Any good heatsinks that don't require uinstalling my entire machine?

[Sonikku]

I'm running an i5 2500 sr00t and when it gets to about 60c under load the stock sink sounds almost like a leaf blower at 3000rpm. I'm wondering if there's a decent heatsink that would be quieter that doesn't require unscrewing and taking out my entire motherboard. Would Zalman or some other brand make a heatsink like that? My multipliers are locked, so it's not like I can overclock. Just want something that would be cool and quiet at stock speeds.

 

[richierich1212]

Did you try reapplying new thermal paste?

 

[NTMBK]

The Hyper TX3 EVO uses push-pins to install, like an Intel stock cooler, but looks like a decent mid-range tower cooler:

It's a 92mm fan, so I wouldn't expect it to be as good as some of the other coolers out there, but at least you don't need to pull out your motherboard.

 

[Sonikku]

Did you try reapplying new thermal paste?

I applied arctic silver just a month ago when I replaced my aging pentium g630 for the i5 sandy.

 

[mikeymikec]

The Arctic Freezer 13 / Pro models don't require you to do anything to the underside of the board (I'm 100% certain for AMD boards as I have one, and I'm 90% certain for Intel boards, you can download the installation instructions from their website).

The Freezer 13 was a massive improvement on AMD's stock HSF for Ph2 CPUs, I don't know how well it compares to Intel's. The Arctic site includes stats on noise levels in comparison to the stock cooler.

 

[Headfoot]

Does your case have a motherboard cut out on the back?

I only buy cases with that for this exact reason.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Actually, there are things one can do before buying another heatsink, but you'd at least want to buy another fan or redeploy one you have which could fill the bill. More than that, you'd have to jerry-rig something to the stock-cooler's aluminum heatsink to hold a bigger fan in place.

On the other hand, you could leave the stock sink alone, but you could build a duct box which would suck air our of the lower half of the stock aluminum fins and force it out the rear exhaust. In other words, duct the lower half of the stock aluminum HSF (or lower 3/4 -- whatever) to the rear exhaust fan, and you now have a pusher-puller fan combination that should use up any reserve capability in that Intel sink.

I just can't tell you how effective it would be. I'm not going to bother trying it myself. But I had seen this done on several "brute-force" aluminum and copper heatsinks without heatpipes. One guy used a rubber kitchen glove, cut off at the wrist and stretched over a portion of the CPU heatsink.

After that, the CoolerMaster TX3 is a candidate. I see you don't want to remove the motherboard. If you're worried about the various internal wiring and SATA motherboard connections you hadn't learned to identify in your sleep, you could probably install a 212 EVO without entirely removing the motherboard from the case. But it would need to be temporarily dislodged from the rear I/O panel so that you could pull up the forward end with the 24-pin (?) PSU connector and align the backplate so that you can drop the board on it or the bolts or similar mechanism align with the four motherboard holes. Then, after securing the backplate on the upper side of the motherboard, you'd simply re-seat the board against the I/O panel properly, re-insert the nine motherboard screws, finish installing the HSF if you hadn't already done so, close up, plug in, switch on and fire up the machine.

 

[sm625]

It's only a handful of screws to take out the motherboard. I think its worth the piece of mind knowing that those flimsy little pushpins arent going to pop out one day.

 

[Auric]

OEM fans vary in spec by supplier for the same Intel part number and so may exceed requirements. Try limiting RPM (2000?) via BIOS or SpeedFan and see whether temp remains within spec.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

OEM fans vary in spec by supplier for the same Intel part number and so may exceed requirements. Try limiting RPM (2000?) via BIOS or SpeedFan and see whether temp remains within spec.

And -- yeah -- although I'd want to know just exactly the nature of the load-test used, 60C is well below the spec operating range and recommended temperature limit for that processor.

So this could all be a BIOS fan-configuration oversight.

 

[Sonikku]

I told the bios to try and keep it 60c. If I can raise the threshold, by how much for an i5 sr00t sandy bridge?

 

[Yuriman]

You can probably get away with another 30-35c. I aim to keep my Ivy under 90. I think your chip's tjmax is 98c?

 

[ehume]

Spend the money. Take out your board. Install something good.

Count the heatpipes. The more there are, the more heat they will take away from your CPU. I tested a good four-heatpipe cooler, and could only run an i7 4790k at 4.0GHz doing Linpack with AVX2. Trying 4.4GHz throttled the CPU -- it went right up to 100c.

I just got through reviewing the Noctua NH-C14S. With heatpipes vertical, it is amazingly good. Cooled my i7 4790k to 4.4GHz running Linpack with AVX2. Or go with an NH-D14 or NH-D15S.

Why go with a large heatsink? Their fans are PWM. and spin slowly. So these heatsinks are very quiet.

