Which Budget Heat Sink Would you Choose? Compiling A Definitive List (!)

[babutiger]

I'm putting together a new ovcerclocking setup which inlcudes an Athlon XP+ 1700 Thoroughbred (hopefully a revision B ) , Epox 8KHA Mobo & Panaflo H1a (Specs: 32.0dcb 39.6cfm @2950 RPM) as the CPU fan. Which of the following budget heat sink's(80mm) would y'all recommend for a speedy oc rig (!):

1) SVC GC68

2) SVC GC69

3) SVC Golden Gate

4) Thermalright SK-7

Some food for thought .... **Here** is a heatsink round-up which includes the GC68, Golden Gate & Thermalright AX-7(the SK-7 predecessor).

I'm interested in your experiences and opinions. Cheers!

 

[mechBgon]

A copper heatspreader or all-copper heatsink is desirable for the Thoroughbreds due to their higher wattage per square millimeter of contact. That's AMD's recommendation, although I know plenty of folks still use all-aluminum heatsinks on their Tbreds. But I would lean toward the SK-7... in fact, I just got one myself

 

[godmare]

I would say sk-7 hands down, and I would recommend a Thermaltake case (smart) fan 2 on top of it- it has a better range than the popular ys tech adjustable fan.
That's an older (although excellent) motherboard, with some capacitors near the socket, I'd be sure a thermalright product will actually fit on that board before ordering one.

Also, last I heard, the 8KHA won't handle t-breds, is there a new BIOS?

 

[godmare]

Oh, I didn't notice you'd picked out a fan already
Sorry about that

 

[mechBgon]

One thing to mention whenever you recommend a Thermaltake Smart Fan 2: at maximum speed, it draws over 8 watts. Sometimes motherboard manufacturers do give specific maximums for the fan headers, and the typical recommendation is 2W maximum (although I saw one that listed 3.4W maximum). Read what happened to this guy's motherboard! :Q Bottom line, never power a Smart Fan 2 from a mobo header.

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
One thing to mention whenever you recommend a Thermaltake Smart Fan 2: at maximum speed, it draws over 8 watts. Sometimes motherboard manufacturers do give specific maximums for the fan headers, and the typical recommendation is 2W maximum (although I saw one that listed 3.4W maximum). Read what happened to this guy's motherboard! :Q Bottom line, never power a Smart Fan 2 from a mobo header.

Yes, of course, always use a 4 pin molex connector I just looked at Tt's website, I didn't realize the fan didn't come with an adapter already (the Volcano 9 with the fan does), sorry about that!
Good call!

 

[godmare]

Wow, I nedd to learn how to edit messages.
Okay, it DOES come with an adapter, but I should've mentioned using the 4 pin is essential.

Btw, MechBgon-regarding your post in the link, while I have not done this, I understand that the thermal pad that comes with the Volcano 9 is designed as a pocket to accept the temperature probe between the cpu and heatsink. There is no documentation of this anywhere on Tt's site, bet there has been talk of it here, on Anandtech.

 

[babutiger]

I appreciate the comments thus far guys...the SK-7 seems like the best hs choice around its price point -- nearly matches the cooling effectiveness of the slk-800 with a siginificantly smaller price tag and not to mention the quality of a Thermalright product: See This Round-Up (scroll down a ways)

As far as my Panaflo Fan choice, the HS1 has a stellar CFM to noise ratio with very good cooling power and tolerable (to my ears at least) noise & rpm level at a cheap price nobody can knock . I have yet to find another 80 mm fan on par or better to HS1 with the characteristics I'm lookin for (!)

Check out this handy 60mm, 70mm, & 80mm fan database and organize by ratio (CFM divided by noise, higher value the better by the way )

See Here

But I'm curious how the new SVC GC69 would weigh against the SK-7 considering the GC68's impressive result against the AX-7, only trailing by a few degrees, in the heatsink roundup mentioned in my first post. By the way, the reviewer's use of the same Delta Fan to cool the GC68, AX-7 and golden gate was unique to any round-up I have come across, enabling the reader to truly compare the heatsink performance alone.

I know there are some fans (no pun intended) of the GC68/ GC69 out there. Keep those posts coming y'all....

 

[babutiger]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
A copper heatspreader or all-copper heatsink is desirable for the Thoroughbreds due to their higher wattage per square millimeter of contact. That's AMD's recommendation, although I know plenty of folks still use all-aluminum heatsinks on their Tbreds. But I would lean toward the SK-7... in fact, I just got one myself

Very cool man

Can you post the specs of your Cpu/Mobo/Cpu fan/ and any Case fans as well as stable overclocking results with voltage, fsb, & multiplier settings - oh! that is if you do that sort of thing ...

Cheers!

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: babutiger

Originally posted by: mechBgon
A copper heatspreader or all-copper heatsink is desirable for the Thoroughbreds due to their higher wattage per square millimeter of contact. That's AMD's recommendation, although I know plenty of folks still use all-aluminum heatsinks on their Tbreds. But I would lean toward the SK-7... in fact, I just got one myself

Very cool man

Can you post the specs of your Cpu/Mobo/Cpu fan/ and any Case fans as well as stable overclocking results with voltage, fsb, & multiplier settings - oh! that is if you do that sort of thing ...

