Help with cooling decisions: processor, mobo and vid card.

[Phamine]

This is the first rig I'm going to build.

I already have these parts:

AMD 2500+ Barton
Abit NF7-S ver 2.0
Radeon 9500 softmodable to 9700
WD SE 80GIG 7200RPM, 8mb

I'm looking to overclock:
1. AMD 2500 to a 3200
2. ATI 9500 to 9700 Pro speeds or more
3. Has to be quiet, does not need to be silent - going to have pc in bedroom

Processor cooling:
Heatsink
Set on getting a Thermalright. Should I splurg an extra $5 for a SP97?
Thermalright SP97
Thermalright SLK900
Fan
Would 43 CFM be adequate to cool an overclocked 2500? If not considering getting a Vantec Tornado with a fan controller?
90mm Panaflo FBA09A12L - 42.7CFM @ 27DBA hydro wave bearing
92mm Vantec Tornado TD9238H - 119 CFM @ 56DBA dual ball bearing

Vid cooling:
Going to modify a 1u rackmount cooler. Which should I choose? Does it matter if the Dynatron has dual bearings?
Dynatron DC1206BM-R1 - 24.4CFM @ 40DBA dual ball bearing
Thermaltake A1151 - 23.5CFM @ 39DBA ball bearing

Mobo Northbridge cooling:
Vantec Iceberq CCB-A1C - 3.5CFM @ 26DBA ball bearing

Mobo Southbridge cooling:
Which would work better - stock fan or a passive heatsink?
Abit stock Northbridge cooler
Zalman passive heatsink

 

[Davegod]

this product will help you a lot.



(nb: first google hit, not any kind of brand or supplier reccomendation)

 

[bootoo]

Don't know much about the SP97; for the difference I'd try it but I have the 900A and panaflo and the airflow is great without an annoying whine which I think the tornado will provide.

I think the video card is good to go; maybe remove the shim, but the stock cooling seems good.

I'm leaning against the vantec iceberqs right now; have installed 2, OK but really isn't a fan on the stock hs re-installed with a good thermal compound adequate? Anyway if you go iceberq i've never had any problems.

For the s/bridge, I have an epox board, had to mod the stock hs but it works fine; check that the zalman works on your abit but I'd use the stock abit if you don't use it on the n/bridge.

 

[Phamine]

I decided on on a SLK900A and a 92mm Panaflo L1A for processor cooling. I already bought the clip on heatsink and I'm concerned that the combination of the heatsink and the fan may be too heavy for the Abit mobo. Do you think it will hold. The heatsink alone is ~ 500g. Maybe I should have gotten the SLK900U which is mounted on to the board since I have 4 mounting holes for it.

I've also bought the Dynatron rackmount cooler for my vid card. Seems like a good number of ATI card owners on rage3d are using rackmount coolers for their vid cards. Here's a good faq about it modding a ATI card to use a rackmount cooler.

I've decided on a Vantec Iceberg for NB cooling. I was also considering lapping and using a good thermal compound as you've mentioned and then reusing the stock cooler. Here's an faq of someone changing out their stock NB cooler for a iceberq cooler.The fans do look similar on the photographs, I think the cooper does help cooling more though?

 

[Nickel020]

I would get an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer for your Video Card. It will be a lot quieter than the rackmount coolers and even in silent moder it will cool better than the stock cooler.
And you shouldn't need active Northbridge cooling - it only makes a lot of noise.

 

[stardust]

Water cooling?