CPU HSF Decision

[ChemGeek]

Well, there is ver little difference in performace with the fin direction. I have mine installed in the less optimal direction. But in the end, you probably have fans sucking away from the heatsink in both directs, the exhaust fan and the PSU fan. So in practice it makes no difference.

 

[INM8]

http://tekgems.com/Products/et-13713-fan-d12sl-12.htm

Does anyone know how good these Yate Loon 120mm fans are? They're cheap, and they look almost identitcle to the nexus fans. If they're good, may get a few and put one of whatever HSF i end up getting.

Other than that, my choices for fans are either the Glacialtech Silentblades or the Aerocool Turbine fans. How'd you think the aerocool would function as an intake fan, iv heard it isnt reall great for directional airflow.

Anyone who has an A8N Premium and either a scythe ninja or zalman 9500 should post here too I have questions :evil:

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: INM8
http://tekgems.com/Products/et-13713-fan-d12sl-12.htm

Does anyone know how good these Yate Loon 120mm fans are? They're cheap, and they look almost identitcle to the nexus fans. If they're good, may get a few and put one of whatever HSF i end up getting.

Other than that, my choices for fans are either the Glacialtech Silentblades or the Aerocool Turbine fans. How'd you think the aerocool would function as an intake fan, iv heard it isnt reall great for directional airflow.

Anyone who has an A8N Premium and either a scythe ninja or zalman 9500 should post here too I have questions :evil:

Nexus are YateLoons. Nexus has YateLoon manufacture their fan for them. It has an internal diode resistor that lowers its rpm from ~1350 to ~1000. They are very nice fans, sturdy, closed chassis, and undervolt or pwm very nicely. They do not start reliably on 5V.

 

[Shadowknight]

The Nexus are suppposed to also be the most vibration and motor noise free of the Yate Loons. They cherry-pick the best ones manufactured, so buying Yate Loons direct have a greater variable of quality compared to the Nexus. A lot of users still seem satisfied them, however. The Nexus don't start reliably because they are already undervolted due to the in-line resistor. I find them inaudible when undervolted to the 650-700rpm range.

 

[gchildX]

I've seen that XP-90 issue as well INM8, people have been complaining because for some reason the XP-90 mounts with fins running vertically on the Premium and that causes airflow up and down and leaves the heatsink for the heatpipe/mosfets sitting in a pocket of dead air.

I haven't seen it for myself, I'm using the XP-120, but I've read a lot of posts about it.

 

[INM8]

yes, well i think we can say that the xp 90 is definatly a no go. May work, but the risk that it wont work properly with my board isnt worth taking. Do you have an A8N Premium? What do you think of the XP 120?

 

[gchildX]

Well right now I have the XP-120 on my s754 system. I do have the Premium, but I have to buy the parts for my new system a few at a time as my paychecks allow, so the Premium is still sitting in a box until I get the CPU and video card.

I will say though, that the XP-120 is head and shoulders above any other heatsink I've used, and I purchased a second one to go in the new system. Just a few more weeks and I'll be able to give you a review.

 

[ChemGeek]

You have the same fin direction with the XP-120, the only difference being you have to worry about resistor clearance with the XP-120. Again, the fin direction doesn't matter if you have an ATX case becuase the PSU exhausts the CPU cooler as well.

 

[gchildX]

We're not talking about the exhaust air. The problem is that the Asus A8N Premium motherboard has a heatsink in the top left corner of the board that cools the chipset (via heatpipe) and the mosfets. This heatsink has to have air moving over it or the chip will overheat (or so says Asus anyway. They recommend mounting a special fan to hit that heatsink if you're watercooling the CPU.)

The XP-90 with the fins mounted vertically stops any airflow from hitting that heatsink which causes the chipset to overheat. The XP-120 from what I can tell overhangs that small heatsink, so the air from the fan hits it no matter which way the fins are facing.

Does that help to clear up the problem?

 

[INM8]

How'd you guys think the AEROCOOL Turbine 120mm would perform as an intake fan. Iv heard it performs well in high pressure situations, but iv also heard it isnt really good at directing air in one direction. Iv got an air filter up front and the HDD cage right behing the fan so its got push a decent amount of air, and it has some obstacles to get past.

Would you say that HSF's with sidemounted fans are a no go for the A8N Premium? Some shop down here is selling the Zalman 9500 for $69 AUD! I think the Scythe Ninja is of the list simply because im concerned about the weight. And the xp-120 seems like a foolproof option, but it'll cost me $90 + $20-25 AUD for the HSF and a decent 120mm fan. The zalman almost seems too cheap to pass by, but i dont want to fry\damage\storten the life of my mobo either. Iv got two 120mm exhaust fans right near the A8N Premium's radiator, but ASUS say it needs some form of direct airflow hitting it.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: INM8
How'd you guys think the AEROCOOL Turbine 120mm would perform as an intake fan. Iv heard it performs well in high pressure situations, but iv also heard it isnt really good at directing air in one direction. Iv got an air filter up front and the HDD cage right behing the fan so its got push a decent amount of air, and it has some obstacles to get past.