Don't cheap out. You can use the heatsink over and over.

TIM: Idontcare used the Noctua pasted on his rig. I find that Gelid GC Extreme cools about a degree cooler. The Arctic Silver paste has seen its day.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Spend the money. Take out your board. Install something good.

Count the heatpipes. The more there are, the more heat they will take away from your CPU. I tested a good four-heatpipe cooler, and could only run an i7 4790k at 4.0GHz doing Linpack with AVX2. Trying 4.4GHz throttled the CPU -- it went right up to 100c.

I just got through reviewing the Noctua NH-C14S. With heatpipes vertical, it is amazingly good. Cooled my i7 4790k to 4.4GHz running Linpack with AVX2. Or go with an NH-D14 or NH-D15S.

Why go with a large heatsink? Their fans are PWM. and spin slowly. So these heatsinks are very quiet.

Don't cheap out. You can use the heatsink over and over.

TIM: Idontcare used the Noctua pasted on his rig. I find that Gelid GC Extreme cools about a degree cooler. The Arctic Silver paste has seen its day.

My token perfunctory offering is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835288004

Verified performance edge over NH-D14 of ~6C for a Nehalem processor at mild overclock; 4.75+C for 130W OC'd Sandy Bridge comparing identical systems, cases, fans, PSUs, RAM and motherboards for respective 2600K and 2700K @ 4.7 Ghz and matching load-drooped voltage of ~1.35V.

Fan is noisy just for its speed range -- a barely perceptible low moan. It is the LED part of the bling effort to style the cooler. Get a better fan, perhaps an Akasa, GT AP-15 or even 30, Noctua iPPC either 2000 or 3000.

The mounting hardware leaves a little to be desired. The HSF is secured with screws only -- no spring and screw assemblies. You may strip the threads on one of the nylon or plastic retention nuts used initially in mounting the baseplate. These are supplemented by threaded metal nuts, so the plastic ones only need to act as washers anyway.

Base is rough. Large heatpipes flattened and separated by aluminum splines to make a continuous metal surface. So lap the base.

 

[ehume]

My token perfunctory offering is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835288004

Verified performance edge over NH-D14 of ~6C for a Nehalem processor at mild overclock; 4.75+C for 130W OC'd Sandy Bridge comparing identical systems, cases, fans, PSUs, RAM and motherboards for respective 2600K and 2700K @ 4.7 Ghz and matching load-drooped voltage of ~1.35V.

Fan is noisy just for its speed range -- a barely perceptible low moan. It is the LED part of the bling effort to style the cooler. Get a better fan, perhaps an Akasa, GT AP-15 or even 30, Noctua iPPC either 2000 or 3000.

The mounting hardware leaves a little to be desired. The HSF is secured with screws only -- no spring and screw assemblies. You may strip the threads on one of the nylon or plastic retention nuts used initially in mounting the baseplate. These are supplemented by threaded metal nuts, so the plastic ones only need to act as washers anyway.

Base is rough. Large heatpipes flattened and separated by aluminum splines to make a continuous metal surface. So lap the base.

5x8mm heatpipes = not bad.
Lapping surface-contacting heatpipes is a no-go. The mfrs already sand down the pipes for surface contact. If you sand them down some more, you risk causing a leak. Don't do it.

The NH-D14 is getting long in the tooth. Its fans are not the quietest.

Quiet fans: TR TY-140 and Noctua NF-A14 & NF-A15. I would not use a heatsink with loud fans. Been there, done that.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

5x8mm heatpipes = not bad.
Lapping surface-contacting heatpipes is a no-go. The mfrs already sand down the pipes for surface contact. If you sand them down some more, you risk causing a leak. Don't do it.

The NH-D14 is getting long in the tooth. Its fans are not the quietest.

Quiet fans: TR TY-140 and Noctua NF-A14 & NF-A15. I would not use a heatsink with loud fans. Been there, done that.

Yup to most of it, but the copper pipes are thick enough that taking off a fraction of a millimeter here or there shouldn't have a risk. I already did it. The base is fairly flat, but with crude scratches. If the manufacturer left it with those scratches, nothing would hurt making them more shallow.

 

[crashtech]

It's OK to surface bare heatpipes a little if one doesn't get carried away. I've never broken through one, having done plenty. Low-dollar direct contact pipes can sometimes shift in their base, requiring quite a bit of remedial surfacing to achieve a flat enough surface to ensure close contact to the heat spreader.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It's OK to surface bare heatpipes a little if one doesn't get carried away. I've never broken through one, having done plenty. Low-dollar direct contact pipes can sometimes shift in their base, requiring quite a bit of remedial surfacing to achieve a flat enough surface to ensure close contact to the heat spreader.

