Best cooler for overclocked QX6700?

Cooling Processors quietly

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dennya
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Location: Seattlish

Best cooler for overclocked QX6700?

Post by dennya » Sat May 26, 2007 10:44 pm

Running an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro right now on a QX6700 and it's loud, and it doesn't cool well enough on those rare occasions that I have a program push all four cores.

So I want to replace it with something that cools the CPU better, but isn't crazy loud.

I'm thinking an Ultra 120 Extreme with the 1600 RPM Scythe S-Flex (which can spin down to a quiet RPM, but speed up under pressure).

Any better alternative? The Ninja gets mentioned, but it sounds like it has some issues...

I'd prefer to go with one that doesn't require me to remove the motherboard, but I'll do it if it'll work very well. I

Atmosper
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Post by Atmosper » Sun May 27, 2007 12:11 am

I think it will be hard to find a good quiet HSF that doesn't require you to remove the motherboard.

The Ultra 120 Extreme seems to be the best candidate for the job, provided it fits on your motherboard. If possible, duct the CPU fan to a case fan or an air intake for maximum cooling.

Which case and motherboard do you have?

davexl
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Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:51 pm

Post by davexl » Sun May 27, 2007 1:31 am

I highly recommend the Ultra-120 Extreme for quad core oc.

I replaced two Ultra-120 originals on two systems with the extremes.

I knocked 10C coretemp off one system and 19C off the other.

Can't get better right now.

dennya
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Location: Seattlish

Post by dennya » Sun May 27, 2007 9:43 am

I'm using an Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard in an Antec Sonata II case. The P5K3 is kind of similar to the Striker Extreme in that the CPU socket is surrounded by heatpipes.

I'm okay with removing the motherboard. Just don't want to. But I will. :)

Haven't messed with ducting... There are two fans inside the case, one thats sits in front of the drives, and one at the rear.

davexl
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Post by davexl » Sun May 27, 2007 4:56 pm

dennya wrote:I'm using an Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard in an Antec Sonata II case. The P5K3 is kind of similar to the Striker Extreme in that the CPU socket is surrounded by heatpipes..
I am using them on a P5K Deluxe, and it fits fine. Ditto P5B Deluxe and P5W-DH deluxe.

I hear you about removing the motherboard :? Never fun, but worth it in the end.

dennya
Posts: 18
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Location: Seattlish

Post by dennya » Tue May 29, 2007 9:24 pm

Thanks, DaveXL and Atmosper!

Put the Ultra 120 Extreme in tonight and it knocked about 20C off my temps compared to the Freezer 7 Pro! And with the Scythe SFF21F fan, even at 1600 RPM it's whisper-quiet.

Overclocked to 3.33 GHz on a 333MHz bus, with 3 hard drives and an 8800GTS in a pretty cramped Sonata case, I'm getting idles in the low 40s and a peak temp of 66C with all four cores doing sustained 100% during video rendering. Not bad at all!

Installation was a snap, other than removing the motherboard.

Thanks again for the advice. This heat sink rocks.

davexl
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Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:51 pm

Post by davexl » Tue May 29, 2007 9:41 pm

That is great news, this heatsink is a real gem, and fun to tell people about. Enjoy your new build. :D

In fact, it is so good, I am having trouble getting people to believe me over at xs.. oh well.

shunx
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Location: Vancouver

Post by shunx » Wed May 30, 2007 4:27 am

There have been some quality control issues with the Ultra 120 Extreme. A fair portion of the units had bases that were not flat, resulting in very poor temperatures:
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t259086.html

Based on Newegg reviews, I assume at least 10% had serious problems such as one side being 0.5mm shorter than the other.

So the model seems to be a bit of a gamble. From the feedbacks I would say the Tuniq Tower 120 may be a safer choice

dennya
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Location: Seattlish

Post by dennya » Wed May 30, 2007 5:55 am

No issues here with mine, and the results were fantastic.

