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Air cooler suggestion? Read Description

post #1 of 218
11/2/12 at 12:21pm
Thread Starter 
Been overclocking for a while now, with my Xigmatek Thors Hammer. Yes it's a bit dusty but at 1.440 vcore its getting a bit toasty, near 60c on large FFTs (using prime95). Usually at 56C.

Wondering if its worth upgrading my cooler. I have MX-2 paste which does its job effectively. I only have one fan on the cooler because... well... theres no room in my case tongue.gif the thing is huge. My hands are too big to get a fan on the top side of the heatsink redface.gif

I have seen the new AC A30 cooler, "apparently" 300w cooling capacity. Anyone have any experience on it?

I need something a lot better than this cooler.

Case cooling:
2x 140mm front fans (63CFM each)
1x 120mm side fan (61CFM)
1x 120mm rear (61CFM)
2x 120mm top (61CFM each)
1x 120mm CPU attached (53CFM)

All my fans except the CPU cooler is the same model, so airflow is balanced.

+1.428v = hot


Anything to cool my chip down much better than my Thors Hammer?

Water cooling is a no go for me. Expensive + don't trust it.

Any suggestions would be great smile.gif

Oh and this is for an AMD chip, so cooling is facing up (though the AC A30 can be mounted whatever way)

Thanks everyone! biggrin.gif
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post #2 of 218
11/4/12 at 11:56am
First thing's first.....get some duster and clean that CPU cooler off.

As far as better heatsinks go:
Noctua NH-D14/NH-C14, maybe the CM 212 Evo, Thermax Eclipse II, GlacialTech Igloo H58

As far as closed loop WC goes, the H100 is the best price/performance on the market. I know you said no water cooling, but I'm listing everything biggrin.gif

Now, if you REALLY want cooling, there's this:
Prometeia Mach 2 GT
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post #3 of 218
11/4/12 at 11:57am
Also, MX4 outperforms MX2 by a few degrees. Also, IC Diamond outperforms MX4 by a few degrees.

One thing to note is that if your CPU is too hot and you're OC'ing, and you're STUCK on ai, there is only one real solution once you have a decent air cooler: reduce your OC level. No air cooler is going to be THAT much better than your Thors Hammer. I'm thinking the MAX you'll get is a 6C drop.
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post #4 of 218
11/4/12 at 12:11pm
The Xigmatek Thor's Hammer is a pretty good heatsink, definately better than the Arctic i30.

If you want to get the best air cooling possible look at these coolers:

Thermalright Silver Arrow
Thermalright Silver Arrow SBE (Extreme)
Thermalright Archon SBE
Phanteks 14PE
Noctua D14
bequiet Dark Rock Pro 2
NZXT Havik 140

A lot depends also on wich fans you use/what kind of noise you are willing to tolerate, but you could proably expect 5°C+ better temps at a similar noise level.
A better TIM might give you 2-3°C better temps max, if iit ends being more it's most likely because you didnt do it correctly the first time.
Edited by Elohim - 11/4/12 at 12:15pm
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post #5 of 218
11/5/12 at 2:57am
Thread Starter 
Thanks victorzamora, Noctuas pricing is a bit high, but the Glacial Igloo H58 and Cm 212 Evo I can both get for £25/27 pounds.
Also, I have seen on Scan retailer over here in UK the CM 612S for £30, no idea how good it is though.

The glacial Igloo is appealing, 14CM fans sounds good biggrin.gif

Also I got the MX-2 purely because it doesnt contain conductive materials that could cause damage to the CPU. I am surprised different thermal compounds would make that much different to be honest.

And haha that Prometeia Mach 2 GT is awesome, like a chamber for direct cooling. Might be a bit big for my case, but that would be cool to own just for the experience tongue.gif

Thanks Elohim, so my Thors Hammer isn't that bad? To be honest I thought it was a bit on the low end of cooling because it didn't drop my temperatures terribly well compared to my Zalman CNPS 5X.

Well I have the same fans throughout so airflow is consistent, maybe my CPU cooler isn't powerful enough? My new case did improve airflow to be fair.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will give the heatsink a good clean and manage my cables a bit better to see if that helps.

ALSO to note without my CPU cooler my temperature will tip over 60c easily. So could it be that a better fan would make the difference? All my fans are controlled so I've configured so they max when temps hit 50c
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post #6 of 218
11/5/12 at 12:09pm
Thread Starter 
Cleaned heatsink, reapplied thermal paste, rearranged cables, and managed (barely) to get another Arctic F12 fan on the other side of the heatsink with mm to spare tongue.gif max temp is 55c, so all in all my temps have stayed the same. Looks like the lowest it'll go on prime95.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I may get better thermal paste, maxing out at 50c is alright, but to spend an extra £20-30 seems silly to knock the temperature down a tiny bit, only prime makes it this high obviously.

Heatsink is now massive with the extra fan, nice looking setup so I am happy with it tongue.gif
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post #7 of 218
11/5/12 at 12:21pm
Post a pic of your setup. We'll be able to do a better job of diagnosing problems than just theorizing.

Also, fill out your "My Rig" thing in your signature in your profile. That way we'll know what's going on. eg: 60C isn't hot on an Intel, but is hot on a Phenom II, but isn't too bad on a Bulldozer.

Also, your Thors Hammer isn't bad at all. I mean, the CM Hyper 212 is about as cheap as it gets....but is still a fantastic cooler. The Noctuas are expensive. Some argue that they're worth it. I don't believe so. Thermal paste is only going to get you a few degrees. The difference in application is typically more important than the quality of the TIM, as long as you're using "good" TIM.

That phase change cooler goes, typically, under your case because of how huge it is. It'll get your temps sub-zero if you want biggrin.gif
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post #8 of 218
11/5/12 at 12:32pm
It obviously depends on a few different parameters so it's hard to judge without knowing the whole picture, but in theory the Thor's Hammer should be better than the smaller coolers like the 212 etc, especially at higher overclocks.
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post #9 of 218
11/5/12 at 1:09pm
Thread Starter 
Sorry I already filled it out, didn't put it in my signature tongue.gif







I've applied paste so many times so I doubt I've applied it wrong, small pea size and twist slightly to lock it in place and remove air bubbles is my method.

Not sure how bad the pictures will come out as but theres the general idea.

Also to note, the top back fan is very warm when prime95 is running, but the fan front most to me is not as warm, cool ish as the front 140mm fan is there. Recon I should have an intake on top as well as an exhaust?

NOTE: That HD 6850 is cool, 33c when prime is running. Also in my sig you'll see other pics of the case and how the fans are laid out.
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post #10 of 218
11/5/12 at 10:25pm
One thing I would do INSTANTLY is rotate the direction of flow if you can. I dislike the orientation of the air cooler despite convection. If you flip it so that the airflow through the cooler is horizontal (perpendicular to how it is now) I believe you won't have NEARLY as much heat. You're getting very little flow into/out of the system due to the GPU. Depending on how you've got all of the fans arranged at the top, you could: at worst be totally wasting power and cooling; at best be causing much more stagnation than you'd think. Twist the heatsink 90 degrees so that the fan on the cooling block towards the front of the case is blowing into the tower. Then, the fan on the cooling block towards the rear of the case is blowing rearwards, drawing air from the block. Then ensure that the rear exhaust fan is blowing out. I would have the two top fans blowing downwards, into the case.

That setup should help much more than better TIM or another cooler. Let me know if you have I was unclear about anything, I'm pretty tired as I'm typing this up.
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