The only models of direct-touch within my firsthand experience are the Hyper 212+/EVO and the EVGA ACX model I linked. I may have given a quickie-once-over lapping to the EVO, but my use of the EVO has been limited to systems set for stock performance. It is the EVO's pipes which are more likely to shift in the base: the pipes are all "side-to-side."

The ACX is different. Aluminum extrusions from the main base-block separate the copper pipes. The pipes are flat on the contact side, and the splines widen to "surround" any remaining curvature in the pipes. This makes for one, continues surface with no grooves or gaps.

I'm currently contemplating a change in TIM for one or both of my machines. IC Diamond is the second-best performer which I currently use, and "second-best" by only a 2 to 4C shortfall over the best (depending on thermal wattage dissipated). It is non-conductive. There is no mystery or multi-step process in applying it. Spreading it with a razor-blade is no longer favored as a "best" approach: IC wants you to make a 5.5mm blob dead-center on the standard-sized processor cap, drop the heatsink on it and clamp it down. The blob will exactly cover the IHS with only small extrusions from the edge.

With IX (Indigo Xtreme) or the latest IX XS, you are forewarned to avoid using it with DT HSF bases like the EVO, or any DT base which actually shows gaps and grooves on the base-surface between the pipes. With CLU, you are forewarned not to use it with aluminum -- suggesting that Gallium is an important CLU ingredient. The IX/IX-XS is specifically noted as "safe for aluminum" -- hence the name of the product, for its use of Indium.

There are things that limp-out my willie over the ACX. It's design incorporates unnecessary "style" with its shape. It doesn't allow for hanging a pusher and puller fan both on the cooler, unless you jerry-rig something with home-grown retention mechanisms (like long, thin nylon-wire-ties.) And I was less impressed with the mounting hardware and the fan -- as I said. But the mounting hardware is more than adequate, and you can replace the fan.

Another good point about the ACX: the fin design seems peculiar -- and a departure from what you expect with thin aluminum sheet-metal panels. In this respect, the fins vibrate less and therefore transmit or amplify sound less than your Noctua, 212 EVO, TR and other coolers.

 

[soccerballtux]

I'm running an i5 2500 sr00t and when it gets to about 60c under load the stock sink sounds almost like a leaf blower at 3000rpm. I'm wondering if there's a decent heatsink that would be quieter that doesn't require unscrewing and taking out my entire motherboard. Would Zalman or some other brand make a heatsink like that? My multipliers are locked, so it's not like I can overclock. Just want something that would be cool and quiet at stock speeds.

you know, installing a back plate only takes an extra 10 minutes honestly. I was dreading having to install my EVGA ACX but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Just take your time and let it be a cathartic experience

 

[crashtech]

Have we heard from the OP whether the mobo tray is windowed?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

you know, installing a back plate only takes an extra 10 minutes honestly. I was dreading having to install my EVGA ACX but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Just take your time and let it be a cathartic experience

Take care not to strip the threads on the little black nylon-plastic thumb-nuts. If you do, give it some attention but don't worry about it. The reason they were threaded and despite their main function as washer-insulators for the motherboard, was to allow you to secure the backplate without holding onto it anymore when flipping over the motherboard. So if you strip the threads on one, try and save the others. If they are all eventually stripped, it just makes the work slightly more tedious.

 

[HeXen]

That's why you buy a decent case that has a cutout in the motherboard tray so you can install back plates without removing the mobo.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Have we heard from the OP whether the mobo tray is windowed?

Good point. A lot of decent case-makers do that as much for ventilation as anything. But the case-makers can only spec the I/O-plate, PCI/-E slots, and the 9 screw positions. There is variance in CPU placement across manufacturers of motherboards and their model lines.

I may have had success of advantage with the hole in the mobo pan -- probably no more than once -- ever. Unless all the HS retention holes are visible with clearance for the heads of the 4 screws or other hardware, and unless you can fit the backplate easily within perimeter of the mobo-pan hole, great expectation turns into disappointment.

 

[Sonikku]

Have we heard from the OP whether the mobo tray is windowed?

Nope. Antec Sonata 2. Been using it since 08.

That's why you buy a decent case that has a cutout in the motherboard tray so you can install back plates without removing the mobo.

Lesson learned.

 

[soccerballtux]

Take care not to strip the threads on the little black nylon-plastic thumb-nuts. If you do, give it some attention but don't worry about it. The reason they were threaded and despite their main function as washer-insulators for the motherboard, was to allow you to secure the backplate without holding onto it anymore when flipping over the motherboard. So if you strip the threads on one, try and save the others. If they are all eventually stripped, it just makes the work slightly more tedious.

yeah, you'd mentioned that before. thanks to that word of advice, I was careful with that when I installed it. Overall, very disappointed in EVGA's HSF design! My TR-120 was much sturdier, _and_ easier to install