Switech MCX370 Heatsink not worth the money???

[AZN]

THx for the info robert, thats alot to take into consideration. Yes it is the all aluminum HS, and yes I am using the volcano 6u with a copper base. To be honest i do think its cuzz of bad contact and i guess the volcano just contacts better, but i do believe in the copper base. Now that i think about it, i do feel my readings are off well maybe i dont know. However the Volcano with the Y's tech fan is doing a way better job then the swiftech. With the swiftech i cant even load windows if i OC it 100mhz. with the volcano 211mhz OCed and windows still stable, for now ill stick with the volcano, but im looking into a better cooling system.

BTW i dont like this Iwill, should have stuck to ABIT. or maybe i just have bad luck with iwill. I see the kk266 used alot, did i just choose the wrong iwill board?

 

[robertm]

I have not had any problem out of my KA266 I have heard a number of poeple that have had problems though. Am suspect of the MCX370 you got as all 3 I have bought has come ready to install I wonder if something is not right with it. Where did you get this from was it new?

 

[AZN]

I have not had any problem out of my KA266 I have heard a number of poeple that have had problems though. Am suspect of the MCX370 you got as all 3 I have bought has come ready to install I wonder if something is not right with it. Where did you get this from was it new?

I bought it from a website, dammit i forgot which one. IF that important i can find out which site. But i had to assemble the darn thing. Im pretty sure i assembled it correctly. anything else? maybe i should include a pic. ill take a pic and post later.

 

[rivercom9]

Yeah, that would help us see visually if anything is wrong.

 

[res0r9lm]

the springs have to be on the right side b/c one is longer than the other.

" Note: Should you disassemble the mounting screws and compression
springs for any reason in the future, please note that the springs are of
unequal length. The short spring goes on the side of the heat sink that
features a step in the base, whereas the long spring goes to the
opposite side (see assy. schematic on page 1)."

 

[res0r9lm]

you shouldn't have a problem getting into the 30's full load once you figure whats up. doesn't make sense for the company that you got it from to take it apart.

 

[kevmarks]

I am having a simular prob with the copper version. We are not the only ones. Check this out. I read a simular article about this design somwhere two. But I can't remeber where. The only way to check for good contact it to remove all the artic silver (gasp!) mount the heatsing and then hold the motherboard up to a really bright light (daylight if poss). If you can see a tiny streak of light coming through the core anywhere then there is prob. I can't do this because of the orientation of the socket on the KR7A. But i suspect this is the problem. Don't forget to re apply that AS before firing her up.

My MCXC370 also came in pieces. It's only two screws to assemble it though. It took whoo.. less than a min.

 

[res0r9lm]

I don't know what could be your problem other than springs being switched. using as3 and a bigger fan I get 32c full load @ default speed from my 1.4 tbird

 

[rivercom9]

What are your ambient temps?

 

[res0r9lm]

22-23c room temp

 

[AZN]

thx a million the darn springs was reverse. hehe i feel kinda dumb now. anyways u had to choose which fan u wanted for the HS thats y it was apart. looking at the bottom tells me that 1 side was getting more pressure then the other, let me try this and see what happens thx again res0r9lm.

 

[res0r9lm]

thx a million the darn springs was reverse. hehe i feel kinda dumb now. anyways u had to choose which fan u wanted for the HS thats y it was apart. looking at the bottom tells me that 1 side was getting more pressure then the other, let me try this and see what happens thx again res0r9lm.

no problem, glad you got it figured out.

 

[Just shoot]

NO1,
First off don't feel stupid if we were perfect OCers then why would we come to these forums. I think everyone has made one of those duuuuh moves and if they haven't they will in time.

I've had this heatsink and although its not great it was yielding a 1.4 T.B. @1644 at 46'c with 2.00 volts. I ended going with the mc462 and dropped temps to 41'c with a ambient of 22'c and of course this moves around depending. What I have made my rule of thumb for the big swifty is 20'c over ambient at full load.

Hope this helps.

 

[AZN]

the springs have to be on the right side b/c one is longer than the other.

" Note: Should you disassemble the mounting screws and compression
springs for any reason in the future, please note that the springs are of
unequal length. The short spring goes on the side of the heat sink that
features a step in the base, whereas the long spring goes to the
opposite side (see assy. schematic on page 1)."

I didnt come with a manual to put it together, so i used my best judgement. The reason i put the longer spring on the side with the step was b/c when both screws were set in place with no load on the spring they would be of equal length, or so i thought and it appeared. Having 1 side with a step really throws u off. Darn seller, i wish they included instructions for assembly.

I now have the HS mounted correctly, during the mounting of the HS to CPU i noticed right away the different feel of the mount so i knew now this was correct. Now that i have the HS working properly i will run some test to see how great of a HS it really is before i can make any judgement. Lets hope now it works better then my Volcano 6u. If it does heck i might step it up to the big brother 462.

 

[res0r9lm]

anybody that didn't recieve instructions you can download them @ http://www.swiftnets.com under service & support/installation guides/mcx 370 it is the same guide as the mcxc 370 you need to have acrobat reader installed.

 

[AZN]

well even with the Swiftech MCX370 mounted correctly it still didnt out perform the Volcano 6u. Even thou it was a much better improvement it still didnt do the trick. I just got back from our pc vendor and picked up a Volcano 7 for $16. If they had the 7+ i would have gotten that one. well what can i say, the 7 works better then MCX370 but its still not the best. o boy what to do what to do? I need to get this monster fan running faster, its now only at 3200rpm, and the site said volcano 7 can go as high as 5300rpm or in that range, perhaps that will help. I'll mess with this some more and tell u how it works out. But as for the Swiftech 370, i can safely say i wasted $40 and even had to assemble it.

Temps: Im using MBM5 as a temp reader, i have been told these reading are lower or not acurate. I believe thats true, i dont feel these reading are acurate. All reading are Idle temp, i cant give u full load cuzz most the time the pc locks. All the test are done on a 1.33 TB @ 1.544 ghz. amibient temp is 93F. ofcourse running at a little slower like 1400 mhz i have no trouble at all, but i like to push it higher, i believe this chip will do 1.6 ghz with just the cooling setup ive gotten, but only tests will tell.


Swiftech MCX370 with Y's tech 40CFM fan Idle 105f
Volcano 6u with Y's tech 40cfm fan idle 105f
volcano 7 idle 109f
once again i feel the readings are probably lower then it really is, but that is a guess i wouldnt be absolute without a probe.

Right now the winner is the volcano 6u with the Y's tech fan running at 8000rpm. i think its all due to the fan. the Volcano 7 is only running at 3200rpm, i think if i can get this fan running faster it will out perform the other 2 HSF. Be back later with some more test results.

 

[res0r9lm]

your doing something wrong. I just don't know what it is. using my 1.4 tbird I get 29c@idle and 32c@full load at default speed with it overclocked to 1654 I get 36c idle and 40-41c full load.
you say your ambient temp is 93f if that is the fact no hsf is going to cool very well.