Core2 Quad cooling

[mark_a_scott]

I am looking for a silent or near silent HSF which will cool a Core2 Quad. Water scares the carp out of me so wouldnt want to go down that route unless it didnt involve frying £1K of chip.

Overclocking is not that important but would like a little bit of headroom. Case will probably be an ANtec P80

What would you advise?

[DR]

Zalman 9500 - or the OCZ Cooler

[chuckskull]

A massive scythe one and a nexus fan is always a good bet. The Zalman 9500 is very good, but you will know it's their when it spins up.

[TheAnimus]

watercooling

[mark_a_scott]

I read in CPC that the Zalman was noisy. but my current system is NOISY and I mean that it has an awful drone coming from a P4 stock cooler

I am not looking for completely silent but I want the main noise source to be my Gigaworks and not the fans

Might be worth me waiting until I can get a real beast from Vadim

[Clunk]

Another vote for watercooling, but as it scares you, the Scythe gets the vote. If you have the space for one of those, youll be fine, if space is limited (height), the thermalright si-128 is an awesome cooler if you can find one.

[fredered]

I know little about this, but I remember seeing somewhere on the web about a year ago that you could get non conducting cooling fliud so that you dont fry stuff if you have a leak; providing your system auto switches off when its too hot

[ExceededGoku]

get a passive heatsink, these CPUs have been found to be rediculously cool running at stock. And since you only want a little headroom you should have no problems overclocking to around 2.9Ghz without even changing the voltage... I would look for the Tuniq Tower or the Scythe Infinity, both of which have optional fans.

[unrealhippie]

Not worth watercooling unless your going to do it properly aka £200+

Watercooling is perfectly safe, and I cant recommend over-clock.co.uk enough for it! If not, a good heatsink like the Scythe would be advisable!

[Azza]

Scythe Ninja or Infinity. You could try and get a Tuniq Tower 120.

[mi9tchy]

tuniq tower 120 ftw

[CrazyMonkey]

Yeah Tuniq Towe 120 or Scythe Ninja Plus! With a good fan.

[johnny02004976]

I know little about this, but I remember seeing somewhere on the web about a year ago that you could get non conducting cooling fliud so that you dont fry stuff if you have a leak; providing your system auto switches off when its too hot

if you use deionised/distilled water then it reduces the chances of frying if there is a leak but this is standard in all watercooling loops - personally i'd see no use in a totally non-conductive fluid unless it was as cheap as deionised water.

as the op said watercooling scares the crap out of him so prob best to not go down this route and just stick with air. Its best to be totally confident with it before you go ahead and do it, after all you risk damaging your PC so it could be a costly if you mess it up.

If you do decide to watercool there's plenty of us around who can offer advice on how to go about it

[Madafwo]

When, and I say this with complete confidence, WHEN I get Quad core it will be going straight under water, simple as that, however some of these huge coolers from the likes of Scythe and the other couple who i can't remember do offer awesome cooling for Air, even passive sometimes.

Water isn't that scary though, I know it can scare some people but it really is safe if you follow the precautions (leak testing being the big one)

[Xenomorph]

I am looking at the same question to be answered,
how to cool a reasonably o/c'ed qx6700?

I will share with you what I am looking at:

1. Coolermaster AQUAGATE Mini R120
Sealed unit, but is being replaced with 2.
2. Aquagate Viva
Sealed unit with alarm but a bit trickey to install & uses 2 x 70mm fans.
3. Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Since its so cheap, & gets good write-ups its worth a go...
4. Zalman CNPS9500-AT Intel LGA775 Aero Flower Cooler
Gets good write-ups but not as good as the artic...& is twice the price.

I am in the "scared by water" party, never recovered from Jaws...

Hope it helps.

[Xenomorph]

After extensive research the one I went with was the
Scythe Infinity Quiet CPU Cooler

Yes none of the list above :0

The Reasons:
1. The AQUAGATE Mini R120 no auto cut-off or alarm.
2. Aquagate Viva was noisey.
3. Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, I couldn't at time of purchase find anything on this with a QX6700.
4. Zalman CNPS9500-AT, read a review with the Scythe Infinity & the Scythe Infinity was vastly better.
Also you can fit two fans (push & pull) for even more cooling.

Hope this helps others.