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which cooling to get

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Leviathan41

Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2003
Location
@Home, Folding
Hey, this is my first system to overclock and I need some advice.

I've got a Barton 2500, its locked =( so I am looking to OC it to 2.2GHz (200 * 11) maybe more in the future, I don't know. I can only get it to stay stable up to (185*11) on default vcore 1.65. Even then it runs pretty hot when I tested it on Prime 95 for 13 hours, it hit mid to upper 40's (hit 49 at one point I believe). It usually idles 36-38 and hits 42-45 when playing games, although it has gone up a little since I increased the FSB from 166 to 185. It really depends on the temp of my room, today I opened the windows (its below freezing outside) and it dropped my temps 3 or 4 degrees. A couple days ago I increased the vcore to 1.70 and the FSB to 200, but it got over 50 after around 30-45 minutes of playing games. I guess the only way I'm going to be stable at 2.2 GHz is to increase the Vcore.

So, I've said all that to say that I need cooling, I only have one rear case fan, its 120mm, came with my Antec SLK3700 BQE case. There is room for a front 120mm case fan. How much cooling would I get from adding a front 120mm fan?

However I think my main problem is the heatsink, I just have the AMD heatsink that came with the retail processor (I did use Ceramique). I would really like to keep my PC as quiet as possible, it is very quiet now. I've read that the Thermalright SLK800 is a good choice with a Panaflo 80mm L1A fan. Am I right about this? If so where would be the best place to buy it.

So I guess my options are to just try another case fan and see if that provides adequate cooling (I don't think it will, but I may have underestimated the cooling efficiency of 2 120mm case fans), or to get a new heatsink and fan, or both. What is by best option (taking into account what I want to acheive and noise)?

Here are some specs on my system:
AMD Barton 2500+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0
Retail heatsink and fan
Antec SLK3700 BQE case with one rear 120mm Antec fan
1 512MB Crucial PC3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
Liteon DVD-ROM
IBM HD

If you need anything else, let me know and thanks for your help.
 
If I remember correctly, I got to 2.2ghz on the stock cooler, but the temps were a tad high. If you want cooler temps, I would reccomend the Thermalright SK-7 heatsink with a Thermaltake Smartfan II. The heatsink is very economical, and the smartfan's speed is adjustible.
 
wait till the sp97 comes on and slap a 92mm tornado on there. If you got dogs, they will freak out whenever you boot up, is sounds like a vacum cleaner, only higher pitched.
 
Well I don't really want a loud fan, I want to keep my computer as quiet as possible. I think I'm gonna use the Thermaltake Smartfan II. I just have to decide which heatsink to use, ALX-800, SLK-800, any suggestions?
 
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