Cheers!

I use

• Asus A7V333-RAID with 1012 BIOS (temperature calibrations vary from one A7V333-R BIOS to the next :|)
• AGOIA-core AthlonXP 1600+ (Palomino like all 1600+'s) at 0.025V over stock voltage, running 333MHz FSB (166/166 CPU/memory)
• SK-7 heatsink
• I've reported results from quick-and-dirty tests with several 80mm fans here. Note that the results do come from the CPU's on-core diode, not estimates from a socket thermistor...
• I haven't gotten brave and tried to force the CPU higher than 166/166. Currently I use the YS Tech adjustable fan at a medium speed which is audible but not bad.

I have a GC-68, and its performance was a lot lower than my $7 Coolermaster with the loud 60mm fan, so I relegated it to Duron duties in my "service loaner" computer at work. If only the GC-69 had a copper heatspreader and a little wider base... a lot of the air moved by the 80mm fan only blows through the fringes of the heatsink on GC-68's

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: babutiger
I appreciate the comments thus far guys...the SK-7 seems like the best hs choice around its price point -- nearly matches the cooling effectiveness of the slk-800 with a siginificantly smaller price tag and not to mention the quality of a Thermalright product: See This Round-Up (scroll down a ways)

Yes, that's my HSF bible, right there
That fan database looks really useful, too

 

[babutiger]

I have a GC-68, and its performance was a lot lower than my $7 Coolermaster with the loud 60mm fan, so I relegated it to Duron duties in my "service loaner" computer at work. If only the GC-69 had a copper heatspreader and a little wider base... a lot of the air moved by the 80mm fan only blows through the fringes of the heatsink on GC-68's

I am intrigued by this copper(Cu) versus aluminum(Al) debate and found this insightful passage at Amdmb.com:

Copper?s higher conductivity means is that a thinner copper fin can transmit as much heat as a thicker aluminum fin. However, on a weight-basis, aluminum can conduct more heat than copper. If weight was no object, copper holds the edge. When weight is a limitation, aluminum has the advantage. Conductivity multiplied by density is a "weighted" measure of a material?s conduction efficiency. It is this "weighted" efficiency that leads to the use of aluminum in the fins/pins of many heat sinks. It is certainly not because "aluminum gets rid of heat better than copper".

If I understand accuretly what is being asserted from the above passage, since Al has a clear weight advantage over Cu and thereby conducts more heat then a heatsink with high in density Al fins/pins would be preferred over thinner Cu fins/pins. If that is the case the improvements made with the SVC GC69

more material and denser fins

and

slightly wider at the base

addresses the concerns you raise mechBgon. What do you think? (anybody can reply for that matter )

Cheers!

 

[babutiger]

Can someone with a GC-69 post there o'c results and specs ... I am having a hard time finding a review.

 

[Zap]

What do you think?

I think I'll have the combo #4, jumbo sized. Oops, wrong thread...

I think if you're worried about copper versus aluminum, then get a combo heatsink. There's plenty on the market that have a copper base with aluminum fins. Best of both worlds!

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
One thing to mention whenever you recommend a Thermaltake Smart Fan 2: at maximum speed, it draws over 8 watts. Sometimes motherboard manufacturers do give specific maximums for the fan headers, and the typical recommendation is 2W maximum (although I saw one that listed 3.4W maximum). Read what happened to this guy's motherboard! :Q Bottom line, never power a Smart Fan 2 from a mobo header.

Never had a problem plugging both a TT Smart Fan 2 @ full and a 120 mm Enermax into my K7S5A, and that is el cheapo mobo.

 

[muddocktor]

Of your choices you posted, I would definitely go with the SK7. I have 3-Tbred XP1700 "A" procs and an XP2400 and I can tell you that cooling the "A" Tbred is definitely harder than the "B" Tbreds. The full load temps on my XP2400@2250 and 1.85v vcore on my A7N8X are just a hair lower than the coolest running Tbred XP1700@1875 with 1.725v vcore on my MSI dually. All three procs on the 2 boards are using SLK800's with the Delta FFB0812HHE(the quiet focused-flow Delta) and all temps are from the on die diodes.The SK7 should be able to give you a little better cooling on an "A" Tbred than the others, IMHO. BTW, the Delta fans I'm using on these SLK800 are really nice and also pretty darn quiet too and use the same focusing vanes to direct the airflow as the faster and noisier SHE and EHE versions of this fan.


As far as clearance goes, you shouldn't have any problems at all with the SK7 on the 8KHA+ mobo. Also, I'm assuming that you are talking about the 8KHA+ board with the KT266A chipset and not the original 8KHA with the KT266 chipset, because I don't know if Epox has come out with a new bios for the original 8KHA for them to run Tbreds. I've successfully run my XP2400+ proc on my 8KHA+ board though and it presently is running a Tbred XP1700 "A".