Top down heatsink or tower heatsink?

[zorrt]

As the topic says, I can't make up my mind.

Where I went from is an XP-90, and just yesterday I bought an si-120 for AU$10 but the performance is more or less the same.

Now I'm thinking of throwing away more money on the Ultima 90 which is AU$56 but I'm not sure if it make much difference. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Also, the main reason thats stopping me from getting a tower heatsink is because without the airflow of a top down heatsink, the northbridge heatsink on my P35-DS3P gets very hot to touch. How are you guys that have tower heatsinks cooling your passive northbrigde without having to go aftermarket?

If theres a big difference between the Ultima 90 and si-120 I might just get it and find a way to strap a fan onto the northbridge. I don't want to spend more money on an aftermarket cooler for it tho.

Any suggestions/recommendations/pictures would be greatly appreciated.

[seraphyn]

How are you guys that have tower heatsinks cooling your passive northbrigde without having to go aftermarket?

I just have some airflow over it, got an intake fan + exhaust which puts airflow over the northbridge. Never had a problem with it.

[Fungi]

I've found that for my uses tower (side flow) coolers have been better. It contributes to overall airflow of the case (I use a Solo). People say top flow coolers help cool mobo components, but I don't think that's too much of an issue with overall low heat components and decent case airflow. Not that a lot of air gets pushed down to the mobo anyway, given the lower fan speeds we use. But yeah, the Ultra-90 was a big step up from the SI-128 for me.

[zorrt]

Hey Fungi, did you try the SI128 and Ultra90 on the same system with same CPU? If so would you happen to have rough temperature estimates of both?

I do agree that tower coolers cools more efficiently but I'm curious as to how much a performance difference it is. Just find it hard to find reviews that pit old heatsink against the newer one.

[ntavlas]

I imagine that with a 120cm fan the Ultra could cool a little better but the SI128 should come very close. It also depends on how slow you intend to run you fans. At very low speeds a top down h/s doesn`t contribute that much to motherboard cooling. If you use a tower heatsink you could use an undervolted 4cm fan on the northbridge. Or employ the airflow of nearby 12cm fans with some subtle ducting if you'd like to do it with more elegance.

[Das_Saunamies]

Sideways-blowing tower heatsink solved airflow and RAM overheating issues for me, heartily recommended. A good model will provide ample cooling for whatever VRMs there are around the socket and the chipset/northbridge should have sufficient airflow already. The residual, conflicting flow from a top-down heatsink in an ATX tower wouldn't help matters more than the tiny increase in flow from a sideways HSF. Most of chipset heatpipe assemblies also distribute the heat, so dedicated airflow is less important.