Sandy Bridge Chills Aftermarket Cooling

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TonyB

Senior member
May 31, 2001
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can I just reuse my megahalem with SB? Don't want to repurchase another HSF just because it needs less cooling.
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
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can I just reuse my megahalem with SB? Don't want to repurchase another HSF just because it needs less cooling.

You can 100% if you have Megahalems Rev. B. If you don't, your megahalems would only support sockets S775 and S1366. Then you would grab one of these 1156 kits for $4.
 

tomoyo

Senior member
Oct 5, 2005
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Overkill is fine if you already have the heatsink. Buying another one would be a complete waste of materials and money.
 

Dadofamunky

Platinum Member
Jan 4, 2005
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There will still be a need for aftermarket cooling. People will still want to keep their CPU as cool as possible. I'm sure you can still eek a few hundred more mhz out of a SB with good cooling.

Ya think? I wonder how widespread these insane results will be. I'm looking forward to seeing them. Nice to see that we might be able to get rid of these metallic monstrosities on our processors. I personally hate big noisy coolers but they're a necessary evil. I remember the good ol' days when my 286's and 386's ran bareback...
 
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nyker96

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
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I like sandy, near 5ghz OC and not too demanding on cooling. but it also means, if you got great cooling soln like water, you might run it at say 5,5ghz all day long. So extra cooling won't ever be 'wasted'.
 

Castiel

Golden Member
Dec 31, 2010
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I like sandy, near 5ghz OC and not too demanding on cooling. but it also means, if you got great cooling soln like water, you might run it at say 5,5ghz all day long. So extra cooling won't ever be 'wasted'.

Most SB's hit a wall around 4.8-5.0ghz. Realistically 5Ghz daily is possible with the right setup
 
Dec 26, 2007
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As stated in this thread, 4.8< you hit a wall that requires dangerous voltage increase. So even if you have a great cooler, the voltage will keep you from going further. So, the only thing a better cooler will do is give lower temps (which I would much prefer a cpu to be <60 C at load).

Also, aftermarket cooling will not be dead. Between wanting something with more "bling", being different, or cooler temps people will still buy aftermarket coolers. Also AMD still can benefit from them, as can lower case temps (in the case of H50/H70) which would help stuff like graphics cards and HD's, and also quieter fans.
 

jimhsu

Senior member
Mar 22, 2009
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Unfortunately the Intel default coolers continue to be ridiculously noisy:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1050-page6.html

(seriously, 43 dB @ 1m? Horrible. Sounds almost scary: http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/sounds/hsf/cm-hyper212&#37;2B-7v-8v-9v-10v-12v.mp3 ).

The noise level of the i7-980X stock cooler is absolutely ridiculous, being atrociously loud until the fan is set to below 5V. At full speed it measures an earsplitting 43 dBA@1m and is tremendously turbulent and whiny. This dissipates slightly at 9V revealing a very nasty mid-to-high pitched tone. At 7V, the noise is less tonal, but still far too high. At 5V the fan buzzes and develops a noticeable drone. It finally becomes quiet at 4.5V, but at this level there is not enough airflow to mask a very grating, dry-sounding hum. At 4V, the motor is still audible with the hum deteriorating into a rattle. The built-in speed switch toggles the fan speed between 12V ('P' setting) and 7V ('Q' setting).

Ironically the biggest purchasers of future aftermarket cooling solutions might be people that have absolutely no interest in overclocking, but want a quieter PC. At least that's the case if the tower cooler becomes standard.
 
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Hogan773

Senior member
Nov 2, 2010
599
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Unfortunately the Intel default coolers continue to be ridiculously noisy:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1050-page6.html

(seriously, 43 dB @ 1m? Horrible. Sounds almost scary: http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/sounds/hsf/cm-hyper212+-7v-8v-9v-10v-12v.mp3 ).



Ironically the biggest purchasers of future aftermarket cooling solutions might be people that have absolutely no interest in overclocking, but want a quieter PC. At least that's the case if the tower cooler becomes standard.

I got my 212+ for $15 AR. For $15, I'll "pay up" for an aftermarket cooler even if I don't need to, if it keeps my overall temps lower.

SB might make it less necessary to pay up for those last few degrees C of cooling power though.....although that may already be the case for all but the most power-hungry users.