cooling a i3-2100 (using the CPU TDP for HSF selection?)

[sinekoff]

Dear all

I was planning to buy a Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro (Rev 2) in the assumption that it would be very quiet and also efficient to cool the 65watts TDP of my i3 2100. (Btw, AC claims a cooling capacity of 90Watts and a noise level of 0,4 sone (~20dBA?))

But then I read in one of SPCR forums that TDP does not necessarily reflect the heat generated by the CPU that the HSF would need to dissipate, so I started searching and found the following statement … “Core i3-2100 max temp ~69 deg. C”, as you see in this link http://starredreviews.com/intel-core-i3 ... 100t/6884/

Now my question is … Based on a cost/silent criteria (without going to extremes here), which of the following would you recommend to buy:

AC Alpine 11 Pro => 13€
AC Freezer 13 => 24€
Corsair A50 => 24€
Zalman CNPS 10x Flex => 27€
Big shuriken => 34€
Mugen 2 => 39€
(this is based on what I can get in my local resellers/distributors)

My budget is somewhat limited meaning if making my PC quiet means I need to buy the Mugen 2, then I will do it, but if the difference is going to be imperceptible within a Define R3 placed under the table, then I would prefer to save the money and reconsider a gelid for my sapphire 6850

System I am planning to build:
- Intel i3 2100
- Asus P8H67 (B3)
- 2x 4096Mb DDR3 PC1333 G.S. F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL
- HDD => WD10EARS 64gb
- Graphic => Sapphire HD 6850 1Mb
- PSU 550W Be Quiet Straight Power E8 80plus
- Win 7 Ultimate 64bit
- Fractal Design Define R3 – titanium grey (includes 2 stock fan reasonably quiet)

Intended usage of system
- Home office tool (shared with wife) => 25%
- Internet access / usage => 50%
- Basic gaming platform => 25% (maybe some Civ-V, Total War II, …)
- No movies/films platform, No over-clocking, nor any cross-fire with graph cards intended

Thanks to all and kind rgds
Alejandro

[HFat]

The 2100 won't burn 65W and will consume even less in your case since you won't be using the IGP.

The may temperature references is not the CPU temperature. It's the temperature of the inside of the case assuming you're going to use the stock cooler I think. I don't think you're planning to let your case run that hot!

If you want to save money:
-there are cheaper Sandy Bridge CPUs than the 2100 now
-if you board can spin it slowly, you could try to live with the noise of the stock heatsink (yeah, yeah this is SPCR but the fan could spin very slowly and you'll have other fans in your system closer to your ears anyway)
-8G of RAM is overkill

[Abula]

All sandy bridge CPU are very effcient, and their power consumption will be similar at idle, temps should be low also even with stock cooler. If you are in a budget, i would try the stock cooler first, the fan on it is PWN 4pin, so depending on your mobo you might be able to control it via bios. I personally love to install after market heatsinks even if they dont need it, just part of my hobby, but imo since you are in a budget i would defently try the intel first.

[ces]

I agree with Abula and Hfat generally. I think 8G is always good given the memory leakage problem with all the browsers out there.

Get the cheapest Sandybridge available to you. Try the stock cooler first see how that works (Intel provides two types).

If the stock cooler is too noisy make sure the after market cooler is one that permits you to swap out the stock fan with other standard 120mm fans... and replace the stock fan with a Slipstream or Nexus undervolted to run at around 800rpm.

[sinekoff]

All sandy bridge CPU are very effcient, and their power consumption will be similar at idle, temps should be low also even with stock cooler. If you are in a budget, i would try the stock cooler first, the fan on it is PWN 4pin, so depending on your mobo you might be able to control it via bios. I personally love to install after market heatsinks even if they dont need it, just part of my hobby, but imo since you are in a budget i would defently try the intel first.

First thank you all for your feedback,

It is true, after so much reading here if feels "funny" to go with the intel stock cooler, but your counsel seems reasonable.

A couple questions though ....

1) What would be the proper FAN configuration for the stock cooler then? are there any recommended parameters to avoid CPU damage? for ex.: run fan at xx, and if temp goes bigger that 50 deg C, then let it spin at 12v???

2) Also interesting for me to learn ... is there such a thing as an overkill for a HSF? when does it start? (in case the intel stock cooler does not pass the test)

thanks and kind rgds
Alejandro

[HFat]

Intel says the heatsink shouldn't be hotter than 65 degrees C. I'd say you can let the CPU go a bit higher than 50 C at load. But how safe do you want to be? If you're planning to play with the limit, make sure you understand what the value you're looking measures exactly (core temperature? temperature near the heatsink?).
If the CPU is throttling automatically, performance may be affected by heat as well so that might be an additional motive to keep the CPU relatively cool.

Overkill is relative: it depends on the noise, form factor and performance levels you're targetting. Some people would buy a >200$ case with heatpipes which is really a glorified heatsink... and it would be justified because it's the best way to have good performance with no noise whatsoever.
If you care about cost, then overkill is more expensive than needed. So if the stock heatsink meets your needs, anything else would be overkill. If it's too noisy in practice, then something nicer would be justified. You must also consider the noise of the other parts (drive, PSU and so on): it would be overkill to make the heatsink fan much quieter than the other parts. For someone else, it would be different...

[ces]

1) What would be the proper FAN configuration for the stock cooler then? are there any recommended parameters to avoid CPU damage? for ex.: run fan at xx, and if temp goes bigger that 50 deg C, then let it spin at 12v???

2) Also interesting for me to learn ... is there such a thing as an overkill for a HSF? when does it start? (in case the intel stock cooler does not pass the test)

1. I am surprised to hear that the Sandy Bridge's have a top temp of 65C. Though my understanding is that they will automatically throttle back if they get too hot. I would experiment with some benchmarking programs to see how hot it will get under full load. I would get uncomfortable if even under benchmarking it got closer than 15C to its top temp.

2. You can't be too rich, too thin, or have too large of a heat sink. Overkill is when you load it up with too much fan capacity.

[Abula]

I agree with Hfat, everything is relative to each person. And will also depend on other components, i see you going with Sapphire 6850 this might end up as the loudest component, so i would first test the hole complete setup, maybe lowering the fan on heatsink wont do much if the GPU is doing all the noise. But it worth testing and work from there. But also depends into what you going to be doing, encoding/rendering on the cpu will stress it a lot, in a scenario like this i would test with prime95 and see how its climbing, trying to avoid passing 65C. Im not sure how the Asus mobo controls the fans, in my case, the Intel i can change the minimum % and the maximum % of what the fan will be used, but i dont see thresholds to set it to ramp up, i did stress it but only manage to reach 40C , im thinking i never reached the points where the board would ramp up the fans, but even still i could by the minimum % change the speed of the fan, i was able to change my case fan from 300rpm to 450rpm just by switching the minimum from 20% to 30%, but it would never ramp up still (im still thinking the temps are way to low).

Checking the net for you mobo found the SPCR Review Asus P8H67-M EVO (not sure if the board your buying is the same or has the same bios)

[sinekoff]

Thanks to all for your comments,

They help to gain a better understanding.

kind rgds
Alejandro