MCX-4000 or Alpha 8942?

Xevuhtess7 · 10-09-02, 07:14 PM

i want to have the best air cooling for p4 ocing.... whats the best? im pretty much torn between the swiftech and the alpha. i plan on strapping a vantec tornado to it. what are the opinions..... i see that on oc.com's heatsink ranking, the alpha is better than the swiftech.... any real world experiences? which one should i choose, if neither of them, then what is the best heatsink?

Morbid · 10-09-02, 07:37 PM

Well, i'd say go for the AX-7... if it does the same thing for P4's as it does to my AMD... you can't go wrong. I idle 30-31c and load at 33-34c. This is with a Tornado 84cfm 80mm and AS3, with an ambient temp of 24c. So, my vote would be AX-7

(think it's called the AX478, or something like that, for the P4)

Good luck!

Xevuhtess7 · 10-09-02, 07:39 PM

argh.... a whole bunch of people in another thread just told me that the ax478 is having huge problems with build quality... things like it falling apart and stuff....

Yodums · 10-09-02, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Morbid
Well, i'd say go for the AX-7... if it does the same thing for P4's as it does to my AMD... you can't go wrong. I idle 30-31c and load at 33-34c. This is with a Tornado 84cfm 80mm and AS3, with an ambient temp of 24c. So, my vote would be AX-7 (think it's called the AX478, or something like that, for the P4)

Good luck!

From what I heard, the AX478 has been discontinued due to the complaints and the performance the heatsink has been getting. For our forum member, "The Spyder," it literally fell apart for him and looked like a bad solder job. Lots of member had really bad performance.

I'd go with the Alpha. From the frontpage Heatsink + Watercooling Roundup which can be found here: http://www.overclockers.com/articles373/ the Alpha out performs the Swiftech. Not to mention, Alpha are notorious for maintaining great performance while utilizing a quiet fan (Low CFM).

Xevuhtess7 · 10-09-02, 07:48 PM

well im about to change all of that silent low cfm fan stuff.... *whips out vantec tornado*. today is the day of the hairdryer..... bwahahahha

big_bertha · 10-09-02, 09:21 PM

make sure you know now that the alpha sucks air away from the heatsink while the mcx4000 blows air onto it. depending on your case setup with side blowing fans in the case door it can make a difference. for that reason i got the mcx4000 and i love it. it preforms better than the tests on the front page for me mainly because i have a 120mm fan blowing air onto it and the mobo and another right below it blowing over the pci slots. thats 2 120mm fans blowing over the mobo region so that is why i get good temps. there is no residual hot air pockets and the air going in is always cool. as you can see if i had the alpha blowing air out it would not have been a good combo with my fans since they would be blowing against each other. keep that in mind

Xevuhtess7 · 10-09-02, 09:29 PM

what about a setup with 2 intakes in front 2 exhausts in the back.... i think that might work good with the alpha.

zer0burn · 10-09-02, 11:55 PM

the ax-478 is good if u get one that stays together. Other then that get an mcx-4000

big_bertha · 10-10-02, 01:32 PM

Xevuhtess7: That will work either way. just make sure if you have any air flowing into the case in the form of a side mounted fan to use the mcx4000. (ie. 120mm video card cooler). if you have those fans blowing out the alpha is better. basically what im saying is dont blow fans against each other. try and set up a god cycle of airflow. what i would do is point all 4 of those inwards and put a 120mm blowhole in the top going out. that and the PSU should still keep positive air pressure while disipating heat upwards. either alpha or swiftech are good if you do this. personally i like the swiftech better. its underrated in many benchmarks. i get great results with it. plus it looks nice.

wildfrogman · 10-10-02, 02:48 PM

yeah, getting a ton of fresh airflow around the alpha heatsinks help alot too. Most people when they have a swiftech not perform good its because their case airflow isnt good enough around the heatsink so it gets recycled warm air. Also when the fan on the heatsink is blowing down...and is really powerfull it can cause some problems. One thing i saw a while ago almost made me laugh. The case was a lian li full tower but with low flow panaflow 80mm case fans installed on the exhaust and no fans on intake. The vantec tornado fan was sucking air backwards through the two panaflow fans and so basically the case airflow was horrible and then ofcoarse the cpu temp got bad after a while of use.

