpu temps.

Antecs SLK3700 or Sonata are nice and quiet cases with decent airflow from the 120mm low RPM fan. For daily use quiet PC's are so nice.



ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

Zalman.

I don't know... I'd doubt it. The Heatsink I purchased came with a compound, but I ordered a tube of Arctic Silver anyway.

I had a Volcano 7 at one time and threw it in the trash because it was so noisy. If you are going to buy an adjustable speed fan, think about how you want to operate it. My volcano 7 had a switch and I <i>guess</i> the engineer thought I was going to either cut a hole in my case, or open it up whenever I wanted to adjust the fan speed. You can buy a switch that covers a PCI slot in your case... but do you <i>really</i> want to be reaching around the back of your case anytime you want to adjust your fan speed?

I even bought a gadget that filled one of my 5 1/4 bays so that I could adjust the speed. I believe it was made by Nexustek... it was a waste of money and I couldn't adjust the heat sensors that maintained readings for my CPU temperature... it kept sounding off an alarm!

Think about that stuff and what you are trying to accomplish. You sound a lot like me... I just wanted a nice quiet heatsink that kept my CPU reasonably cool. At the end of the day, I probably spent nearly enough to go with water cooling before I found the heatsink I liked.

I find that funny about the volcano 7 as well. I just keep it on medium. I can't take the loud and the slow isn't verygood.

<A HREF="http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=175262371..." target="_new">http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=175262371...;/A>
45.5k mark? 85 dollars went a long way. So did that extra 15 dollars for cooling my video card.

Looks cool, but is it AMD aproved?