Best 478 air cooling...

[kage69]

Am I correct in believing the Swiftec would be the only thing left worth upgrading to, short of going to a water-based cooling setup?

The mobo involved is an ABIT IC7-MAX3...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Now that one -- the Swiftech -- I haven't tried. Also, cannot recall how well it scored in idle/load temps as compared to ThermalRight XP's and the Zalman CNPS-7000. But -- per the review at NewEgg -- I can only conclude that one reviewer was referring to the ThermalTake Spark series -- a simple heatsink/fan with no heat-pipes.

At this point, with what I've tried, and with the reviews and tabular test results I've seen, you'd have a hard time convincing me that it's as good as the TR XP series.

. . . . But . . . . it's supposed to be a good heatsink, anyway . . . .

 

[Duvie]

I remember doing research since I have the swiftech with a 92mm panaflo runnig on it and actually the Zalmann HSF (both of them, the all ciopper and the al-cu) were better in testing. Can't remember the links to this but they were better by 3-4c in same conditions. Quiter fans as well....You could get a kit and put a 120mm fan on it but that just keeps raising the cost.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

There are a lot of options out there that are more elaborate and possibly more efficient that this Swiftech model. I've often wondered how well a ThermalTake Fanless 103 might perform, for instance.

But the ThermalRight XP series is all the rave right now, and I'm . . . impressed.

If I can run MS Flight Simulator 2004 on a 3.0C @ 3.6 in a room ambient of 73F and a load temp of 95F -- should I go to water-cooling?

. . . . I don't think so . . . .

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Duvie --

Are YOU using a water-cooling system? I've never heard of anyone pushing the 2.4C that far. 292FSB?? With PC3500's??

I was happier'n' a pig in shh-poop to get my 2.4C to go to 3.0 and 250FSB with no increase in temperature.

 

[Duvie]

NO water cooling....

292fsb is no problem when I am running a 3:2 divder...My ran is actually running slightly better then PC3000 but just under pc3200....I have no worries though since test show that mhz of cpu trumps memory speed. Plus 5:4 becomes flaky on this board post 255fsb (but that be my lack of BH5 chips on my memory). I would have to takle a tremndous hit in speed to get faster memory. No worth it.

I run a swiftech w/ a 92mm panaflo in a well cooled case with 5 fans. I see idle temps of 42c (fresh clean and reapplication) and load temps from 58-60c...Higher if it is a bit dusty and needs a cleaning...

Actallu boots a 300fsb with 1.65v but no where near stable and crashing almost immediately inside windows...

Great chip and great mobo. No secret many have had the abit IC7 do near 300fsb...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have a P4P800 Asus, and there is apparently no provision in BIOS for a CPU/DDR divider. I have another ASUS -- P4T533R with the proprietary 32-bit Rambus -- and it has a divider selection in BIOS.

The P4P800 will pick it's own divider if it doesn't like a 1:1 configuration, AND -- if you don't set the "Jumper-free Configuration" (external clock -- that's what we're really talking about . . and memory DDR setting) -- to "Turbo".

But that's pretty slick -- your ABIT setup. Could be cooler . . .

 

[Duvie]

I have tested the temps and Abit is really far off anyway...Early on I had an alpha with an 80mm fan and I hit load temps of 74c+ (1.65v on my 2.6c at 3.3ghz) and it never throttled and the board was 100% responsive. On other boards ppl have talked about throttling around 66-70c. I am not worried since I believe most abits are running 8-10c off in actual temps....That would put me in the low to mid 50's and that is great....

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, that's what the software monitors say -- "These values should not be used to validate your hardware and are only approximate temperatures . . . "

Now that we've left the Pentium 2 and Pentium 3 way, way back in the dusty past, I think I'm going to cross-check all new systems against stick-on thermal sensor wires and monitors . . .

I'm pretty confident in my ASUS boards . . . I use them to cross-check each other . . . but on the other hand . . . . they're both ASUS boards, and whatever bias one has, the other may also have as well . . . !!

 

[Duvie]

Awhile back another elite member had almost exact system as mne with simlar OC, simlar vcore settings, both of us had excellent case cooling, and both at the time had same HSF...Only diff was the mobo. He had an Asus and I had the Abit.....HIs temps would idle in low 30's while I was mid to high 40's....He would load in the low 40's with a terribly low swing from idle to load while I would shoot to the mid 60's....

We both no hiow to apply AS so the only difference was the insane temperature diff. I also had many other members with abits reporting same idle temps with similar conditions and many Asus's like his.....

This boards widely differ and ultimately it is about stability. If it is stable then that is the important factor.

I load in the high 50's to low 60's now but at times have ran FH non stop (1 instance) for 2 months without a restart or stop and at the same time never stopping my encoding, and rendering projects. Again stability is key. PPL drop too much cash on expensive HSF cause they chase these erroneous temps around...

 

[vshah]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
I have a P4P800 Asus, and there is apparently no provision in BIOS for a CPU/DDR divider. I have another ASUS -- P4T533R with the proprietary 32-bit Rambus -- and it has a divider selection in BIOS.

The P4P800 will pick it's own divider if it doesn't like a 1:1 configuration, AND -- if you don't set the "Jumper-free Configuration" (external clock -- that's what we're really talking about . . and memory DDR setting) -- to "Turbo".

But that's pretty slick -- your ABIT setup. Could be cooler . . .

i have a p4c800, very similar board. the cpu/ddr divider is somewhat obscurely named. if yours is the same as my board, then under memory settings, when you choose to manually set everything, you'll be able to choose between 400mhz, 333mhz, and 266mhz. those correspond to 1:1, 5:4 and 3:2. good luck 😀

-Vivan

edit: quoted wrong post

 

[BonzaiDuck]

"i have a p4c800, very similar board. the cpu/ddr divider is somewhat obscurely named. if yours is the same as my board, then under memory settings, when you choose to manually set everything, you'll be able to choose between 400mhz, 333mhz, and 266mhz. those correspond to 1:1, 5:4 and 3:2. good luck . . . . "

My Goodness!! Of course! Of Course!! Don't know why I didnt' think of it!

On my Rambus system, there is no choice of memory speeds -- only "Auto" and divider settings.

Thanks for getting my head straight . . . !! 🙂

 

[AristoV300]

Originally posted by: kage69
Am I correct in believing the Swiftec would be the only thing left worth upgrading to, short of going to a water-based cooling setup?

The mobo involved is an ABIT IC7-MAX3...

I would say the XP-90 is one, if not the best for air along with a good 92mm fan.