P4 AVC Sunflower $19 shipped

[DealyDo]

<< Just a warning...the Sunflower produces noticeably more noise than the stock Intel heatsink >>



Any aftermarket HSF Quieter than the stock Intel HSF? I found that the retail Intel HSF does a great job. And after my HOWLING P3 700 OC'd to 988mhz, I'm loving the relatively quiet P4 rig that I have. I think that the two loudest fans now are CPU fan and the Videocard fan which I'd replace if comparable cooling with less noise.

 

[HOTxSHOT]

yap i got mine from the mail. wow it is an avc........ thanx a lot for this baby.

 

[tenest]

thank you guys sooooo much for finding this. also, thanks to the guys who bought one and then confirmed that it IS a sunflower. i just got my new mobo and 1.6a P4 today, so i was wanting to get the sunflower. i could only find a couple of places that sold it and they were in the mid-$30 range. $19 is HOT!!!!! plus they give you free caps/screws (woo-hoo!) and free shipping.

 

[flint7]

I bit on the deal too..building a new htpc so this could come in handy. (I hope its not that loud...) Can someone tell me how much louder it is than a stock intel hs/f? For instance...Can you hear it with your case sealed?

 

[rch4001]

just got it in the mail. No question it is an AVC. This site shows exactly what it looks like and says the fan is louder and more efficient than the stock intel cooler. It also says AVC is the OEM arm of Sanyo Denko who makes the Intel retail coolers.

Some pictures of the Sunflower show curved plastic extensions around two sides of the top plastic bracket See the curved top which this one doesn't have. Can't imagine that makes much difference. Oh yea, the fan is the same model # as the one in the review

 

[fornax]

Excellent find! I'm still thinking whether to buy it, though. My stock Intel HSF cools very well and is quiet. The AVC fan is 38dB! That's VERY loud!

 

[tigerbait]

Is it possible to use the sunflower heatsink with the slower, quieter Intel fan? How would that performance be?

 

[fornax]

That's what I wonder. Are there quiet 70mm fans? Sanyo Denki maybe?

 

[Zap]

I am using this HSF from PC Power & Cooling (thanks guys!). It isn't much louder than the Intel retail HSF. I think the Intel HSF runs about 2500RPM. I think my motherboard reported the AVC as running at 4200RPM, not the 5000RPM that it is rated for. In any case, it does a good job and is reasonably quiet. As for using a different fan... don't know if it is possible. Looking at the Inflow Direct picture the clips and the side shroud seem to be one piece, meaning perhaps the fan can be removed without affecting the clipping mechanism. The HSF I received from PC P&C doesn't have anything connecting the two sides of the clipping mechanism besides the fan itself! If the fan was removed I would end up with two clips. I'm not sure if the clips would still work without the fan holding them together, but they probably would. The clip seems pretty tenacious (need to flex them to remove them from the part connected to the motherboard). I actually like the clip better than the Intel clip because the levers flip easily. With the Intel clip I fear for the motherboard because it is so tight that the motherboard flexes. Anyone else notice this with the Intel clip?

 

[rgowen]

Ordered mine on Tuesday, got it today. Says AVC on the fan and molded into the plastic. Now all I need is my P4 1.6a, motherboard and new case. Still undecided on which mb to get, the Asus P4B266 or the P4S333. At least I got one component, now I need the most expensive parts.

 

[tenest]

<< I actually like the clip better than the Intel clip because the levers flip easily. With the Intel clip I fear for the motherboard because it is so tight that the motherboard flexes. Anyone else notice this with the Intel clip? >>



the intel clip is supposed to be like that. according to intel it is supposed to exert 100lbs of pressure onto the chip.

as for the PC Power & Cooling HSF, i just got mine in yesterday and it is definitely an AVC sunflower. the only thing is that they shipped me two of them with the fans installed upside down (fan blowing down onto the HS instead of up away from the heatsink). i didnt realize it until the next morning when i was looking at the second one that i hadnt installed yet. i only ran it overnight with no load and not OC'd so i dont think it will have done any damage. i'm just surprised they shipped it out installed incorrectly.....

 

[adamone11]

Um... that is how they're supposed to be. It's long been debated, and I think the difference turns out to be only a couple of degrees, but I think the consensus is that blowing down is better (cool air->processor is the major concern).

I'd like to have a relatively quiet computer... but I'd like to go 1.8->2.4 on P4B266. Am I 1) Dreaming 2) going to need an AVC or 3) Both?

Thanks

 

[FatPat]

Thanks CheeLew, I've got one on the way.

 

[Zap]

It was also my understanding that the fan was supposed to blow down into the heatsink. That's the way the Intel P4 retail boxed HSF is. Most are like that. The only ones I can recall that were not were the Thermoengine and the PEP66.

Speaking of the Intel HSF, I saw a picture in my motherboard manual showing a HSF mounted on the board. The heatsink was the AVC Sunflower (no mistaking), yet the fan said Intel on it!!! Pages 2-3 and 2-4 of the manual for my MSI 645 Pro.

 

[rgowen]

I saw the same thing while looking through the online Asus P4B266 manuals. AVC Sunflower HS and then the Intel fan placed on it.

 

[DoobieOnline]

What differences in temps have you registered between the Intel stock cooler and this cooler? Please list how far you're OCing your chip, too. Thanks!

 

[Zap]

I actually haven't used my retail boxed HSF on my 1.6A chip. I had a regular 1.6 using the retail box HSF and overclocked to around 1.7GHz (board didn't have vcore) it still ran almost room temperature. My 1.6A is set on a 133MHz FSB, giving me just over 2.1GHz. I haven't had time to mess with that system to see how high I can push it. The 1.6A@2.1 with the Sunflower runs just above room temperature. BTW, my case has very good ventilation. I have a 120mm Panaflo taking up the lower three 5¼" bays pulling air into the case directly at the CPU area and an 80mm Panaflo underneath the power supply pulling air out of the case. These aren't the super quiet ones; they push more air than those. Here's some crappy snapshots I just took. The front fan opening is quite rough around the edges, but this is just going to be a gaming/messing around box for me.

 

[kevman]

do I have to mess with applying any thermal goo in this fan? does it have tape? If anyone knows, let me know. Thanks

 

[rgowen]

If you get the Sunflower from PC Power, it does not have anything on the base of the HS but they do provide a tube of Thermal paste you could use.

 

[kevman]

<< If you get the Sunflower from PC Power, it does not have anything on the base of the HS but they do provide a tube of Thermal paste you could use. >>



sO i do have to put thermal apsteon it? or does te copper base directly contacts the CPU?

 

[rgowen]

Use thermal paste.

 

[kevman]

So how hard/easy is it to use the thermal paste? do you have to smotth it out with a credit card and all that? I hat doing that becuase I am so inept. but if it's not that difficult I might just get this thing. Thanks in advance!

 

[tenest]

<< sO i do have to put thermal apsteon it? or does te copper base directly contacts the CPU? >>



definitely dont put the copper directly against the chips heatspreader. buy yourself some Artic Silver 3 from svcompucycle.com. it's only $6.99 and that includes free USPS Priority Shipping. its better than the standard grease that comes with the HSF.

 

[reboos]

got mine from PC Power and Cooling, awesome find, they even sent some free caps for power connectors, thermal paste, and thumbscrews! what a great deal.

 

[Allen7]

Can anyone who bought this HSF had successfully o/c their cpu higher?