Looking for a new i7 Cooler

By Kondrath
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Grand Master

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What dont i understand about it? Speedstep changes core volts and speed to reduce heat and noise(fans). What do i not understand? Atleast point out where im wrong so I can learn. If your not going to help one another then just STFU and quit asking me to leave without being any help. Would suck to know you in real life if you acted like this. Im sorry i dont have extensive knowledge in speedstep/cool n' quiet but i believe its BS for what I do on the computer. I dont see it realistically working for me as it changes to what your doing and whats required by the OS.

@tsupersonic: how about you either help me understand where im wrong or stfu? simple as that right? jesus people.

Speedstep only drops multiplier and therefore lowering energy consumption, voltage is not changed. Generally keeping it on is suggested unless overclocking and having stability issues.

The user is not able to change HOW much the processor multiplier drops but usually it's either 6 or whatever the normal multplier value is.

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bob_c_b

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What dont i understand about it? Speedstep changes core volts and speed to reduce heat and noise(fans). What do i not understand? Atleast point out where im wrong so I can learn. If your not going to help one another then just STFU and quit asking me to leave without being any help. Would suck to know you in real life if you acted like this. Im sorry i dont have extensive knowledge in speedstep/cool n' quiet but i believe its BS for what I do on the computer. I dont see it realistically working for me as it changes to what your doing and whats required by the OS.

@tsupersonic: how about you either help me understand where im wrong or stfu? simple as that right? jesus people.

Why do we have to teach you everything Sikh, can't you put some effort in on your own? Go to Intel and AMD, read some tech docs and white papers. Heck, just go dig through old articles on Anandtech. Don't take every post you read on a forum as factual or well informed, do some actual research and stop relying on everyone else to do it for you. In one sentence you state something is BS and then you ask for education? This is not the first time you have posted incorrect info, gotten called on it, and then you get defenisve and tell everyone to STFU. It would suck to know you in real life if you acted like this (see what I did there?). If you are going to post on a hardware board just about anywhere, and post wrong information, you are going to get called on it.

I thnk your issue is you are applying old information, SpeedStep and CnQ were not ready for prime time on performance desktops when they were launched, but they are much better now and don't have the impact on responsiveness that they used to.

Grand Master

tsupersonic

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Speedstep only drops multiplier and therefore lowering energy consumption, voltage is not changed. Generally keeping it on is suggested unless overclocking and having stability issues.

The user is not able to change HOW much the processor multiplier drops but usually it's either 6 or whatever the normal multplier value is.

Actually, depending on the processor, voltage is also changed with Speedstep/CnQ, most notably in laptop CPU's.

Sikh, basically today's CPU's are more efficient tha you don't always need to run at full power (unless you're doing something intense - like gaming, encoding, etc). If you're browsing the web, watching videos, listening to music, the CPU doesn't need to be performing at 100%. The dynamic speed changes happen so fast, the end user shouldn't notice. My i7 860 for example uses just 13 watts when it's running at 1.2 GHz (and it stays here since I mostly browse the web), compare this to TDP of 95W if I were to run it at full blast. That's a pretty big difference in energy savings considering the computer gets used 8-12 hours a day. If you pay the electric bill, you'd be able to see the difference, whether you have just 1 computer or multiple computers.

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Rail Grinder

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... on a side note, i say go for the H50. my i7 920 D0 is working great with it. overclocked it and running stable at 4.0GHz and RAM at 2000MHz. idles at around 40-41C and full load at 75C.

867195.png

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oh and I also have all the power saving and cpu features like Speedstep, C1E, C-State, VT-d, etc enabled while some other guides advise to disable these. i prefer to have the power consumption as dynamic/automated as possible and also figure that a "true" overclock should have as many features/instruction sets enabled. but that's just me :)

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Kondrath

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... on a side note, i say go for the H50. my i7 920 D0 is working great with it. overclocked it and running stable at 4.0GHz and RAM at 2000MHz. idles at around 40-41C and full load at 75C.

oh and I also have all the power saving and cpu features like Speedstep, C1E, C-State, VT-d, etc enabled while some other guides advise to disable these. i prefer to have the power consumption as dynamic/automated as possible and also figure that a "true" overclock should have as many features/instruction sets enabled. but that's just me :)

Those are pretty good temps for a 4.0ghz. I think my i7 just runs a little hotter than most for some reason, but I'm not going to complain anymore. At least I'm not reaching 94c anymore. I idle around 33 at night when it's cool, and 37c during the day. 55-60c (cores) load. Stock settings.

