Time to O/C - Heat Sink Decision? (it's a not completely redundant Q :

[Guest Shibby]

Well, g/f is away for a week, so time to get to know my computer better It's getting embarassing that I've had my comp up and running for 2 months and haven't even attempted an o/c (hey, it's summer...gotta take advantage of the weather)

 

First things first, gotta toss the stock heat sink. Plan was to get the XP-90 with a decent panaflo fan. Thermalrights are pretty tough to come by around here (Toronto), so I'm looking at $44.99 for the heat sink and ~$21-24 for a good fan.

 

However, shopping around online, I see that the Zalman 7000 alcu can be had for $44.99. That's quite a bit cheaper! I can't find any decent comparisons between the Zalman and the Thermalright. Does anyone have some advice for me? Is it worth the extra $21-24? (note: 2-3 degrees celsius difference at load would NOT be worth the extra money for me, I'm not really into spending the extra time or effort getting the max o/c possible, just a nice moderate one)

 

Thanks!

 

Greg

[Grumpy]

I have the 7000 CU one (all copper). My temps are about 39c under full load. Idles around 31-32c.

[SaFrOuT]

forget about the zalman products for now and get the XP-90 for 25$ from svc.com

[Kilamon]

I have a Sonic Tower with the 120mm fan and with the fan off, I hit about 51c max and dropped it to 41c with the fan on and maxed out. At idle, the cpu was at 38c with the fan. Temps were measured under the heat sink next to the CPU socket (closest I could get).

 

If you get the sonic tower, be careful. It's frickin' huge. It barely fits in a Lian Li PC60 and even in my case, I had to remove one of the PCI fans.

[CJ4]

The XP-90 and the 7000 AlCu will be within a couple of degrees of each other.

 

CJ

[Guest Shibby]

@ Grumpy: Sounds good....I read a review (SilentPC or something) stating that the cu and alcu versions were essentially indistinguishable. The only thing that worried me was a comment on a message board where a guy said he upgraded to an XP-90 from a 7000 AlCu, and said the XP-90 killed the zalman in terms of temps (though the difference seemed somewhat unrealistic, so there may have been an installation problem with the zalman)

 

@SaFrOuT: hehehe, that offer has been permanently engrained into my head thanks to A-G's continual promotion (I think he gets a cut ). To bad they don't ship to Canada, or I'd be on that deal like stink on a monkey.

 

@ CJ4: Excellent! Not that I don't trust you (logic seems to indicate that the 2 wouldn't be drastically different), but where do you get that info from?

[CJ4]

 

Several months of reading this forum and others. OCForums.com has a few comparisons if I remember correctly.

 

CJ

[Guest area51]

I have both the zalman 7000b cu and the 7000b alcu...

 

My personal experience with the two products is that there is indeed a difference. With every other variable being constant the difference in reported temps was 34c vs 30c idle and 52c vs 47c load. This was on the machine in my sig below.

 

The copper version resulted in an immediate temp drop and allowed me to feel good about my load temps again However, that being said I recently purchased a xp 90 w/ panaflo because I want to move the copper zalman onto my server. I should have it installed on Wednesday.

 

If you'd like shibby, I would be happy to report the exact difference between the three to you Wednesday evening sometime.

[Guest Shibby]

Thanks CJ4, I get the same impression.

 

So here's another dumb question: What the heck is the difference between the 7000-Al-Cu, 7000A-Al-Cu, and 7000B-Al-Cu? Zalman site isn't all that helpful in distinguishing between the 3...

[Guest area51]

Don't know what the 7000 is but the 7000A etc is for socket A procs. I think only the B series will fit AMD K8 (Athlon 64's) procs.

[Guest Shibby]

Thanks area51 for your input and experience. I guess I'll just have to decide how much money I want to spend. My head is saying XP-90, my wallet is begging me to get the zalman.

[Guest area51]

If you can wait until Wednesday I will pm you with the temps I get with the xp90...that way you would have all three heatsink's performance relative to one another (on my machine anyway).

 

Between the Zalman's...If I was purchasing again...I would choose the copper version over the aluminum in a second. It has just clearly performed better. Suppose it is all relative though to what kind of OC you are trying to put up

 

The best deals on all three hsf I have seen has been at svc. Don't know if that works for you though as you are way up North in canukistan (I laughed when I read that :shake: )