Legit Reviews

Hi there

I'm looking to upgrade the factory cheap heatsink on my D975XBX. It's made by Foxconn and looks like this ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage ... CPU+Cooler ).
The stock fan that it came with is a little whiny and I'm looking to get something that is fairly powerful but quiet. I also like the four plastic screws that just twist in for installation (I've had to RMA this heatsink in the past, and the reinstall was pretty easy).

I'm no expert on heatsinks, so can anyone make any recommendations? The board is compatible with LGA775, the chip is an E6700 Core 2 Duo, if that matters. I don't presently do any OC'n, so while I'm not creating any excessive heat in there, I'd still like to help out my processor. I see the processor temp get up around ~70 C and I think a better HS could do wonders, particularly since I do a fair amount of gaming and my X1950 Radeon creates a bit of heat in there as well.

I like the easy installation of a HS using those four screws/tabs, but from shopping around, it seems like the more expensive and better HS's may require me to take out the motherboard for installation. This doesn't scare me away.

While we're at it - there's a lot of terms I'm curious if you good people could help explain to me as I'm trying to shop around here. Bearing types ... 1 ball, 2 ball, sleeve, enter, hydro wave, ever lubricate, ufo, vapo bearing ... Fan size ... Is that a reference to the physical sioze of the blades/whole unit? How can I size up what size HS my computer can handle? Is socket 775 the same as LGA775?

Finally, doing some shopping around, these are some HS that I've found that I thought might do the trick. What do you think, would reccomend or stay away form any of these, and how do you feel about the install?

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835186134

Thermaltake CL-P0370 92mm Enter CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835106085

ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink (this one looks the most difficult to install)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835118003

How'd I do? Are they compatible? What do you think? Thanks for taking the time to help out a newbie. One day I'll hopefully be helping newbies too!

Yes socket 775 is the same as LGA775.

As for the coolers you picked I have no real experience with them, I have a Zalman 9700 LED and love it for my P4, I haven't got around to testing it on a dual core yet. On the test bench I'm using a ZEROtherm NV120 Nirvana for setting the bar so to speak for air cooling, you can see the article I wrote here. I finally got around to over clocking and I got an E6300 OC'd to 3.03GHz on a D975XBX2 and the Nirvana kept it below 50C.

What is nice about this cooler is the larger fan will allow it to run at lower RPMs and quieter than a 92mm fan style.

What case are you using at the moment?

I have the Zalman 9500 on my XBX2 and it works great. I'm presently at 39c with CPU at 3.2ghz OC.

Alas, I have returned. Sorry for coming onto the forums then disappearing, but it's been a busy week.

I have a midsized ATX case. It's very generic. In fact, the computer itself is the Systemax VX2 "Beast". Hey, they call it the beast, not me. I definitely got ripped off when I got it from TigerDirect/Systemax ($1,999). E6700, 500 gb hd, 2 gb ddr2 800 mhz 6400 ram, ati x1950xtx 512 mb ddr3, generic 500 watt ps, stock heatsink, win xp, intel d975xbx. It wasn't a horrid price at the time, but if I had waited 6 months to buy a new system, I could be getting a quad core right now with better specs for 1500. But I digress ... !

(google systemax vx2 and you will find many a review of this system from roughly a year ago, cnet for example)

My stock fan had been running very loud. When I checked the temp on the processor in the BIOS it would be running anywhere from high 60 to low 70s C. I ended up getting the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835186134 because I was familiar with the installation. I used the thermal pad supplied with the HS and cleaned the heat spreader on the chip using Arcticlean. The temp now sits at 55 C even after long periods of gaming. The fan is virtually silent. I can't believe how long I dealt with that lousy stock HS that ships out with the Intel boards.

I also plan on doing a pretty solid compressed air cleaning this week.

Now here's my new question. I kept the fan from the old HS. I am thinking of putting it in the case to add extra air flow. I see in the BIOS hardware monitoring that there is supposedly room for an AUX fan. So I'm assuming there's an extra 4 pin connector on the board to install a fan. If it turns out to be super loud I'll stop the project all together. But, if I put in an extra fan, should I use it as an extra exhaust fan? I have an extra vent that has no fan on it - should I have it blowing air out, or sucking air in? What do you think? Thanks for the help. I'm still geeked out at how great this new HS is. Even during gaming when the fan kicks in its only for 10 seconds then it is silent again.

Thanks again!

I would not use the fan from the old heatsink, I would pick up a high CFM low RPM case fan. This will keep the noise down, if you use the old HS fan is will just put the noise you took just out back in.