Originally posted by: Pariah
Originally posted by: chizow
"cool and quiet" probably means you need to be considering Intel.
Top-of-the-line Athlon XP rigs are just as cool and quiet as top-of-the-line P4 rigs.
Chiz
I agree with Insidious on this one. AMD
can be made to run as quiet as Intel, but there is no question Intel is quieter using a stock retail HS/F than AMD. After using AMD systems for years, I got my first P4 a few months back and the first thing I noticed after turning it on was how quiet it was. I had to take a peek at it initially to make sure the fan was spinning. I've since gotten a second P4 system which is just as quiet, so I know it wasn't some sort of fluke with the first one.
If you want a cool/fast system with a minimal amount of effort, a P4 is the way to go. With a $2000 budget you can easily afford a top of the line P4 system.
That certainly would've been the case with T-birds and Palominos and still might be the case with AMD's stock cooling methods, but that's only because AMD bundles their CPUs with cooling solutions that might be slightly louder than Intel's stock heatsink. Based on the stock retail heatsink, Intel might be a slightly quieter solution, but not by much. Buy a quiet $5 aftermarket 80mm fan and the difference is negligible.
Faster Northwoods certainly don't enjoy the same temperature advantages over the XP since the introduction of T-bred B's and Barton cores; just look at the latest heat dissipation comparisons. Also, the after-market cooling solutions for the P4 have mirrored Athlon solutions for some time now, so its pretty clear that the stock cooler is no longer adequate for enthusiasts looking to overclock.
The Barton 3000+ (and the rest of the XP line) ships with a a variety of good quality 80mm heatsinks nowadays, so any memories of 60mm screamers is history. Two of the better known stock coolers are the Coolermaster CP5 and the Taisol CGK760; unfortunately, the Taisol still uses a toned down 60mm fan that outputs ~21cfm at a modest, but still audible 36dB. The Coolermaster on the other hand uses a 70mm low rpm fan that outputs ~22cfm @ 24dB. Both perform well enough to cool the top of the line processor, but an 80mm Panaflo L1A ($5 after-market), cools as well and is quieter than both.
I run my current system at nearly 700MHz over its stock speed, yet my fan runs at 3000rpms and is ~32dBA (based on the noise levels of a comparable Sunons I'm using). Its the loudest fan in my case and its virtually inaudible. Needless to say, its a far cry from any 60mm solution I've used in the past or even some of my previous 80mm solutions. If I were to run it at stock speeds, I'm not even sure I'd need a fan at all (I have a blowhole overtop my heatsink).
Regardless, any notion that P4's are inherently quieter or cooler than XP's is a common misconception in hardware circles that simply doesn't hold its weight anymore.
Chiz
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