Is xp120 enough?

Hentai · Post by **Hentai** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:46 am

After extensive reading of your posts about air cooling, I still haven't been able to decide should thermalright xp 120 be used by itself or with some 120mm fan(papst 120mm, 18dB)?
I have athlon64 3200+, and GA-K8NF-9 MB, for cpu I have zalman cnps7000-cu, and the cooling is wonderfull, it never goes beyond 35C under full load. But I am very dissapointed with the noise level, it seems that cnps7000-cu is currently the biggest noise generator in my case.
So I want to know if I buy thermalright xp 120, should I buy 120mm fan to go with(and thus increasing the noise) or does the xp120 do the cooling job well on it's own.
And I am not sure how to put the fan on the xp120, I don't see any mounting on the picture?

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:51 am

The XP-120 doesn't come with a fan, but you need one to cool any Athlon 64 or P4, unless it's heavily underclocked and undervolted.

The Nexus 120mm should work well, even at 5V, and be inaudible outside the case.

Make sure the XP-120 will fit your motherboard before you buy it - ThermalRight has details on their website. If the XP-120 won't fit, the XP-90 with a Nexus 92mm fan is a good alternative.

Hentai · Post by **Hentai** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:51 am

I am also not sure if perhaps xp90c is better than xp120?

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:53 am

The XP-120 is better than the XP-90c, if it will fit.

Hentai · Post by **Hentai** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:09 am

So in any case with xp 120 or xp90 you think I should significantly improve my current zalman noise situation?Are you absolutely sure?
Because I bought zalman cnps7000-cu based on recommendations here and now I am very dissapointed.

And I checked the compatibility, the xp120 fits fine, and I just red this review-http://www.extrememhz.com/xp120-p3.shtml

Cons

Poor Fan mount design -The clips are not only difficult to place properly, but do not secure the fan tightly enough.

Does this present significant problem to those who have xp120?

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:38 am

Hi Hentai, as you've got great temps you could try slowing the fan in your Zalman down further than the 5V/1350 rpm the fan mate allows. I run my Zalman 7000a AlCu at 1000-1100rpm and its enough to cool my XP2500 @ XP3200 speed. I think my chip is as hot or hotter than yours. There are two easy ways to get lower fan speeds, I use 2 fanmates in line, the one nearest the fan is on max and the other controls the speed. If you don't have / can't get another fanmate you can give your existing one a 5v power supply.
It shouldn't take much time or money to try this and it may be an acceptable solution. If not then you can spend $$$$$$$ on XP120 and $$$ on Nexus fan. Or maybe you've got lots of money and you don't care in which case go for the Thermalright!
Seb

Hentai · Post by **Hentai** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:45 am

Thanks for the advice, I allready have fanmate2 on the lowest and I'm still not happy with the noise level, how sould I give my existing one a 5v power supply?
And the price is not an issue, just the additonal hassle.

orionlion82 · Post by **orionlion82** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:58 am

my experience with the XP-120 - i love it.

the clips are nothing but steel wire bent for the job,
but as flimsy as they seem, i accidentally left both the fan and the XP-120 in while shipping my rig cross country, and it diddnt budge ( whew)

yes, you can passively cool the xp-120, matter of fact i am right now, but both underclocked from 2.8 to 1.4 - and undervolted from 1.52 to 1.1.
the only fan spinning is in the bluestorm. temps in the mid 40's -25% load

about 4 hours ago in the same rig i had 14 80+ cfm fans spinning at full tilt while overclocked from 2.8 to 3.5, overvolted from 1.52 to 1.58 and with full load. it should be noted i have a northwood.

in any event, i got sick of the noise, undreclocked, killed the fans, and here i am.

more on the installation - yes, it it probably the most miserable aqward and evil thing to install, but the pain only lasts 10 minuets, and once its on there, its worth it 50 times over...

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:25 am

Hentai wrote:Thanks for the advice, I allready have fanmate2 on the lowest and I'm still not happy with the noise level, how sould I give my existing one a 5v power supply?
And the price is not an issue, just the additonal hassle.

using a 5V supply would generally entail splicing something off the 5V line of a molex connector. alternatively, i have seen a little adapter made by zalman that converts a single molex into two 12v and two 5v fan connectors, but i think it only comes bundled with certain products and can't be bought standalone. the easiest thing is to probably put another fanmate in series with your existing fanmate like SebRad suggested.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:43 am

It can be bought separatly, at least here in sweden. It is really cheap, around 2-3$

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:52 am

Hentai wrote:
And I checked the compatibility, the xp120 fits fine, and I just red this review-http://www.extrememhz.com/xp120-p3.shtml

Cons

Poor Fan mount design -The clips are not only difficult to place properly, but do not secure the fan tightly enough.

