HOT CASE...need new heatsink.

[kcbass]

I am currently running a spire whisperrock IV on my athlon XP 3000 barton. My case temp is 33-34, and my processor temp is 58 idle, and anywhere between 58-65 under load at which point my system restarts. I've checked my bios, and there's no shutdown temp listed, and nowhere to alter the shutdown temp. The restarts may be due to win XP service pack 2, because when the system comes back on it tells me that the cause of my restart is a device driver, but it can't determine which device driver (they're all up to date, by the way). Anyway, I'm considering the spire falconrock because of it's price, but it is very similar to the whisperrock, and I need a major increase in cooling performance on my CPU. Any suggestions? (preferably similar to the falconrock's price and dBa level).

 

[Davegod]

take the side door off the case and see if the restarts continue.

*making a few guesses...* I thought the whisperrock was meant to be fine on that cpu, i'd consider reinstalling the heatsink (making sure to use only a tiny amount of paste) and then look at your case cooling.

 

[kcbass]

I've redone it twice already. No changes. The whisperrock is supposed to be fine on this CPU, but I don't think it's ideal in my situation. The room I have my computer in gets quite hot due to the sun coming through my window every day and my sub-par AC, and since my cd-rom and my ps fan are both louder than my heatsink noise isn't much of a factor either, so I need a more powerfull cooling solution. I'm concerned that the falconrock won't do the job either because the specs on the spire website are identical for both models (same fan RPM, same core materials, same voltage, and same airflow). The only thing I see to be different is the dBa level. 

 

[Atodd]

Are you Overclocked? Cause if you are try lowering your voltages and sacrificing a little performance boost. Other than that, all I can tell you is to use paste like Davegod said.

 

[kcbass]

Not overclocked, and every time I redo it, I ALWAYS put ceramique on the CPU. Can people please just start suggesting more powerful heatsinks like I asked please.... 

 

[Davegod]

take the fan off and replace it with a noisier one. if a vantec tornado or delta screamer doesnt do it, nothing will. I really doubt you'll get a better performing heatsink for the price of a whisperrock. Could try one of the variable speed fans like enermax do, since the tornado/delta fans are obnoxiously loud.

nb: might be wise not to plug a fan like the tornado into the motherboard fasn header. and wear earmuffs.

 

[kcbass]

I know it's expensive, but I previously used water cooling in my system (thermaltake Aquarius II specifically) and had a very good experience with it until a year and a half later it started growing stuff and losing water to evaporation. I haven't seen many reviews for the new liquid cooling stuff, but I did notice taht thermaltake is releasing the Big water. Would something like that suit me well in my situation? 

 

[Davegod]

well if you're willing to spend money, have a look at the heatsinks from thermalright. huge copper jobs, probably the best on the market but you pay for it.

I got the impression for watercooling you're usually better of designing a system yourself, rather than a solution-in-a-box. There's probably some reasonably decent starter kits if you dont want to go all the way, but I'd hazard a guess one from a watercooling specialist would be better than thermalfake. It's edfinately something you have to research though, lots of things like the power of the pump, diamiter of the waterpipes, anti-corrosion additives, using only one type of metal (all copper or all aluminium) since otherwise you get a heavily corrosive reaction...

Personally i dont see the point in watercooling unless you're doing some serious overclocking, it cant be THAT hot there that watercooling is necessary. I still suggest you try it with the case door off, very quick and free test for overheating.

 

[kcbass]

I don't think it's gonna make much of a difference since my case door is already up against a wall. The only problem I've got with the thermalright copper is the noise those things put out. I did say noise wasn't that much of a problem, but I can only take so much. I took a while last night and looked at all the water cooling threads in this forum. I don't think I have time to build a custum job, I just thought the big water looked pretty good compared to the aquarius II which I had and liked a lot. 

 

[Degrador]

Originally posted by: kcbass
Not overclocked, and every time I redo it, I ALWAYS put ceramique on the CPU. Can people please just start suggesting more powerful heatsinks like I asked please.... 

You say you always put "ceramique" on the cpu. Are you using an appropriate amount? Ie, only a very small quantity?

As for heatsinks, the zalman range would do you quite nicely - the 7000-AlCu is a pretty good cooler for the price, or you can upstep to the 7000-Cu.

 

[kcbass]

The manual I downloaded from their website says the size of a grain of rice or a bb, and that's about how much I put on. I'll check out those two sinks. 

 

[kcbass]

I like that zalman. Think I'll try it out. Also, I went to the zalman site and noticed that there's a version A and a version B. How can I tell from the picture of either the box or the product that the online store is selling me version B and not version A? 

 

[JeffreyY]

Originally posted by: kcbass
The only problem I've got with the thermalright copper is the noise those things put out.

Umm... a piece of copper does not make any noise... Do you know what Thermalright makes? Heatsinks. You choose the fan, so it can be as loud or as quiet as you want it to be.

 

[kcbass]

That's true, but the construction of the copper and the channels for the air are laid out kinda weird which causes air resistance, which causes noise. 