Xevuhtess7 · 10-10-02, 04:43 PM

hahahah thats funny. my plans are to have 2 80mm 27cfm intakes, 2 80mm 27cfm exhausts, and the usual powersupply fan. im gonna attempt to cut a good looking fire logo or sumtin window so i dont want to have any side fans. i might think about cutting a 120mm blowhole on the top for an exhaust. what do you guys think?

wildfrogman · 10-10-02, 07:24 PM

hmm you could instead of having side fans make vents over the agp~pci area and sort of duct the airflow a bit. So if you do have a big blowhole you still get fairly even airflow over the hot stuff, agp cards etc. If you have stuff in a dead spot, it doesnt matter if you have 300cfm in and out of a case, it still gets warm overtime and can die from it. So you have to plan out the airflow a bit so its the most effecient.

Xevuhtess7 · 10-10-02, 07:28 PM

has anyone tried using the alpha with air blowing onto it even though it was made to suck air away?

wildfrogman · 10-10-02, 07:35 PM

hmm you could instead of having side fans make vents over the agp~pci area and sort of duct the airflow a bit. So if you do have a big blowhole you still get fairly even airflow over the hot stuff, agp cards etc. If you have stuff in a dead spot, it doesnt matter if you have 300cfm in and out of a case, it still gets warm overtime and can die from it. So you have to plan out the airflow a bit so its the most effecient. Oh and the alpha wiht the fan blowing on it, [H] did a round up a while ago and it drops performance a bit, have had first hand experience also and its more noticable with high flow fans you do get a higher temp with the fan set to blow on the heatsink.

Xevuhtess7 · 10-10-02, 07:38 PM

im planning to strap a vantec tornado to the alpha.... so its better to have airflow onto the alpha in this case?

wildfrogman · 10-10-02, 08:34 PM

hmm actually with more airflow, it is worse to have air blow onto the heatsink. It works much better sucking off the heatsink, especially high flow fans. Low flow panaflows i think perform better blowing onto the heatsink though possibly.

Xevuhtess7 · 10-10-02, 08:36 PM

hmm..... at this moment im drawing up an airflow scheme... ill see how it will come out.

10-09-02, 07:14 PM	Thread Starter #1
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	MCX-4000 or Alpha 8942? i want to have the best air cooling for p4 ocing.... whats the best? im pretty much torn between the swiftech and the alpha. i plan on strapping a vantec tornado to it. what are the opinions..... i see that on oc.com's heatsink ranking, the alpha is better than the swiftech.... any real world experiences? which one should i choose, if neither of them, then what is the best heatsink?
	QUOTE Thanks

10-09-02, 07:37 PM	#2
Morbid Nitpicker Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Dallas	Well, i'd say go for the AX-7... if it does the same thing for P4's as it does to my AMD... you can't go wrong. I idle 30-31c and load at 33-34c. This is with a Tornado 84cfm 80mm and AS3, with an ambient temp of 24c. So, my vote would be AX-7 (think it's called the AX478, or something like that, for the P4) Good luck! __________________ CPU: E6600 @ 3.2GHz (356x9 - 4:5 1425MHz FSB - 1.4v) Mobo: Asus P5W DH Deluxe Mem: G.Skill 2x1GB PC2-6400 HZ (4-4-4-12-20 - 2.2v) Vid: eVGA 8800GTS 640MB @ 630/1040 PSU: Corsair 620HX HDD: 2x 150GB Raptors (RAID 0) \| 320GB Seagate 7200.10 LCD: Dell 2007WFP
	QUOTE Thanks

10-09-02, 07:39 PM	Thread Starter #3
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	argh.... a whole bunch of people in another thread just told me that the ax478 is having huge problems with build quality... things like it falling apart and stuff....
	QUOTE Thanks

10-09-02, 07:48 PM	Thread Starter #5
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	well im about to change all of that silent low cfm fan stuff.... whips out vantec tornado. today is the day of the hairdryer..... bwahahahha
	QUOTE Thanks

