[ringfinger]

Antec Performance TX640 case
ASUS P5WD2-Premium
Pentium 4 650 3.4GHz/800/2M L2 (Stock HS/F)
2x512 Crucial Ballistix 6400 DDR2
1x74gb Raptor
Horrible Radeon x300 Gfx (next upgrade)

I'm having a tough time on deciding which new HS to get. I have read tons of reviews on many and am almost sure I want to get the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. I'm worried about a couple things with this huge thing though, will it fit in my case w/o a problem? My case does have the heat pipe which measures 130mm wide.... So it should fit, but I'm not sure if the Typhoon is to tall. Don't know if the larger 120mm units @ lower RPM are have more advantages over a 80mm @ higher RPM. Right now at stock speeds I'm running ~40-47C/~55-62C (idle/load) with ambient room temp of around 78F. I'm into distributed computing, SETI, folding... those type of things and since it's been warmer lately I can't even participate anymore w/o CPU temps hitting 60C+. As you can see I'm from Dallas, it's going to start getting quite hot here pretty soon and I'd like to have a chilly CPU. Any suggestions or ideas appreciated. Price range is $100 or under.

This post has been edited by ringfinger: 03 March 2006 - 09:52 AM

[nmX.Memnoch]

ringfinger, on Mar 2 2006, 11:23 AM, said:

Don't know if the larger 120mm units @ lower RPM are have more advantages over a 80mm @ higher RPM.

The point of using a larger fan at lower RPM is noise. Smaller fans have to spin faster to move the same volume of air as larger fans...which makes them louder.

Fin design can also come into play so make sure you check the dB level when looking at fans. Basically "El Cheapo" 120mm spinning at, for example, 2200RPM may still be louder than a brand name 120mm fan spinning at the same speed.

That's about all the input I have. I haven't looked at upgrade HSF's in a very long time.

[ringfinger]

Alright... thanks for your input!

[LLXX]

The Big Typhoon is also rather heavy because of its size. Make sure your mobo can handle the extra weight.

If you're not too concerned about noise, get a smaller heatsink with a more powerful fan instead.

[ringfinger]

@LLXX - Thanks for the reply. I was worried about the weight of the thing too, from reading a lot of reviews apparently some people have had to connect a string to the top of their case (if case is standing) to be able to handle the weight. Guess it would have helped if I had included my MB in the specs, sry. Which smaller HS/F would you recommend if to keep me cool with my specs? I would also like to OC as well, so I'll need something that can handle the extra heat.

[LLXX]

What about the Mini Typhoon? It's quite new.

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Cooler/...268.asp#feature

The smaller version of the Big Typhoon. Approximately 200g lighter, but it's still more than half a kg.

This post has been edited by LLXX: 03 March 2006 - 10:09 PM

[ringfinger]

Hmm.... Wow, didn't even know this one existed! Thanks for the link I'll check it out.

[ringfinger]

Just as a follow up I ended up getting the Zalman 9500 and I love it! Using it with AS5 it dropped my temps 10C at load and around 5C on average idle! I'm now running at 38/52 idle load. And that's OC'd to 4.1GHz Here's some pics of the installation if anyone cares

Zalman & MB
Closeup
Closeup On
Zalman & Case

This post has been edited by ringfinger: 13 March 2006 - 09:35 AM