Your opinion on HSF please

I resently got an Athlon 2400+ XP and MSI KM2M Combo - L Motherboard.

PC Alert is registering my temps at about 45c while idling. This is with the stock HSF and some silver thermal paste. I was wondering what people here would recomend for an after market HSF. Please no Water cooling rigs, I'm not at that stage of cooling, yet. Thanks for your input.

The fan you chose all depends on how cool you want to run and how much noise you are willing to put up with. IMHO you can't go wrong with the slk-800 (900 if you can fit it on your mobo).

Well I would say that the Swiftech MCX-603would provide excellent cooling power. There is not alot of talk about them these days but they are very good. They can keep an XP 2000+ at about 45c when overclocked and at 1.87v.

Thank You,
Daniel

Hummm,
im not too familiar with that motherboard, Does it have heat sink mounting holes around the socket? But any way im new here and many people from what i have read so far said that the thermalright series is good, and they are highly flexible depending on which fan you put on them. Starting from the best performing and moving to the lowest:
-Thermalright SLK-900 46.99 newegg
-Thermalright SLK-800 42.99 newegg
-Swiftech MCX-462 45.99 Heatsink factory
-Thermalright AX-7 19.99 Heatsink factory
I would definitely reccomend the AX-7 if you are on a budget, and there are many more options out there, just check the overclockers heatsink rankings here:
http://www.overclockers.com/articles373/

As for a fan sunon is a very good brand as is any thing made by vantec, you may want to look into a temperature controlled fan like the thermaltake smart fan or the vantec smart fan, they will keep the noise down. If you want real cooling power but sont mind noise you can take the delta screamers:
http://heatsinkfactory.com/cgi-bin/HFAstore.pl?user_action=detail&catalogno=CF-014
These offer great cooling power but a lot of noise.

We'll since I just installed a SLK800a with a Thermaltake smartfan II. My temps dropped 13C+ and that was over a descent cooler not a stock one, I would definately suggest this combo.

Definately sold on the SLK800 and IMHO the Tt smartfan II just can't be beat for versatility.

Currently at 35.4C Load on sig rig.

The SLK800 works just as well as the SLK900 from everything I have read and seen. If money is no object then get the SLK900 because of its ability to use a 92mm fan. If you want to save a few bucks and get just as good performance get the SLK800.

I have an SLK800 with a Sunon 80mm + Rheo. I find that my temps never go above 38c under full load and my fan is turned down a third just below the "whining" point. Now I do have a slower cpu. XP1700 but it is OCed to 2.1 ghz.

I just put together a system for my daughter. She's got an AMD XP1800+ T-Bred B on an MSI KT3 Ultra 2 mobo with a Vantec Aeroflow w/ TMD fan. Idle temp. is 30°C. $25.00 @ KD Computers.
My wife has an AMD XP1600+ Pally on a Soltek SL-75DRV-C mobo with Thermalright SK7 & Sunon 50Cfm fan. Highest temp. I've ever seen on it was 40°C. $19.99 @ SVC. Sunon 50CFM fan is $7.49 @ SVC. Hope this helps! -Dave

Coolermaster Aero 7+, damn good HS and cool looking to boot. I've seen costs anywhere between $25 and $30

Yes, I believe that the board does have 2 hole for mounting heat sinks.

Thanks for the advice guys this really help to broaden my list of possibilities.

The Swiftech MCX603 is for Intel Xeons only...

Temo Vryce said:

Yes, I believe that the board does have 2 hole for mounting heat sinks.

Thanks for the advice guys this really help to broaden my list of possibilities.

Click to expand...

I would suggest making sure it has 4 holes. It's much better and is normally the standard. However, I would suggest the SK-7 over the AX-7 if you're on a budget. An all-copper HS like the SK-7 will perform much better than the AX-7, which has copper at the center of the base, and aluminum for the rest of it.

Just checked it's got 4 holes. I figured I would play it safe and bet on 2 but I guess it really makes a big difference between 2 and 4 holes.

The SLK-900 with any fan you want is your best bet if you can afford it. Otherwise, go with the SK-7, like Zoilo and baltoos said, again, with any fan you want.