10-09-02, 09:21 PM	#6
big_bertha Member Join Date: Aug 2002	make sure you know now that the alpha sucks air away from the heatsink while the mcx4000 blows air onto it. depending on your case setup with side blowing fans in the case door it can make a difference. for that reason i got the mcx4000 and i love it. it preforms better than the tests on the front page for me mainly because i have a 120mm fan blowing air onto it and the mobo and another right below it blowing over the pci slots. thats 2 120mm fans blowing over the mobo region so that is why i get good temps. there is no residual hot air pockets and the air going in is always cool. as you can see if i had the alpha blowing air out it would not have been a good combo with my fans since they would be blowing against each other. keep that in mind
	QUOTE Thanks

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10-09-02, 09:29 PM	Thread Starter #7
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	what about a setup with 2 intakes in front 2 exhausts in the back.... i think that might work good with the alpha.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-09-02, 11:55 PM	#8
zer0burn Member Join Date: Sep 2002	the ax-478 is good if u get one that stays together. Other then that get an mcx-4000
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 01:32 PM	#9
big_bertha Member Join Date: Aug 2002	Xevuhtess7: That will work either way. just make sure if you have any air flowing into the case in the form of a side mounted fan to use the mcx4000. (ie. 120mm video card cooler). if you have those fans blowing out the alpha is better. basically what im saying is dont blow fans against each other. try and set up a god cycle of airflow. what i would do is point all 4 of those inwards and put a 120mm blowhole in the top going out. that and the PSU should still keep positive air pressure while disipating heat upwards. either alpha or swiftech are good if you do this. personally i like the swiftech better. its underrated in many benchmarks. i get great results with it. plus it looks nice.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 02:48 PM	#10
wildfrogman Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Sitting at my computer playing UT2004.	yeah, getting a ton of fresh airflow around the alpha heatsinks help alot too. Most people when they have a swiftech not perform good its because their case airflow isnt good enough around the heatsink so it gets recycled warm air. Also when the fan on the heatsink is blowing down...and is really powerfull it can cause some problems. One thing i saw a while ago almost made me laugh. The case was a lian li full tower but with low flow panaflow 80mm case fans installed on the exhaust and no fans on intake. The vantec tornado fan was sucking air backwards through the two panaflow fans and so basically the case airflow was horrible and then ofcoarse the cpu temp got bad after a while of use.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 04:43 PM	Thread Starter #11
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	hahahah thats funny. my plans are to have 2 80mm 27cfm intakes, 2 80mm 27cfm exhausts, and the usual powersupply fan. im gonna attempt to cut a good looking fire logo or sumtin window so i dont want to have any side fans. i might think about cutting a 120mm blowhole on the top for an exhaust. what do you guys think?
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 07:24 PM	#12
wildfrogman Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Sitting at my computer playing UT2004.	hmm you could instead of having side fans make vents over the agp~pci area and sort of duct the airflow a bit. So if you do have a big blowhole you still get fairly even airflow over the hot stuff, agp cards etc. If you have stuff in a dead spot, it doesnt matter if you have 300cfm in and out of a case, it still gets warm overtime and can die from it. So you have to plan out the airflow a bit so its the most effecient.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 07:28 PM	Thread Starter #13
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	has anyone tried using the alpha with air blowing onto it even though it was made to suck air away?
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 07:35 PM	#14
wildfrogman Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Sitting at my computer playing UT2004.	hmm you could instead of having side fans make vents over the agp~pci area and sort of duct the airflow a bit. So if you do have a big blowhole you still get fairly even airflow over the hot stuff, agp cards etc. If you have stuff in a dead spot, it doesnt matter if you have 300cfm in and out of a case, it still gets warm overtime and can die from it. So you have to plan out the airflow a bit so its the most effecient. Oh and the alpha wiht the fan blowing on it, [H] did a round up a while ago and it drops performance a bit, have had first hand experience also and its more noticable with high flow fans you do get a higher temp with the fan set to blow on the heatsink.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 07:38 PM	Thread Starter #15
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	im planning to strap a vantec tornado to the alpha.... so its better to have airflow onto the alpha in this case?
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 08:34 PM	#16
wildfrogman Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Sitting at my computer playing UT2004.	hmm actually with more airflow, it is worse to have air blow onto the heatsink. It works much better sucking off the heatsink, especially high flow fans. Low flow panaflows i think perform better blowing onto the heatsink though possibly.
	QUOTE Thanks

10-10-02, 08:36 PM	Thread Starter #17
Xevuhtess7 Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston Area	hmm..... at this moment im drawing up an airflow scheme... ill see how it will come out.
	QUOTE Thanks

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