Would you say that HSF's with sidemounted fans are a no go for the A8N Premium? Some shop down here is selling the Zalman 9500 for $69 AUD! I think the Scythe Ninja is of the list simply because im concerned about the weight. And the xp-120 seems like a foolproof option, but it'll cost me $90 + $20-25 AUD for the HSF and a decent 120mm fan. The zalman almost seems too cheap to pass by, but i dont want to fry\damage\storten the life of my mobo either. Iv got two 120mm exhaust fans right near the A8N Premium's radiator, but ASUS say it needs some form of direct airflow hitting it.

How in tarnastions will you fry your mobo......unless you don`t install it properly...yet even then most all mobo`s have protection circuitry......

You will NOT fry,damage or shorten your mobo`s life!!

 

[INM8]

Well maybe i exaggerated a just a "little :roll: bit, but what i mean is that if the A8N Premium's radiator doesnt get enough airflow from the HSF/Exhaust setup than N/B temps may get a bit hot. Offcourse the motehrboard will shut itself down if that happens, but its not really productive to have a computer that turns itself of is it

Just being cautious and making sure what a buy will work with my setup. Thanks for everyones input.

btw: Jedi, i see you are currently testing the zalman. What do you think of it. How does it rate compared to the xp-120?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Right now I have the Zalman 9500 installed...in the next few days I will be installing the XP120 for the 2nd time but this time I will be running Prime95 as well as other stress tests...

Have a nice day!!

BTW---I really liked the XP 120!! The last time it was in my case!

 

[INM8]

But so far how have you found the 9500? Any likes, dislikes? IF you had to choose one now, what would be your preference. I know you havent tested both fully, im just asking incase i go out and try to find one of these in the next few days.

Oh, & what about that "hum" everyones been complaining about? Can you hear it?

 

[INM8]

So what do people think about the Zalman\Ninja on the A8N Premium. The zalmans going for cheap down here, so all i need to know is that it'll cool my mobo\NB properly. I have my doubts about it because the air will probably just miss the radiator because of the height of the HSF.

It'd be great if anyone who had an A8N premium and a HSF with a side mounted fan could comment.

 

[JEDIYoda]

radiator??? Let me tell you that you don`t use a heatsink fan to cool anything other than the heatsink.....if the fan does coll other things then be thankful!!

You have the information you need to make a decision......

JUMP!!! heheee

 

[INM8]

m8, i know thats what its like on a normal motherboard...but this is not the case with A8N Premium. Its nforce 4 chipset is passivly cooled via a heatpipe which is connected to a radiator right next to the MOSFETS. Maybe this image will help explain it:

http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/fullimage.php?image=9900

That radiator needs atleast some direct airflow, or my temps will skyrocket. Since you have the 9500 installed, can you just stick your hands in that area right near the MOSFETS and see if there is any disernable amount of airflow there?

Thanks,

INM8

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, technically I wouldn't call it a radiator -- I'd call it a heatpipe-cooler.

ASUS Rocks!!

 

[INM8]

Fair enough . But do you think the zalman 9500 would work ok with the "heatpipe-cooler"? Since i can get it at a good price $69 AUD, im feeling very inclined to go buy it right now.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I just looked at your board...YES by all means it will complment your heat pipe cooler very well!!

Good Luck!!

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

Dynamix has the A8N premium and he's using a Scythe Ninja. He's even overclocking, and he's running that ninja fanlessly. Search for a thread called "pics of my new antec p180!" and you'll find some pics. Of course, he gets tons of airflow in that p180. What case are you planning on using with this rig?

 

[INM8]

Iv got a gigabyte 3d aurora I like it acctualy, i was gonna get a p180 but every man and his dog have one of them.

Its got pretty good airflow, 2x 120mm case fans, iv got a 140mm fan in my psu extracting air and a 120mm intake. It also had a mesh\perforated side so plenty of air gets through there too.

Not much air from the intake fan gets past the HDD bay because its only got tiny little holes, and that toolbox thing that i may remove, but im sure some air gets past. At the moment im using the stock cooler and i can keep the cpu at 45-46 when prime 95'ing on both cores. The cpu fan runs at 2200rpm when thats going on, and the two back case fans run at 700.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

Yeah dude you should be fine with the Ninja, those rear fans draw enough air over the heatpipe cooler to make it work, don't worry.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: INM8
Basically i am looking for something that is quiet, relativly light, has a good mounting mechanism and it also has to cool the NB heatpipe/radiator setup on my A8N Premium.

The cheaper it is, the better it is for me

... The only thing im concerned about is its weight which is 665g.

The side mounted fans on the 9500 and the ninja could also cause cooling issues with the a8n premiums heatpipe setup.

Here's another choice (not one of the three) for the OP. Scythe Katana. It probably doesn't cool as well as the three choices, but it is lighter and cheaper, and should be relatively quiet from the 92mm fan. It is at a 70º angle so it should be able to get some air to the corner of the motherboard. It can be mounted to point in any of 4 directions.

 

[INM8]

Thats a good suggestion acctually. I may look into that cooler a bit more tomorrow before making any decisions. Since its tilted, that should help get adequate airflow to the a8n's heatpipe.

Just had this idea when i was looking through the local computer store, but they had one of those 80mm to 120mm fan convertors for $7 AUD. Maybe ill get that and try the x2 4400+ 's stock cooler with a quiet 120mm fan. That could work good and save me some $$$.

thanks for the suggestions though, if that doesnt work, it seems like all 3 (now 4) of the heatsinks i have to choose will work effectivly, just depends on which one i like better now