Sonata Case and Large Heatsinks: What's Worked (or Not)?

[Spacecomber]

I was interested in using a Sonata case and an oversized heatsink, such as the Zalman 7000 or the Thermalright SLK 947U. I'm interested in information about both Athlon and Pentium 4 setups, so please let me know what motherboard you're using.

Basically, I'm trying to get a better idea of how much various large heatsinks overhang the edge of different motherboards and whether the Sonata has enough clearance between the P/S and the CPU socket to accomodate this.

If you have information on other large heatsinks, besides those that I mentioned, that would be helpful, too. For Athlon coolers, I'd be most interested in hearing about those that can be bolted to the motherboard.

I'm thinking of using Aopen motherboards in the Sonata, since I'd like to be able to take advantage of thier SilentTek feature. If anyone has any information on these particular motherboards, such as the AX4SPE-Max (i865) or the AK79D-400 Max (Nforce2), and how they might work with large heatsinks in the Sonata case, I'm especially interested in hearing more about them.

Thanks,

Space

 

[Finnkc]

I am using an Asus A7V8X standard ATX size with a TT Vol 11 HS / and a Panaflow Ultra 80mm fan / and the TT Tuct Mod.

I can't say there is alot of room in the case but I don't think you have to be too worried. If you want I can take a picture of the inside and give you some dims. ????

 

[Spacecomber]

I see you're using a VIA based Athlon board, which has the socket located quite a bit away from the edge of the motherboard. Unfortunately, with the NForce2 based motherboards, it looks like the standard practice is to move the socket right up close to the edge of the board, which means that oversized heatsinks, such as the Zalman 7000 and the Thermalright 947U, are likely to hang over the edge of the board.

I've used the Sonata case when building a system before, and I know the fit is tight, but how much space would you say that there is between the edge of the motherboard and the bottom of the P/S? This might vary slightly from motherboard to motherboard, but I asume it should be pretty much the same, if the length of the motherboard is 305 mm.

Space

 

[ronnn]

I am using a sonota case with an Asus p4p800mb. p2.4c at 3.0 Zalman CNPSA-ALCU on low setting. 9700pro with a Zalman ZM80A heatpipe with a Zalman FB123 92mm fan on an adjustable bracket on quiet mode. This fit easily, temps are low, but I think the Asus mb does not report accurately. I think the drive bay may be a bit warm and am adding a low rpm fan just to help with intake in this area. If this does not seem enough I will get the optional intake fan. System is not totally quiet, but compared to before is much improved Hope this helps

 

[Spacecomber]

Hey Ronn, it's helpful to know that you were able to use one of those Zalman 7000 series heatsinks on that Asus motherboard. It looks like it has the Pentium 4 heatsink retention bracket up fairly close to the edge of the motherboard, as does the Aopen i865 motherboard that I was thinking about trying.

The previous system using the Sonata case that I built also made use of one of those Zalman graphics card coolers. Since it was only a Ti4200, I didn't add an extra fan to it. I was impressed with how evenly the warmth was spread between the top and bottom heatsinks due to the heatpipe's ability to transfer heat.

I used a stock Pentium 4 cooler on a Pentium 4 2.4C in that system, but I also made use of Speed Fan to adjust the speed of the CPU and Northbridge fan. This was on a Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro, which supports Gigabyte's Smart Fan. Although I haven't tried it, my guess is that Speed Fan also would work on Asus motherboards that support their Q-Fan technology. (Speed fan is a pretty good hardware monitor, as well.) I set up Speed Fan to slow the CPU and the Northbridge fans down to nearly silent speeds when the CPU was at it's idle temperature and then had them spin up to full speed once the CPU started to get warm under load. With the P/S controlling the speed of the case fan, the system was very quiet when just sitting there at the desktop and when doing tasks that aren't very CPU intensive, such as web browsing and email.

I put a Maxtor SATA drive in there, and it if it is to be trusted, the SpeedFan monitor, reading the SMART info from the drive, said that the drive was pretty warm (can't recall the actual temperature, now). I would definitely recommend the second internal case fan if you have more than one hard drive. My speculation is that the Sonata's way of mounting hard drives, which insulates them from direct contact with the drive bays, also deprives them of the heatsink-like effect that they otherwise would derive from contact with the drive cage, resulting in some higher HDD temps.

Space

 

[Spacecomber]

Just wanted to give this one bump, before letting this thread slide off the current page. I think that this question comes up from time to time, and I was hoping to be able to gather a bit more information in one thread.

Thanks

Space

 

[lazybum131]

I have a Thermaltake Silent Boost in my Sonata case on a MSI K7N2Delta-L mobo. I think it should be comparable in size to the SLK-800.
Plenty of space between heatsink and PSU. But it's big enough that you can't take out the PSU without removing the heatsink.

 

[Spacecomber]

Thanks Lazybum. It looks like many of those coolers that clip onto the socket of Nforce2 motherboards should work fine, since I don't know of any that would hang off the edge of these motherboards. If the socket was turned 90 degrees, it might be another story.

Space