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Kondrath

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OK that settles it, Im getting a C50 this evening.

...and if I can hide it from my fiance - USB3.0 external enclosure.

[she does the books, and I am buying a new truck so she wants me to save..pffft

Haha. Do you mean H50? Or is C50 another heatsink? I think you or someone else mentioned the c50 earlier in the thread as well.

Grand Master

TEX4S

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Haha. Do you mean H50? Or is C50 another heatsink? I think you or someone else mentioned the c50 earlier in the thread as well.

Yeah it was me - for some reason I keep calling it C50 :blush:

Its $79 @ Fry's so I think I am heading there in about 1/2 hour :)

Grand Master

tsupersonic

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... on a side note, i say go for the H50. my i7 920 D0 is working great with it. overclocked it and running stable at 4.0GHz and RAM at 2000MHz. idles at around 40-41C and full load at 75C.

Wow, that's not impressive for water cooling. When I had my i7 860 overclocked to 4.0GHz, I actually achieved better results with the arctic freezer heatsink, and that's not even regarded as a good heatsink.

Grand Master

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Wow, that's not impressive for water cooling. When I had my i7 860 overclocked to 4.0GHz, I actually achieved better results with the arctic freezer heatsink, and that's not even regarded as a good heatsink.

I'm going to go ahead and say that it was not at all expected to perform like a watercooling setup, but more like give enthusiasts an option that can compete with higher end air cooling such as Venomous X, Noctua D14's etc.

a 4GHz i7 860 running at 75 with an H50 is not surprising at all, was your i7 860 overclocked when you ran it with the AC Freezer? I can't imagine it performing the same as an H50 regardless of situation :p

Grand Master

tsupersonic

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I'm going to go ahead and say that it was not at all expected to perform like a watercooling setup, but more like give enthusiasts an option that can compete with higher end air cooling such as Venomous X, Noctua D14's etc.

a 4GHz i7 860 running at 75 with an H50 is not surprising at all, was your i7 860 overclocked when you ran it with the AC Freezer? I can't imagine it performing the same as an H50 regardless of situation :p

At stock speeds, the i7 idles at 26-28c, and load was at 55-58c

When I was running 4.0GHz, I was idling at 30-32c, and load was at 63-66c

Ambient temperature is around 18-20c.

Funny because my motherboard has a feature called OC-Genie, which is an automatic overclock, and it overclocked to 3.8GHz, but it didn't work well since the temperatures ended up being higher than when I overclocked the proper way.

I would also add some screenshots, but I'm on a business trip, away from my desktop for a while :(

Community Regular

Rail Grinder

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Wow, that's not impressive for water cooling. When I had my i7 860 overclocked to 4.0GHz, I actually achieved better results with the arctic freezer heatsink, and that's not even regarded as a good heatsink.

of course my temps are higher. the i7 9xx series runs at 130w and the i7 8xx series runs at 95w ;)

i would have gone with air cooling but the giant tower heatsinks don't fit in my case (antec skeleton). imho, it's the best "low profile" overclocking hsf.

Grand Master

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of course my temps are higher. the i7 9xx series runs at 130w and the i7 8xx series runs at 95w ;)

i would have gone with air cooling but the giant tower heatsinks don't fit in my case (antec skeleton). imho, it's the best "low profile" overclocking hsf.

That isn't always an accurate indication of how hot processors will run.

Grand Master

TEX4S

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WARNING!! THREAD HIJACK

Well - I am kinda conflicted now. I bought the H50 from BestBuy - and havent opened the packaging yet. I am not sure its worth it.

