Legit Reviews

I'm looking to get a few third party Socket A heatsinks in order to OC them as much as possible (they aren't OC'd at all right now) in order to extend their usefulness.

One question I have is how would this one which is designed for silent cooling compare to this one in terms of temps? In other words, would I cripple my OCing ability with passive cooling? The silent one's a little cheaper and silence would be nice. But if I could get a more significant OC with active cooling, i'll get it instead.

Of course, there's always another option, so how does this one stack up, again with temps being the only (major) consideration.

As far as either of the first two coolers go the big typhoon would be the best out of the two. Though I don't think that your Socket A's would generate enough heat even when overclocked to trouble the passive cooler.

What Proc's are you going to OC? (So we have a rough idea of TDP)

Out of the three though, I think the Zalman would be the best at cooling. But like I said before, you probably wont be dealing with enough heat that its a problem for limiting your OC.

But if you want the coolest air, then go for the Zalman.

Dan

Well, yeah, it would've been a good idea to mention the procs.

Anyway, without further ado:

Athlon 950 (unsure as to Pluto/Orion or Thunderbird)
Athlon XP 1600+ (Palomino)
Sempron 2800+ (Thoroughbred-B)

and possibly: (i.e. if I get them)

two Athlon MP 2200+ (Thouroughbred)

Yeah, like i suspected, there wont be any problem with the TDP (even overclocked) exceeding the maximum thermals of any of those coolers. Just bear in mind that the passive cooler will have temps about 5oC higher, with a good case airflow, else there will be a lot bigger differences.

So its up to you as to what you want, like I said before, i think the Zalman would be the best of the bunch, but for differences in maximum reached OC should be very minimal if any.

Dan

The only problem with the Zalman is that it only comes with a blue LED fan or a black LED-less fan. I want green!

In the case of the Big Typhoon, is the site I linked to reputable? They have it for about $15-20 less than Newegg.

I really do like the idea of the Sonic Tower, but I'm not sure I want it to get that hot, even if there is no noise.

I've almost convinced myself to get some Typhoon's...

'Fraid I cant comment on the sites rep, me being in the UK an all

Though looking at the reseller ratings, it looks OK.

Sacrificing performance for aesthetics wtg

Dan

How much of a performance differenece are we talking about with the Big Typhoon vs. the Zalman? I ask because it's at Newegg for $32 and because I can deal with blue if I HAVE to...

OK, so I lied, I didn't realise how cool the typhoon was

I haven't been able to find any direct comparisons against this Zalman model, but against the 7700 and 9500 versions the typhoon wins (sketchy testing methods though ).

If you don't quite trust the website above, you could always use zip zoom fly, they have it with free shipping.

Dan

I've had the TT Big Typhoon on a Socket A Barton OC's up there a bit, and it's been the best air cooler I've have on that socket. You can also switch out the fan and connect it to a controller for even better performance if you need it...................

Sorry to beat a dead horse/topic, but wow.

thats nothing compared to this






Almost as big as a PSU.

Yeah, that is cool shaped, but mine was gold-plated.