Does this present significant problem to those who have xp120?

That's absolute rubbish! The XP-120 and XP-90 fan clips provide plenty (and even border on too much, if you ask me) of clamping force and are not "difficult to place", especially if your board is not mounted in the case.

Vishruth · Post by **Vishruth** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:29 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:
Hentai wrote:
And I checked the compatibility, the xp120 fits fine, and I just red this review-http://www.extrememhz.com/xp120-p3.shtml

Cons

Poor Fan mount design -The clips are not only difficult to place properly, but do not secure the fan tightly enough.

Does this present significant problem to those who have xp120?
That's absolute rubbish! The XP-120 and XP-90 fan clips provide plenty (and even border on too much, if you ask me) of clamping force and are not "difficult to place", especially if your board is not mounted in the case.

I agree. I have XP-120 myself, and apart from its obviously large size (

), nothing else bothers me about it.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:07 pm

My experience with an XP-120 is that it does not fit any of my currently running machines - so if you buy one be very careful of your clearances as well as the info on their website . but that said , I have tested it outside a case with a 3.4gig p4 and it cools it at 5v on a 120mm panaflo "L" (wich would still be a little noisy for some here)

HiFi · Post by **HiFi** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:58 am

will the nexus 120mm fan fit on top of the xp-120? i know that particular fan is slimmer than other fans

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:17 am

Any open corner fans will fit just fine. The thickness of the fan doesn't matter. It attaches to the bottom flange only. Check the photos in the XP-120 review.

I found the clips to be sturdy enough. Mounting the fan is easy. Mounting the heat sink itself is a whole different matter. I wouldn't recommend doing it with your motherboard in the case.

I have a cnps7000 AlCu. At the lowest setting of the FanMate, it is the loudest fan in the system (80mm Panaflo M1BX on PSU, and two 120mm case fans @ 5V - Panaflo and the original fan in the Antec Sonata). It seemed to have gotten louder in the 2 years or so it's been in use.

Check Edward Ng's latest gallery post where he cools an AMD64 3000+ Venice core with a 120mm and no fan, He's ducting most of the intake air over the XP120.

HiFi · Post by **HiFi** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:30 am

so what are most guys doing with the xp-120 an nexus fan.. are you undervolting it or just leaving it at the factory 12V? i think it will still be very quiet leaving it be. my mobo will be asus a8n-e i dont know if i can control the fan rpm with that or i need fanmate?

Derek Baker · Post by **Derek Baker** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:54 am

My Nexus is on the variable speed CPU fan header on my MSI K8N Neo.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:02 pm

HiFi wrote:so what are most guys doing with the xp-120 an nexus fan.. are you undervolting it or just leaving it at the factory 12V? i think it will still be very quiet leaving it be. my mobo will be asus a8n-e i dont know if i can control the fan rpm with that or i need fanmate?

You can check the motherboard manual from Asus. Most (all?) of their recent motherboards come with Q-Fan which will control the speed of the fans based on temperature.

Speedfan gives you much finer control over fan speed. I'd recommend Speedfan even if you don't want it to control the fan - it can report system (and HDD incl. SATA) temperatures.

I don't have a Nexus fan. I have a CoolerMaster fan that I leave at 12V, but thats because it is (I suspect) originally a 24V fan, and it is quiet enough for me at 12V. Until the next round of silencing, of course. Which should start soon, with the P180 sitting in my car trunk..

rtsai · Post by **rtsai** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:55 pm

HiFi wrote:so what are most guys doing with the xp-120 an nexus fan.. are you undervolting it or just leaving it at the factory 12V? i think it will still be very quiet leaving it be. my mobo will be asus a8n-e i dont know if i can control the fan rpm with that or i need fanmate?

I have all my Yate Loon 120mm fans at 5V (one of them on an XP-120). The CPU diode temperature ranges from 40-60C (the thermistor being perhaps ten degrees cooler). I think the YL fans do spin a little faster than the Nexus fans, though.