Currently I have the Zalman 9900 installed and my temps, @ 3.0GHz are:

Core i7 950

Core #0: 44

Core #1: 44

Core #2: 43

Core #3: 40

I have a Cooler Master Cosmos case and always keep the side panel off as the SLI on a P6T can make the bottom card get pretty warm.

If installing the H50 will drop temps by 5 degrees - then I'll do it - any thoughts ?

and Sorry for the HiJack

:blush:

Grand Master

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Frankly, I think the H50 is in the category that directly competes with high end air heatsinks such as the Thermalright Venomous X, Noctua NH-D14, and Thermalright Ultra 120. If I were you I would keep the H50 and ditch the Zalman.

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bob_c_b

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I'd say a whole lot depends on what you are after as to whether the H50 is for you. Do you want the lowest temps possible no matter how many fans and how much noise you create? If so, you can surpass the H50 although in the end it likely won't be much cheaper. Do you want to avoid 500+ grams of metal hanging off of your motherboard, want near top of the line air cooler performance with only one or maybe two fans with very little noise? Now you are finding the value in the H50. I have two fans in my systems, the H50 fan and my top exhaust fan and I idle at ambient and load around 45c. The fan on the H50 idles at 650rpm (near silent) and at full load rarely crosses 1200rpm (not noticable above game sounds). My top exhaust is on it's lower setting and barely makes a sound. My video card fan is grossly out of place since the Asus CuCore has one shoddy cooler (MSI Hawk on the way, should resolve that). So for my desires, a compact cooler with a low noise signature, the H50 is the most sensible choice.

So it's really about two schools of thought on cooling and what you are after. And of course you could add an H50 to a more "brute force" cooling layout and probably get amazing results, but you have to ask if that is worth it? Tex4s, if you have to leave your side panel off for other reason, I'd probably advise against the H50, the radiator loves dust and responds better to a directed air flow than open air set ups. I'd also advise anyone who states "I get better temps wth air cooler X" to maybe give some more details (not trying to call anyone out on air cooler examples, but with a device like this there needs to be a little more discussion of all your cooling to really see how it compares). For me, I was after an almost minimalist solution and the H50 fit the bill.

Grand Master

TEX4S

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Well I dont really overclock - and I would rather not hear any more fans than I already do (275GTX x 2)

Since the bottom 275GTX gets no air I have the fan @ 75% or more most of the time -

Currently, I think the only fans I hear are the video cards. My PSU is a PC P&C 910 Silencer so its....uhhh....silent

If ya'll think I might be able to drop it 5 degrees - I think I might keep it.

Maybe I'd do a little overclocking - its always seemed kinda pointless - but what the hell ?!

Grand Master

Boz

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the best coolers i've seen so far and used by many that even surpasses the water temps are megalehms shadow and rev. b. they are pretty expensive but they are unbelievable when you put them in push/pull with 2 120mm fans at 1600rpm.

i still cant believe the other member here in the thread i7 980x has 4ghz overclock with 33c idle temps and 60-65c under 100%.

definitely the best cooler.

Grand Master

Boz

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My understanding is one of the best CPU heatsinks at the moment is the Prolimatech Megahalems.

Yep.. those are the ones.. but they are insanely expensive.. you don't get anything but a heatsink for like $70 for rev. B version.. and $90 for the Shadow version but I guess you get what you pay for.. they cool so good they can compare to water cooling.

Grand Master

TEX4S

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Doesnt seem expensive at all if its the best.

I dont want another monstrosity ontop of my CPU.

I thought about it overnight and now have a gameplan.

Over the next 2 months I am gonna upgrade most of the parts:

Zalman 9900LED > Corsair H50 tonight

300GB Velocirpator > Patriot Torqx or Vertex Turbo SSD

Core i7 950 > 980x

(2) 275GTX > 480GTX

then I will stop...for about 6 months, or however long it takes me to recover from the crap Im gonna catch from my better half :)

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