You can't use online posts as a gauge of the percentage of failures... A huge percentage of people who have problems will post to complain about them. A tiny percentage of people who don't have problems will post to say so.
Last edited by dennya on Wed May 30, 2007 8:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

elmopuddy
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Post by elmopuddy » Wed May 30, 2007 7:34 am

I just replaced my Zalman 9500 with the Ultra-120 Extreme..

With a 1200 rpm Scythe 'E', my e6600 hits 47c under full load, and is very quiet.. with fan at 800 rpm, its silent and cpu only hits 55 or so.

Thermalright is THE stuff..

(Scythe fans are kick-ass too!)

shunx
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Location: Vancouver

Post by shunx » Wed May 30, 2007 6:06 pm

dennya wrote:No issues here with mine, and the results were fantastic.

You can't use online posts as a gauge of the percentage of failures... A huge percentage of people who have problems will post to complain about them. A tiny percentage of people who don't have problems will post to say so.
The idea is not random online posts, but average review scores, which includes both people giving perfect reviews and those giving the poorest scores. Aggregate scoring tends to force widespread patterns to emerge. The more reviews averaged, the more likely it is to represent reality. We are not doubting that you and the majority of users have no issues, but there is a statistical difference between 1% of samples receiving bad reviews versus 10-20%. The issues with Thermalright's manufacturing process for the older Ultra 120 version has been reported previously on SPCR and elsewhere as well.

I will add that one will seldom read about such manufacturing issues on official reviews by commercial websites because the samples supplied were likely hand picked by the manufacturer to eliminate potential problems. To be more accurate, you have to sample a fair number of real life units.

dennya
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Post by dennya » Wed May 30, 2007 7:29 pm

I'm not doubting that some people had trouble.

But I also think it's silly to discount an excellent product because of some initial bad units. Just be sure to buy from a place that has a good return policy in case you get a dud.

shunx
Posts: 341
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2002 1:20 pm
Location: Vancouver

Post by shunx » Wed May 30, 2007 11:34 pm

dennya wrote:I also think it's silly to discount an excellent product because of some initial bad units. Just be sure to buy from a place that has a good return policy in case you get a dud.
Quality control will play into consideration of computer system builders. Customers in many industries will avoid products based on reliability reports, even if the working samples are potentially better. Doing RMA takes time and can often be a frustrating experience.

To quote from a thread on Anandtech:
"all you people who are complaining that your Ultra-120 E sux wahtever....should've gotten a simple to install, no brainer CPU cooler and forgotten all about this cooling"
"the ThermalWrong Ultra 120 Extreme, I've read about the same quality control issues that you describe over-and-over again, here and elsewhere! Unfortunately, ignorance is bliss. Most ppl believe this HSF is 'the one' -=- the one that's going to clean Tuniq's clock -=- and users are openly attacked if they report ANY problems on these web boards."
"ThermalRight has a good reputation for killer products, but it does seem that this product is very hit-or-miss now."

I think the Ultra 120 Extreme would be a great choice when the buyer would not be upset if their heatsink came with issues that required lapping or returns.

dennya
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 7:01 am
Location: Seattlish

Post by dennya » Thu May 31, 2007 5:02 am

Okay. I've a made a horrible mistake and I'll hang my head in shame as my CPU cruises along cooly.

What was I thinking.

:roll:

shunx
Posts: 341
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2002 1:20 pm
Location: Vancouver

Post by shunx » Thu May 31, 2007 8:30 am

No one can claim that getting an Ultra 120 Extreme will necessarily result in poor temperatures, but the probability of defects will matter to some. Over 1/6 of users on Newegg have rated the heatsink 2 out of 5 or less, a non-trivial portion, in conjunction with other reports. To be fair, the recent inflow of new units may have improved quality control over earlier ones. Personally I prefer the Sunbeam because the company explicitly states that every unit has been tested before shipping, and there have been less reports of issues. Also, RMA of a defective Ultra 120 can take months, as reported here on SPCR: viewtopic.php?t=33819
In any case, caveat emptor.

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