Big Typhoon Vx or Zalman 9700 NT?

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12


First off I don't know where the idea that a tower style heatsink is the "standard style" because top-downs have been around a lot longer than tower style. The heatpipes that make it possible to have a tower styel have only been in use on personal computers for about the last 4 or 5 years.

It seems that most of the top-end coolers (and many of the midrange ones) are now tower-style coolers, so it's sort of the norm for folks using aftermarket HSFs. Outside of the rare few Big Typhoon VX/Enzotech Ultra users running around, I rarely see them mentioned, and none of them benched well on Anandtech's test platform either (for what it's worth, which may not be much).

With that little rant out of the way, I did specifically say that with the stock fans a top-down would cool the overall system the best. However, even in your situation of placing a fan in the front middle of the case, yes it will add more overall air intake however, with a tower styel heatsink and the top exhaust the air will move right through the case and yes, it will help the chipsets with heatsinks but, the general area aroudn the CPU socket and the mosfets will be virtually un-affected by the added airflow. The rig in my sig uses a top down heatsink, a Tr xp-120 for that matter, and when I migrate to C2D thi summer it will migrate with my case to the new system for the exact reasons I've stated.

You have a point. There are limitations on you can do with a front-to-back cooling strategy, especially if you aren't in a case like the Antec 900. In situations like that you may have to make trade-offs when choosing an HSF; you can either pick one that best suits your CPU's cooling needs or one that best cools your system overall.

Were I using a restrictive case like the P182 I'd be a little concerned about a top-down reuptaking its own exhaust, but at least I'd know that it is circulating air inside the case (warm or otherwise).

I will be more than happy to post my results when I get a C2D system going but, for time being refrence, I'm running a 90nm single core at 1.5v, 3ghz at about 20C above ambient, I cannot say how scaling of the cooler will be with dual core but, at the time of it's launch and with the A64 X2's it was top dog along with it's siblings for quite a while and it's slightly newer revision the SI-128 is still available.

You won't hear it from me too often but, I don't really like any of the methods used for testing HSF's from any review site I've seen. There are too many un-controlable variables in their methods. Not much to be done though, unless anyone wants to just send me a bunch of the top heatsinks onteh market right now, if someone's got the hundreds of dollars worth of heatsinks, I'll design and build a rig to properly test them.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12

I will be more than happy to post my results when I get a C2D system going but, for time being refrence, I'm running a 90nm single core at 1.5v, 3ghz at about 20C above ambient, I cannot say how scaling of the cooler will be with dual core but, at the time of it's launch and with the A64 X2's it was top dog along with it's siblings for quite a while and it's slightly newer revision the SI-128 is still available.

Any results are welcome. We have so much data on the performance of the Tuniq Tower 120 and Ultra 120 eXtreme on C2Ds that you should have a lot of numbers against which to compare your results.

You won't hear it from me too often but, I don't really like any of the methods used for testing HSF's from any review site I've seen. There are too many un-controlable variables in their methods. Not much to be done though, unless anyone wants to just send me a bunch of the top heatsinks onteh market right now, if someone's got the hundreds of dollars worth of heatsinks, I'll design and build a rig to properly test them.

You and JediYODA should get together then. He collects the things, really. Has a ton of em.

I like the top-downs too, and I picked my Big Typhoon VX for many of the reasons you mentioned - namely, it lets me cool the motherboard effectively in an otherwise-restricted environment. My case (Centurion 5) has junk for fan mounts but has a decent vent on the side panel so the Big Typhoon VX can breathe and can cool the motherboard better than is possible with the existing fan mounts. It was a good way to get nice case airflow without buying an Antec 900.

I do know, however, that there are some cases where the top-downs just don't cut it. Anandtech's old test rig (where they tested the VX and the Enzotech) does not like top-downs at all.