Whats the best heatsink now for Athlons?

[Byte]

for the absolute cheapest price, what heatsink would you recommend from newegg for Athlon Tbirds?

 

[Sunner]

DukeChestnut
You do realize that you can put any 80mm fan you want on the Alpha, right?
I have a ~25 db fan on mine, and it keeps my AXP@1540 MHz at around 40-45 degrees, and is rather quiet.

Another vote for the Alpha, assuming it fits on your mobo.

 

[Maggotry]

Byte, are you asking because you'll be overclocking? Do you have a retail or OEM chip? If you have a retail chip, just use the one that came with the chip. If you have an OEM chip with no HSF, then I'd suggest an SK-6 with an 80mm panaflo.

Edit: The SK-6/panaflo if you won't be overclocking. The 8045 if you will.

 

[PlatinumGold]

byte

cheapest, alpha pal 6035

 

[rbV5]

My Alpha 8045 is pretty quite, the fan's not too loud either.

 

[RanDum72]

One thing I like about the Alpha 8045 is that the fan is in 'suck' mode, meaning it pulls air from the heatsink instead of blowing into it. It blows air directly into the path of my dual exhaust fans in the rear so case airflow is pretty good. Dust also doesn't collect at the mobo.

 

[esc]

thermaltake products are also good. especially the volcano 6CU(w/o a +) and the volcano 7. put in some as2/as3 and it will cool your chip extra well.

 

[Biggs]

Alpha PAL8045T - excellent noise/performance monster!

 

[Nack]

Another vote for the Alpha PAL8045. It runs my overclocked XP2000+ just fine, without requireing a fan that sounds like a vaccum cleaner like some other heatsinks do (I use the quiet 80mm Sunon ball-bearing fan).

Nack

 

[blade]

I haven't tested the alpha or swiftech but from the ones I have tested the AX-7 is top dog. You can get it at KDC for $27. You'll need a fan(80mm) of course but the good thing about the AX-7 is you don't need a lawnmower fan to provide good cooling even for overclocking because it's designed to cool quietly. ( till the end of march if you mention "pc abusers" in the comments section when ordering you'll get $2 off the price) 😉

Next in line as far as heatsinks that I've tested is the Cak II, the Coolermaster heatpipe one and the Volcano 7+. The Volcano 7 isn't too good but the newer Volcano 7+ is most excellent. Bad thing is they included a wrong type fan with it. Good thing is it comes with a 3 speed fan control. Only on low is it quiet though. But the heatsink is all one piece so the fins are not soldered to the base and that helps cooling. You can just turn up the fan(and noise) when needed, like when playing games or whatever.

The heatpipe heatsink would have rocked the house if they just made the heatsink one piece instead of soldering the fins to the base. But using the heatpipes interferred with that.

The cak II heatsink is better than the sk6, mostly because it is all one piece. The fins aren't soldered to the base as they are with the sk6. The fan it comes with is too loud but even with a quieter fan off a volcano II or 5 it still cools well.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< I think the Thermaltake Volcano 7 is a great heatsink, both for what it does cooling and also how it looks. >>

I like mine. 🙂