 

[Zincq]

It's been relatively hot lately, so the ambient temp might be causing the high temps in your case. My computer has been running stable for about 2 years now, at about 55-60C idle. I never really took much concern to it until my computer started randomly shutting down and I figured I'd better do something about it. I use a Volcano9, with the fan speed at 5k RPM. It's not cooling anything so I'm interested in gettin a new heatsink too. The suggestions for a thermalright are good suggestions and I am thinking of getting the Thermalright ALX-800. It's a copper/alu heatsink, but should do well. Add any fan of your choice to the ALX-800 and you should be good to go.

Edit: You can temporarily take off the side panel and aim a housefan directly into your computer. It'll get air flowing through it better and you can see if your case circulation is also a problem.

 

[kcbass]

I have VERY limited space and no house fan, so my computer's up against the wall. I'm leaning towards the zalman 

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

I'm using the Zalman on my AXP 1800+. My case temps are usually between 30 and 35, and my CPU is about 5 C more than the case. Don't know what it's like under load though.

I have the A version, and I don't think you need to worry too much about whether you get the A or the B. The biggest difference IMO is the size of the fanmate controller. The B version has a much smaller fanmate compared to the A. Other than that, I highly doubt there is a noticealbe difference.

I got my zalman from here for $30:
http://www.centralcomputer.com....asp?item=CPUZZZCFSHKR

-D'oh!

 

[kcbass]

I'm actually looking at the all copper model, but every one I look at only mentions p4 and amd64. I'm trying to find one that will work with axp 3000 barton 

 

[kcbass]

I've been looking around, and a bunch of people say:

1) the zalman 7000 isn't compatible with socket A (but they're going to release one that is, so depending on how old that thread is, they may already have)

2) the zalman is notorious for cracking cpu cores if moved or nudged

3) the zalman is huge and won't fit on a lot of motherboards (specifically, a lot of gigabyte boards, which is what I have) 

can anyone support or shoot down these three points? 

 

[lobadobadingdong]

The wisper rock II (never heard of the wisper rock IV and it doesn't show up on the speeze web site) is only rated to 2800+ (throughbred) or a 3200+ (Barton) if memory serves me right (I have used them for a while) These ratings are a little high imo as that is what they claim to be stable at IDLE speeds, and general usage in well ventalated cases in a 72F ambient temp room. However if you run any cpu intensive programs I always recommend dropping a few models below the maximum recomended hsf application.

I'm currently using one of these on my 2500+ (older unlocked barton) OC'd to 12.5x168 (2.1Ghz) and am running temps of 54-56C under full load (Folding @Home @ 50% and SETI@home @ 50%, in an ambient temp usually around 78F. (my idle temps are usually around 42C, but I never let my system run idle except for case mod testing)

The falcon rock produces simlar results on some other systems I've built (the fan is 300rpm faster and it uses a copper slug to help pull heat away from the cpu core faster and distribute it to the surounding aluminum.

I use the 5F394B1L3G just becuase it uses the 3 prong socket clip (the new falcon rocks started using the same connector, but they used to use the single prong clip like the whisper rock II)

Make sure you aren't using too much ceramique, you should only have an extremly thin layer on top of your core. It's only meant to fill in the microscopic gaps between the hsf and the processor.

 

[Operandi]

Alright so your looking for performance air cooling...

First the Zalman is compatible with socket A, however I believe it uses the 4 mounting holes for installation, I never installed one so I can't say.

Second the all copper Thermalrights work very well with low to medium speed fans despite AL's ability to dissipate heat faster then CU. Noise isn't an issue either... with the right fan they perform just was well if not better then the Zalman and just as little of not less noise.

Alpha is also a good choice, links below.

Alpha
Thermalright
Zalman

 

[DJMiX]

do you have enough case fans install

I recondmend one on the side directly over you cpu.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

If you go with the Zalman, be sure to get the correct version.

They have 3 versions of basically the same heatsink:
7000
7000a
7000b

All three can either be full copper (CU), or aluminum/copper (AlCu)

The CU version performs only marginally better than the AlCu and is much heavier, so most places recommend the AlCu since it performs practically the same and is much lighter (and therefore safer when moving the computer around) and is also less expensive.

Now, to work with a Socket A MB, you need either the 7000a or 7000b. The 7000b is brand new and not widely available and is almost the same so if you can't find the 7000b then just go for the 7000a.

Check the Zalman website to make sure your MoBo is compatible.

So, I would heartily recommend the:
Zalman 7000a-AlCu
Zalman 7000b-AlCu

EDIT: Here's a review of the original 7000, so the results should be quite close to the 7000a and 7000b.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article92-page1.html

-D'oh!

 

[kcbass]

In reference to lobadobadingdong's post, that whisperrock is not a speeze product despite what places like newegg and others say, it is a spire product. If you google for spire whisperrock or falconrock, you'll find it. In reference to everyone else, I'm checking the links you all provided now. I know that my mobo does not have mounting holes (if it did, I would go with the thermaltake silent tower). The alcu does perform almost as well as copper, but with how hot it's getting where I am, I need every bit of performance I can get. Also, I did notice the difference between the a and b earlier when I was looking, and it looks like everywhere I check comes with a (uses fanmate 1) instead of b (uses fanmate 2). 

 

[kcbass]

ok, checked all the links provided...like i said earlier, my mobo does not have mounting holes, so i guess the zalman's out....any other ideas?