Hey guys,
Awhile ago I bought an X2 4200+ when they were clearing them out and was using that for the last 2 years. Since I just upgraded my main rig, I'm dropping the processor in my HTPC as a quick upgrade.
At the time, I bought a new CPU cooler to go with that CPU as well.
Its a heat pipe cooler with a relatively large heatsink and a plastic cover that the fan mounts to for airflow horizontally rather than vertically. When I went to replace the stock CPU and cooler in the HTPC, I noticed that the case fan (Antec VSK-2000) on the back panel was pretty close to the heatsink. So, being an HTPC, I decided to leave the CPU fan off for a bit to see if I could get away less noise since the case fan was so close.
Checking the temperatures, I get 35-38C idle, 42-45 using most media center functions (HDTV, recording, AVI playback). Most of the time, the GPU is doing the decoding. Under load, it usually only gets to 57C, although it has gone as high as 61, but thats only under synthetic benchmarks, not normal use.
When I installed the chip, I sanded the surface of both the chip and the heatsink with some 2000 grit paper to smooth it out and put some new AS5 on it. Yes, I know, I could lapp it but I'm not that ambitious.
Would you guys feel comfortable running an HTPC in this configuration, or is getting to 61C at load too close for comfort? I think the max operating temp of the chip is 65C. Its a good bit quieter than with the stock AMD cooler. I think my next test will be to turn off the case fan and install the regular CPU fan and see how the noise level compares, although I will probably have to monitor the GPU temp at that point since the GPU is passively cooled.
Heatsink
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103031
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129069
Awhile ago I bought an X2 4200+ when they were clearing them out and was using that for the last 2 years. Since I just upgraded my main rig, I'm dropping the processor in my HTPC as a quick upgrade.
At the time, I bought a new CPU cooler to go with that CPU as well.
Its a heat pipe cooler with a relatively large heatsink and a plastic cover that the fan mounts to for airflow horizontally rather than vertically. When I went to replace the stock CPU and cooler in the HTPC, I noticed that the case fan (Antec VSK-2000) on the back panel was pretty close to the heatsink. So, being an HTPC, I decided to leave the CPU fan off for a bit to see if I could get away less noise since the case fan was so close.
Checking the temperatures, I get 35-38C idle, 42-45 using most media center functions (HDTV, recording, AVI playback). Most of the time, the GPU is doing the decoding. Under load, it usually only gets to 57C, although it has gone as high as 61, but thats only under synthetic benchmarks, not normal use.
When I installed the chip, I sanded the surface of both the chip and the heatsink with some 2000 grit paper to smooth it out and put some new AS5 on it. Yes, I know, I could lapp it but I'm not that ambitious.
Would you guys feel comfortable running an HTPC in this configuration, or is getting to 61C at load too close for comfort? I think the max operating temp of the chip is 65C. Its a good bit quieter than with the stock AMD cooler. I think my next test will be to turn off the case fan and install the regular CPU fan and see how the noise level compares, although I will probably have to monitor the GPU temp at that point since the GPU is passively cooled.
Heatsink
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103031
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129069
